Writing a novel was always in the back of Lorhainne Eckhart’s mind, but it wasn’t until seven years ago when her daughter was born that she actually sat down and put pen to paper.
“You get to that point I think that you realize you want something more in your life and you want a direction,” she said. “And that idea hits you and you know you can do it so you just persevere, and I did.”
Eckhart, a Coombs resident, has just published her second book called The Choice.
The novel is a romantic, mystical suspense story that surrounds a Wiccan woman and the predicaments stemming from love and fate in her life.
The novel took Eckhart two years to write and research, the latter a process that is quite extensive despite it being fiction, she said.
“Whether it’s what the characters are doing for a living, where they live, some of the things that are going on, they are based on facts, and the author had better have done their research.”
Eckhart had two literary agents with this book, one who made her change the entire location from an area in Canada to the United States. The move, said to help sales of the book, caused many more months of research for Eckhart, but in the end she learned a lot about the new location, the Pacific Northwest, she said.
Although with Eckhart’s first book she went with a publishing company, this time she chose to self-publish. Besides the time she spent writing, editing and promoting this book, she has also been working on a number of other writing projects.
Recently she submitted a short story to a local publisher, part of an anthology put together by eight local authors. Her third novel will come out this September, called The Forgotten Child, and the sequel to The Choice will come out at Christmas time.
With three children, one with special needs, Eckart devotes many early mornings and late nights to her writing, waking up around 4 a.m. and writing throughout the day. It’s an isolated occupation, she said, and not for everybody, but she adores it.
“I love writing,” she said. “It’s a way of expressing [myself] … I need to be able to tell people this story.”
The Choice is available in e-book format from www.amazon.com, www.smashwords.com and www.goodreads.com, and the novel will be soon be available from Quality Foods in Qualicum Beach, Chapters in Nanaimo and from Barnes & Noble websites.
For more information on Lorhainne Eckhart and her books visit her website: www.lorhainneeckhart.com.
