Arlene Bruner of Forestburg has just had her first book published. It’s called “Curtain by the River,” published by Hawes and Jenkins Publishing. It was officially published in October.
The book has a very special story attached to it. While Bruner is named as the author, the book actually had four authors, but Bruner is the only one left.
Her sister-in-law Sharon started the book in the 2000s. Bruner says, “She started writing in the middle of the night, and her story just took off. She’d call my husband and they’d both be talking about the story and writing like crazy. He was all in right away.
They’d talk and write in the wee hours of the night.”
Bruner says Sharon was always writing, she wrote in journals all the time. “Her imagination was phenomenal.”
It wasn’t long before Bruner started helping, starting out by offering suggestions or critiques. “I got drawn in and hooked, too.” Eventually their mother, Bruner’s mother-in-law, also started contributing to the book. “Sharon would tell us, ‘Write it down if you think you can do better.’”
Bruner says Sharon had a detailed outline to follow, and any deviations from that storyline had to be discussed and researched. “She really loved doing the research,” Bruner says. “Sharon really carried the ball on the book at that time.
“She would give us a section of the outline and tell us to ‘see what you can do with this.’”
All four were science fiction lovers. “We were all ‘Trekkies,’” Bruner jokes.
The book is science fiction-fantasy based on time travel.
Unfortunately, Sharon passed away suddenly in her sleep in 2011. Bruner says when her mother-in-law called with the news, she and her husband were devastated.
“But we decided to continue working on the book for Sharon’s sake.”
It wasn’t even a year later when Bruner’s mother-in-law passed. Before another year could go by, Bruner’s husband also passed away, and she lost her own mother that December.
It was a very rough period of her life, she says.
“But then I got some tough love from a friend.
“They asked, ‘What are you doing? You have a book to finish!’”
Bruner says Sharon had actually fleshed out three different endings in her outline, and that when she finally picked the book up to write, there was only five chapters left.
She picked out her favourite of the three endings, which she felt worked the best with the chapters that had been added after Sharon’s passing.
“When she passed, the book wasn’t quite half done. The three of us kept at it. It sat for a few months after my mother-in-law passed.
“I remember telling my husband, ‘We have to finish this for Sharon.”
Bruner says publishing the book was Sharon’s dream. “I just completed it for her; I think she’s up there smiling.”
Bruner finished the book in 2014, and then sent it away to 14 Canadian publishers. “I never got any negative feedback at all, but they would say it wasn’t the genre they were looking for. One old fellow called me and offered to publish it if I paid for it, but I wouldn’t even give him the time of day.”
Not really sure what to do next, Bruner says the book sat for a number of years. “I tried for about six months, but with no feelers, and no other path, it basically just sat. Since then, I’ve gone through a few life changes and moved.”
Having been written in long-hand originally, she had two different friends who typed it for her, creating a digital version, but she still has the original long-hand version, in three very large piles of paper.
She says she got an email from Hawes and Jenkins Publishers kind of out of the blue, asking, ‘Are you still interested in having this book published?’
“I think an acquaintance of mine, who’s also a writer, put out a feeler to my publisher.” But her friend won’t admit to anything of the sort.
Once she checked out the publisher, “I was leery at first since they’d approached me out of the blue,” and had her lawyer check over her contract, she signed.
From there, everything went fairly fast. She says her book was one of three picked by the company to publish, and the editing process went very quickly, as having the long-hand version typed caught a lot of small things. “I think they found one thing, I’d used the word ‘reign’ instead of ‘rein’ in one spot.”
Bruner says when she was writing on her own, there were lots of days where what she’d written would just end up in the garbage pile. But she persevered, until she’d written something she felt was good enough.
“And I was very proud when the editor said they couldn’t even tell the book had been written by four different people. Mom always called it a family effort.”
She tells a funny story about when the four of them decided to make a small change, of course they had to go back into the hand-written manuscript to ensure it made sense. “I remember once we thought we’d lost the entire chapter 17!”
Bruner says she really wasn’t sure the book was ever going to be published.
“Before the email from the publisher came, I was wondering what I should do? I really wanted to have it published, if not for me, then for Sharon.”
She’s dedicated the book to Sharon, and says, “We often talked around the table, and we agreed that the last man standing would be the final author, and would get the book published.”
She says part of the pact was to use only a single name, but she really wanted to acknowledge Sharon on the cover, because it was her dream that started the whole journey.
Another special dedication says, “To three remarkable individuals. A sister who was so thoughtful and kind, a mother who brought joy and understanding to so many. I dedicate this to the love of my life, my partner, and soul mate. I hope someday to see you all again beyond the curtain.”
Bruner was 78 years old when she signed the publishing contract.
The final book is available in softcover and e-book, and is 337 pages, through Barnes and Noble, or Amazon. (It is still showing as being in pre-release status at Amazon.)
Bruner was given a number of promotional copies of the book, and she’s already given out all of them, and to rave reviews.
She says, “It’s such a great feeling of accomplishment that our book is finally published.”
Leslie Cholowsky
Editor