Now that “The Gate House” is available again, as both as e-book and in print, I am turning my attention the my next book, tentatively titled “Lydia’s Story.” The manuscript is finished, and I am hoping to have news about a publisher soon.
I describe “Lydia’s Story” as a sequel/prequel to “The Gate House.” It features Nara Blake and her family again, including Alex, her love from the first novel, and her newly found half-sister, Lily. But Lydia is Nara’s great-grandmother, and her story is discovered in her diaries from World War II.
Although I love reading historical fiction, it was a challenge to write about the World War II era. I have visited London several times and visited the Imperial War Museum and Churchill’s War Cabinet Rooms, as well as Dover Castle where the Dunkirk rescue of British troops was planned. But it was still a writer’s stretch to tell Lydia’s story from the setting of wartime London.
People occasionally ask why I set my novels in England, and the answer is — because that is where the stories are! And that is also true of “Lydia’s Story,” set in 1940s London. And imagining her life, her loves, her fears means as much to me as her great-granddaughter Nara, who found her diaries.
I will post more news on both books as events happen.