What I've been working on: Prescience

I don't remember much about Laura Nagel prior to her car missing a corner and plunging 175 feet,  crumpling upon itself on the valley floor. I don't even remember that, as I didn't see it. But Jonas did. Though he didn't see it leave the road; he turned just to see the weight of the engine block pulling the white Valiant down to earth like the most poorly designed bird. 

I'm currently working hard on my second novel during breaks from parenting. I'm hoping to complete it sometime in 2010, and while progress is slow right now, I'm really excited by the ideas in it. When I was working on Correction Road, I gave it the working title Omniscience for reasons that will be obvious to anyone who's read the book. I gave my current project the working title Prescience, which reflects how it, like Correction Road, is very interested in problems of the mind. 

But at its heart, Prescience is about doubt and belief, and in particular how a centrist perspective of unbelief is treated by both believers and disbelievers. While the words have theological implications, I was actually thinking about how (particularly American) politics had become so polarized that advocating a moderate perspective was almost impossible. Like Correction Road, Prescience is set in a rural community, in this case a insular, religious immigrant community where one girl seems to have an unlikely gift. The story is told by her friend and eventual lover who struggles with his own reaction to her talents. 

I'll be posting my progress on the novel from time to time and share segments of my writing.