John and the Neanderthals: Early Days is available from Rock’s Mills Press.

The Story

While reading of recent findings and current theories about the Neanderthals, John daydreams about his own early days, seventy years before. While doing so, he finds himself living among a tribe of early peoples, but is unable to ask them whether they are early-Neanderthals, later-Neanderthals or early-humans. By what means – then – will John and this strange tribe be able to communicate – without using words?

The Making of John and the Neanderthals

This journal records the author’s reflections on the process of the crafting of the novella as it evolved through the stages of planning, writing, editing and polishing. It constitutes an effort to be as conscious as possible of the process whereby the single idea that suggested the topic of the novella was expanded into a complex work of art. Topics range from the nuts and bolts of writing to the nature of the novella as an art-form.

Planning John and the Neanderthals

During the writing of the novella, the author kept a notebook which records the day-by-day development of the novella as it found its shape and style. The notebook – now in print form – reveals how a vast cluster of thoughts was sifted, selected, structured and polished into book-form.

The Project

Together, this novella, journal and notebook comprise the thirty-third installment in an on-going novel-writing project in which the author is exploring the concept of form and meaning in the novel, and of the novel as a form of expression in the 21st Century. All of the published journals and notebooks are available for free download.