Mr. Strickham's | A Novel

Here's the current opening:

What makes someone boring? Is it the way they talk in monotone? The lack of activities they take part in? Or is it the particular kinds of activities they enjoy, like cataloging insect species or collecting stamps?

In Oliver Strickham’s case, it was magic.

Sitting in the back of a small community college auditorium, doodling, Oliver loosely paid attention. At the board, his professor droned on about everyone’s futures. To clarify, he wasn’t talking about broad outlooks of the future like some mentor — or a nosey relative — might pry out by asking, “What’s your five-year plan?”

Of which Oliver didn’t really have. “To travel the world,” he might say. That, or, “To win the lottery.”

But there in the confides of the dingy community college lecture hall, his professor droned on about divining the future via various methods. Being a core-credit class, every period felt ancillary and boring compared to Oliver’s actual degree in international business.

Today’s uninteresting topic was...

Meet the main characters: