I thought we would start off the first blog with some information about the new novel and how some of the scenes came about. Future blogs will be more of an interaction, where we can share information about writing, current events, or just about anything. If you have any questions, please pass them along and I will do my best to give a satisfactory answer. Thank you so much for checking out the website and I hope you will join our Email list.
The idea for my novel, The Kennedy Club, was conceived on a Cape Cod vacation when I was standing on a pier next to the Kennedy Compound. I had always been a fan of John F. Kennedy, and admired his wit and intelligence. It was so quiet and serene there by the ocean and I wondered what it must have been like during those golden years before he became president. I wanted to capture some of the president’s humor with the interaction between Jack Connolly and Coop Davis and the other members of The Kennedy Club.
That visit to the Kennedy Compound was also the inspiration for the scene where Emily is initiated into The Kennedy Club and her sailboat is cast off from the pier into the wide and lonely sea. In the quaint town of Chatham, I spent some time walking the streets and the beach near the lighthouse. I thought the location would make a great setting for Jack Connolly’s hometown, and also for Emily’s lovely little cottage by the sea.
The Flint Hills scenes came from years of business trips between Emporia and Wichita, Kansas. I would stop at the very pinnacle of the prairie, up by the cattle pens, and enjoy the view that had remained unchanged through the centuries. That setting would be used for the Covington Ranch and for the scenes with Emily and her grandfather. And I spent a summer evening with the Kansas City Symphony at the Concert in the Flint Hills that was magical. That evening was the inspiration for the Flint Hills concert described in the novel.
All the men in my family were coal miners. As a kid, I remember getting up with my grandma before the sun came up so we could get grandpa ready to work in the mines. Grandma would get a pot of hot water boiling and gather a bunch of towels. She would soak the towels in the water and then wrap them around grandpa’s legs to get the circulation going. His legs were so banged up from slate and coal falling on them that he couldn’t walk without the treatment.
My job was to chew gum that we would line grandpa’s lunch bucket with, so the coal dust wouldn’t seep in and ruin his lunch. After the treatment, grandpa would limp off for a long day in the mines. At sunset, I would sit on the porch steps with my dog and wait for him to come limping down the road toward home. I would run to meet him. It fascinated me to learn how far back in the mine he had been working. I used my grandparent’s home on the banks of the Kanawha River as the setting for Coop’s home in The Kennedy Club.
