10 Years of ‘Giants’

10 years of Giants. Damn. 2015. Back then I was walking laps on the yard at Blackwater with Jacob Gaulden, my release date was in 2032, my nephew Jude was still rockin’ a bald head with glasses, and I was on an archeological dig in the netherworld of imagination in search of my third novel. You never know what you will unearth when you begin writing. This time I emerged with On the Shoulders of Giants (published Oct. 2016), a book that I hope will still be making the rounds in the US prison system 100 years after I’m gone. (I recently received a letter from a reader in a facility way up in Elk Grove Montana!) I try not play favorites with my children but Giants will always hold a special place in my heart. To cop the late Pat Conroy for the millionth time, I would lay it at the alter of God and say this is how I found the world you made. 2015 was a difficult year. But things were about to turn around. A life-changing Supreme Court ruling was on the horizon and some good people were about to come into my life. Now here we are at the doorstep of freedom. Life is good.