To the Far Side of the Sea

I’ve finished writing a novel, and I think you’re going to love this story. I had the idea for it over ten years ago, when it occurred to me–actually on 9/11–that it would be the perfect day to disappear. I chased down various storylines over the years, until I landed on this contemporary, inspirational story.

To the Far Side of the Sea, begins in NYC on that fateful day almost 12 years ago. Tamara is a young wife with big problems, namely her NYPD husband Dominic, who habitually abuses alcohol and Tamara. She’s looking for a way out, and she finds one on 9/11 when the North Tower she works in collapses. She decides to leave it all behind, letting Dominic–and even her mother–believe she died. Dominic’s problems take him to rock bottom, but even he is not beyond redemption. Escape with Tamara, attempt recovery with Dominic, and feel completely loved by God as you encounter Psalm 139, all the way To the Far Side of the Sea.

Writing this book been a MOST amazing journey, inspired by fellow writers and friends who began long before I. I’m eclectic in what I read and what has shaped the voice in my head: from my early days of L.M. Montgomery, Shel Silverstein, and even Dick Francis, to my more current heroes of the Christian writers’ scene like W. Dale Cramer, Karen Kingsbury, and Kristen Heitzmann.

I am currently seeking an agent or a publisher for this book; hopefully, you’ll see it on bookshelves or a kindle sometime soon.

Psalm 139 (NIV)

¹ You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.

¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.