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I hardly ever read literary novels. Not my thing. But my friend and fellow writer Karen Lenfestey wrote A SEASON OF CHANGE, and I LOVED it! I don’t remember ever reading a novel where the people felt so REAL. There was something so refreshing about characters you felt you could bump into and like, not because they had their acts together, but because they were flawed but still wonderful.
Anyway, I en;joyed the book so much that I asked Karen what inspired her to write it And this is how she answered me. Dear blog friends, please meet my writer friend, Karen Lenfestey:
Why Change?
By Karen Lenfestey
It’s safe to say I hate change. I’m still eating the same thing for breakfast (cold cereal with blueberries) that I did five years ago. I’m still hanging out with the women I met at a new moms group, even though our babies are nearly grown. I’m still living in Indiana, the state I moved to when I was a toddler, even though I’ve always dreamed of living somewhere warm in the winter.
A few years ago I found this Question a Day journal that I thought was so cool. It asks me a question every day such as “Should you have a Plan B?” or “When’s the last time you went swimming?” and I will write the answers each day for five years. This allows me to see what I wrote in the past to the same question and see how I’ve changed. After a while, I realized I would’ve enjoyed this journal much more in my twenties when my life was in flux. Oftentimes I write the exact same answer year after year: “What’s your favorite food?”: pizza and my Grandma Ruth’s chocolate chip cookies. When it asked what I wished I could buy, I wrote more than once that I needed a new wool coat for work (the silk lining had ripped and been mended repeatedly). Finally, I broke down last winter and treated myself to a new coat only because my journal showed me how long I had been ignoring this simple desire. Somehow I forced myself to buy the coat in a cocoa color instead of my favorite (navy blue). That was really hard.
Another example of how I like things to stay the same is illustrated by my television viewing habits. One of my favorite shows to watch is Dateline. I’m not sure why (even though I’ve tried to explain it to my husband many times.) There’s something comforting about hearing how a couple fell in love, while smugly knowing it’s going to end badly. I enjoy trying to guess who did it—the husband or the boyfriend. It couldn’t be anybody else. And I don’t want it to be anybody else. Whenever one of these true-crime mystery shows covers an unsolved kidnapping or a random serial killer, I turn it off. I don’t want to be reminded that I could be a victim, that a stranger I meet on the street could be a murderer. I have to say, I’m not happy that it seems like Dateline lately is trying to break out of its mold by doing something besides romance gone wrong stories.
So it makes sense that the main character in my latest book hates change. After all, Mark Twain said, “Write what you know.” The fun part about writing for me is starting with a seed of truth then making it better. That’s what I feel like I’ve done in “A Season of Change.” It opens with:
“Kimber Foley hated change. She hated when the IT department forced her to change her password every three months, she hated it when Kroger stopped stocking her favorite chai latte, and she really hated that fifteen years ago her husband went out for a drive and never came home. Just walking across Summit College’s campus with her teenage daughter made Kimber’s stomach twist in knots. Of course she wanted her only child to go to college, but she wasn’t ready. Not yet.”
Throughout the book Kimber struggles to let go of her daughter (who’s on the spectrum) while dealing with her own panic attacks and a former crush. Ironically, I started this novel while living in the same city I’d inhabited for 18 years, but I wasn’t inspired to finish it until I’d switched jobs and moved to a new town. Just like Kimber, I realized that the status quo was no longer making me happy. Although I was very hesitant, I’m glad I took the risk.
I often tell my daughter when she’s struggling with something new that “Change can be uncomfortable.” Even though I watched Dateline last night and will no doubt buy another Question of the Day journal when this one is filled, I treated myself to apple cinnamon oatmeal this morning and enjoyed tasting something different.
Here’s hoping that you can push through the discomfort and discover that sometimes change is exactly what you need!
Karen Lenfestey, a Midwest Writer’s Fellowship winner, writes “Happy Endings with a Twist.” During the day she’s an academic advisor, at night she writes novels and when she’s not working, she loves to travel with her family. She earned a master’s in counseling from Indiana University and a bachelor’s in advertising from its rival school, Purdue University. (Please don’t ask her to choose favorites!) You can learn more about her and her books at KarensNovels.com .
A Season of Change is available on Amazon for $2.99.
