The term “settle down” describes both an action and is a command. At any age, an individual more or less seeks to either settle or resists doing so. On the cusp between childhood and adulthood, many embrace their autonomy. At once processing the past and living in the moment with or without considering how the past and present will impact an unknown future.

East sider Ritt Deitz, a self-described storyteller, writes plays, essays (in English and French) and creates music, which at times includes his son Wilder. With his new book, “Settle Down,” from Orange Hat Publishing/Ten16 Press, he writes a love letter of sorts to and about his adopted hometown. Not just to Madison, but specifically the east side. In particular, the area around the Goodman Community Center.

The fictional novel set in the 1980s centers on protagonist Kenny McLuher, a native east sider in his final year at the University of Virginia (Deitz is an alumnus), who is attempting to comprehend where he has been and what is ahead.

“(It’s about) coming home to a childhood home (and) tangling with the idea where do I put down roots — existential moment — or follow a job,” Deitz said.

The story intersects with Deitz’s own journey in some ways. The character is returning home as a first-generation Madisonian. McLuher’s parents were raised in Kentucky (like Deitz) and brought with them stories of faith and kin with an accent to this foreign place.

Deitz himself moved here with band members after college. One of the main draws for Deitz was to find a community that was his own (his wife is a Baraboo native) and also not more than an eight-hour drive from his ancestors.

In the novel, McLuher is reconnecting with a landscape that has changed physically and one that remained the same. Readers of a certain age are reminded of local events, like when the Crystal Corner Bar temporarily closed in 1988 due to an upstairs fire. The book abounds with what remains and what has changed in the four intervening decades.

“Settle Down” describes “how family builds around dynamics, who we are, where are we from. (It has aspects of) magical realism, hypnotic Southern storytelling, (sometimes in) cartoonish ways, of place and home,” Deitz said. “I would have met Kenny in ’88, if he were a real person in a bar or at UVA.”

While he considered an Old Testament quote from Jeremiah for the book’s epigraph, “Settle down and plant a garden and eat what you grow,” he finally decided upon fellow Kentuckian, writer and farmer Wendell Berry’s “We live the given life, not the planned.”

Deitz states the novel is about a time when, “being young (means being) willing to try things without a clear agenda or outcome.”

It’s about roots and the vines that wander. Ultimately Deitz is exploring time, how we connect with it across generations and how it molds us. Any east sider or lover of stories about connection will be rewarded by connecting with Deitz through “Settle Down” or onstage. He is industrious, with a rich, mellifluous voice. Whether interacting in-person, on the page or through music, he draws people close. He is a gardener not just in a physical sense, but also a cultivator of people, stories and communities. If life is a conversation, Deitz is an exemplary host.

Book launches will unfold over the fall. Do yourself a favor — definitely mark your calendar for Thursday, Sept. 18, at 6:30 p.m. when Deitz and his band will play the Harmony Bar. Expect an east side Garrison Keillor-type evening of stories and songs. In the meantime, check out Ritt Deitz on Spotify and listen to his song “East Side” off his album “Hinge” to get one in the mood.

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