Book Tour
My first ambition was to write fiction. I came up with a plot for a utopian world when I was 16 and bored every friend I had talking about it. I took journalism classes in high school and orchestrated an interview of Westbrook Pegler for my school paper when he attended a journalism conference in my hometown. But life put me on paths that had little to do with writing books, but somehow always left me time for reading and watching those 26 characters do their thing. And on those occasions when I made the characters say something new or different in a research report, or where it was least expected at the end of a proposal, and eyebrows were arched but the reviewer lets it go because it was that damn good, I felt like a god in a hot air balloon.
I was 74 when I wrote my first long fiction and, by then, well established as a technical writer. My instructor in a creative writing class at the University of Maryland thought it was time I moved from short stories to novels and told me that one learned how to write novels by…writing a novel. I thought the romance genre would be fairly easy, but I was wrong. The genre is so full of subcategories pegged to how graphic the sex is that I needed help from my writer’s group to classify it. But it was the requirement of a happy ending that did me in. As my very attractive characters fell in love and got to know each other, there was no way they could remain a loving couple. However, Lila did discover what she really wanted and readers liked her.
Pensacola Reset
Pensacola Reset was the first in a three-book series and was how I discovered I was a character driven, feminist writer.
“Lila came home to figure out the rest of her life. First she was seduced by the beaches and water, then by a man 10 years younger. “
Now That I'm Dead
A Washington Post article declaring that physicists applying principles of particle physics and quantum mechanics proved that human consciousness could survive the death of the brain inspired my next novel. Now That I’m Dead is my take on what the afterlife would be if dead people remained actively engaged as conscious personalities but in sub-atomic electronic form. Kirkus gave it a good review, as did many of my book club ladies, despite it getting a genre classification of Science Fiction.
Kirkus Review
Although Fiona initially uses her new existence to confront a difficult past, her mission eventually becomes a matter of facing the future. All in all, the tale offers a creative take on the afterlife.
…the book delivers a refreshing exploration of the possibilities in the hereafter. Now that Fiona is dead, she can do just about whatever she pleases. What will she achieve with such a privilege?
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"The morning Fiona died started like any other at the assisted living center—until she found herself floating above her bed where she lay turning blue. She was even more surprised to find herself transported to any place that crossed her mind, which is how she ended up in her favorite tree. Thus begins Fiona’s adventure in the afterlife where she is befriended by a former slave with a fondness for red cowboy boots and R&B music. Despite her new powers, Fiona realizes that happiness still depends on dealing with her old baggage. She has to change. Death is a long gig."
The Long Way Home
My third novel was the second in the Lila Monroe series—a sequel to “Pensacola Reset”. The Long Way Home takes Lila through life as a lover, wife, and mother but not in that order. The complexities of married love are revealed in a series of true to life scenarios that range from scary, to hilarious, poignant and bitter sweet. At 400 pages, it is my longest novel. Both the man and the woman in the relationship tell the story. The use of dual protagonists in dialogue is generally avoided, but I saw it working in a short story prizewinner and adopted it for this novel. This is how writers learn from each other.
"Lila Monroe never knew fear until she had a child. RJ Claiborne never knew a time since leaving the Army with one foot when he wasn’t afraid. Both came from dysfunctional families. Neither had much experience as part of a couple. But the chemistry between these middle-aged lovers lit up the room."
The Wachs Family Daughters
My latest book is a synthesis of all my professional research experience in qualitative evaluations, my degrees in psychology, my technical writing chops and my creative writing skills. The Wachs Family Daughters: Book 1 1745-1786 integrates genealogy records and anecdotal information from various family sources with historical context to create a three-dimension narrative account of our family history. This was where my technical writing comes into play.
By the time the pandemic was upon us, I had a good sense of the habits and states of mind of our original German forbears and their life in colonial Pennsylvania. The next step was natural to me—tell a story that fills in the blanks and remains true to the family facts, including those snippets that we couldn’t include in the first summation. This required a deeper dive into the historical context using research methods learned as a principal social science researcher. It also required a female protagonist. I am a feminist. I chose the first female child born to the immigrants. She and my mother shared the same birth order in a large family. Despite the difference of 200 years, the culture and customs were very similar. Sigh… At an early age, they were both nannies to their siblings.
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The Wachs Family Daughters: Book 1 is a hybrid. It is many times more factual than the standard historical novel. Yet, it’s also story telling at my finest. And for you who may be considering historical fiction writing or are fans of the genre, please know that it took me days of research for every paragraph I wrote.
"Katy found in Davault a true friend, her only friend, with whom she could ride, hunt and field dress a deer as an equal. She learned so much from him and trusted him. So it seemed natural to go to him to find out why her mother would risk her life over and over again."