For Rebecca Strand, the 28 year-old main character of my new novel
The Secret of Joy,
published this past November in trade paperback by
Simon & Schuster, the
secret begins with her fatherβs deathbed confession of a long-ago love affair, a
baby that he turned his back on, and a stash of unsent letters heβs written
every year on the childβs birthday. Shocked to discover she has a half-sister
she never knew existed, Rebecca is now the keeper of the secret. What will she
do with it? Her overbearing lawyer boyfriend thinks she should excise the
secret-a
sister!-from her mind, as her father did. "Just forget the women
exists-lest she try to get her possibly trashy hands on your fatherβs fortune,"
is his lawyerly advice. But this secret stirs something in Rebecca. Her mother
is gone. Her father is now gone. Her boyfriend, is, well, trying to run her
life. And her job as a paralegal at a divorce mediation firm, where said
boyfriend is a partner, is all about endings. Rebecca needs a beginning. And
that beginning is dependent on setting things right, on finding 26 year old Joy
Jayhawk in a small coastal town in Maine. In delivering those letters.
So when Rebecca knocks on Joy Jayhawkβs door and doesnβt receive the warmest
welcome from the separated mother of a little boy who wants nothing to do with
Rebecca or the "guilt" letters of her late "father," Rebecca doesnβt just turn
around and go home. Because sheβs about to discover the many facets to secret of
joy and it isnβt about giving up. Thanks to some help from the Divorced Ladies
Club of Wiscasset and one very hot carpenter named Theo, Rebecca does discover
the secret of joy (and so do several other characters).
When I tell people what gave me the idea to write
The Secret of Joy, theyβre
surprised to discover how autobiographical the premise is. Several years ago, I
received an email that said:
I think you might be my half sister. And I
was. Part of my own journey in discovering the secret of joy for myself involved
figuring out how I felt about that email, about this half-sibling, about the
biological father I havenβt seen or heard from since I was a little girl.
Writing this novel helped me sort through it all. The story isnβt
autobiographical; I just took that nugget of an idea, but the burning questions,
the emotional issues, are very real. A good part of the secret of joy for me is
being a novelist and exploring those burning questions through fictional characters.
Iβm a former romance novel and YA editor from NYC who now lives in Maine and
writes full time. Whatβs next for me? 2010 is a rare two book year for me!
Coming in June is my second YA novel,
The Mosts, and coming in
November is my next womenβs fiction novel,
The Love Goddessβs Cooking
School.
For more information about
The Secret of Joy and me,
please come visit my website at
http://www.melissasenate.com, friend me
on
Facebook
and follow me on
Twitter
Thanks!
During the depression children were 'farmed out' because the families couldn't afford to keep them. Mainly farmers 'adopted' them thus the term. My cousin's husband found his half-brother several years ago. Said brother lived a short distance from our cousin's husband but he was an adult before he knew anything about it.
(Karin Tillotson 9:33am January 28, 2010)
Every family has some sort of secret & it makes for an intriguing and interesting read.
(Mary Preston 3:39pm January 28, 2010)
Sounds like a very effective way of working through what must have been an emotional minefield. Good for you and your half sister.
(Susan Driskill 7:23pm January 28, 2010)
I agree with Susan, and I hope everything has gone as well as possible with you and your half-sister.
I don't think it's likely happen in my family, though, and I certainly don't have the talent to turn something like that into an interesting book like you did!
Later,
Lynn
(Lynn Rettig 8:55pm January 28, 2010)
This sounds like a very intriguing book. I've never had anyone tell me that I have a half-sister. However, about 15 years ago I learned from my uncle, my mother's youngest brother, that their father had a daughter with another woman. When I mentioned this too my mother, she just said that she was never interested in this child never interested her. I know she was always very protective of my grandmother. But I certainly would have been interested. It feels kind of odd to have, or have had, another aunt.
I hope you and your half-sister found much common ground and joy in each other.
(Sigrun Schulz 9:56pm January 28, 2010)
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