Two Phases of Writing by Chris Delyani, author of You Are Here

 

 

Inside the Book:

Title: You Are Here 

Author: Chris Delyani 

Publisher: iUniverse 

Genre: Romance 

Format: Ebook/Paperback

All Peter Bankston ever wanted to do was paint.

An aspiring painter, Peter scratches out a pauper’s living in San Francisco, wanting nothing more than to be left alone. Instead, he finds himself getting involved with not one but two very different men.

Like Peter, getting involved with another man is the last thing on Nick Katsaris’s mind. Smart, handsome, and good-humored, Nick’s done more than just survive—he’s positively thriving in San Francisco. But when he meets Peter, what begins as fun and games quickly turns into a game he can’t control.

Miles Bettencourt’s days are filled with longing. For him, San Francisco is haunted by Stuart, his missing ex-lover. Desperate to win him back, Miles wanders the streets in the hope of running into Stuart again. Instead, he runs into Peter—the one man who might hold the key to what Miles is looking for.

These three gay men soon form one very unlikely love triangle. Sometimes, when people break apart and then come together, they learn that discovering that where you are is the key to knowing who you are.  

Two Phases of Writing

With the writing of my novel You Are Here, I learned firsthand how procrastination is one of the first enemies of all writers. Publishing You Are Here took me way longer than it should have on account of this. But the finished product now has two separate layers—one old, one new—that I won’t be able to repeat in any future novel. Let me explain.

I had begun You Are Here in the mid-1990s. At the time it was called Peter’s Room. I drew mainly on the thoughts and feelings that arose upon moving to San Francisco from Boston in my mid-20s. The novel was finished by late 2000. An agent was nice enough to take it on in 2001, but her efforts to sell it to a publisher were unsuccessful. Peter’s Room went into a drawer.

In the middle of all this I began a new novel, a story that would eventually become The Love Thing, my first published novel. Once again, I took way more time than I should have, finishing a first draft of the novel by 2007. After another yearlong fruitless search for a publisher, I started sharing chapters on a fiction-sharing website over the course of 2008 and eventually self-published the novel in 2009. A modest success, enough to make me glad I went ahead and showed it to the world.

In the middle of this I took up Peter’s Room again. And this time I had more confidence—and more experience—to finish the job right. Gay marriage was very much in the news in 2008, as was (and still is) global warming, both of which added fresh dimensions to the story. Most of all, I also had the perspective of being in my early forties, giving me a fresh insight into the perspectives of my older characters: Miles (age 30), Nick (33), and Ben and Jeff (both in their forties).

Peter himself remained 25, but what I’d call an ‘old’ 25—a young man with the sense that youth won’t last forever. I didn’t have that perspective back in the 90s. Back then, it seemed I had plenty of time to finish my novel. If I had known then what I know now, I would certainly have worked faster. Time does not stand still.

Meet the Author:

In 1993, Chris Delyani moved to San Francisco from his native Boston to devote his life to writing fiction—and he’s been at it ever since. His first novel, The Love Thing, was published in 2009. He lives in Oakland, California.