Cover art for The Anne Marie, collage on panel, ©St.Hilaire Nelson
Friends of Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson,
I know that you are all familiar with Elizabeth's work. She is a super talented and I am proud to call her my friend. Some of you are aware that she has recently constructed the cover of a book for a young up and coming writer. It just so happens -that I am that writer. New writers have it tough, just as any new artist does. With that said I feel an obligation to explain the details that led to the construction of my book "The Anne Marie" and why you should own a copy.
Well, the truth is, I have been a closet writer for the past nine years. Only those who are really close to me have known this. I hid this fact, and in the quiet solitude of each night I wrote my little stories.
Last year I awoke in the middle of the night with one of my old stories rolling around in my head. So I went to my computer and found this old short story about a dog and the sinking of a fishing boat.
I had written this story shortly after a Search and Rescue case I had been on when I used to be a Coast Guard Helicopter Rescue Swimmer in New Orleans. Without going into intimate detail of the event -We responded to a boat in distress and I was deployed to the boat, and there were a couple of moments where I thought that I might lose my life. I survived that night -but several mariners did not.
After that night I did what any other writer would do after an event like that. I wrote a fictional short story- I guess this was part of my coping process.
A year ago and that night I stared down this story in the middle of the darkness. I re-read the story - it was raw, but powerful. That night I saw beyond that short story in my mind and wondered what happened to the dog in the story? So again I began to write.
While I wrote beyond the short story, the tide of both that fateful night on the water and my time flying into the devastating storm Katrina and its aftermath waded over me in a blanket of devilish familiarity. As I typed onto my computer that feeling of life and loss, the kind that is brought by catastrophic life changing events, breathed its essence on my pages. When I was done I had built a story of depth and inspiration, to which I named, “The Anne Marie."
If you do decide to pick up "The Anne Marie", prepare yourselves for a ride you will not forget and a story with more heart than you can possibly imagine.
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