History of a Novel

 Kay DiBianca

When the doorbell rang, I jumped up and ran into the hall, almost knocking over my husband, Frank, who was rushing out of his office. We knew what the delivery was, and we grinned at each other as we headed to the front door. The large boxes that had been deposited on the porch were just about the right size to hold two hundred paperback books, the exact number my publisher had informed me he was sending.

We lugged the boxes into the house and placed them on the floor in my office. When I got out the scissors to cut open the first lid, Frank said, “Wait. Let me take a picture.” We were like climbers who had reached the top of the mountain and wanted to record the moment.

For sure, it had been a long journey, starting over three years earlier when I sat down to write a cozy mystery novel. My background in computer science was not exactly the ideal preparation for creative writing, but I had always loved to read and had been encouraged to write by several teachers in my youth. Newly retired, I considered this the perfect time for a fresh adventure.

Short on knowledge of the craft, but long on motivation, I jumped into the literary world. 44,000 words later, I thought I had a finished product, but a few agents gently informed me that my work was not ready for publication. What I had assumed would be a sprint turned out to be a marathon, and it was time to get serious.

I bought a copy of The Christian Writers Market Guide, and it provided a wealth of information on editors, agents, publishers, and more. Through that book, I found my freelance editor and other professionals who helped me understand how to take a raw story and turn it into a well-crafted novel. Part of that learning experience was digesting great craft books like Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell and Self-editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. Two years later, my editor and I had revised the story into a 60,000-word manuscript that she felt was ready for the world to see.

When Frank and I attended the Mt. Hermon Christian Writers Conference in 2018, I timidly approached several editors and agents with the first chapters of my manuscript, and I was thrilled with their enthusiastic responses. In the weeks that followed, I sent book proposals to several publishers, and multiple offers to publish followed. We chose Crosslink Christian Publishers to release The Watch on the Fencepost.

Crosslink made the journey to publication easy and enjoyable. We mutually decided on the front cover design and the back cover copy, and they had their own editor review the manuscript. They formatted the print and ebooks beautifully. My author copies arrived in those boxes on the front porch a couple of weeks before Christmas 2018, and Frank took the picture you above.

Sitting on the floor of the living room and holding the book in my hands was a fulfilling experience. But more than a sense of accomplishment, I had a deep satisfaction that this was the story I had wanted to tell.

The protagonist, a young woman whose parents had recently died in an automobile accident, discovers a dark family secret and the possibility that there was foul play involved in her parents’ deaths. Then she stumbles onto the first of a series of cryptic clues. Each time she finds one, she doesn’t understand it, but something eventually happens that opens her eyes and moves her forward to the next clue. Finally, she solves the mystery and encounters the truth.

This is a metaphor for our lives. We don’t always understand our circumstances. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians, “For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known.” We may not always comprehend the meaning of the events in our lives, but one day we will have our eyes opened fully, and we will know the truth.

And so I continue to write, looking for that next challenge for me and my main characters. The second book in my Watch series, Dead Man’s Watch, was released in September 2020 with the theme “Saving one life is like saving the whole world.” I’m working on the third book in the series now, and I’m determined to provide my readers with an entertaining mystery wrapped in fundamental truth. 

I’m not sure I’ll ever experience that sense of awe again like I did when I held my first published book in my hands, but I am confident I will be grateful every day for the opportunity to create another story. 

Kay DiBianca is a bestselling author who loves to create literary puzzles for her readers to solve. Her characters come to life as they struggle to solve mysteries and create relationships amidst the ongoing themes of faith and family. Her first novel, The Watch on the Fencepost, won an Illumination Award for General Fiction and an Eric Hoffer Award for Mystery. The second book in the Watch series, Dead Man’s Watch, was released in September 2020.

Kay is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers and Sisters in Crime. An avid runner, she can often be found at a nearby track, on the treadmill, or at a large park near her home. Her background in software development fuels her fascination with puzzles and mysteries, and her dedication to running helps supply the endurance and energy she needs to write about them!

Kay and her husband, Frank, live, run, and write in Memphis, Tennessee.

You can connect with Kay through her website at https://kaydibianca.com.

Pilot-In-Command

Kay DiBianca   @Kdibianca

Christian Mystery & Suspense Romance

Would you like to learn to fly? Great. Come on over to the airport. I have a nice little Cessna you can use. Keys are in the ignition. Just hop in and take ‘er up!

Would you do it? Of course not. Flying is a difficult endeavor even if you’re an accomplished pilot. Trying to fly without instruction would be a guaranteed crash-and-burn. In order to learn to fly, you need to hire a flight instructor, spend hours on the ground learning the basics of flight, and then more hours in the air practicing the skills of navigation and flight control.

But when it comes to writing, we often feel we can open the laptop and pour eighty thousand words of first-rate prose into the keyboard without any instruction. After all, we made A’s in English composition. And Aunt Edith always said she loved the stories we made up. How hard can it be?

TIKKUN OLAM

By Kay DiBianca

Most of us would probably agree that our world is broken and needs repair. But how can we as writers do our part?

When I decided to write a novel, I had two goals in mind: 1) to write a cozy mystery that would stand on its own as a mystery novel without consideration of religious content; and 2) to include part of my Christian worldview in the book, particularly an emphasis on the Jewish roots of my faith.

In my novel, The Watch on the Fencepost, a central chapter deals with the main character, Kathryn. She attends a Shabbat dinner hosted by the Goldmans. a kind Jewish family. Kathryn’s parents had died in a horrific automobile accident several months earlier, and she recently learned there may have been foul play involved in their deaths. The day before the Shabbat dinner, Kathryn had stumbled onto a cryptic note she thinks may be relevant to the truth behind the accident, but she doesn’t understand the meaning of the note.

During the dinner, Kathryn discovers her Jewish hosts suffered terrible loss as a result of the Holocaust, and she expresses surprise that they don’t harbor bitterness and resentment over past injustices done to their families. But the father, Harry Goldman, explains their concept of Tikkun Olam in these words: “Tikkun Olam literally means ‘repairing the world.’ It holds that by helping others, we will improve society and show honor to God. There is evil in the world, to be sure, and sometimes it has to be fought with armies and weapons. But it also has to be fought every day with acts of kindness toward our friends and even our enemies. … It’s our way of bringing light into the world to overcome the darkness.”

Harry relates goodness to light, and he reads from Genesis where we “hear” God’s first words in scripture spoken: “Let there be light.”

The result of this conversation is not just an inspiring discussion of the creation of the world and our roles as God’s children, but the conversation gives Kathryn insight into the note she found. Light has been focused on it, and she is one step closer to solving the mystery behind the accident.

I intended the Shabbat dinner chapter to be a metaphor about our relationship with God. One act of kindness or one discussion about His Word can not only illuminate a life and bring healing and repair to brokenness, but it can lead us one step closer to His ultimate truth.

How do you use your writing to enlighten a dark world?

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Kay DiBianca holds an MS degree in computer science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has worked in the IT departments of several major corporations, including IBM, International Paper, and FedEx. An avid runner, Kay can often be found at a nearby track, on the treadmill, or at a large park near her home. She's completed four marathons, fifteen or so half-marathons, and an unknown number of shorter races. Kay and her husband, Frank, are retired and live in Memphis, Tennessee. They are US representatives of Bridges for Peace, an international Christian organization, whose mission is to serve the people of Israel. You can connect with Kay through her website at https://kaydibianca.com.