Fragmentary

For all the books on climate change and dystopias, is there a single one written from the point of view of the first generation facing it all head-on and trying to figure how to live, not just survive—and without imaginary superpowers or preordained destinies? We're leaving them to pick through the trash of the last century. That's a hell of a bequest.

It takes as long as it takes. Hard to believe that I've been working on  Deciphering Zach  for eight years. It started out with a different title, and a plot that barely resembles the story as I now see it. In all that time, though I've piled up tons of notes and questions to be answered, I've written only one chapter. I've never felt, until recently, that I knew how the novel should be structured. Nor did I feel that I really knew the two central characters: Zach and Harte. Now I'm close enough to solving those problems that I can move ahead and let the two boys reveal themselves fully.  Even though I know them better than I did at the start, I don't know everything about them. If I did, all I'd be doing is dictating, not creating. No one ever knows anyone completely, and that's just as true for writers as it is for anyone else. What's important is the discovery, which can take a lifetime, if you are lucky enough to be granted such a long relationsh...