This morning, November 12, 2022, I released my sixteenth book (fifteenth novel),
And This Shall Be for Music.In many ways, I believe this is the book
I’ve always wanted to write. The primary purpose of the book is to share the immense power music can have
in our lives. I see it as the most powerful force in the universe, and I’ve
said that in many different ways in most of my novels.
I first met the
character Lindsey Cameron when I was writing the two books in “The Cameron
Saga.” In Memories of Jake, she was the much-longed-for and much loved
first child of Andrew and Mary Cameron, born after Andrew had been treated for
PTSD and had begun his successful career as an artist. Near the end of the book,
we learned she hoped for a career as an opera singer. In Man with No
Yesterdays we again encountered Lindsey and learned she was quite a
determined young woman.
Lindsey wanted me to tell her story, but in 2017 I obviously
was not ready to do that and instead embarked on a series of murder mysteries
which were great fun to write. The first two volumes in “The Augusta McKee
Mystery Series” were released in 2019, and over the next three years, during
which time our world turned upside down, writing the mysteries was truly an
escape for me…going back to Cincinnati, the city I love most, and the 1960s,
the time I lived there.
After releasing book eight in the mystery series, I felt
ready to tackle Lindsey’s story. I
knew it was not going to be an easy story to tell—Lindsey had to deal with some extremely difficult
situations as a very young woman. Near the end of her undergraduate study at
the Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, in the early spring of 1996, her two
housemates were in a freak accident and one was killed, the other badly
injured, including the loss of his lower right leg.
I had written about four chapters in 2017 and went back to
that material, which needed to be reworked. I began in December of 2021 and
completed Lindsey’s story only recently. Writing a long, character-driven book
after eight much shorter mysteries required a different rhythm to what I was doing, and many rewrites. But I
think I’m ready for my new baby to meet the world. Early readers have given me
very strong, positive responses, and all agree this book is the most powerful
and most personal novel I’ve written.
From a beta reader, Ken Van Camp: “Wonderful job, your
best book yet! I would recommend this book to people
dealing with a great personal loss, as it does a beautiful job of showing
people working through the grieving process, and coming out the other side of
recovery. Of course, the music therapy is a strong and original theme, and
the character development is outstanding.”
A long-time friend who has been active for decades in the entertainment and film industries agreed to read an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) and had
this to say: “A
tremendous piece of work that resonates in so many different ways—in particular
the way music affects us in a way that nothing else does.”
Comments such as these are definitely heartening. However,
there is still that writer’s trepidation
about releasing this work, in which I bare my heart and soul to the reader.
But that’s life, isn’t it? And in truth, it’s why I write. To share that which is my passion.
Available on Amazon, print edition and Kindle:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BJF7M1WG/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1
