The Cornerstone of the Universe is available from Rock’s Mills Press, Amazon, and Barnes&Noble

The Story

Wracked by fever, tormented by boils, devastated by the loss of his entire family, the wretched Job cries out to the heavens. Why has God forsaken him? Who do such things happen here on earth? Why is the universe so flawed? Why are human beings subjected to such agonizing torments? He shakes his fist at the sky and demands a personal audience. His agony has given him the questions. He insists on hearing the answers from the mouth of God.

The Making of The Cornerstone of the Universe

This journal records my reflections on the process of the crafting of the novel 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 novel was expanded into a complex work of art. Topics range from the nuts and bolts of novel-building to the nature of the novel as an art-form.

Planning The Cornerstone of the Universe

During the writing of the novel, I kept a hand-written notebook which records the day-by-day development of the novel 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 novel-form.

The Project

Together, this novel, journal and notebook comprise the seventeenth installment in an on-going novel-writing project in which I am 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.