The Story Behind the

“Vanessa’s Valley” Series

The Author’s Story About His Books

       “Vanessa’s Valley” took shape in late 1989, early 1990.  It was originally entitled “Victoria’s Adventure in the Valley” .  I never really liked that name, it reminded me too much of “Alice’s Adventure In Wonderland”, and since I was writing with my young redheaded daughter, Vanessa, as my model, I simply changed it to “Vanessa’s Valley” as a working title.  I was not sure at the time whether “Vanessa’s Valley” , as a title, would really stick, but over time there became no other title I seriously considered.

     “Vanessa’s Valley” was the third book I had written.  The first two books were a collection of short sailing stories using the same cast of characters in each tale and with “some” chronological order to bind them logically together.  Vanessa was only a little girl and my sons, Sean and Scott, were older and left to themselves more often to explore and sail the shores of Jones Creek and the Annisquam River here in Gloucester.  They became good sailors on their own, and mostly without my help.   Eventually both boys became captains, too.  Sean and Scott were my sailing heroes in these stories.  Real life brothers Sean and Scott Story became fictional brothers Sean and Scott Addison.  As a father I watched and I noticed that these two brothers really did (and still do to this day) maintain a very close bond, even though they are a little over four years different in age.  I used that bond in the stories.  My niece, Caroline Higgins, a year older than Sean, inspired the female influence and voice of Karen Chambers.  Karen became a much larger part of the stories than I had first intended.  Now it seems that without the Karen Chambers character and Carrie to inspire me, the stories would have fallen very flat and lacked dramatic impact.

     Into this writing life mix of the early 1990’s wanders the first real editor I ever had.  A retired special needs teacher, Ruth Powers, from Mont Vernon, New Hampshire.  Ruth was introduced to me by another teacher and she became my tutor, editor and eventual friend.  I learned a great deal from Ruth and mere thanks cannot express my gratitude for her efforts on my behalf.

     I had written “Victoria’s Adventure in the Valley” over a very short time and then over the next ten years rewrote “Vanessa’s Valley” into what it is today.  Some would ask, “What took so long?”  The basic story always remained the same but there were small differences at each step.  Like any project, what with “real life” raising of children and living life with all of its ups and downs, “Vanessa’s Valley” was put into a computer file and forgotten for long periods of times.  Being (LD) myself it was very hard work for me to stay focused enough on anything to see it completed.  In addition the truth was simply that I did not have a publisher interested enough in the work to produce it.  So, as long as it was around to constantly edit, I edited.

     “Vanessa’s Valley, Too” came to life only a few years ago.  It happened seemingly by accident.  I sat down one day in front of my computer with an empty screen and the story simply fell from my head into my fingers.  I must have gotten tired of editing the same story.  A much matured Vanessa came to life on the computer screen.  This story starts three years after the first story ends.  “Vanessa’s Valley, Too” fell onto the page easier than anything I had ever written.  It was fun to write because I was following along, too, as the story seemed to simply unfold on its own.

     In the years between the creation of “Vanessa’s Valley” and the two sequels “Vanessa’s Valley, Too” and  “Vanessa’s Valley, Still”, I did write a large number of newspaper articles, short stories, novellas and even three more books.  Some of those shorter works were purchased and published.  A large array of them went neatly filed into my computer circuitry; stored on hard drives and disks.  Like every writer, however, there were some stories and articles that were started and never completed due to lost direction or interest.  Some of these may never be revisited.  Some, for a multitude of reasons, should never see the light of day.

     Nevertheless, the third in the series, “Vanessa’s Valley, Still”, slipped into my mind some time during the latter part of 2003, rolled around in there banging from side to side, trying to take shape and then found its way to the computer keyboard in extremely rough drafts and false starts beginning in early 2005.  There had always seemed to be in my head a chapter to the “Vanessa’s Valley” story that I had not told.

