Ed Hardy's Backstory

Ed Hardy’s Backstory

Keeper and Kid, is the story of what happens when a thirty-something guy, happily living his patched-together life in Providence, discovers that he’s the father of a three-year old and finds himself dragged through the portal of parenthood.

When I started the book, almost five years ago now, our first child was three and our second was on the way. And while I can’t recall the exact moment the idea for the novel came around the corner, a number of the threads that led to it were sitting on the floor right in front of me.

I do remember reading an article in the paper one Sunday about a boot camp for parents-to-be where the educator kept telling them to grieve for their old lives now, because once the kid showed up those lives would be gone forever. And as anybody who has kids knows, parenthood is a shock to the system. Or as a friend of mine is fond of saying, “It’s like a bomb goes off in your life.” It’s a good bomb, but a bomb never-the-less.

Still, I found myself resisting the idea that your old life is gone forever. Or at the very least it felt more complicated than that. It seemed, and still does, like a negotiation between the life you had before kids and the one you’re living with them. Some things, many things, are radically different and some are clearly the same. Some things you really can’t do anymore, some you no longer feel like doing, and some you can still do, but only occasionally and it costs lots more (read: babysitters). But in many ways I’d come to see that parenthood really does make you a different person. It adds layers and layers and takes you places, both great and not-so-great, that you’d never get to otherwise.

On the writerly side of things I’d had started and shelved a long, quirky novel about a ghost who wants his house repainted the exact original color. It had lots of points of view, lots of plot detours and took plenty of mental juggling every time I sat down to work on it.

So still in a semi-sleepless newish-parent haze, I began to think, maybe this was the moment to try something simpler? Something with fewer detours? Something in first person? I’d written plenty of first person short stories before and some of those had a similar voice, but I’d never tried that voice in a novel.

It was also clear that with a new baby on the horizon I wasn’t going to be heading off anywhere exotic, even to the library, to do tons of research. If I was going to get a new project going at all it seemed likely that I’d pretty much be cooking with what I already had in the cupboards.

From there I began to think: well, having a kid is the biggest thing that’s happened in my life lately. And if it’s still a huge shock, even when you know it’s coming and you’ve deluded yourself into thinking you’re somewhat ready for it - how could I make that worse? Spring a three year-old on a character who’s not at all prepared? Hmm.

I do remember at some point lying in bed and having the title, Keeper and Kid, pop into my head, which I immediately wrote down on a bright blue Post-It. I still liked it, even a few days later, and I began to think: OK, I’ve got a title, a voice and a problem - maybe I should see where this leads. And that’s pretty much how Keeper and Kid got its start.

For more about the book and to see the first chapter visit:www.edwardhardy.com.

Comments

[Buffy]

A voice and a problem.

I like that.

[nbvnvnmnmm]

omg u rock