About My Books

Since Joyce Carol Oates is one of my heroes and a prolific writer that I would dare to emulate, the short story is one of my favorite writing forms. Mostly because I can think of so many stories and scenarios surrounding a variety of people that I believe would make a good read. This latest collection, which features stories around working people who are doing what they can to make a living and survive in life, features people who sometimes find their true calling beyond what they originally signed up for.

My inspiration, as always, is the individual who struggles in life and does what she can to make the most of it. From the family run restaurant, to the woman selling her card shop after decades, to a man who realizes his dream of running a variety store that after just a few years gets over-shadowed by and out of business when a major supermarket comes to town, each story is full of emotions both full of happiness and disappointment. And then there is a woman looking for answers at church when her husband passes too soon and a woman who finds love surrounded by her 1st love of books. The stories are sometimes heart-wrenching but they wouldn’t have meaning to me if they didn’t hit an emotional nerve or two.

In 2019 I decided to participate in a writing exercise called NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month, in November. I had never participated in anything like this and wasn’t sure about actually finishing a novel in a month but I’ve learned, over the years, that this is the best way to improve anything in my life; by taking on a challenge that I believe is more than I want but know that when I finish it, I will be so satisfied that I did finish it. And I did.

And then I put the book on the back burner, until 2023 when I read through it again, made a lot of edits, and passed it onto my publisher. And it sat in his inbox for more than a year and a half. But now, finally, it is done and printed and ready to be read by my followers.

The idea for the book came from looking at my own situation. I live up a hill and I thought about the people in the house below and how when they look up at our house, which is a modest home, certainly not a home for anyone to envy, but they might see, compared to where they live, a mansion. And that was it. I went from there and created a young couple who live in the guest house below and an older couple who occupy the mansion. The situation turns into one of control with a little madness thrown in. Hopefully, the mystery surrounding the two couples will be enough to keep every reader turning the pages to find out how it all ends.

The main character in this book is the House itself, who introduces us to each of the guests who made their way to Deep Lake House over the decades. Generations have made their way to the House and like all of my writing, the characters bring with them feelings of hope, sadness, love, disappointment, misunderstanding, breaking up, and making up. The stories span decades with the House sharing the pain and love it has felt for each and every character.

As for my inspiration, this book came about when my husband mentioned something to me that I found interesting (I, unfortunately, do not remember what it is now) but I completely misinterpreted what he said and when I described to him what I was going to write, he was surprised since it wasn't what he was thinking, but thought my idea would make a great collection of stories. As with all of my writing, Deep Lake House became a work of passion. Some who have read it have shared that a couple of the stories have brought out such strong emotions in them that they have cried over the misfortune of the characters. I believe this is what many authors would love to know about the stories they are sharing with the world.

The inspiration for The Mart started with people I knew when I worked at a job when I was 17 and 18 years old. All of the stories in Friends, Lovers, and Other Strangers are based loosely on the characters I worked with. Of course, I used a lot of my own creative license. The two people in the novel, A Madness Most Discreet, Bitsy and Lewis, are completely made up and characters I created when I saw a young man working at a Walmart and a young woman working at Ocean State Job Lots. I just brought them together and built the story around them. Inspiration for stories often come from people I meet in my life or someone I knew in my past. A story just starts forming. I call it my muse giving me directions.

The people in the stories are those who I knew would never write their own story but still they were stories that needed to be told. Coming from a less than privileged life, a life many people cannot relate to since they possibly never wanted for anything in life, these are people who simply through birth, were never given any advantages and had to work hard for what they had. They work, they fall in love, they have a family. Generation after generation just barely making ends meet. Often sad stories, but stories I believe needed to be told.

This collection of stories featuring each of my parents is very dear to me. These are the stories that were my life as a child growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. My memories are those of so many others who grew up in the same decades. My mother’s stories: collecting green stamps, her insecurity about her front teeth, her mother, learning to drive, making out so many Christmas cards and the letters she wrote with them to family back home in Utah, and watching Westerns which reminded her of her childhood. My dad’s stories: coloring Easter eggs inspired by the Ukrainian eggs using a pin and melted beeswax, smoking cigarettes and sometimes a pipe, working at the Post Office, doing crossword puzzles and collecting stamps, and spending too much time at the local barroom. I also share their final stories where each suffered slow deaths from cancer; my dad at 59 and my mom at 75. Stories that are etched in my memories and that fill me with sadness as well as joy to have lived during this time.

Each story has found its way into this book at different times in my life. One story came to me while driving on the back roads near my house. I glanced in a yard and saw a double-wide mobile home with a ramp obviously for someone who used a wheelchair. The story something just tells itself and I take a few notes to remind me where I want to go with it. Other stories in this collection were based on observations I’ve made either of the elderly living on their own after a spouse has passed, or someone I knew many years ago who comforted herself with alcohol. I understood when I met her mother who struck me as a cold woman with no love to give her daughter. Other stories tell how life changes even when you have perfect plans. And other stories came about when I thought about someone accepting the life they chose years before but still have a lot of life to live so give up comfort for adventure. I even have a section of flash fiction based on the people who live “Alone Together” in an apartment building, coming and going but never meeting.

My favorite compliment for this book was a woman who was standing in line at a local store with this book in hand and when my husband asked if she would like the author to sign it for her, came over to me and told me that a friend had bought my book and love it so much she had to get her own copy. Those kinds of compliments, unsolicited, are the best.