October 1, 2025 Prep What If?

Briefly, what I want to do next month

October 1, 2025

What If?

What if you wrote about a character whose name could have been yours, if your parents and the rest of the adults in your family had recognized you could have had a literary great’s name? What if you take that name, make him the main character, the protagonist, for not just a novel but for a short story cycle, short story sequence, composite novel, and novel-in-stories?

Longfellow Darke, the name as an homage to my great-uncles Henry and Wadsworth, is that man, that protagonist. He would be an adventurer like Dr. Henry Jones, Jr, a hardboiled detective like Sam Spade, or a ghost hunter. He would have many assistants and many loves.