“Jack,
What a read!
I’ve always considered you one of the most sensitive men I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing; it’s heartening to know that such awareness seems to know no bounds. Your seamless interweaving of the everyday minutiae into the fabric of your varied characters’ lives goes a long way toward making them credible, viable, common…real. Some sketched out slowly, meticulously; others, like Athena, drawn out instantaneously, fully, whole. In this vein, I have to tell you—much as I am curious about Virginia, Poppy, and Bart’s turn of fortune—I was particularly interested in/blown away by the revelations and complexity of your Hoyt Carter character. That and the juxtaposition of so self-absorbed and superficial a character as Shirley. What an amazingly original, enigmatic conglomeration! Such homespun sanity in a world turned on its rear, home and abroad! …Anyway, you have me hooked….”