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Author
of novel centered in county to speak tonight
Fort Morgan Times, Fort Morgan, CO, April 22, 2003 by Rachael
Rice
Mary Erickson,
author and resident of Grand Junction, will read from and
sign her suspense novel, “Ten Times Have the Lilies Blown,”
tonight at the Fort Morgan Public Library.
In addition
to promoting her book she will speak on the process of publishing.
The even, which will also include local author Tammy Sagel,
begins at 7 p.m.
The setting
of “Ten Times” encompasses the area of Weldon Valley and Morgan
County. Numerous scenes throughout the story occur in and
around Fort Morgan. The center of the novel is a fictitious
town, Platte Valley, created with input from Barbara Toke,
a resident of Orchard.
In creating
the book, Erickson had visualized a specific setting for a
key murder scene. While passing through Morgan County during
a car trip a stop was made at Jackson Lake. “It was exactly
as she had imagined the site for violence,” she said.
Erickson
also chose this corner of Northeastern Colorado due to a critical
component to the plot. The story of “Ten Times” rests on Melora
Wyatt, who “leads an uneventful life” and her love interest,
Blake Johnson. Wyatt inherits an oil field, yet to be exploited.
As a petroleum engineer, Johnson is aware of the potential
value.
Erickson’s
own husband, an enhanced recovery petroleum engineer, created
a new technique for retrieving oil reserves. His discovery
was the basis for a method key to the novel’s plot. The process
of high-pressure air injection, created by Alex Erickson,
requires specific pressures and temperatures. The location
of the novel also needed to be in a region where oil was known
to be found. Weldon Valley fills both the scientific and geologic
prerequisites.
For the
protagonist, Wyatt, the story is “finding the truth about
the man she loves and about herself” Erickson said. Two murders,
an “unscrupulous young man,” a released convict and a promised
“twist” at the end complete the narrative.
Erickson
says she has been writing “all my life.” She began “Ten Times”
in 1998 and finished it two years later. After approaching
numerous publishing houses she was finally accepted by Publish
America, which release the novel in the fall of 2002. Several
positive reviews followed.
The title,
“Ten Times,” is a line from the poem “A Portrait” by Elizabeth
Barrett Browning. An image of a woman surrounded by flowers
serves as cover art. It is a product of Mary Erickson’s other
hobby, pastels.
When neither
painting nor writing Erickson enjoys hiking and traveling
with her husband. “Ten Times” is her first book and she hopes
to have another novel published.
During
her visit to FMPL tonight her speech will detail the process
of publishing, while her signing will showcase the product,
written “one page at a time.”
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