A Brief History of Distance by Chris Shearer

Well here's an excerpt from my first book I'm writing, entitled "A Brief History of Distance". It's about a guy named Chris (not me), who decides that his home life sucks basically and flies to California from Harrisburg, PA. He has no idea what's in store for him and his long-distance lover Lilly when they meet up and begin to write songs together. It's a story that takes place over many continents. From the shady streets of Rome, to the smoky coffeehouses of Amsterdam, to the luminous shades of Paris, they do it all:

Harrisburg International Airport, 6:30AM, Tuesday. It’s all I can do to not think about what’s behind, and to focus on the forward. The former is treacherous, spiteful, and weird. The latter is her, and everything we can make together. I still can’t believe she’s a singer.

I sit here on my MacBook, waiting for the call so to speak. I decided to show up early, a little too early. They have WiFi here so obviously I’m talking to her, just shooting lines of poetry back and fourth. In case I haven’t told you, beautiful reader, we do this. Line by line, usually freestyle. She sends a line, I send a line. We have a lot of fun with this, and this is what makes me love her.

Even though she’s so far away.

My first long-distance relationship. I never thought one would work, but here I am in the airport, about to fly to California. Not necessarily just to see her, although that’s in my itinerary. I also want to make it, big. My other bands need the exposure I could get alone in LA.

It’s simple luck, and I’ve been lucky in my life. Being at the right place at the right time has been my forte for a good part of my life. Good parents (until now, that’s a little brash, things may change), sweet town, and not a care in the world besides playing that guitar. Playing and playing until now when I can play for others, and make them smile. Any real, true musician will tell you that’s what they do it for. Something like that. They wanna make people happy, then they’ll buy your t-shirt. Then you get happy people in numbers; this becomes a fanbase. Then this fanbase demands a forum and a website, so you have to play paid gigs to pay for the IT guy, or something like that.

I’ve never been famous, maybe I’m wrong. This just seems like the logical progression. Everyone ends up where they’re supposed to be. If you’re not happy, you’re not where you’re supposed to be. People need to learn this. The only person keeping you from being happy is you, you you you.

I used to be unhappy; it’s all about attitude. And here I am preaching the Buddhist choir. Everyone is one, he who stands on toilet is high on pot.

I stand on so so many toilets.

If you want to read more, I'll have more excerpts here and more on my blog at jivetalkings.wordpress.com

Thanks!!

 

neat