One day I saw a view that grabbed my heart, a wide, gorgeous view from a high floor window of a building in the heart of Greenwich Village. That was the germ of my novel, that view was the genesis of the protagonist, Ellie. She is a real estate broker who lives in a wide, grand brownstone at the northern edge of the Village with Patrick, her philandering cosmetic dentist husband, her college-bound son and two tenants. Louisa is a waxer in a men’s salon and Betsy is a housekeeper to the rich and almost famous.

Ellie is asked to visit a nearby loft and on the hot summer day of her visit she is captivated by Valeria. A strange bond develops between the successful broker and the delicate blonde beauty with a horrific past. It is during this visit Ellie that meets the man who will change her life, who will pull her out of her mental anguish and help her find herself again. Find love again.

It took me ten years to complete this book, which started out as a mystery. There were snags I was unable to untangle and in frustration I put it aside and wrote my memoir, Czar Nicholas, The Toad, and Duck Soup. The title refers to the two Cambridge, Massachusetts businesses I co-owned with my first husband during my twenties and early thirties. That was easy to write as I knew exactly where I was going. It was my life, after all. After I published it, I returned to A Vanishing with the comfort of putting on an old pair of jeans, but the original problems returned.

Fortunately, after a few critiques from fellow writers, some of them uncomfortable to hear at the time, it began to make sense. My book wasn’t a mystery at all. It stunned me, but it felt right. It became easy to complete the story. The characters became a part of me, even the cheating spouse. These were people I cared about more deeply. Ellie became my new best friend as I accompanied her on her real estate showings, her walks around the city she loved, her fight for survival and her ultimate success in finding her true self. The story began to pull me in new directions. To my surprise, what started out to be a mystery became a love story.