Everyone has a story to tell, however, not everyone has the talent, time nor motivation to write a story (imagined or real) and get it published. Chesapeake-based author Gail Newman has many stories to tell, including her latest novel, Sunlight in the Shadows published in October.
Recently, OutWire757 to discuss her inspirations and second book, Sunlight in the Shadows, a lesbian romance set in Manhattan and Shelter Island, NY, published last month by Desert Palm Press.
During the week, Ms. Newman is property manager at the Palace Station & Shops in the Ghent neighborhood of Norfolk. A lifetime lover of movies and writer of short stories, Ms. Newman began writing a few years ago after rediscovering a draft manuscript she began years ago. Encouraged and supported by her muse and wife Elise, Ms. Newman began writing in her spare time. This part-time hobby resulted in her first novel, Reunion of Hearts, published in 2015 (and still available at Lulu.com.) Reunion of Hearts is set at a college reunion and explores the dynamics of four friendships ten years after graduation.
Prior to writing a manuscript, Ms. Newman’s creative process involves envisioning a narrative, or ‘movie in her mind’. Creating a ‘movie in her mind’ is an activity she has engaged in since growing up on Long Island, NY. Ms. Newman explains that,
“Growing up in the late 1960’s my mother and I would stay up late on Friday and Saturday nights and watch movies. Always love stories and musicals. When I would go to bed at night I would make up my own movies in my mind and play them out each night until completion. Then I would get another idea from somewhere and build another movie around it. That’s kind of how my writing is, I get and idea, and start to play it out in my mind. Of course I have the start, that’s the idea, then I expand from that with a general idea of how it’s going to end. But, I have found, even I change my mind of how the story is going to play out. I just wait to see how the movie in my mind decides to go.”
Sunlight in the Shadows continues Ms. Newman’s astute exploration of the complexities of female relationships. Set against the idyllic backdrop of New York’s Shelter Island, the book’s protagonist is self-exiled Manhattan attorney Kate Whitfield, fleeing the wreckage of her personal and professional lives for the sanctuary of her family’s summer home.
Following Sunlight in the Shadows, Ms. Newman is in the process of preparing another manuscript set in Manhattan and she has not ruled out featuring a story set Hampton Roads, a place she has called home for 21 years. You may get to know Ms. Newman as she is the subject of our latest 20 InQueeries feature.
You may read a sample from her book by clicking on the cover image below. Additionally, Sunlight in the Shadows is now available at Smashwords, CreateSpace, Amazon and soon at Bella Books.
Are you or do you know a local LGBTQ author? OutWire757 would be happy to feature their work in the future. Please contact us at editor@outwire757.com if you have a book to share with the community.
