I have written five full-length novels and have now published two of them. There are posts with back cover summaries and several excerpts of both of them on this blog.
The first novel I published I wrote after seeing a painting of an English estate of the 17th century. The painting captivated my imagination. I wondered what the people who called that estate home wrote by their actions on the pages of their history. What and who did they love? What were their hates? How were they influenced by the greater community to which they belonged, and how did they help to influence and shape it?
These questions and others drove me to do research to get a good picture in my mind of what life was like in England in the time period of that painting. This research, that I soon loved doing, drove me to widen my scope to include the New World of North America. Part of that world still existed a thousand years removed from the England of 1800. It took me more than two years to write the story and additional time to do several proof reads, but I enjoyed it all.
The publisher asked me to cut 50,000 words from the 185,000 words I had written. While that led to problems down the road, I loved every minute of writing that novel and working with the two editors. I’m now writing a sequel to it. I’ve given it the title “Storms Over Hawking Manor”.
The second novel I published was much more difficult to write. Learning of people I knew who battled cancer I wondered how they could cope. How could their families and friends carry on with life? What hope could they all draw on to deal the helplessness and uncertainty this dreaded disease, in my thinking, had to bring with it in unmerciful measures? I wondered what kind of story I could write that might help others deal a little better with this kind of heartbreak. I struggled with the research I needed to do, and on many days it gripped my emotions.
Not only were portions of this novel difficult to write, but before I finished with the third proof read, I would come to know by experience of this helplessness and hopelessness, when my oldest daughter was diagnosed with an incurable cancer. Recently I read this story again. The horrendous struggles and demons I had imagined the characters in my novel would have to deal with, and I chose for my characters people with backgrounds that would best equip them to go through the fire of suffering, and the reality I came to know were all too alike.
I’m proof reading once more a third novel at this time. It can be classified as a mystery, suspense or crime story. “Beyond the Breaking Point” was fun to write, and it is an easy read. I hope to publish this novel next as an e-book this spring.
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