It has been great getting positive feedback from readers of my book A Garden in the Wilderness. I don’t suppose that people who hate it will tell me so to my face, and that’s just as well. But if you read it and like it, let me know. Better still, let someone else know!
The best thing of all has been finding distant relatives and talking to people about their ancestors. Just last night I talked on the phone with the grandson of Arnold Stewart, the man who told the story on which the novel was based. Arnold Stewart is the grandson of Adam Dean who is the grandson of John Dean, whose story this is. He figures we’re fifth cousins. He was trying to get a copy of A Garden in the Wilderness. (You can order it at borealispress.com by the way).
Last week I talked to a woman who is descended from Francis Joy, the founder of the Belfast Newsletter and grandfather of Henry Joy McCracken and Mary Anne McCracken, who are principal characters in the third book in the series, Uprooted.
I figure we’re all related anyway. We all share the same human experience and our ancestors had to be pretty tough to survive what they did. I think we shouldn’t take our easy life for granted. It may not last!