Telling you about Survivor, the action memoir I
wrote for actor, director, and producer Reza Fazeli, may prove
dangerous. After all, I used a pseudonym on the book's cover because
terrorists murdered his son in England. They felt justified: Reza's
anti-regime videos mocked their sacred cows. When investigators traced
the bomb back to a high ranking official in his native country, two
governments had to combine efforts to spirit Reza out of England.
(Maybe if I don't mention the name of the offending country, they won't
come after me with guns or bombs. The way things are heating up over
there, the threats of nuclear weapons...well, that should give you a
hint.)
Survivor's full of murder, mayhem, and miracles--though Reza
won't call them that. Amazon carries the English version. It was under
contract with a foreign publisher (again, not naming the country) for
the translation when Reza died in April 2009. I was fortunate to have known him and his family.
Here's the cover
Buy the book
What else?
Several novels clog my hard drive or lie dormant on floppies. A few years ago, I wrote the first book of a fun series called Two From Isaac's House. A partial
won the Alpha Award for best new fiction at the Sandy Cove Writers
Conference. The three acquisitions editors said, send it. I said it's
not CBA. They wrote back and said, yep, you're right. You ever write
for the CBA, let us know.
Well, that sample also got me invited to the Napa Writers Conference. On my return, Reza hired me to write his book, which
took a chunk out of my life. A Western woman working with a Middle
Eastern alpha male? He was always right. I was always wrong. If I
hadn't believed in the story, I'd have waved good-bye after the first
three chapters. But I stuck it out, then hired an editor--male--who
seconded my advice. That time Reza listened.
With Survivor off my computer and into Reza's hands, I began crafting the story of a woman who can't cope with overwhelming guilt.
SAILING OUT OF DARKNESS, NOT UNLESS IT'S FOREVER, ON A NIGHT LIKE THIS, and.....
Sailing out of Darkness is the story of one woman's plunge
into guilt and her crawl--or rather, sail--out of it. Oh, Sam doesn't
literally sail out. But it's on board her small skipjack, the Alice II, that
Sam drops her guard and commits an act that will trigger bloodshed and
revenge--against her and against her boat. And it's on board a battered
Alice that Sam finally confronts the elements and makes peace with herself and with God. (You can read the first chapter by clicking on the Sample link to the left.)
Enter an agent I believed in because of her enthusiasm. Exit same agent
after a couple of years of promises and enthusiasm but no action. Now I
have signed with Terry Burns of Hartline Literary Agency who will try to market Not Unless It's Forever and the two I'm working on using some of the same characters.
Set in Beaufort, NC, Not Unless It's Forever is
also full of sailing and fun folk. I've plunged into the revision stage of a sequel that
picks up some of the secondary characters in Beaufort and introduces a
few others. Also in the works is one called On a Night Like This, which
began as I faced my first storm on board Sea Venture -- alone. Of
course, none of the adventures that have my characters in a tizzy
happened to us. But they could have.
A story about my aunt, Sara Meadows, who lived with me for nine years
until her death at age 90, brought my writing to the attention of an editor at a sailing magazine who has asked for more. I'll pursue that when I find the time away from blogging and novel writing. See link under Scribblings at left: A Sailing Odyssey
Are you at all curious about miracles and such? If so, Samuel's Story may interest you. It is also linked at left.
If you would like to get in touch with
me to chat about writing, sailing, or anything else on your mind, drop
me a line at normandie at seaventure dot us, putting the symbols in
where they're needed. Spam has invaded too much of our lives, hasn't
it? I'll get back to you when we come within shouting distance of Wifi. You can also leave a comment on my blog.