Monday, December 1, 2008

Will's Character, Part 9--His Hat

On page 6, Henry takes Will's hat off: "He snatched my hat from my head and gave it to me all in one motion."

The story goes:

"I like hats," I said. I had about a dozen of them at home." [I do, too.]
"Whatever for?" [I love this phrase. Only people older than me say it.]
"I guess I just like them," I said. "I just don't feel comfortable without one on my head."
It turns out Henry doesn't like men wearing hats unless it's cold outside. Will wears his hat everywhere. It's part of him. He takes it off only on concession to convention. When Henry snatches it from his hat it's like tearing his heart out.

Now, when Henry asks Will why he likes hats, albeit in a challenging phrase, Will becomes defensive and doesn't give a reason. He just says because he does. Is he being secretive here or is it that he just has not thought out the reasons for liking hats? Maybe both.

Myself, I always wear a hat. I have several regular ones. Which one I wear depends upon the season of the year and the weather. When the Phillies won the World Series, I wore my Phillies hat for a few days. If you ask me about it, I'll tell you about my history of hat wearing.

What do you think about men in hats? Post a comment. I'd like to know.

Writing to me is an entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship is the the life's blood of my writing. For entrepreneurship, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for my entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

Synopsis:

Ian Kearney, the director of the Kearney Music School, an elite musical training school in Philadelphia, dies after a fall from a balcony during a recital. World-famous cellist, Henry Harrier, recently forced from the faculty, returns to investigate Ian's death when his prized former student is arrested. Henry shows through his brilliant and single-minded pursuit of the truth that, as usual, they have it all wrong. This Sherlock Holmes-type mystery leads the reader through the world of classical music and lays bare the conflicts which dominate the lives of talented adolescents when placed under the pressure of studying for a demanding, stressful, and often elusive career as a classical music performer. Henry Harrier is part John Le Carre's George Smiley, part Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes, and part Orlando Cole the beloved teacher, renowned chamber musician, and until his own retirement, the premier cellist of the Curtis Institute.

Author Profile:

Tim was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on January 30, 1946. In 1951 he moved with his family to Schenectady, New York, where he lived through high school. He attended Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Ohio, from 1964 to 1968. He graduated in 1968 with a B.A. in history and philosophy. He received his Ph. D. in history in U.S. history in 1980 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison after spending 2.5 years in the U. S. Army. Most of his army service was completed in Wuerzburg, Germany, from 1969-1971. In 1972 he returned to Madison to complete his doctoral study. His dissertation, Those Who Moved; Internal Migrants in American 1607-1840, combined the statistical analysis of genealogical and biographical data with the study of traditional literary diaries, letters, and journals.

Tim was a market and survey research consultant from 1983 to 2000 and a smoking cessation researcher from 2000 to 2003. His consulting practice focused primarily on conducting community health needs assessment. He authored hundreds of market research reports and published a number of his assessments in Community Health Needs Assessment published by McGraw Hill in 1996 and in a revised volume published in 1999. In 2000 he joined the staff of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention of the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he conducted smoking cessation research. He published several articles in peer-reviewed journals and spoke at national smoking cessation conferences.

In 2003 he moved to Philadelphia and earned his real estate license. He now practices real estate, works on publishing his novels, and studies and teaches entrepreneurship.Tim has written a dozen novel-length stories, a volume of short stories, and about a 3-foot stack of pages poetry. He is currently working on earning his 4th million in real estate sales, publishing his novels, and working on an entrepreneurish handbook as a support for his students.

Tim is a trained violist and an experienced string quartet player. He is an avid listener to classical music and regularly attends classical music concerts. He has two grown children by his first wife and a stepdaughter with his second wife. He likes to cook, read, write, entertain, develop relationships, and help other people. Formerly Tim used to travel frequently. He doesn't so much anymore. Now he regards the combination of real estate practice, writing and publishing, and the teaching and studying of entrepreneurship as enough of a trip.