Duffy Barkley: Seek Well

first sketch of "Fred"

working on book 2 cover

Being a fiction writer has been how I defined myself, to myself, since the grade school days when I  jotted down story after story in a spiral notebook dedicated to the task and passed out to my friends for feedback.

When asked to label myself for other people however, I never used the term, "Writer."  It seemed pompous and presumptuous even though writing ranked right up there with breathing as one of the things I had to do everyday.  But who, when asked, "What do you do?" would say, "I'm a breather?"

book 1 cover

     Then I published my first novel and had a lot of fun with it, but still answered the label question with "Teacher, Mom, Wife, etc."  Until my husband and I were filling out a form and he listed my occupation. He put Writer.  I questioned it.  After all, I've spent more than I have made, writing.  "He said, It is what makes you happy, right?"   Right.  And hopefully it also, sometimes, makes other people happy too.

The land of my dreams.

So now I am writing for July, trying to write 50,000 words in a month, as part of the on-line writer's group, Camp NaNoWriMo.  But I have broken the rules already.  Instead of writing a new, dirty first draft, I am editing and adding to, and finishing up two books I had worked on before in previous NaNoWriMo months.  I am typing until my body aches from sitting at the computer, and I am Happy!


I have already finished the sequel to Duffy Barkley is Not a Dog, and sent Duffy Barkley: Seek Well to the printer and a proof copy is winging its way to me.


Now I am 20,000 words into a story called "Double Time on The Oregon Trail" about two 15 year old girls, traveling across the United States and communicating over 150 years between them.  I am hoping to write several other Double Time stories, but this first one was begun when my high school senior was in fourth grade.  If not for NaNoWriMo, none of the books I had in my head would ever make it to paper.

Seek Well - Blurb

Have you ever thought, “I’d love a do - over on my life?”

Nine year old Duffy Barkley had been offered that chance, and in Duffy Barkley is Not a Dog, he took it – but like every choice, once made, there were consequences to be lived with.  For Duffy, going back to an earlier time un-did the damage of serious choices and left him with a stronger instinct for compassion and courage.  But it left him without the memories of the life that he had lived and the lessons he had learned.  It came with no guarantees that he wouldn’t make exactly the same mistakes or new ones again.  It left him without the new friends whom he had made but it allowed him a chance to make a friend out of an old enemy – and that was the one chance, which ultimately saved them all, the first time he went to Uhrlin.

The thing about do-overs is that there is no chance to sit back and rest on a mountain of your blue ribbons – instead you have to get up before you have ever caught your breath and save yourself all over again.  Just because Duffy had managed to erase one tragedy didn’t make him immune the next time trouble came looking for him and his friends.

Now he’s eleven and everyone thinks that one of the most trusted people he knew is a traitor.  But he doesn’t even remember that he knew her.  To find her he must Seek Well.