BLOG #1
RE: STARTING OVER IN THE PAST, BY Ella Rydzewski, WestBow Publishers, a subsidiary of Zondervan, 2016, 218 pages, paper and hardcover.
I waited patiently for the results of two years of working on and off on my first book publication. This comes after years of writing nonfiction articles, interviews, book reviews, devotionals, local news reporting (in Pennsylvania), newsletters (World Vision), and editorials (my favorites).
This is my first novel, and when you read it you will know more about me. I think all first-time writers of fiction start with characters based on themselves—their interests, values, likes, and dislikes. I have done this with the heroine Catharine. No, I am not a biblical languages professor, but I enjoy all phases of theology from the historical to its life applications. I have also been married for decades while Catharine started out as a widow and found a new relationship. I am quite happy with my old one!
Catharine also has some challenges (ADD) as I do, though it took many years for me to find a physician who recognized it—an insightful Jewish internist in Washington, DC. Fortunately it is rather mild—a shadow of the real thing as some have described it. I also had a red-haired mother (and older sister) as described in the book both as sweet and stubborn as “Mama.”
Kenji’s story is inspired by my long-time friend from our senior year in boarding academy. Of course, Chizuko, is a she, but she did come to Pennsylvania at age 16 with very little knowledge of English. Like Kenji she came to America at her father’s request just before he died. He wanted her to have a Western education as he had enjoyed in the United States. Education in Japan’s post-war years was quite different from what it is today.
The ever-present Ragdoll cat, Chiro (named after Chizuko’s cat in Japan) is inspired by my own Ragdoll, Smokey, who has just celebrated his 15th birthday. He is now asleep on his special rug atop my desk.
The rest of the plot is pure fiction, dreamed up over the last year or so in my spare time after completing an on-line course in novel writing from Jerry Jenkins’ writing group and DiAnn Mills, my mentor for the course. DiAnn is an accomplished writer of Christian novels and a speaker at many writers’ conferences. Check out her books at Amazon or Kindle.
My book is also available on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble as well as through the publisher.
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