This week marked a milestone: I finished the first draft of my second novel, “Basket Baby” and sent it off to a handful of friends who agreed to edit. I’ve been working on this story since 2009 and am profoundly happy to see what it has become.
I’m evolutions behind my favorite author, Barbara Kingsolver. But thanks to studying writing at Lighthouse and countless afternoons spent reading, it is getting better. I am learning how to tell a story.
So much of life is about just that. Whether we sit around campfires under a twinkling Wyoming sky after a day of fly fishing, or we shoot off a quick email from our smart phone with the latest gossip — humans are uniquely interested in hearing a good tale. The juicy bits. The lurid, the profane and the innocent and naive. We want our characters to have abilities we dream of, and faults just like those we don’t like about ourselves.
“Basket Baby” is a story of redemption and survival. The synopsis reads:
When Luz leaves her infant daughter on the doorstep of a wealthy home in Tarija, Bolivia — she doesn’t know the Americans living within are mourning the loss of their first child. Instead, the teen sees opportunity for a baby she can no longer keep.
Macy is clinging to what remains of her marriage, while fighting postpartum depression, and watching as her husband’s ambitious career leads into the dangerous politics of South America.
The housekeeper, Ruth, is left holding the pieces of the fragile family together — all while trying to feed four young children of her own.
Told from the perspectives of these three women, “Basket Baby” asks what it would take to abandon what you love most.
And now, I wait for cover art from an artist friend, and edits to be made before it is sent to the publishing house. With any hope, I’ll have real copies of this in hand by the end of the summer and a few readings scheduled for Fall.
I am very, very excited to share this story. (And also a bit giddy about the next project — a mystery series!)
~K