My Dear Lucy - A Manuscript Complete

Writing a book is an amazing experience.

It is amazing and horrible and full of hope and depressing. 

It’s therapy and creativity folded into sleepless nights staring at a computer screen.

It’s research and writer’s block with inspiration and self-discovery.

And I love it!

When I finished writing The Memory Catcher, I thought how great it would be to write a young adult book with a prebirth experience.  A prebirth experience is magical in so many ways and I wanted to honor what such an experience could create.

A few nights later I had a dream about a girl and a book and Martin Luther. 

Yeah, random.

I had heard of Martin Luther, but knew very few facts about him.

I started doing research and felt the warm promptings of the spirit that I was on the right course.  Martin Luther was an incredibly spiritual and learned man who dared to stand up for what he believed in.  If I wanted to understand Martin Luther more, I needed to research the Bible and ways of the 16^th century.  I also needed to understand the control the church had over the people.

So, what about this girl in my dreams? 

Did I find her?

image found here

image found here

image found here

I am a very visual person and found these painting inspiring. 

Well, since I write fiction, I took a little leniency with historical facts and used my imagination.  This girl was a reader in a time when reading was outlawed.

I started writing and after six months and a completed manuscript, this is my hook:

In 16^th century Germany tyranny reins, reading is outlawed and the church has control over an oppressed people.  However, there is a girl who holds the power to change everything; she just doesn’t know it.  Sixteen year-old Lucy Porter has spent her life in hiding with a nervous mother who teaches from a book of strange markings and words of prophets from long ago.  When her mother is imprisoned for witchcraft, Lucy is kidnapped and taken into the black forest.  Luckily, she is able to bury the book of history before her capture.

As the German Army, a band of gypsies and a man named Martin Luther seek for Lucy’s death; the lessons of her mother come alive. Lucy must figure out how the power of one book can set her and her country free.

Last week, my brother Tadd invited my family to a natural reserve in Gilbert.  While there, my children and nieces and nephews discovered this little tucked-away cove of cat willows and we played and played.  We picked flowers and spread out cattail feathers as clouds of beds.  I felt so close to Lucy.  She was all I could think about and my sister-in-law Heather took some photos.

So once again, I am all consumed with a fictional character in my mind who I love so much and would do anything for.  Lucy is inspiring and flawed and incredibly brave (plus there's a romance that keeps my heart thumping!)  Did I mention how much I love writing YA fiction?  Alas, My Dear Lucy, a story I saw in my dreams before I ever started writing it is complete.  There are actually three prebirth experiences in the character-driven fast-paced novel, but you'll have to read it to find out how heaven helped earth during this turbulent time.  Let’s hope my publisher likes it.