Of course it had to be in Baltimore

Emily Carmichael lived in Baltimore and I spent the first forty years of my life living in Baltimore's suburbs, so she and I easily agreed on the location of my fifth (and her first) novel, Good Fridays. The city of Baltimore is as much a character as any person in this book. I wanted the reader to experience this unique place that is home to the Baltimore Orioles, serious rivals of the New York Yankees, for whom Emily's second husband was a star pitcher in the 1950s and 1960s. In the early part of the twentieth century, Baltimore's downtown shopping district along Howard Street boasted several major department stores that remained popular and profitable for decades, eventually opening chains of stores in suburban shopping centers and malls. Baltimore's thriving retail market, which would introduce Emily to the only career she had, offered a rare opportunity for a young woman without a college education to work her way up to management status. Yes, Emily's story had to be in Baltimore.

The conception of this novel

Good Fridays began with its title. It was March 30, 2002. I know this because whenever I begin a serious project (a book, a garden, a house) I select a spiral notebook, and I'd written the date and the title on the cornflower blue cover. Now I needed a story to go with the title. No one ever says Good Fridays, plural. What would that even mean? What could a bunch of Good Fridays have in common except that they're always two days before Easter and a day of Christian mourning? How could these days be the same yet different? Hmm...WHAT IF (and that's how most stories are born) different things happened on the Good Fridays in someone's life and those events added up to a significant story? The story should be told by an elderly person looking back over her life. I let these ideas "compost" in my brain for a few days and "Emily Carmichael" was born. She had a story she wanted me to tell. To be continued...

My latest novel, Good Fridays

I've created this blog to share the news that my fifth novel, Good Fridays, was recently published. It's available in print and ebook formats in bookstores and on the Internet. If you are a reader or a writer, I know you'll enjoy reading this blog because I'm going to share with you what goes into writing a book. I'm not an authority on reading or writing, but I am an expert on my own experience. I'll share with you where ideas come from, how they get put into words, how sentences, paragraphs and chapters become books, and how books get into the hands of readers to enjoy. Until my next post (and I promise it will be very soon), please visit my website www.dianemarquette.com for lots more information about the creative process of writing.