Mike "Pops" Klumpp

The fascinating thing about a book is that it is alive.

Recently my daughter Brady, who is also my media manager, was asking me how I was coming with Tanglewood. Tanglewood is a novel I have been working on since 1975. I could tell by the tone of the conversation that my answer confused her.

I don’t remember the actual words, but the notion was that the book was taking some unexpected twists. She seemed confused that I, as the author, would not have control over the material. I get that. However, when I write, the book is alive. I live out the events and stories. If it is memoir, I relive vicariously the events I lived. However, I report them as fact. Yet, if I am writing fiction, as was the case with the murder mystery Daily Grind, the story is living through me as I write. There is no past to report. So, if the murderer has made a getaway, the detective has to catch him. Giving chase, one never knows what lies down some dark alley that might give advantage to the culprit and cause what seemed like an easy arrest to become an extended game of hide and seek. Something of this nature actually happened as my detective closed in on the bad guy. It wasn’t in the outline or the notes, but it was plausible and it happened and had to be dealt with.

Tanglewood is a book about a man unpacking a box. It is true, I created the man. It is true, I created the box. It is true, I am unpacking the box. The problem is that I don’t know what’s in the box. I also don’t know how the contents of the box will affect me until I unpack the box. So while I know I am going to unpack the box, there is some spontaneity to the act of unpacking. There is discovery. I know the box will contain documents introducing Mr. K – Karl Alexander Mitchell. I know the box will introduce Mr. K through the eyes of his doctor, Doctor Quew. I know that it is all an effort to discover why this box survived the fire. But I must discover these things. And that is why the book lives. The book is happening. I am observing and recording. I can’t wait to see how it ends.