To have the guts to look to my past, my childhood, for what unsettles me most. What really scares me. Because this emotion is exactly what my new book needs. I'm only on page 40 of this one, my fourth for adults, so it's too early to say much about it. I'll share once I'm further along.
I'm very excited about my next book for adults, I wrote it over a period of about two years and it was inspired, but has nothing to do with, by my father's back surgery. My single father lives out in California, my youngest brother lives in Vancouver and my sister, other brother and I live in the northeast. So when Dad announced he needed someone to care for him for two weeks post-op, it was no simple feat to decide who could up and go. Turned out Michael, the youngest, was able to transport his work down south and be there for our dad. We were never going to leave Dad to himself, if it hadn't been Michael, my sister or I would have pulled our kids out of school and hopped on a plane.
Our dad is lucky, he has four kids who care, but the experience got me thinking: what happens when the aging parent had wronged his children or child in the past? How would that child react when the parent is vulnerable and a reversal of roles becomes real? So here was the seed for a story. All I needed to do was think up a paternal act that could not only be proven later in my heroine's life, but would be irrevocable, unspeakable, and unforgivable.
This one terrible act, a dozen years in the past, became the basis for THE TRUTH ABOUT DELILAH BLUE.
From the catalogue: Delilah Blue has always been a bit of an
outsider, ever since she moved from Toronto to Los Angeles when she was
eight. Twenty now and desperate to become an artist like her long-lost mother
but unable to pay for classes, Delilah does something nearly unthinkable. She takes
a job as an art model, peeling off her clothes for a classroom full of students
so she can learn from the professors as the students draw parts she'd much
rather keep under wraps.
Her only real companion in life is her father--a dapper, single salesman. But as
he's entered his mid-50s, his personality seems to be changing. He forgets
simple tasks and is often disoriented, signs that he is going through
early-onset Alzheimer's. The disease presents just as Delilah's long-estranged
mother, who Delilah always believed abandoned the family, re-enters the scene
with a young daughter in tow and reveals a secret about the past that will permanently
change their lives. Delilah must decide if her mother is the selfish woman
she's always assumed left her behind or whether somewhere deep inside her
father's memory is the truth behind the family's separation.
Cover soon...
