Have Twins, Will Travel

Somerville, Massachusetts – You can’t imagine how much I love my house right now. My crowded, messy, falling-down-in-places, little pink house is pretty much my favorite place in the world. Despite the fact that our front porch is crumbling and we have no dishwasher, I have no desire to leave the pink house. Ever. At all. 

Alas, we’re about to board an airplane and fly to Finland for five weeks.

Yes, folks, it’s true that I’m pretty much a fraud. Because at the moment that I’m supposed to board the airplane and fly off on my next adventure, I really just want to crawl into bed. It happens every trip.

But by that time, it’s too late. By that time, I already have a plane ticket (or, more accurately, four plane tickets). And I have a job that I’m supposed to do. And there’s no way out but through (or, more accurately, up).

In this case, it’s even worse than usual. Normally, we go on trips because I have a guidebook assignment. The work is familiar and the publisher foots the bill, so even though I get anxious, I know what I’m doing. This time, I don’t know what I’m doing. We’re taking this trip because we have dreamed up some crazy dream and – even crazier – we are pursuing it.

A while back, Daddio and I decided that we want to write a book – not a guidebook or an academic book, but a real book that people read for pleasure – a narrative nonfiction book. That just means that it’s a nonfiction book, but it has fascinating characters and an interesting story line and it reads like a novel.

We don’t know how to write a narrative nonfiction book. But we do have fascinating characters and an interesting story line.

And… it takes place in Finland. If that’s not a good reason to pack up the whole family and hop on a plane to Finland, then I don’t know what is. So here we go.

(At least the twins are excited…)