This novel was born in the 1990s out of the imagination of Tom and Skye Boyd as they sat camping in the Wild Rivers section of the Rio Grande Gorge in northern New Mexico. More than twenty-five years later, the story has found its way to publication. This Story for Seasoned Lovers, as the subtitle puts it, is written in the hope that lovers of all ages might find a way to reflect on and discover the deeper aspects of their relationships.
The novel begins with two of the principal characters, Clay and Rorie, spending three days camping in that same Rio Grande canyon. When they meet, they learn in short order the immediacy and intimacy of their love for each other. Both bring life crises with them into the canyon. They do not solve these problems but learn how to address them. Through the next twenty-plus years, with no contact, a significant thread still runs between them.
Two through-lines are stitched together in this intriguing story. For Clay, it is the long-term effort to work out the powerful relationship between love and loss by writing a book on the subject. For Rorie, it is the letter she wrote to Clay spelling out her continuing connection to him--a letter not mailed, then mailed but not received, then received but not revealed. And thereby hangs a complex tale.