     As a personnel note, over the years I watched my children, Sean, Scott and Vanessa, grow up and live their lives, more and more without my input, if I ever truly had any.  Vanessa was my youngest, my baby.  I came to realize that I did not know everything about my little girl's life.  This became more apparent while she was in college, as a parent I had all I could do to keep up.  As a father I worried.  Though Vanessa may not agree, mostly I worried in silence.

     There are a lot of unknowns in life.  There are things that go on we have no clue are going on around us that could have major complications for us, yet we know nothing of their happening; their existence.  If there is a theme behind “Vanessa’s Valley, Still” that is it.  Even though we may not know what is up in the world, someone does and hopefully they are doing the worrying for us and carrying the burden.  My little girl, Vanessa, for example, could easily be the champion in life for all of us and we never know it.  In reality I would like to think there really are people like that around.

As I wrote the first two “Vanessa’s Valley” books, I noticed I wrote more about the outside world than I did the valley.  The people of the valley were never a very large part of the story in the first two books.  Oh, they were the focus for the stories, the reason, but it was more the story of how Vanessa Taylor behaved, than how the people living in the valley lived.  I did very little to tell their story, except where it interacted, or collided, with Vanessa Taylor’s story.  Hopefully you will enjoy reading about her journey and how well she did.

The Covers

     I believe that everyone in life could benefit from an illustrator, whether they write books and stories or not.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had someone in our lives that could paint a clearer picture for us when our lives become blurry.  Admittedly there are a many possible views of the land in Colorado I created.  The closest to capture my vision is the cover done in watercolors for “Vanessa’s Valley” by Patrick Lithgow.  Patrick was my first mate aboard the S/V MIMI, the red sailing ketch from the PBS educational television series “The Voyage of the MIMI” and “The Second Voyage of the MIMI”. I was her captain for many years.  Patrick Lithgow had started out as a crew member aboard MIMI and rose in rank to become my first mate after a few sailing seasons.  Patrick painted the cover after he read “Vanessa’s Valley” while living and working aboard MIMI.  Of the two watercolors Patrick drew, one became the cover  of the first book. 

     Phil Cusumano is a captain, a friend and a close colleague of mine.  We have worked closely on many captain’s jobs together over the past ten years.  Phil is a talented artist, as well.  Many of his works hang in the Peabody/Essex Museum in Salem Massachusetts.  I have watched in complete awe as etched mirrors for restaurants, lounges and private homes and colorful seascapes and maritime paintings have taken shape , almost in front of my eyes.  Phil’s eye is so attuned to shape, color and form that I am always amazed at the subtle things he notices that I completely miss.   Even though Phil was busy, very nearly too busy, Phil created the cover for “Vanessa’s Valley, Too” because Patrick was out of the country and unavailable.  Phil had read the story, and using his grandfather’s pocket watch that he took out of storage as a model, he went to town.  It is a very appealing and colorful cover.  There was no doubt in my mind that Phil would do the third book’s cover, “Vanessa’s Valley, Still”,  and he did it justice, as well.  I am certain you will agree.  Follow the Phil Cusumano links on the pages for more of Phil’s work.   

Some Thoughts About Writing

When I am speaking to groups it is not unusual that I will be asked by someone how my stories come to life.  I truthfully answer that I am not always quite certain.  While I realize that some stories take more effort to be created, for the most part, I feel stories once they come to mind want to be told and writers only have to find the right way of telling them.

Like any writer, I write a lot.  It is like learning to play a musical  instrument.  It takes patience, practice and commitment.  I try, but not always successfully, to write five hundred words everyday that are keepers.  Like any human-being, however, I sometimes fall short of that goal.  Not surprisingly at all, there are time when I hate what I wrote the day before.  What sounded so wonderful then, came off hokey or just poorly written or sounding bad when I reread it.  No matter, I always hate hitting the “delete” key after writing something.  I always think to myself, “There has to be a place I can use this.”

Ideas and story plots are tricky things.  Sometimes I will be writing one story when another story comes to mind and screams to be written, even before I have finished the one I am presently writing.  At other times a story or idea will allude me for long periods, but I must write all the same and persistently, so when that next great story bursts into my head, I will be ready to tell it.