An author with Jersey roots

BOOK NOTES by Dr. Joan Ruddiman

   For those who read contemporary fiction, Diane Chamberlain is an old friend. Her first novel — "Private Relations" (1989) — won the RITA Award for Best Single Title in Contemporary Novels. Since her debut, she has been awarded Best Contemporary Novel Career Achievement Award twice — in 1993 and 2001.
   It has been a while since I indulged myself in the joy of reading pure fiction. The pile of "to-reads" currently includes several biographies of Washington and Franklin, a memoir of an educator who spent several years in a rural province of China and several books on social issues. Though I happily anticipate reading everything in the stack of books I’ve chosen or books that have been given to me as gifts, it was a delight to polish off a book in an afternoon that was pure entertainment. I know the fiction readers understand completely!
   Chamberlain’s book came into my personal stash when I met her recently in northern Virginia. Diane was a longtime neighbor of a dear family member. It turns out that Diane grew up in Plainfield, but even more significant to her, she summered at the Jersey shore — Point Pleasant, specifically. In chatting, she shared that her most recent book, due out this week, is set in Point Pleasant. "The Bay at Midnight" is not autobiographical, she told me, but the nostalgia she holds for her childhood summer home is expressed as she uses the memory of that house to ground the story.
   Having met her, of course I had to read her work. Diane suggested the recently published "Her Mother’s Shadow" that is the third in the very popular "Keeper Trilogy." Good suggestion!
   In "Keeper of the Light," the O’Neill family is introduced. They are upright members of a small Outer Banks, N.C. community. Annie O’Neill is the beautiful, competent wife of Alec, the local veterinarian. "Saint Anne" envelops family and strangers alike in her expansive and high-energy personality. She loves the world and is in turn beloved — perhaps no more so than by her daughter Lacey. Though Lacey is the image of her mother, stunning red hair and all, she despairs that she will never be as good as the extraordinary Annie.
   In what her readers appreciate as classic Chamberlain twists, not all is as it seems with Saint Anne or the lovely O’Neill family. "Keeper of the Light" delves into the dark side of "extraordinary" as those Annie leaves behind struggle with memories of her. In "Kiss River" the family saga continues in a "stand alone" novel that sees Annie’s now-grown children, Clay and Lacey, as supporting players in another drama.
   After years of requests from readers, Chamberlain returned to the Kiss River area, to the Keeper’s house and ruined lighthouse to answer the question, "What happened to Lacey?"
   Lacey was a young teen when she saw her mother murdered, and then spent her teen years and early 20s burying her pain in substances and sex. "Her Mother’s Shadow" begins with a prologue of the events on Christmas 1990 when Lacey’s life took a downward spin and then begins in the first chapter with 26-year-old Lacey trying to get her life back on track. Is she the good Annie or the corrupted Annie?
   Chamberlain readers will also recognize her signature style of exposing broken relationships and exploring through the plot twists how these relationships are healed. "Her Mother’s Shadow" brings together all the characters from the series — Olivia, Alec, Gina and Clay with Lacey being the last to be explored — and allows the reader the satisfaction of seeing how the healing power of forgiveness literally can transform lives.
   It is always fun to get to know the author of fiction. How much really is their life, anyway? Chamberlain makes it easy for her readers to connect with her. She has a well-designed Web page — thanks to one of her stepdaughters and son-in-law — where she posts letters to readers, photos of family and places she travels, biographical information and her latest, "Diane’s Blog." A blog, as Book Note readers know, is a Web log that functions as a diary/journal/commentary. Though most blogs I read are political in nature, I found Diane’s to be entertaining and very informative.
   Having met her characters in the "Keeper Trilogy" and having read Chamberlain’s Web page, I now understand why dogs play a big role in the story, why a lovable man is a photographer, why stepchildren and blended families are central to the plot, why her plots involve the pain of a young adolescent girl. When a minor character wins a writing award, it makes sense that the author can portray such a realistic reaction, and that the character is a medical professional in San Diego.
   Bits and pieces of Diane Chamberlain’s life are the paint she uses to create new scenes, to paint new portraits. San Diego and the Outer Banks are part of who she is. She is a devoted dog lover. Her own beloved John is a photographer. The convoluted O’Neill family, even the Christmas scene where all the odd parts of a dysfunctional family come together in harmony, is to some degree from Chamberlain’s own unusual and unusually platonic family.
   But the connection of Diane the woman to Chamberlain the writer that is most significant is her experience in social work — by degree and practice. She earned both a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in social work from San Diego State University and moved into a career first in hospital social work and then to private practice in psychotherapy specializing in adolescents. She shares that she gave up her practice when writing became her consuming passion. However, in ways that are both subtle and respectful, her professional knowledge is reflected in her mission as a writer. Diane is consistent in what she hopes to achieve in her books.
   "My stories are often filled with twists and surprises and —I hope — they also tug at the emotions. Relationships between men and women, parents and children, sisters and brothers — are always the primary focus of my books," she said. "I can’t think of anything more fascinating than the way people struggle with life’s trials and tribulations, both together and alone."
   In the "Keeper Trilogy," Chamberlain allowed her readers to watch characters evolve, through age and experiences, toward positive resolutions. In "Bay at Midnight," she writes more of a "whodunit," but still with relationships at the center of the story. The dynamic between women — sisters and their mother — plays out in a new style for Chamberlain as she tells the story in first-person narrative with Julie, her sister Lucy, and their mother Maria all having a voice.
   Like most writers, Diane appreciates accolades. Both "Her Mother’s Shadow" and "Bay at Midnight" received strong reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and others. Moreover, she actively seeks engagement with her readers. Read her books — they are a satisfying blend of romance, mystery and relationships. And then get to know Diane herself through her interactive Web page. The woman behind the books is as interesting to know as the books themselves.

   

   Joan Ruddiman, Ed.D., is a teacher and friend of the Allentown Public Library.