It's likely that most readers are familiar with that phenomenon of being so into a book that they go through a handful of chapters without any memory of turning a single page. John Gardner went so far as to claim this should be the writer's goal—to create for the reader a "vivid continuous dream." What’s surprising to me is how this can happen during the act of writing, too.


I remember writing the second half of ALL THINGS AWAIT at Burger Rancho in Santa Teresa, where I'd work three to f...
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