This is the working title of my next book. It is taken from a phrase in Harper Lee’s The Land of Sweet Forever published posthumously, in it she describes Maine. I took it as a description of our life in our home on North Street surrounded by maple trees. This entry is from my journals.
I am working on another novel (#5) working title is The Taking and in fact have completed several pages and am somewhat satisfied with the first draft so far. However, I keep getting drawn back to this work Drunk on Maple Trees, to complete a three part memoir on my life with my wife Janis, her trauma history, and our family. This book is the third; in hopes that others may benefit from our experience with trauma in our marriage and our family.
I have been in counseling with a therapist mostly attempting to navigate the entangled tunnel of knots…of grief. The ‘coulda, woulda, shouda’ that bluntly describes it. I still love her, and I am still married to her as in ‘until death do us part’- I’m still alive. But I have not reached a point where I can settle (not expecting a cure) this complex history. And writing is the medium I turn to when I need to clear my thinking. So, this book is intended to be the next step. It will be a surprise to me, as always, whenever I explore a different style for a book. I think each of my previous books and including my current effort at another novel The Taking, have a bit of a stretch in style and voice. This book of diaries and essays will be an exploration of a continued therapeutic effort and my day to-day-life, and writing. And, it will also be about Janis. Our lives are entangled particles.
Janis and I fell in love as kids. And grew old together. We met in 1962. she was a freshman in high school, I was a sophomore. We dated. Then married in 1966. And we stayed together for 60+ years until her death in March 2024. My first effort at writing, and the first book in this trilogy about us was the book A Certain Fall, followed by two fictional novels, Spider Lake, and Mother Night and Water. The second in this trilogy was Entangled ~ Dementia, Multidiagnoses, Love, and Eternity, a compendium memoir it is the second book of this trilogy. This current book, is book three of the trilogy-Drunk on Maple Trees.
Since then, my writing has been lean and sporadic. I have undertaken this new effort in an attempt to give my writing a jumpstart. Although I remain socially active and still have a daily workout every morning, when I feel the urge to write I feel dull, wooden. The idea of making a trilogy has manifested in an effort to resolve an ending to A Certain Fall and Entangled. And also, I suppose it is hoping to give me some answers that will lead to a resolution, or some variation that is satisfying to me. Post Trauma? There’s nothing post about it.
Harpswell Maine. 8/3/2025
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