Where Faythe of North Hinkapee Come From?

I apologize if I sound like kind of, well, a bit of a jerk, but I guess sometimes that is what I am.  Here goes…..

 

It was about twenty years ago – probably around the year 2000.

 

I had just read a fiction book that was a Best Seller.  I don’t remember the book, but it was pretty lame.  Trite characters and a plot that was like so many other books.  It kinda sucked.  Yet it was a vaunted Best Seller!

 

So, there I was in the kitchen.  I was with my wife.  By the way, I should mention I have been married close to forty years and am head over heels crazy in love with my wife – still – like a schoolboy with his first crush.  Go figure that.

 

Irrespective of that, I was sitting at the kitchen table and ranting.  I was going on and on about how this book was a Best Seller but it sucked!  On and on I ranted, while my wife probably just rolled her eyes.

 

Finally, she looked at me and said:

 

“If you’re so amazing, could you write a best seller?”

 

This sounded like a challenge – like fighting words – so I responded:

 

“Of course.  Here’s the plot……”

 

And then – it was almost scary – the plot for Faythe of North Hinkapee just bubbled out of me.  I told the first part of the story in about five minutes without pausing for breath.

 

When I stopped I looked at her and she looked at me.  We were both kind of shocked at what had happened.  And she said:

 

“My God.  That does sound like a best seller!”

 

Trust me – my wife doesn’t kiss my ass.  She was then a second degree black belt in karate – today a sixth degree black belt — and has a fighting spirit.  She was serious and I knew it.

 

So maybe I had something here.  Let’s test market it….

 

At that time, my older daughter – about 11 years old – and I used to go running together.  The runs got longer and longer till they were around two hours in length.  We didn’t go super-fast but we kept going.  And part of what kept us going is I would tell stories as we went.  Strangely, there wasn’t ever a pre-existing plot before we left for a run.  I would just start out with something and see where the tale went.  It was odd, but something about running along created all sorts of tales.

 

I started out with the story I had told my wife, which was only the first part of Faythe of North Hinkapee.  And my daughter loved it.  And then I gradually unfolded the rest of it to her on various long runs, until we had the whole story finished.  I give her credit as sometimes when the plot stumbled she would help me out with ideas and angles.

 

Roughly 15 years went by and I always wanted to write the book, but couldn’t get around to it.  I had a round-the-clock day job as a lawyer in mid-town NYC, and there just wasn’t that kind of time.

 

Then, starting about five years ago — about 2018-ish – I started out writing the book.  I found that if I could take two uninterrupted weeks at a time and turn off email, I could whip out a volume.  With a total of four weeks a year, it took roughly two years and it was done!

 

This was pretty fast I realized – an 850 page book written in about 8 weeks – a hundred pages a week.  But it was done, finally,

 

As a first-time author of fiction, I then learned the hard way that “done” means I was starting on editing, marketing and all sorts of things that discourage authors.  And that took another two years.

 

But now I am happy to say, I am really done, and here is the book for your reading enjoyment and excitement.