Two days ago something truly momentous happened. My first novel, Ghosts in the Garden City, was published on Amazon. I have been a writer for many years but a novel was a new challenge.
It's available right now on Kindle, if that's how you like to read. The paper version is available here for ordering. [Note: if you don't see the paper version available yet it's an Amazon delay -- check back in a couple of days and it should be available in your market.]
If someone had told me when I was a kid that one day I would be able to publish and sell my own books, in partnership with a giant bookselling website, I would have said "What's a website?" I couldn't even imagine owning my own computer. A handheld calculator was pretty high-tech, to me.
I think my generation is perhaps the last one [tail-end baby boomers] to be awed by computers. Folks in my son's generation [millennials] just take computers in their stride.
I was on the phone last night with a friend who is my age and he was a writer in his youth. He wanted to know all about how this Amazon publishing deal works, and asked very specific questions. "Well hopefully an agent will contact you about selling the book, Dee," he said. "Maybe, but if that doesn't happen I am okay with that," I replied. I can make more money selling my own books, not having to pay an agent or publisher.
My book really has two stories. The first story is about a young woman named Leigh, who has repressed a childhood memory of an event that was very traumatic to her. Her quest to understand why she repressed that memory is the main plot of the book. She is aided by inheriting an old suitcase of her grandmother's and wondering about the items she finds inside it.
Just FYI, small children who are thrust into very traumatic situations have a mental defense mechanism that often kicks in, repression. The brain simply blocks out the memory of the trauma, blocks it completely. This can be a very good thing.
The second plot involves Leigh's mother Peggy.
When I started writing the book, Peggy was just a mean character, sort of the villain. As I was writing, though, I came to like her and I really enjoyed writing about her. I realized that I was drawn to exactly why Peggy was the way she was. "Bad" people are made that way because of circumstances beyond their control, typically. [I am not talking about a true sociopath who cannot feel remorse].
Peggy is a woman with a very traditional southern upbringing and background. She belongs to all the right groups in Augusta, Georgia, [Augusta is the Garden City] and values appearances a great deal. [She is NOT like my mother, just FYI, except my mother is beautiful.]
My novel cannot be characterized as just one thing. It's a mystery, romance, adventure, ghost story. The literary category is called Magical Realism. I also wrote a number of humorous scenes -- at least I hope they are funny, or at least amusing.
Writing a novel posed a lot of challenges.
One, I take care of my mother. She is 85 now. She is a bit frail but not bedridden. However, I fix all her meals and take them to her in her room, and help her dress, and take her to doctor's appointments. It takes up more time than you might think.
Second, I take care of Lola. Yes, she is a dog. However, she was a rescue, and she was never fully potty-trained, so taking her out is important. I also try to walk her a couple of times a day, which is good for us both.
I also work part-time, when possible. That has to take priority, obviously -- bills and all that. Currently I work from home as a paralegal for a litigation attorney.
All this is to say there are almost never stretches of time as long as two hours when I can just write. So I have to write when I can.
Time management is crucial to being a part-time writer. There must be time built into a busy life to simply write. I am still working on that.
If you are looking for a good story, check out Ghosts in the Garden City.
If you like it, please consider leaving a review on Amazon.
