By the time this post is visible, my third novel, TO DUST, will finally be published. Suffice to say, I’m excited! More so, I’m relieved. I began the process of drafting DUST’s sequel in the latter half of 2009—tech concepts, plotting, and so forth. My father thought I should publish another book ASAP. Just so you know, I used to joke about other writers, music artists and filmmakers as to why second efforts took so long. I get it now. Frankly, we’re all lucky to get one at all. More on that. First, the spill …
BOLITA was closely taken from an infamous Tampa mob in 1975. My father and godfather, Maj. Joe Diaz, both TPD officers and detectives, were involved in the investigation of an assassinated colleague and friend, Sgt. Det. Richard Cloud. TPD also had top-level corruption issues at the time, so you can imagine the eggshells. Ugh, not eggshells; more like spiky political traps and silenced pistols under contract. Quite a mess, all considered, but my fathers survived their targeting. By 2010, my godfather’s health was declining. Dad begged me to complete the book in time for him to read it. The research was quite an undertaking, suffice to mention the interviews and revisiting all the dark spaces necessary for BOLITA’s complete picture. Nonetheless, BOLITA made it to their hands in August 2011, and I’m pleased to say, while my godfather was able to read it with full cognizance. He peacefully passed a few years later.
It was shortly after BOLITA hit the shelves that other artistic pursuits and life in-general continually disrupted and distracted work on TO DUST. An elder cousin also wanted his story told. He was an aircraft dealer and recovery expert for certain discreet clientele in Miami during late ’70s and well into the ’80s. His health was failing too. Interviews ensued … More about this later, perhaps. See how I’m going into tangents? I utilize the compartmentalization routine, therefore working on stories means rereading all previous work before new sessions. You get the problem with constant interruptions, then. Wait … am I making excuses? Well, yes on one hand. More of a preemptive strike on the other. Just after the last house rehab+flip+move, Covid struck. First round, not so bad. Round Two: double pneumonia and sepsis. Diagnosis “iffy”.
Believe me, when the doctors are shaking their heads yelling at you to breathe, you take stock in what’s truly important. Unfinished business. I made a promise to finish TO DUST (and several other matters) if I made it out. There’s a lengthier story there; depressing ICU’s, death, demons!, and uplifting heroes. Not today, friends. We have novels to launch!
Shortly after arriving home, it was natural to set aside distractions (which often means laying down the law with family, friends, and temptation, et al), and re-friend the keyboard. Oh, but it’s not riding a bike. Not for me, anyway. It would be a couple months before a few sentences grew to paragraphs, then a full page, and at last several pages or more. Yet, here we are. Ah, and in the meantime, refreshing D1 as a special edition, having it edited and updated for relaunch. Of course, why not throw in a fresh new website on a completely different platform (I migrated from Blogger to the full-on WordPress engine, so … learning curve(ball)). Whew!
So here it is, at last—TO DUST.
Emily waits no more.
/T
