After eight nonfiction books including the 1982 best-seller Blue Highways, William Least Heat-Moon has turned at age 77 to fiction.

His debut novel, Celestial Mechanics: A Tale for a Mid-Winter Night, has both the imaginative and philosophical underpinnings you’d expect. It’s about a young man, an amateur astronomer, trying to make sense of his life. His wife, who has become increasingly incompatible, disappears, and he connects with her with her sister and another, mysterious woman as he investigates.

As part of the book’s launch, the Kansas City-born Heat-Moon – real name, William Trogdon – discusses the story, his foray into fiction, and a 35-year literary journey that began with Blue Highways.