The story behind, and of, Joshua's Ladder

Before I started writing Joshua’s Ladder, I’d made several attempts to write a novel, but somewhere along the line they always seemed to fizzle out for one reason or another. Then, Ernest Hemmingway changed all that.

I like to mix up my usual fictional reading habits of Koontz-Sandford-Westlake-Patterson with an occasional classic, just to cleanse the palate. Since my dad was a former English/literature teacher, I still have a good library of the oldies he left behind. One night I decided to read The Sun Also Rises. I had read it in high school, but now that it wasn’t dreaded homework and I had a few more years under my belt, I read it with a new appreciation.

I was struck by the simple setting, much of it in a cafe, and the dialogue. After reading it, I realized I didn’t need to write a who-dunnit or need unsolved murders and psychotic killers to write a decent book. That new direction clicked in my head and seemed to free me up to just write a good story, have some interesting characters with interesting problems, but not problems so out of the norm that a reader couldn’t connect with them.

Now, looking back in my journal, the “idea” I wrote down for a possible novel was “guy walks along Main Street of his hometown and reminisces.” That in and of itself sounds pretty boring, but it took off from there and I’m confident you won’t find Joshua’s Ladder boring.

It does indeed start with Joshua walking down Main Street in Spearfish during one of his twice-a-year visits to town, coming down from his cabin in the Black Hills where he has retreated and lived for 10 years after two life-altering events. A decade previous, his parents and twin brother were killed in a car accident, shortly after Joshua had cancelled the wedding to his high school sweetheart. He sought solace in the Hills with his two dogs and lots of booze.

On this particular visit to town, he finds that most of his old best friends have finally thrown in the towel on him and any hopes that he might return to the Joshua of old. This revelation annoys and awakens him. He decides to start over somewhere else. He heads to Florida.

In Cocoa Beach his life takes a lively turn. He falls in love with a beautiful astronaut, befriends an elderly Haitian immigrant and two gregarious, gay triathletes. Following a whirlwind romance and engagement, his fiance takes off, literally, and commands a space shuttle mission; during which Joshua and his new buddies are charged with organizing the wedding to be held in South Dakota.

It is back in Spearfish where his old friends meet his new friends. With only a revitalized Joshua as a common denominator, they hit it off well and rejoice that Joshua has finally found the happiness that has eluded him for over a decade.

Now, all he needs is for his fiance to arrive.