Anything But Ordinary

Chapter 3

This book did not turn out like I intended it.

When I sat down to the first blank pages that would become the book you are now holding, in the late summer of 2001, I intended to pen a coming-of-age tale about a young boy in a city so foreign it would shock his senses. I chose as my protagonist a young boy from a large mid-Western city, transplanted to the most foreign locale imaginable, the city of New Orleans. That it was a straight shot down the Mississippi River only added to the symmetry and symbolism. During the first months and year or so of writing, I spent a considerable number of days wandering the streets of the Big Easy, re-acquainting myself with the sights, sounds and people that make New Orleans unique among American cities.

I finished the rough draft of this book in the spring of 2004 and, as I didn"t know exactly what to do next, I let it languish in a drawer for a few months before dusting it off for an edit. Then, just as I was breaking ground on editing Anything But Ordinary, the city I had labored to capture was hit by a hurricane. I did not set out to create a portrait of New Orleans, but that is what this book has become. For contained herein are glimpses of a New Orleans that no longer exists.

This realization remained lost to me until Carolyn Meinel, whom I consider a close friend and literary confidant, suggested this potential connection in the days following the storm. As the waters of Pontchartrain receded and the world saw the devastation in the Lower Ninth Ward, I knew the city I had come to love had been forever changed.

The writer and philosopher Barbara Branden once told me a book is never “finished.” Instead, writers just stop working on books and, if they"re lucky, the books get published. Looking back over this story in advance of the second edition, I see myriad things that I would, today, write differently. But that"s to be expected. I"m a different writer today than I was back when I first pecked out “I am a writer” all those years back. But changing these things would, I believe, make this second edition a different book. And that"s not what I want. So, instead, changes have been limited mostly to minor typographical errors and the kinds of mistakes that have a tendency to creep into a book when it"s in the final stages of pre-production. What you are holding is a faithful and true representation of the original novel, but with different art and better grammar. On the topic of grammar, there are people to thank.

To Carolyn, I am forever thankful for connecting the powerful images from the cable news networks to the places and people in my story. Without that tearful phone call during the Katrina aftermath, I might have left this book collecting dust in that drawer for even longer. My friend and editor Ann Bloxom Smith"s eagle eye always catches the misspelled words, the missing commas, those word choice errors that plague even seasoned authors, and more than a few problems with continuity. Without Ann"s work, this book"s second life would seem not much different than its first. For both Carolyn and Ann, I am grateful.

Most of all, I am forever indebted to the citizens of the great city of New Orleans for living lives responsible for creating a city of such grace, power and ageless beauty.

Laissez les bon temps rouler toujours.

Michael DeVault

Monroe, Louisiana

May 18, 2014