Real life often colors what authors write. In my case, my memories of raising my young son without a father provided the kernel of true experience in my story JEREMIAH LUCKY AND THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. (www.guardianangelpublishing.com) As far as I know, my son did not ever have a face-to-face meeting with a guardian angel. But it would have helped us both if he had.
In those early years I struggled to provide a decent life on a low paying salary and my son often longed for a father. We tried for communication when he was nine. We initiated a summer phone call with his father who lived over a hundred miles away. D.'s father, who had chosen not to marry when we created our son, did speak with him and promised another call and visit in September. It never happened. My son stopped mentioning his lack of a dad.
We coped. I was the only woman attending a cub scout overnight camping trip with my son. We shot b-bee guns at targets, learned how to shoot with a bow and arrow, fished and sat around a campfire with the other boys and their dads. D. loved our domed tent which we used again on a long car trip to Texas, camping each day at a KOA early enough so D. could swim and I could sit by the pool, drink wine coolers, and read. It was a wonderful, close and bonding time together.
Eventually I married a man with a young daughter and we had a family at last. Two incomes and lots of father/son activities made a huge difference in D.'s growth. My husband adopted D. and when the boy scouts organized a winter camping trip, he and D. sheltered in that domed tent, toasty in quality sleeping bags.
As I think about Jeremiah's story in JEREMIAH LUCKY AND THE GUARDIAN ANGEL, I realize I hoped to give my eight-year-old character comfort from his angel guardian. Jeremiah has a strong, loving mother and a friend, Tommy, with whom he shares boy play that is not only active but creative. Will Jeremiah get a father? The second book has already been written and will be released near the end of 2015.
