The Blue Shawl

Sometimes a story weaves in and out of a writer's life for many years and is rewritten time and again as new insights and realizations come to light. Each re-write develops a different thread of the weave, adds dimension, emphasizes certain colors over others, gives complexity to the pattern. But in the end, only one story can survive to be told.

In my files seven manuscripts, precursors of this novel, The Blue Shawl, rest. They are tied with string and will never be published, never even read again. Have you ever imagined what your own life might have been like if, at a crucial moment, you had made a different choice? Or if circumstances had conspired to place a different person in your path than the one who turned out to become your spouse? Parallel lives. The intriguing might-have-been.

During over twenty years I never lost my fascination with the woman, Milda Schatz. What was her secret? And even after I knew her secret, how could I reach deeply enough into her soul to find words for her fears, betrayals, desires, determination, passion -- the intensity of a life so different on the outside from what it was within?

The Blue Shawl is my third narrative of strong women across three generations who are faced with choices that will lead them to either integrity or despair. (Altar Music, Gypsy Bones, The Blue Shawl). This is the story that initiated my search, that took the longest to write, that is most layered with meaning and dear to my heart.

The Blue Shawl  will be available at  https://www.amazon.com/author/christinweber
for purchase in either paperback or ebook format by November.