It’s only taken me eleven years to write the second book in the Stars trilogy. Abigail, Matthew, Abby and Matt, who we met in “The World is Decorated With Stars” were never far from my thoughts during the last eleven years. Let’s just say that the continuation of their stories had plenty of time to percolate. Why did it take me so long to write the next book in the trilogy? Short answer: life happens.
During this gap between, I’ve come to realize that as a writer that you must make space for the characters to be in your life or you won’t get any writing done. And when you do, they pop up at the most unexpected times. In my case, often at 2 a.m.! Despite the inconvenient timing of these insights, I was happy to be reunited with my characters. It was important for me to continue my themes from book one in “The Stars That Guide Us”: strong, independent women, men who are allies and not competitors with their partners, the history of Nantucket, and all this underpinned with the beauty of Nantucket, the sea, and the stars. I took the characters to places I’ve been in my own life, and it was a joy to see them through my characters’ eyes.
I’ll be honest; I found a big difference in writing the first and second books. Writing the first book in 2013 and 2014, it felt like it wrote itself. I was still working full-time. I traveled so much for work, and I found that writing kept me entertained while on long plane rides and in hotel rooms. For the first book, I spent a lot of time making sure the timing worked, e.g. how long did it take to sail from Nantucket to the south Pacific in 1850, but overall, it was easy to write. The second book was a little different. I enjoyed writing it, but I had to work harder at it. It needed a lot of research, much more than the first one.
There are many happy moments in both books, which I hope brings the reader a needed escape from our world today. The characters also struggle; as we all know it’s not always sunshine, cupcakes and puppies. While I’ve never needed a broken arm to know that I am happier when it’s not broken, it is true that the troughs in our lives make the peaks that much sweeter. At the risk of spoiling the endings, I will admit that I am a fan of happy endings in all the books I write.
Now about the third book …
The good news is I’ve already started the third book; it too will take a lot of research as my characters travel to places I’ve only been briefly. In olden times, it’s the turn of the twentieth century and in modern times, it’s today. Nantucket, the sea, and the stars remain a constant.
