After twenty-five years of The Oprah Show, Oprah said she’d never had a day of therapy because her show was her therapy. I can relate to that. Writing is my form of therapy.
One of my favorite writing books is The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron and she says that if a writer doesn’t write, the drama will show up in her personal life. She recommends putting the drama on the page.
I first started seriously writing after I met my biological father for the first time. I had to deal with a plethora of emotions and it was quite a roller coaster ride during that time. My husband told me to “put it on the page.” And so I did.
But not in the usual way of keeping a diary or a journal. I think that, like Oprah, having an audience—a TV show or a readership–is part of that therapy.
So, I lost myself by writing a fiction. I could put all of that drama and emotion on the page, burden my characters with the angst, and release it from my shoulders. I became hooked on it. And if I’m away from the page for too long, guess what? The drama shows up in my personal life.
I first wrote much of my story in my nonfiction book, Myths of the Fatherless. And then it seemed every story in my novels had a character who had been affected somehow by either not knowing her father, by being adopted, or abandoned by a father (or even a mother) in some way. But writing Letters on Balboa Island was different—it was my chance to write a fictional story the way I wish it would have happened in real life—the happy ending I didn’t get.
Here’s a little bit about the book:
In Letters of Balboa Island, Rosalie’s father abandoned the family, and the opening paragraph says it all:
“When I was seventeen, I knew two things that were true: You couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a man in a military uniform in Southern California in the early fifties. And somehow, sooner or later, men would leave. But that didn’t stop me, my mother, or my sister from trying to find a man who would stay.”
That sets the story in motion, of how Rosalie, afraid that men always leave, ends up with two men. That leads to being forced to make a difficult choice and the consequences of that choice. As the back blurb says:
When Rosalie sends a Dear John letter to the one serving in the Korean War to marry the one back home, she begins a life of secrets and regrets. Years later, when letters surface on Balboa Island, she realizes she may have chosen the wrong man. So when fate gives her the chance to make a different choice, will she? Or has she lived a life of lies for too long?
Writing Letters on Balboa Island was, perhaps, the most therapeutic of all the books I’ve written. And I hope that readers will enjoy the characters and the setting and find something in it that will be both entertaining and perhaps therapeutic for them, too. Because reading is also a form of therapy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Born in the City of Angels, raised on Walt Disney, and inspired by the dreams of both, Kathy Holmes grew up in southern California halfway between Disneyland and the beach.
Tantalized by the tropics since Adam Troy set sail on the Kon Tiki in James A. Michener’s “Adventures in Paradise,” she traveled to tropical destinations such as Hawaii, Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Asia Pacific. Eventually, she moved to Florida where she wrote and secured representation for Real Women Wear Red. She also wrote for Walt Disney World and the Orlando Sentinel.
After living in Las Vegas for a few years, Kathy, her husband, and their three Burmese cats have moved back to Florida and are now living halfway between Walt Disney World and the beach in Central Florida.
Her latest book is Letters on Balboa Island.
Visit her on the web at www.KathyHolmes.net.
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When Rosalie Martin was seventeen, she knew two things that were true: (1) You couldn’t help but meet a man in a military uniform in southern California in the 1950s, and (2) Sooner or later, men would leave. But that didn’t stop her mother, her sister, or even herself from trying to find a man who would stay. And before she knew it, she had not only one man on her hands, but two. When Rosalie sends a Dear John letter to the one serving in the Korean War to marry the one back home, she begins a life of secrets and regrets. Years later, when letters surface on Balboa Island, she realizes she may have chosen the wrong man. So when fate gives her the chance to make a different choice, will she? Or has she lived a life of lies for too long?
- Paperback: 262 pages
- Publisher: CreateSpace (December 18, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1468092472
- ISBN-13: 978-1468092479
BUY THE BOOK… Amazon | Amazon Kindle | Smashwords
