JAKE DOE BURNING BRIGHT

Seeing it in person was special. I stopped at 9am on a Wednesday morning and was the only one there in an empty dirt parking lot. It’s a big lake, but in an accessible kind of way. The loop around the perimeter is about three and a half miles. I didn’t walk it. I was too busy taking photos and videos and marveling at the scene.

Jumping off my soapbox now… I made two memorable stops in my travels that Jake did not have time to make as he sped across Vermont and New Hampshire on his way to Ember Road. The two stops? Abraham and the Buddha. I was torn on which photo to use in the caption, but my favorite President and historical figure won out. I don’t think my decision disturbed the Buddha one bit.

I’m celebrating the completion of the novel with a trip to New England where I’ll trace part of Jake Doe’s travels from the story. I began my trip with a flight from Atlanta to Boston on Friday. As I walked to my gate in Concourse C, TBoogie was blasting Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal on a stand-mount speaker, filling the entire concourse with upbeat sounds.

But instead, for this first edition, I leaned on some really smart family members for input. As I said in my first and second Acknowledgments in the book, my sweet sister and my parents were essential to the process. I referred to my sister at the tip of the editing spear.