Author's Latest Novel Derives from His Grieving Process for a Pet

GLEN RIDGE, N.J. - Oct. 19, 2022 - PRLog -- Author John Dandola writes two distinct mystery series: one set during the 1940's with ties to Golden Age Hollywood and one set in the present with history-searching paranormal elements. It is the second series, featuring protagonists Jeffrey Devereaux and Kirsten Eriksson, which had come to a bump in the road after the fourth novel.

"To an author, stories are like your children," Dandola explains. "You may like the total of some and only parts of others but you love each and every one just the same. I often work by writing scene fragments as they occur to me and later I incorporate them into stories. That derives from having been a screenwriter cobbling together movie scenes. I had several Jeffrey-Kirsten snippets in my files but, for some reason, my brain couldn't flesh them out into whole stories. That's when Angel came to the rescue."

Angel was the Dandolas' cat. She was a deaf stray who adopted them. She turned out to be older than was initially surmised yet she was always agile and chipper and thoroughly attached to John, following him everywhere.

"I had never had a pet before so this experience was all very new to me," Dandola says. "When I was working in my office, she would come to the door, meow for permission to enter and then hop up on the desk to watch or snooze as I typed. Periodically, she would seek to be petted by sitting on or lying across the keyboard. Together, we wrote almost two full novels and a slew of scene fragments."

When Angel died, Dandola was devastated. Her death had been unkind and needlessly cruel; so much so that her vet wound up being reported to the state licensing board.

As Dandola found it extraordinarily difficult to process his emotions, his wife found an article about grieving and in it was suggested writing down remembrances.

"If you can start a writer to write, that's helpful and Angel was quite a little character. Eventually, I incorporated her into the scene fragments I had on file for Jeffrey-Kirsten stories and it was the glue necessary to proceed with those stories. Two novellas and a short story are now collected into Wind Through the Ruins. Angel is not only featured prominently but she even has her portrait on the book cover.

As Dandola states in the book's Author Note: "Writing about her is my only way of dealing with her loss. In words, she still lives; she's not just a memory in my mind and in my heart."

Wind Through the Ruins is available directly from the publisher. It is 236 pages and priced at $16.95. To purchase contact Sales@QuincannonGroup.com
or go to the web page: http://www.quincannongroup.com/WindNovels.html