Letters to the Editor.
Editor: "Hi Mike. How are you travelling? I've been sitting with Chapter 7 — 'Time for Some Answers' — and I reckon it's the hinge of the whole first act. This is the chapter where the story stops being a cruise and becomes a covenant. Two men finally lay their cards on the table under a trillion stars, and neither of them is holding what the other expected. What strikes me hardest is Gary's mother. She's never on the page — she's passed before the story begins — yet she completely owns this chapter. Protector of the Book of Legend, telling her boy 'you will know. You will know.' And then he does. The whole scene of Gary grinding his smoking leaf, taking his time with the pipe before he speaks — that's a man honouring the weight of a moment his mother spent his whole childhood preparing him for. And there's that little shadow you slide in almost sideways: Gary gazing up troubled at the second moon, wondering aloud how they manage to keep her in orbit. First-time readers glide right past it as a poetic aside. But that's the storm bell ringing under the feast, isn't it? So tell me — when you were writing this one, did you know what Gary was going to say before he said it? Or did his mother and the Book of Legend arrive the way your characters tend to arrive on you — unannounced, mid-sentence?"
Mike: "Such a while back. But I remember a few intentions at that time. The first being why Gary would simply know what Shane and Mila were there for. This closes that loop. The second being the gap in the sky. I remember placing it there to signify an over-looming danger, but one that would not be taken up till later. Maybe not even till Book 2. But I knew that I had to place it there somewhere to set up the danger to come. Even if unspoken. But most of all, there is a way that Gary speaks and a patience in his conversation. He is not rushed in any way. And this is a character that I very much admire. I also wish that I would slow my conversation and keep my cool when I am dealing with people in life. Not get excited and not be in a rush to provide answers. This is exactly as Gary is, taking in the question, rolling his tobacco, rolling back on his life in his mind and compiling the answers that are also the questions to open up the answer from Shane."
Editor: "That's a beautiful admission, Mike — and I think you've just told me something true about where Gary comes from. He's not drawn from observation, he's drawn from aspiration. You wrote the man you're practising to become. The pipe isn't a prop, it's a pace. Every time Gary grinds that leaf before speaking, he's buying the silence most of us are too nervous to sit in. And notice what his patience does in the scene, structurally: Gary answers your question so completely that he never has to ask his own. He tells the story of his mother, the Book of Legend, the knowingness — and then just sits back with the pipe, and Shane receives the question without a word being spoken. The unhurried man doesn't interrogate; he creates a space the other man walks into voluntarily. That's why the chapter's called 'Time for Some Answers' and yet the biggest answer — Shane's full declaration, 'I am Lord of Water' — is freely given, not extracted. One last thread before we wrap it: Gary's mother's line — 'You will know. You will know.' Reading it now, years on, does it feel like she was speaking to Gary... or to you?"
Mike: "It's funny. This actually is the very heart of this chapter. There are windows in our life. They are sitting wide open for us. And we damn well know it. But very few step through. For me, I was pretty well the dumb one and would just jump through any old window that looks like a good one, but of course became wiser on my journey. There was a window in my life in 1997. There was a window. It was a tough one to face as everything and everyone that I had grown up with and had been the reality of my life to that point were all inside the window. I was stepping into an area where I knew that I would never really be with them again as I had been. It was a tough one to step through, but I did. This was the turning point in my life and it has been one hell of an adventure ever since. My wife and I found each other a year later, she also stepping through that same window on the other side of the world and there we sat with each other. Holy Sh___. This is the one. There have been a few of these since then and I just trust myself that they will be and are there for me at the times exactly as they should be. It is not destiny or anything pre-determined, it is something else. Something closer to God is the only way that I can explain it. Hope that wasn't too deep. This is how Gary just knew. His mother was one wise lady."
Editor: "Not too deep at all, Mike — that's the whole chapter unlocked in one story. 1997. Everything and everyone you'd ever known sitting inside the window, and the step meant leaving the shape of that life behind for good. That's exactly the architecture of Gary's moment — his mother, the love of his life, is gone before his window opens, and everything she gave him is what makes him able to step through it without hesitation. He wakes early, puts his hand on Hi-Sun, and knows. No agonising, no second-guessing. The wisdom wasn't in the moment; it was banked years before, so the moment could be simple. And your wife stepping through her own window on the other side of the world at the same time — that's Shane and Mila walking down a wharf full of silent draw boats, straight to the one that was waiting. You didn't write that scene from imagination, mate. You wrote it from memory wearing a costume. What you said about it not being destiny is the crucial distinction: the window is there, but the stepping is yours. Gary's mother never says 'it is written.' She says 'you will know' — and knowing still leaves a man free to ignore it. Most do. That's why so few step through, and that's why the ones who do find each other."
More chapters, more letters, coming soon. — Mike
The Letters to the Editor series is drawn from real editorial conversations between Mike King and his editor as the Lord of Water Trilogy comes to life. Start the journey — read Chapter 1 free at lordofwater.com/chapter-1/.