Do Books Ever Write Themselves? by Nancy Cole Silverman

Welcome to Nancy Cole Silverman, whose new series just began at Level Best Books. 

I recently had the opportunity to chat with several readers at a book signing for The Navigator's Daughter, and I was pleasantly surprised when one reader raised her hand and asked just how much of the story I had made up. It all seemed so believable and flowed so naturally, she felt as though the book had written itself.

If only!

Authors know that books don’t ever write themselves. Even nonfiction works have muddy middles where a writer struggles to keep the reader engaged and the story moving forward. I took my reader’s comment as a compliment. I had worked very hard to seamlessly blend the lines of fact and fiction, and she thought for sure the story she had read was one that my father had lived, and all I had done was recap his journey.

 

In truth, it wasn’t that simple. The story of The Navigator's Daughter could easily have been the story of many returning GIs after the 2nd World War. It was inspired by my dad, a former World War 2 navigator/bombardier who had been shot down towards the end of the war and years later, after the Iron Curtain fell, had received a letter in the mail from a young Hungarian man who claimed to have found the remains of his B24. Back then, Hungarians were looking for ways to make money, their economy was in shambles, and tourism no doubt seemed like an excellent way to do it. My dad gave me the letter and asked if I might like to correspond with the man, which I did for several years. Time and distance caused that relationship to wane, and after a while, we lost contact. But, when my father passed three years ago, I found those letters again, and in addition to his flight log and a diary outlining my dad’s fateful 13th mission, I felt I had a story to tell.

 

My dad’s story was the inspiration for The Navigator's Daughter, but as a novelist, I wanted to tell a story not just about the men, who, like my father, had been shot down, but a story about those who rescued them, the sacrifices they made, and the internal struggles each of them faced and how it affected them.

 

It’s my belief, that when a writer can identify with the emotional struggles our characters face, issues like fear and loss our readers can relate to, that our characters come alive on the page, and our stories take on a more personal and real feel. It’s what I tried to do with The Navigator's Daughter. While I was careful to be historically accurate, I did allow myself to take literary license with my characters. I added a few that were never part of my dad’s story. In addition to the physical conflicts of war—man against man, and man against nature, the rugged terrain and bitter cold where my character hid—I wanted to show the internal conflicts of Lieutenant Lawson going off to fight a war in a foreign country when he was barely out of his teens and of his daughter, who, years later, he asked to find those who had saved him. Both had taken a journey inward that would forever change their lives.

I'll admit that once I had completed my research, the book came together quickly. I've always believed it's the story that chooses the writer. Some stories just seem to haunt us until we put them down on paper. And yes, some books do come together much easier than others. In hindsight, maybe this book did write itself. 

 

How about you authors? Have you ever felt a book nearly wrote itself?

Nancy's Book, The Navigator's Daughter

Getting caught in the middle of an international art theft ring wasn’t supposed to be part of the deal Kat Lawson made with her dying father. But when her father receives a mysterious letter informing the former WW2 navigator/bombardier that his downed B-24 has been found and asking him to come to Hungary, Kat suspects this is all part of some senior rip-off scam. Her father insists she goes, not only to photograph the final resting place of his plane but also to find the mother and son who risked their lives to rescue him and hid him in a cave beneath an old Roman fortress. Kat’s trip uncovers not only the secrets of the cave where her father hid and of those who rescued him but a secret that will forever change the direction of her life—that is—if she can get home safely.

Buy link: https://www.Amazon.com/dp/B09Z1SH97W

About the author After twenty-five years in NewsTalk radio, Nancy Cole Silverman retired to write fiction. Her Carol Childs Mysteries features a single mom whose day job as a reporter at an LA radio station often leads to long nights solving crimes. Her Misty Dawn series is centered on An aging Hollywood Psychic to the Stars, who supplements her day-to-day activities as a consultant to LAPD. Silverman’s newest work, The Navigator’s Daughter, is scheduled for release June 2022. Silverman lives in Los Angeles with her husband and a thoroughly pampered standard poodle.