After months away, I have finished the draft of my third novel in a year, “Jesus Walked Down My Alley” and am happy to say, it’s everything I wanted. The uses of the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John references were fun and inventive, and best of all, the tensions between the thought of Christianity and the reality of Christianity were transforming. I let my soul and spirit take over as I wrote spontaneously from one sentence to the next and marveled how it all came together. What I never expected was the encounters of the characters with my own biases and connections within a community I grew up. This is the first full work completed on the computer in my studio, and many a day looking out over Little Traverse Bay assisted with the whimsical story. I have not allowed a pre-reader or editor a peek, and I’m not sure when I will let it breathe. In March I will be attending my first writers conference in Virginia, and I may take it there first – let the agents and publishers give me their critique and damning opinions so I can work out the kinks. I do guarantee that “Jesus Walked Down My Alley” is a provocative book with myriad messages. If you espouse to Christianity, it will challenge your depth of thought; if you rank to the left toward agnosticism or atheism, you’ll wonder if there is more to the world of spirituality. If you have no religious opinion whatsoever, you’ll enjoy the romp through the restaurant world and into the psyche of a community aging past its prime. It’s good to be back. It’s good to be writing.