Reason 68: Mama's Secret Letters

100 Reasons I'm Retiring

Ah, yes, another book languishing on my desktop. I began Mama’s Secret Letters in 2014 when I was teaching at a charter school on Cecil B Moore Avenue in Philadelphia, the site of the 1964 race riots. I wondered about the likelihood of two young people of different races becoming lifelong friends with each other despite the climate at the time. The first line of the novel came to me when I was riding a stationary bike:

“My cell phone dinged the arrival of a text message just as I was approaching the office of Dean Rosen. Quickly, I reached my hand into the pocket of my skirt and silenced the phone. I should have left it on my desk, I knew, but at least its alerts would not interrupt our conversation. In the eight years I taught at Redmond College, this was only the second time I had ever been invited to the office of Dr. Martha Rosen, Dean of Arts at the small women’s college in Rhode Island. Generally, Dr. Rosen walked down the hallway to my tiny, windowless office or called me on the intercom. Today day, though, she had requested I come to her office for “a chat.” Her words. Butterflies had taken over my stomach.”

Thus began the journey of the protagonist, Samantha, to clean out the family home after the death of her mother and led towards the discovery of letters that had been hidden away.

The cover was designed by my friend John Keaton and the locket in the picture belonged to my grandmother. The first draft was finished around 2016 and I’ve fiddled around with it since then, but it hasn’t been a priority. My husband’s death pushed me onto another track.

I’d like to see Samantha and her mother, Emma, see the light of day! I’d even thought of a companion piece to the novel, a complete volume of the story of Emma and her friend Max told only in the letters.

Someday!

While I continue to polish Finding Father: A Journey of Faith on the Autism Spectrum, I’ve thought about putting chapters of this on my blog.

Are there projects you’ve put off that you hope to finish sometime soon?