My Next Adventure

It’s been a while. Sorry for the delay between posts. This lapse started with my trip to England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales at the end of May. I was too busy/exhausted to post during the trip. The picture accompanying this post is of a butcher shop in Waterford, Ireland. It’s a few blocks from the port, just like in my second book. To be clear, my book is a work of fiction, as is the butcher shop described in the book, but I thought it was too coincidental to ignore. Then, about midway through my trip, I caught Covid. No worries, I’m fine now. I tell you though, it took the steam out of me for a good three weeks. Just as I was recovering, I rolled my ankle and fell, scraping both knees, an elbow, and my thumb. Natural grace is not a trait I inherited, apparently. I was in no mood to write for a full week after that.

Now I’m back at my laptop and excited to tell you about my next novel, possibly, potentially. You see, I have started a half dozen or so novels that are just stubs. Some are a chapter long. Some are just a paragraph or two. Some are just a page or two of jotted notes. This project may not make it into a full book either, but we’ll see.

This next potential book will be based on my mother and her sisters. My mother was born in Indiana in 1922, the middle of three girls. They had no other siblings. Their mother passed away when my mother was 13. Mom told me snippets about her upbringing and her mother’s death when I was young. Being a typical child, though, I really didn’t pay close attention to her stories at the time. Now I wish I had.

I wonder how they fared after their mother’s death. I’m also curious about what it was like for their now-single father to raise three daughters. My mother and my aunts all had keen senses of humor and were some of the smartest people I’ve ever met. I’m sure there are some very entertaining and some heartbreaking stories.

I can’t ask my mother these questions, as she passed away 11 years ago. Her oldest sister has also passed. The youngest of the three sisters is still alive and mentally sharp. My plan is to go to Indiana and visit her later this month and see what family stories she can share with me. My oldest sister is joining me for this visit, and I also hope to talk with some of my cousins to help fill in the blanks.

What form this book will take is still an internal debate for me. Although I’d like to make it a work of non-fiction, I’m not sure whether my cousins and my aunt (and their friends) would appreciate it if I get some of the facts wrong. If I make it a work of pure fiction, inspired by the stories my relatives tell, will that offend them? I guess these are questions I need to ask as I am gathering family stories during my visit.

Stay tuned. I’ll share progress on this adventure as it unwinds.