A Jericho’s Cobble Miscellany features a variety of voices whose stories are stitched together to form the layered history of a small town. What was the inspiration behind this book?

To properly tell multiple tales, it seemed important to use a variety of voices and characters. A town – especially a small town — is people as individuals, it is not a monolithic entity. I researched in many towns during the writing of an earlier book, The Most Beautiful Villages of New England, and in my volunteer work in helping establish the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area, which spans two states, and being a trustee of the Connecticut Humanities Council, for which I traveled widely and visited many small towns.

Do you have a storyline in your book that stands out as a favorite? One that was particularly enjoyable to write?

The book has multiple storylines, dozens of them, and their interweaving is at the heart of the book. I particularly liked the storyline that evolved as I wrote, about the friendship of the young woman director of a small historic house/museum, and the much older woman civic association trustee who team up to save it from being closed, and in so doing discover a lot about themselves that they had not known.

I enjoyed the shifts in writing. Why was it important for you to use more than one form of storytelling?

Multiple characters and situations demanded their stories be told and personalities showcased in as many forums, such as newspaper columns, diaries, playlets, brochures, a playground nursery rhyme, poems, oral history transcripts, state markers, and other forms.

What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?

I’m in the midst of writing it. Please see my recent novels, The Memory of the Minotaur and Echoes, Or the Insistence of Memory, both available on Amazon.

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