Beautiful but Unlikely
During the last eighteen months, I’ve serialized two of my novels here on Substack; two more are upcoming. Before starting the next story, Four Months in May, I want to step back and review what’s gone before, and give readers a chance to catch up on posts they may have missed. This week: looking back on Beautiful but Unlikely.
The sun is warm; the cars race along the road; they don’t bother me. I’ve been reading the sky like the pages of a book. A story of love through the years and an ache in the soul.
A coming-of-age novel about finding your place in the world on your own terms in your own time. The way the measure of a man should be taken—by the money he makes or the leadership he exhibits. In both cases, courage is needed to cross boundaries and not be ruled by what others think.
Amy Templeton is a college graduate full of private passions, but in need of public markers. She stumbles her way from crisis to crisis in her journey, watching for her ‘knights, in the form of money or men.' Drawing on the legend of her beloved Birman cats, each of whom carries the soul of a priest released to heaven upon the feline’s death, she manages to change over time, in her own time, from a spectator at loose ends to the type of purposeful individual she could once only admire.
Radiohead songs often inspired me during the writing of Beautiful But Unlikely, as did the music of Peter Gabriel. The title of this novel was taken from the artwork of Radiohead’s EP Airbag/How Am I Driving? ‘Your fantasies are unlikely. But beautiful.’
Another working title for this novel was The Non-victimization of Amy Templeton.
The Human Rights International organization and HRI staff characters introduced in this novel are loosely based on my time working with the Concerts for Human Rights Foundation, Inc. Its mission: the production of the 1988 Human Rights Now! Tour.
Part II: When both your fears and dreams come true.
Would you like to listen to audio recordings of Beautiful but Unlikely? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
Up next:
Four Months in May. Starting here on January 13, 2023.
“I dreamt I was walking in the rain, the sky alive with thunder and lightning so far above me.” A quarantine fever dream. Claustrophobia and vastness. Love endangered by impossible circumstances. Loss, belonging, and a love letter to resilience. An ode to energy, optimism, and a future as bright and scary as the unknown.
Top Image: Franz Marc, Two Cats, Blue and Yellow, 1912. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
I listen to Peter Gabriel a lot too.