DAUGHTERS OF SEFERINA, Part II

I started drafting Daughters of Seferina in 1993, immediately after receiving the inspiration for the novel. I fell in love with the story, and was plowing through it like “the little engine that could.”

I completed 1/3 of the manuscript before life got in the way. I began massage therapy training and got a divorce, which derailed my writing. My incomplete manuscript got tucked away, out of sight, almost out of mind.

Ten years later, when I began writing again, my subject matter was children’s books. In 2006-2007, while Daughters of Seferina lay neglected in a drawer, I completed another novel, My Truest Companion.

However, My Truest Companion has never seen the light of day. While I’ve done several rewrites on it, I’ve never been satisfied with the story. Perhaps someday, I will find the inspiration to take it in the direction it needs to go.

Finally, around 2009-2010, I decided to take a look at the partially written Daughters of Seferina manuscript. When I re-read what I’d written fifteen years earlier, I felt profoundly embarrassed, as I recognized the work as the voice of a young, immature woman. A decade and a half had given me new understandings, new perspectives.

So, while keeping the original story line intact, I made major changes to what I’d written. I fell in love with the story all over again, vowing that this time, nothing would stand in the way of my completing the novel.

If I would’ve waited to write Daughters of Seferina until 2020, would it have been yet another version of the story? I suspect so.