My friend and colleague, Robert Digitale, is not only an excellent journalist, but he is also a man who appreciates a good story. He is the author of Horse Stalker, has headed up several multi-authored collaborations between both novelists and journalists, and keeps a blog with our local newspaper named Digitale Stories, dedicated entirely to books and stories. Today, he shared Chapter 2 of A Symphony of Cicadas in his blog, plus the following words about me and the book:
Read Crissi Langwell a few times and you’ll feel like you’re really getting to know her.
Crissi, my colleague at The Press Democrat, has been tugging on heartstrings for a few years now with her personal tales of raising children and teenagers – first as a single mother and now as a mom in a blended family. Her stories have appeared in the print version of the newspaper and online at such sites as winecountrymom.com.
Crissi also wrote a pivotal chapter in last spring’s “Sonoma Squares Murder Mystery,” a fictional serial created by 16 Press Democrat and local writers. You can see her chapter here.
Recently she’s published her first novel, “A Symphony of Cicadas.”
“This book is based off a bad dream I had that was so vivid I knew I had to write it down,” Crissi writes. The nightmare came while she was preparing for her own wedding.
Crissi acknowledges that for the novel’s main character she transferred some of her own experiences “of what it was like to parent a teenager, and the evolution that exists in the relationship with a stepchild.”
“However, the main purpose of the story was to share what happens when a life that is laid out so perfectly suddenly tilts on its side.”
To get a full sneak peek at Chapter 2 (the WHOLE thing), check out the rest of his blog here.
If you’re already so intrigued you want to buy the dang thing, check me out at Amazon. 🙂