"Nice showers are a thing for me."

An Excerpt from DAMAGED HEARTS:

BRANDON:

…

“So I turn off the shower, feeling cleaner than I have ever felt in my life and look around for a fucking towel. Then I remember that Michelangelo had put it in that trashcan thing on the counter. I reach in and my hand is swallowed by this fluffy, soft, warm mass of material. I pull it out and start to towel off my hair and, oh shit . . . I can feel my erection rising as this warmth envelops my head and shoulders. It’s this warmth that’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I can feel the warmth across my scalp as my fingers press the warm towel through my hair and against my fingers and the warmth drags across my shoulders as the rest of the towel drags from side to side. I wipe down across my face and rub first one shoulder and then the other and then I’m rubbing it down my chest and down my abdomen … and oh shit! I can barely keep the stupid grin from my face as I rub my legs dry and then flip the towel over my head and start whisking it across my back. I know how ridiculous this all sounds to you, but you can’t possibly understand what it feels like after a year living on the streets. It’s just a fucking shower, I know. And a fucking towel—big whoop, right? But to me, right now, I’m not thinking about all the discarded pizzas and hot dogs and half-eaten candy bars and fights and sleeping in alleys and benches and getting cursed at and chased and ridiculed and looked down upon and . . . fuck you if you think I’m being ridiculous. I enjoyed the shit out of my shower, and I’m enjoying the shit out of this huge, warm towel and . . . shit. I’m dry.”

If you’ve ever taken a creative writing class in high school or college, you probably had an instructor that told you to “write what you know,” right? I know I did. In Chapter 1 of DAMAGED HEARTS, after a chance meeting on the boardwalk, Michelangelo invites Bran to his house for a shower and a meal. Bran is blown away by his chance to get clean. One of the highlights of his shower is the warm, fluffy towel courtesy of the towel warmer in Michelangelo’s guest bathroom. This is an example of my writing what I know…

When I was in my early twenties, I traveled quite a bit for work. One of my trips took my to Barcelona, Spain and I got to stay at the Hotel Via Castellana, a 5-star hotel in the heart of the city. The highlight of that stay was the HUMONGOUS towels they provided. They were so large and soft and fluffy and they had towel warmers in the bathroom. I have to tell you that to this day, I remember that shower, and that towel warmer. Ever since that day, I have been obsessed with finding towels that large and soft and fluffy. I’m still looking…

But what I have found is a really great towel warmer. And even though I’m not an influencer and won’t get paid for a plug, I got my “Haven” Towel Warmer at Bed, Bath & Beyond and I got my oversized bath sheet at Restoration Hardware. Collectively, they don’t measure up to the Hotel Via Castellana’s, but they run a close second. Stepping out of the shower and getting swallowed by this huge, warm towel every morning makes me feel like a member of the royal family. It elevates the rather mundane, everyday activity of taking a shower to a truly luxurious experience. It’s my personal treat to myself that I enjoy every day of my life.

As Michelangelo says later in the same chapter, “Yeah. Nice showers are a thing for me.”

Me too!

Jan

The first of many?

Yeah. So this blog. I guess it shouldn’t be very hard, since my writing goal is 10 pages a day. Scribbling a few paragraphs every now and then for this blog should be a walk in the park, right? Right?

Well, maybe not so simple. SPOILER ALERT: As a person, I’m kind of an introvert. It’s almost a prerequisite for being a writer. The worlds I create on the page are solitary ones. The ideas, characters, situations and details all come from my messed up brain and it is a place that I alone inhabit. It has to be that way. So letting you into that world, even for little bits at a time is not going to be easy. But maybe, if you can peek inside my mind, maybe you’ll gain more appreciation for my characters. Will that work? I have no idea. But let’s give it a try…

I’m Jan (pronounced “YON” most of the time) and like Jan Michael Vincent (Google him), I’m a guy with kind of a girl’s first name. I’m not going to get into that now, or ever, so let’s just leave it at that. IRL, I’m a professional photographer in the Washington D. C. area and my debut novel, DAMAGED HEARTS, was released late this year (2019). I’m steadily at work on two more novels that will both add to the Boys of Venice Beach Series. I know that there will be at least 3 books in the series, and maybe more if people like it. I have lots of other ideas, but this Series is as good a place as any to start.

So this is my my first blog entry and I think I’ll sign off. I hope this is the first of many and I hope you will enjoy peeking inside my brain as we go along. Thanks for tuning in…

JAN