The
last time I did Journey of a Novel, I shared my experience of the publication
of my first book, Sleeping with the Lights On. But
Sleeping wasn’t the first book I’d written. Sleeping with the Lights On was
more of a break during the writing of another novel that I labored on for
several years.
 |
| Dad and Mom 1947 |
As a
young girl in Phoenix, Arizona, I’d listened to stories my mom told me about
growing up in the 30s and 40s. Her mother died when she was three years old,
and her father didn’t stay anywhere too long. He mostly worked in the fields,
harvesting vegetables and cotton. Mom hopped freight trains, slept in hobo
jungles, and traveled all over California and Arizona until her pre-teen years.
I
wanted to use her life to tell a story. My first attempt covered about thirty
years…and was awful. A couple of days ago, I threw out a stack of rejections I’ve
hung on to all these years. Back then, we submitted to agents and publishers by
snail mail. The rejection letters were form letters. Only one agent gave me
personal advice. She told me to hone my story and to stop trying to cover so
much.
I
followed that advice, threw out twenty-eight years, and Honey On White Bread
was born. But I still had a long road to publishing. Because my characters are
seventeen and twenty when the book begins, the advice I got was it had to be a
YA novel. I didn’t think the subject matter would interest the young adults of
today…and neither did the agents and publishers I submitted to. Then I met the
owner of a small e-publisher in Minnesota who listened to my pitch and wanted
to publish it as Women’s Fiction. I was thrilled and so was Mom. I sold a few.
Unfortunately, that publisher didn’t really have a Women’s Fiction line, and I
knew nothing about promotion. The book languished with little recognition.
Eventually,
after I’d published several books with The Wild Rose Press, and at a time when
they expanded the genres they accepted, I requested and received the rights
back from the small publisher. I submitted it to TWRP, and they loved it. The
book went through a rigorous editing process and came out so much better as
Post-War Dreams. It’s a 1945 historical of which I am proud.
World War II has ended and the soldiers are coming home. After years of following her crop worker father, motherless Claire Flanagan is also coming home. If she can keep her father in one place long enough, she plans to follow her dreams to Hollywood. Until she meets Benjamin.
Benjamin Russell has been working since he was fifteen to support his mother and siblings. What he most wants in life is to own a construction business and take care of the family his father abandoned. The last thing he expects is to fall for his younger sister’s best friend.
Life, however, throws cruel twists and turns into the path of romance. And when an unrequited love seeks revenge against Claire, and Benjamin learns his ex-girlfriend is pregnant, will lost dreams of a future together be the only thing they have left?
Manic
Readers Reviews
Whiteside is
a lovely story teller, who gives us vivid mind’s eye pictures of the people, the
surroundings, & the emotions of her characters.
Still
Moments Magazine
The author’s descriptive voice places the reader into
the historical setting. The story is filled with intense emotion, captivating
scenes, and unexpected twists. An enjoyable read.
