This year, 2025, marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of my debut novel, Bloody Point. In celebration, each month we’ll feature the backstory of one of my twelve novels. Here’s the story of Bloody Point.
My husband took up sailing when I was past my adventurous stage. Larry loved the challenge of harnessing wind and conquering waves. I fought seasickness and pictured our young children as orphans.
Maybe I’d like sailing better if I could write about it, I thought, as my husband’s hobby progressed. He’d begun with an 8-foot Snark sailboat, graduated to a 14-foot Capris, then fell in love with a 32-foot Endeavor—the kind of big boat you keep in a marina. Before long, I was learning about mainsails, jibs, sheets, and halyards. (There are lots of clanging halyards in Bloody Point!)
One day, Larry introduced me to a guy at the marina who’d bought a 30-foot boat that had sunk at the dock and been sold for salvage. Listening to how he’d re-floated and restored the boat intrigued me. I played with the idea for a while and soon started working on a story using that as the hook.
I’d written novels before, three in fact. The first one got some serious attention but alas, no contract. I kept writing, attending writer’s conferences, learning, and yes, sailing, mostly on the lower Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay, but also in the Virgin Islands. My husband had many other “blue water” adventures, sailing to Bermuda, the Bahamas, and other places.
Eventually, Bloody Point, named for an actual lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay, caught the attention of Marlene Bagnull, director of the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writer’s Conference. Marlene connected me with an editor with River Oak, an imprint of David C. Cook. I signed a contract, and in May, 2005, with much elation, I held in my hand my first novel.
I learned a lot of things on my journey to publication. First of all, if you’re called to write, you write, and leave the results to God. Second, after one particularly brutal setback, I realized I just wanted to know Jesus. I learned to let disappointments and discouragements drive me to God, knowing He would redeem them through a deepening intimacy with Him. And he has.
After twenty years, Bloody Point still holds up, the good beginning of a satisfying—and ongoing—career.