Thanks for stopping by!
Although I am author of four novels and the blog series, "Writing from Behind the Curve," the journey to writing and publishing novels was a long one for me. Prior to writing my first novel, a lengthy business career includes having worked for many years as a senior officer in America's largest bank. Other experiences include ten years as a real estate broker in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, and, subsequently, as the Director of an Indian gaming commission, also in California.
I did not put my first word to paper for Serpent at the Well, my inaugural novel about a fifty-year fight over an ancient lake, until I was in my mid forties. My original goal with that novel was to see if I might have the right stuff to actually write a complex, character and plot driven book of fiction. After many rewrites, I finally believed it to be a competent effort.
The early thinking about my second novel, Joshua Rye, came during the time in Carmel, when I volunteered at a hospice on the Monterey Peninsula. A hospice is the setting for the evolution of the story's main character, a self-serving and unethical investment banker, whose sole desire is to become his firm's youngest ever partner.
My third novel, MOLTO GRANDE, was a challenge due to the immensity of the story itself. At 261,000 words (roughly three full-length novels), it is a weighty offering. It is period fiction, set in seventeenth century Europe, a time of enlightenment, but also plague, servitude, deadly edicts, and impending war. It follows the remarkably different lives of Luca and Nicolo, two Italian brothers who are separated when plague and wildfire destroy their family. Years later, the arcs of their epic stories converge in surprising and dangerous ways.
My most recent novel, LUCY: FOR ALL THE MARBLES, was a major departure from the adult-oriented first three novels, in that it is aimed at the young of heart, for people from eight to eighty. It revolves around a twelve-year-old girl in 1958, after the loss of her father, who discovers her hidden talent in the ancient marbles game of ringer. Her unique skill changes her life and the lives of those around her, especially that of the "old grouch" at the trailer park where she and her mother have withdrawn to.
As a late entrant into the field of novel writing, it occurred to me that I am not the only one who has stories to tell for which life got in the way. This is why I now write the Writing from Behind the Curve blog series. The series argues that it is never too late to begin writing that short story or novel that's been bouncing around in that noggin of yours for the past 10, 20, or even 40 years. I hope that you will take time to peruse the first blog or two to get a more detailed idea of what this is all about.
All blogs are shown on my website at the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE). My NAIWE author's site is http://dickfranklin.naiwe.com
Just enter "Blog #1" in the blog search field to get started.
All the best,
Dick
