Whether some one is a farmer or barber, long haul trucker or a doctor, we all struggle through life’s challenges and changes. How do some of us learn to rise up and thrive while others only exist? How did someone like me who worked as a pet groomer since the age of eleven, become the author of six books, to date? As I publish my newest blog series, “The Story Behind The Story,” it is my hope that we all might connect on some level.
Enjoy my musings
and “The Story Behind The Story.” and in the process, I hope you gain
understanding and encouragement for your own journey.
The Story Behind The Story
When I finished writing and publishing my first book, COAST TO COAST WITH A CAT AND A GHOST, a memoir, I held the book in my hands. My fingers feathered over its glossy cover and thumbed through the pages, touching the words on the pages … so many of them… and I cried. The tears came from disbelief, humility, and a deep satisfaction and empowerment. How did this happen? When I gathered my senses. I knew one thing. I was hooked on writing. I had found the answer to that question I had been asking all my life, ‘Is this all there is?’
But what to
write? COAST TO CAOST WITH A CAT AND A GHOST
was a memoir. I figured anyone could write their own story. I felt I had
nothing more to say about my past. I had been estranged from my daughter for
over ten years, so I had no stories with happy endings. I wondered if I could make something up. And
so, GOING HOME WITH A CAT AND A GHOST was born.
You may have
realized by now I am what is called in
the writing world as a ‘Pantser,’ someone who writes by the seat of her pants,
which aligns will my compulsive personality. My sister, a reserved and
controlled individual, once said to me, “You amaze me. You decide to do
something that you have never done before and know nothing about, and then you
just do it.” That’s me.
Wala! I
would have a series! And what better
universal issue to address? My story would bring to the forefront the question
many of us have pondered -- What if you
had a second chance to reunite with your first love, your high school
sweetheart?
Writers
write what they know, not that I ever reunited with my first love. But we
infuse the story with feelings we have experienced. Just change up the real people,
places and outcomes with fictional
characters, imagined, tangled up
situations and a happy, Camelot
ending.
As I wrote
GOING HOME WITH A CAT AND A GHOST, I imagined my first love and created the character, Brad. I offered
my fictional character, Judy, a second ,chance but only if she found the
courage to jump through the mysterious entanglements of her fictional life.
Writing
fiction became magical and rewarding, I could escape into a fantasy world of my
own making and play with my own desires. The real-life boyfriend? I had no idea
where he was or what had become of him, but the boy who had lived in my mind all these years
now came alive on paper. What fun!
I fell in
love all over again –with Brad. I couldn’t let him go. As my writing progressed, Brad lived on in books three and four. There
is a saying. “If an author loves you, you will live forever.”
Stay tuned for the Story Behind The Story of MASADA'S MARINE.
GOING HOME WITH A CAT AND A GHOST
A novel about life’s complexities for Judy Howard,
a recently widowed woman who travels in her Winnebago motorhome from California
to Illinois to attend her 40th high school reunion by the invitation
of her first love, Brad. She makes the
trip accompanied by her cat, Sportster, and a life-sized polyester doll, riding
shotgun whom she calls Cowboy Jack.
Click on the link below to find out more about Judy's books.
Sportster's Blog: The Cat's Perspective Of Reading, Writing And Life
Safe travels!
A novel about life’s complexities for Judy Howard,
a recently widowed woman who travels in her Winnebago motorhome from California
to Illinois to attend her 40th high school reunion by the invitation
of her first love, Brad. She makes the
trip accompanied by her cat, Sportster, and a life-sized polyester doll, riding
shotgun whom she calls Cowboy Jack.
She returns to her home town
after fleeing from family and Brad forty years ago to escape the shame and horror
of an illegal abortion as the result of being drugged and date raped at the age
of sixteen.
She had married
and made a life for herself for the last forty years but was always haunted by
nightmares of the rape, by dreamy memories of her Brad and by constant regrets,
and questions of “What if..?”
The opportunity
to confront her lifelong question of “What if..?” arises when her husband dies
and Brad invites her to their 40th high school reunion. Gathering up her shaky
courage, Judy heads home to face her past…and who knows? – Her future?
The
odyssey is not only a discovery of Route 66, but also a deep examination of her feelings
and about the woman she has become since she snuggled in the backseat of Brad’s
57 Chevy.
Brad has
lived the last four decades married only to the police force, obsessed with
investigating and capturing the biggest drug dealer in the Midwest called Pit
Bull. Brad, too, has lived his life with regrets and guilt, always tortured
with his own “What ifs?” When he invites Judy to the reunion his mind is made
up. He will not waste another moment wondering. He is going to pursue the love
of his life and end his doubts.
As Judy
progresses toward Springfield and Brad nears closing the biggest case of his
career, they are both confronted with the past when Pit Bull threatens to put
an end, not only to the mysteries of the past, but Brad and Judy’s future.
Click on the link below to find out more about Judy's books.
Oh, and don’t forget!! Readers’ reviews keep writers motivated.
USEFUL LINKS
Other books by Judy Howard: JUDY’S AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE
Judy's Blog: The Adventures Of An RV Widow
Sportster's Blog: The Cat's Perspective Of Reading, Writing And Life
Click on the link below to find out more about Judy's books.
Safe travels!
