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, I lived in Plymouth Massachusetts for 25 years and was absorbed by, not only the towns heritage, but the culture, dialect, cuisine and unique government ideas. Many families who live in Plymouth have been there for as long as five to twelve generations. Being a resident for only 25 years the town still considered me a newbie. Nonetheless, during my tenure in Plymouth I learned how to make award winning clam chowder, properly bake lobster on the beach in sand, troll for blues, use the word wicked correctly and effectively, barter, traditionalize and to naturally resist change. I also learned Plymouth has been a storied place for over 400 years. During my 25-year tenure and many times over beverages I was privileged to learn about Plymouth families historical characters, their legends, discussions of actual history or folklore, town mysteries and just plain weird stories and tales that were never written down but said to be the truth.
During that period I also worked in a business that mandated I travel extensively throughout the United States and internationally. During those long cross-country or cross-continental flights and the inevitable flight delays and cancellations my mind would drift to some of the discussions, stories and tales that fascinated and stuck with me. I started to write them down one paragraph at a time then a page at a time and then multiple pages at a time. Before I realized it, more than a few years went by and I had over three hundred written pages scrambled in no particular order plus another one hundred pages of miscellaneous research. I started to organize them and wondered if there may be a novel somewhere in those scattered documents. Then came the time for me to move from my home of over twenty-five years and I headed west.
I kept myself connected to Plymouth by taking my filing boxes of stories, ideas and research and started rewriting and putting them into an organized work. It didn’t take long to determine converting it into an actual finished novel that a publisher would actually publish was a long road. I re-wrote and rearranged the complete novel chapter by chapter at least three times. Over the years, when I went back to Plymouth to visit family and friends I made time to interview residents, and charters that had professions or lives similar to characters in my book. I also visited the sites of most of the scenes that were in the novel. I took pictures and videos to ensure I would get feel for the area accurately.
Two years ago, I realized if I was going to have any kind of chance at all of getting my novel published, I needed to actually learn how to write so readers would enjoy the book as much as I enjoyed writing it. I started taking creative writing courses at ASU with all the other “kids” and taking on-line writing courses while reading many writing books and articles. I started re-writing the novel again based on what I was learning. Writing became my second act after I retired and absorbed most of my time.
Last September, I finally convinced a publisher, Hugo House Publishing, to take a chance on it by convincing them that I am a shameless self-promoter and would aggressively promote the book, if they would publish it. After six months of re-writing it again based on guidance from my publisher and editor, plus additional research, then proof-reading it two more times, the novel was as baked as it was going to be. It was published and released two months ago.
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