Reflections from My Life
“Is there anything in your (fiction) book that comes from your real life?” This is a question I’ve been asked many times and always enjoy answering.
Over the last ten years, I’ve taught several writing workshops, presented as a guest speaker in writing forums and seminars, and met many readers at book signing events. I enjoy this question because it offers me an opportunity to share about other aspects of my life I’m passionate about that show up in my writing.
I’m going to do a series of blog posts under the heading Reflections from My Life to share where my fiction writing intersects with my life.
In UNSPOKEN WORDS, in the beginning of Chapter One, the reader is introduced to “…the Zephyr that used to be at Pontchartrain Beach.”
Here’s the excerpt from the main protagonist’s point of view. Jane Landry:
UNSPOKEN WORDS
“The apple never falls far from the stem.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Chapter 1
Another night of little sleep. Karmic payback, I’m certain.
I shuffled to the kitchen, eyes half-open, and slowly poured coffee into a mug. Thoughts had churned in my head all night. How could I have believed escaping to Boston could break the far-reaching cords of family and friends? During my college years, I thought I possessed power to forge a new future—one different from my mother’s.
But I was wrong.
“Crap.”
Coffee overflowed, ran to the edge of the countertop, staining my white sweater. I grabbed a dish towel and blotted and recalled the days when the same sweater smelled of baby sweetness, but also puke and pee and occasionally poop. Much had happened since then. Days of my greatest joy…my greatest fears.
My mind strayed to my Louisiana family, my old friends, and all the suffering and sorrow and secrets, my gut hopped on a roller coaster like the Zephyr that used to be at Pontchartrain Beach. Wooden. Shaky. With five stomach-plunging drops.
I tried to shove away my thoughts, but my brain played tug-of-war with my memories. My heart hemorrhaged.
I always caved to fear.
***End of Excerpt
The Zephyr stretched high into the sky over Pontchartrain Beach in New Orleans, Louisiana. Riders screamed! Shouted. Some cried.
As a knee-high young child, I hid behind my mother when we arrived at the amusement part. Big. High. Loud. The Zephyr scared me. It wasn’t until I was about seven years old before I took my first ride. You must remember, when you’re a child, short and young, “high” is a relative term. Anything I couldn’t reach with my two hands was too high to me.
Did I mention the Zephyr was fast? In its day, it had a record speed of sixty miles per hour. Did I mention the park closed in 1983? I forgot to mention, back then, the national speed limit was fifty-five miles per hour. If you wanted FAST, the Zephyr was the best ride!
The photos of the Zephyr in this link were taken by Chip Landry. Landry is a last name in Louisiana that’s like is found Smith anywhere else. However, I can’t help but wonder if Chip Landry is related to me in some way. You see, my second cousins are Landrys. My protagonist, Jane Landry, got her name as a heartfelt nod to my Landry family, mostly living in and around Slidell, Louisiana. (Slidell is mentioned later in other chapters in UNSPOKEN WORDS.)
Chip Landry’s photos:
A little history of Pontchartrain Beach. It perched on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, Louisiana. It opened in that location on April 23, 1939. It rose above eighty feet at its highest point.
Here is another link of the Zephyr at Pontchartrain Beach from the Rollercoaster Data Base: https://rcdb.com/655.htm
I hope you like the behind-the-scenes tidbits about UNSPOKEN WORDS and how it intersects with my life.
Do you like rollercoasters? What’s the fastest one you’ve ridden? Where was it?
These days, I’m not able to manage the herky-jerky of a rollercoaster, so I get my adrenaline rush from ziplining instead. But that’s a topic for another post.
Release date: April 22, 2025
Happy Reading!
Linda Joyce
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