To start let me say unequivocally that the idea to flip the physical book at a specific point in the story was not intended to be, nor is it a gimmick. The idea presented itself naturally, I believe, because of a children’s book I read when I was about five years old. In this book there were two stories in the same book, one cover was a story, and when the reader flipped the book, the other cover was a new story. When the reader got to the last page of one story, about halfway through, they would find the last page of the second story, and of course, it was upside down. That book, and this feature, has stayed with me my whole life.

In my story, A Golden Thread, the reader learns that the protagonist is in an alternate universe; Jonathan does not remember any of this. As the story accelerates toward one of the big climaxes of the tale, he is, as is said in the story many times directed to, “Go back to where it all begins.” As I wrote toward this climatic scene, I imagined a moment when the character, who is tumbling and flipping down the stairs of the Temple, and by extension the reader, takes one last flip into a void. It emerged organically that there should be a break, a void that separates this part of the story from the continuation, which, if you have read the novel, you know delivers a turn that is, at least on the face, an entirely new direction, or as is said several times in the book, a new beginning. I’m imagining this blank space as a nexus between the two parts of the story.

The blank pages intend to give a visceral experience of tumbling into the unknown, with the protagonist. As a reader I get a unique feeling when I am at the first page of a new book, in my mind I hear, Let the adventure begin. It is this feeling of, “A new beginning, that I believe is the perfect complement to this story, and the feeling I hope flipping the book and starting from a new first page. The astute reader will notice that although the book, once flipped, starts anew from page one, the actual page numbers continue in the sequential order as would be the case if the book had not been flipped. The reason for this detail is that if fact it is the same story. My intention is to pull the reader deeply into this world and the experience of the protagonist and express this change of direction in a way that truly feels like a New Beginning. It is my sincerest hope that the experience you have is elevated by this feature in the story, and who knows, just maybe it will stick with you in the way the children’s book I read so long ago has stayed with me.