by DeVa Gantt
“Johnny took Phantom with him this time, Mademoiselle Charmaine,” she sobbed, rocking back and forth. “That means he’s never coming back! Oh God! I want my brother. I just want my brother!”
Charmaine did not offer encouraging words to the contrary. The last time she’d insisted on miracles, disaster had stepped in to laugh at her. She’d stopped believing in miracles, anyway. Thus, she knelt down beside Yvette and hugged her close, allowing the child to embrace her misery and shed her bitter tears.
About the Author
The workday is over, the dishes put away, and the children are tucked into bed. That’s when DEVA GANTT settles down for an evening with the family. The other family, that is: the Duvoisins.
DeVa Gantt is a pseudonym for Debra and Valerie Gantt: sisters, career women, mothers, homemakers, and now, authors. The Colette Trilogy, commencing with A Silent Ocean Away and continuing with Decision and Destiny, is the product of years of unwavering dedication to a dream.
The women began writing nearly thirty years ago. Deb was in college, Val a new teacher. Avid readers of historical fiction, the idea of authoring their own story blossomed from a conversation driving home one night. “We could write our own book. I can envision the main character.” Within a day, an early plot had been hatched and the first scenes committed to paper. Three years later, the would-be authors had half of an elaborate novel written, numerous hand-drafted scenes, five hundred typed pages, and no idea how to tie up the complicated story threads. The book languished, life intervened, and the work was put on the back burner for two decades.
Both women assert the rejuvenating spark was peculiarly coincidental. Though Val and Deb live thirty miles apart, on Thanksgiving weekend 2002, unbeknownst to each other, they spontaneously picked up the unfinished manuscript and began to read. The following week, Deb e-mailed Val to tell her she’d been reading “the book.” It was a wonderful work begging to be finished, and Deb had some fresh ideas. By January, the women’s creative energies were flowing again.
Unlike twenty years earlier, Deb and Val had computer technology on their side, but there were different challenges. Their literary pursuit had to be worked into real life responsibilities: children, marriages, households, and jobs. The women stole every spare moment, working late at night, in the wee hours of morning, and on weekends. The dictionary, thesaurus, and grammar books became their close companions. Snow days were a gift. No school, no work. Deb could pack up overnight bags, and head to Val’s house with her two children. The cousins played while the writers collaborated.
Wherever the women went, they brought the Duvoisins along. From sports and dance practices to doctors’ offices, from business trips to vacations, an opportunity to work on their “masterpiece” was rarely wasted. One Fourth of July, Val and Deb edited away on their laptops on blankets in the middle of a New Hampshire baseball field while their families waited for night to fall and the fireworks to begin.
Both women agree the experience has been rewarding and unexpectedly broad in scope. Writing a story was only the beginning of a long endeavor that included extensive research, arduous editing, and painstaking proofreading. Next came the query letters sent to agents and publishers, each meeting a dead end. Self-publishing was the only option—a stepping-stone that would enable them to compile a portfolio of reviews and positive feedback. Thus they became adept at marketing their work, all in the pursuit of reaching a traditional publisher. Within two years an agent had stepped in and HarperCollins agreed to publish the work as a trilogy.
Today, the women look back at their accomplishment. The benefits have been immeasurable. Perhaps the dearest is the bond of sister-hood that deepened: they have shared a unique journey unknown to most sisters. Their greatest satisfaction, however, has been seeing their unfinished work come to fruition: the Duvoisin story has finally been told.
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By DeVa Gantt
DECISION AND DESTINY
A SILENT OCEAN AWAY
Credits
Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa
Top cover photograph by Jana Leon/Jupiter Images
Bottom Image by Ricky Mujica
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DECISION AND DESTINY. Copyright © 2009 by DeVa Gantt. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Digital Edition March 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-186724-8
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