CH 6: Kite Backstory

The Kite chapter of the novel tells the story of how McGhee meets the love of his life, Kate, in a San Francisco coffee shop. McGhee is working as an entry level manager at a conglomerate down the street named xCopy Inc. (you’d be forgiven if you thought of Xerox Corporation). He drops in for coffee and falls for the girl writing poetry on her order pad by the register. This was one of those stories (for me) that mostly happened in the first paragraph, and I spent the rest of it unpacking the notions bundled within it.

Kite covers the longest continuous span of time of any chapter – a little over nine years, from October 1988 to January 1997. A few other chapters have parts separated by larger margins (such as On the Margin, ages 22 and 62, and The Boney Pile, ages 14 and 79), but no other narrative covers such a span without gaps. That said, Kite is told at the highest level and chronicles the beginning, middle and beginning of the end of their initial relationship. I’ll avoid spoilers, but their story isn’t quite over at the end of it.

Pictures courtesy Alison Christiana Photography

As for the story itself, it is entirely fictional. Kate is very much a composite character of various people I’ve known (men and women) who are artistic and ambitious. The core occupation of Kate eluded me briefly until I remembered a friend of my daughter who happened to spend her 20s and early 30s in San Francisco developing her career as a photographer. Her name is Alison Christiana and she’s very talented. Check out her pics here. In fact, the pictures on this blog came from her, which seemed appropriate. I should mention, despite the dog picture, she has great range and doesn’t do anything remotely like the “cute” poetry/image collages Kate becomes famous for perfecting.

Although I spent the whole chapter unpacking that first paragraph, it wasn’t so easy to write. The core dilemma I faced was constructing a “young” relationship that ultimately falls apart due to the age and insecurities of the two people involved. Depending who you are and your age, you may understand immediately what I mean by that. If you’re too young to get that yet, well, give it some time and you likely will. I was gratified to discover that my readers broke roughly 50/50 on who they held more culpable in the break-up, which suggests to me I did it about right. Ultimately, I think neither and both are responsible, with the primary culprit being their ages and the eroding effects of competing ambitions. That felt very real to me, and I hope it does to you, too.