The Novelist And His Novel

Technically, I am a published author. More accurately, I am a published free lancer. I find it very easy to compose short articles, however, my heart is not in that field. My dream is to write an inspirational fiction novel one day, and have it published of course!

I’ve been working at this for a number of years. My first submissions to critique groups were an eye opener, and I quickly found out that writing wasn’t as easy as it appeared. There were steps involved in creating a novel. Imagine that! In addition, at the time I began, there were some newer concepts emerging that have changed the landscape of writing significantly. Read a novel that’s twenty years old, then read one that’s new or only a few years old. If you make a conscious attempt to spot the differences, I’ll bet you’ll find them.

God blessed me with a creative mind (although it’s been a curse at times). Coming up with story ideas and characters is not hard for me. The hardest thing for me, interestingly, is coming up with names. Many people don’t even think twice about the name of the hero or heroine, but I can assure you, the author has put a lot of thought into those names. Some authors more thought than others. In today’s writing world anyway, you can’t really have your main protagonists (or antagonists) called Mary, or Frank. Usually, the names for these characters are names we would never give our own children. Moreover, we’d probably have changed our names had we been christened with them!

The novel I am working on is called Wintergreen. It’s mainly about two people, named Davis and Corrie at present, who are victimized by crime. I used my experience in this field as a basis for this fiction novel, so I hope to tell their story in a realistic light. It’s set in Erie, Pennsylvania, about the only part of Pennsylvania I’ve never visited. I hope to write about my progress on this blog site, and perhaps I’ll post segments from time to time.

I’ll end this post with a tiny bit of information about the plant named wintergreen. It is of course the source of the fragrance we know about, but did you know that its name was actually the predecessor of the word evergreen? Wintergreen could once be found growing naturally in Wintergreen Gorge, or Four Mile Creek, near Erie Pennsylvania, but apparently not today. Part of the story line in Wintergreen will connect with Wintergreen Gorge, specifically, near the end where the antagonist comes on the scene in full force.

I’d love to hear any other interesting facts or trivia about wintergreen. Leave a short comment if you have anything you feel might be of even the tiniest bit of interest.