Lawyer takes ‘adult timeout,’ writes novel

In “The Poet’s Secret,” debut novelist Kenneth Zak tells the story of a young woman who goes searching for a reclusive poet, certain that the man behind the words that have moved her deeply can somehow unlock the mysteries of enduring love.

Zak is an attorney in San Diego who took an unusual route to finding his creative voice. He’ll be at the La Jolla branch library Nov. 21 at 2 p.m.

Q: You started working on this book during what you’ve called “an adult timeout.” Tell me about that.

A: I had a private practice in law and I had a big house and a pretty good bank account, but I needed more time. So I sold the house and took off for three years. I spent some time on the island of Crete, I went to Bali, I went back to Greece. I spent the three years primarily traveling, surfing, writing and getting back in touch with what it means to live my life. I had a need to dive into a more meaningful existence.

Q: What did you learn about yourself?

A: I learned that I could get away from it all and the structure of my life wouldn’t collapse. I could step away from the grind, slow the process of living down. It was OK to get off the hamster wheel. I became very contemplative, was able to view nature and relationships in a new light.

A friend of a friend said he had this place on Crete and he offered me the chance to crash out there and get my creative self on, so to speak. I took him up on it. A lot of poetry was flowing out of me, and the narrative that became this novel started to take shape. I got the first draft done during that three-year getaway.

Q: Had you done any writing before that?

A: I had written poetry. I had written a sort of loose novel that had never been published, one that was in need of at least 10 more rewrites. I was reading a lot of Zen stuff, a lot of self-awareness stuff as well as a lot of fiction.

I had never done anything this extreme before, to just take a timeout like that. It was the only existence that made sense to me. Now I’m back at work (he’s general counsel for a brokerage firm) and writing, too.

Q: What were your inspirations for “The Poet’s Secret”?

A: I had two images in mind. One was a poet who was about to commit suicide. He was someone who had vaulted the great heights of love and then found himself in great despair. And I had an image of a young woman who was seeking love, trying to find the kind of love she’d read about in literature.

I didn’t know how they were going to fit together. I didn’t know if it was the poet’s story or the young woman’s story until I got it all down.

Q: Were there themes you didn’t know you would be writing about when you started the book, but they surfaced as you wrote?

A: There were some themes about conservation and water that emerged in kind of subtle ways. Some of that imagery, it dawned on me that I was kind of defining what was important to me. A lot of those things are essential to my perspective of the world.

Another interesting thing is, I didn’t know how the book was going to end. About two-thirds of the way through the book, I had an idea of what the last line would be. That’s when I realized whose story it was going to be. I swapped chapters one and two and everything crystallized.

Q: Were you working this out on your own, or were you in a writers group?

A: Judy Reeves (a longtime local writing coach who teaches at San Diego Writers, Ink) was very influential. She introduced me to a read-and-critique group that met every Wednesday. We’d read out loud, and that really helped me tighten, tighten, tighten what I was doing.

That process also helped with little plot things. Does this work? Is it authentic? That was critical for me as a man writing a female lead character. It got down to such things as how does a woman paint her toenails?

Q: So did you paint your own toenails for practice?

A: No, no, I didn’t paint my own. But I did learn the right way to do it so I could write about it.

Q: Water is almost a character in the book. Why are you drawn to water?

A: I grew up in Ohio near Lake Erie. When I was 8 years old, I flunked beginning swim lessons four times because I couldn’t get the backstroke. But I kept at it and eventually was on the swim team. I played water polo.

Just this morning I got back from 11 days in the Maldives with friends, surfing and diving and swimming. It was the best therapy I could ever have.

Q: What do you like about it?

A: I think it’s the serenity, the rejuvenation, the feeling of rebirth and wonder. It gets me motivated. There’s something elemental about it, the great aquatic source. Some people like the mountains or the desert or the forest. For me, it’s water every time.