The Dangling Conversation

Kyle and Isabelle have nothing in common other than their quiet park bench. Kyle’s an older man trying to make sense of his on-again off-again relationship with Nadia spanning more than twenty years. Isabelle’s recent divorce from an emotionally abusive husband damaged her in ways she doesn’t fully realize. She’s falling in love with Henry, which brings forward latent fears and trepidations just as Diego, the aspiring Chef she walked out on back in college, re-enters her life. Meanwhile, Kyle’s world is blowing up as the government seeks to make him the fall guy for an FDA software glitch rendering food and drug safety suspect. If that weren’t enough, it increasingly seems the woman he’s deeply in love with (Nadia), no longer loves him.

When Kyle and Isabelle talk, they seem to be having two separate conversations that eventually weave into one. The novel’s format is 100% dialogue, with each chapter written as a standalone short story that when taken as a whole, follows their journey through the challenging landscapes of life and love.

When I write novels, I do character development through poems because that is how I best define and bring out each chapter’s driving emotions. Most of the poems for “The Dangling Conversation,” were written in 2023 and 2024 and you can read them on my Poetry page.

Chapter 1: Strangers in the Night 
Chapter 2: Alternate Reality
Chapter 3: How Are You Happy
Chapter 4: Everybody's Barcelona
Chapter 5: Sounds of Silence
Chapter 6: Damaged Goods
Chapter 7: The Ghosts Within
Chapter 8: Tu versus Vous
Chapter 9: Calculus of Causation
Chapter 10: Resonance Dissonance
Chapter 11: Last Look at Love
Chapter 12: Color of Cold
Chapter 13: A Dream That Dies
Chapter 14: My Year of Being Happy
Chapter 15: The Greater Fool Theory
Chapter 16: Friends with Fate
Chapter 17: Dillon's Dichotomy
Chapter 18: Is Love Possible
Chapter 19 Lies We Tell Ourselves 
Chapter 20: Say It Ain't So
Chapter 21: How It Ends Matters -- ya gotta give me $1,000,000 to read how it ends......