For every book written, there is an author who has something to say.

A Ship Called Abigail

After I lost my wife of fifty years, I soon came to realize that I was not meant to be alone. Nor was I meant to continue the rest of my life solo. I had been a husband for fifty years of marriage, and I knew that my role in life was to continue being a husband. I needed a wife for that is simply who I am. A husband. And, for all of the reasons I first chose to be a husband more than fifty years ago.

There is an old George Jones song that contains the words; “come take my hand, and walk through this world with me.” I needed and wanted someone to let me take her hand, and together the two of us would continue through life, walking through this world together.

Patsy had lost her husband of forty-three years. She too had made the personal decision that she did not want to spend the rest of her life alone. She needed and wanted a husband in the same way that I needed and wanted a wife.

Since our meeting and marriage, we have told our story to many people. It was a miracle of meeting against odds, but the meeting did happen, and we both quickly knew that the two of us were meant to be together. We credit it all to the working of God’s Providence. As of the finishing of the manuscript for this book, we have been married two years. Every day is a blessing from God.

As a result of our having told our story many times, several people have strongly suggested that I write a book which would tell our story. Not wanting to make such a book an autobiographical work, or in the form of a memoir, I chose to tell the story as a fictionalized account featuring characters of my own creation.

Harris Wimberly and Anna Forth are not us. Their story, and their place within the world in which they live is not ours. Their experiences are not completely ours, but our story can be seen within the pages of their story.

Harris and Anna live in a world that is not ours. Nor in many respects is it like ours. It is a world of steam powered cars, lories, and trains, and even outrageous flying machines, including lighter than air Zeppelin dirigibles, and airships. Clothing styles which remind us of Victorian era dress, goggles and top hats, leather and brass accessories, and gears and clocks. The geography of the land is not the same as ours, for cities with names that we do recognize, are not the cities we know in our world.

Notwithstanding the differences between our worlds, the human heart knows all of the common emotions that are the same way regardless of the world it lives in. The loss of a loved one, especially a spouse through death, brings the same heartbreak, and new love found brings joy just the same in both worlds. The worlds we live in may be different, but the human spirit is the same.

There is enough of me, and enough of Patsy, in the story to which I can say, I am her Harris and she is my Anna.

Since our meeting and our marriage, Patsy and I have been either directly instrumental in the matching of other widowed people who have now followed our lead into marriage, or we have at the least witnessed such meetings and unions. We have witnessed the happiness which new love found brings. They have found, as we have as well, that love the second time around can be deeper and more precious than what came before.

Voyage of Abigail

When I sat out to write ‘A Ship Called Abigail,’ I had no idea that from that one book, another story would spring forth. And then another. Now, with the completion of ‘Voyage of Abigail,’ two more books in the series have followed. Two more sequels followed completing the ‘Legacy of Abigail’ series. ‘When Love Finds Hannah,’ and ‘An Empty Quiet Place.’

All that is necessary for another book to be brought to life, is for a character, or a set of characters within the one just written, to reach out and request that their own story be told. I am not deaf to those requests. I heard them, and I promised them that their own stories would be told.

When within the novel, 'A Ship Called Abigail' we learned of the new love between Josias Lancaster and Ann Merriweather. Now we wanted to know, would they marry? Would they finish the dream which Josias had been a part of years earlier? That is, would the airship now christened 'Abigail' actually set forth on the voyage it was originally intended for?

When I found out that yes, Josias and Ann would marry, and that they would form a new life together, and yes, they would finally see the airship completed and yes, they would take it on the voyage, I had to know what happened next. How did the voyage fare? Did they make it to Paris as they had planned?

When we read a novel which we enjoy, sometimes we end the final page with this question. What happened after this? And other questions follow. Don't leave us hanging. The story does not always end with the last sentence of the last chapter.

‘Voyage of Abigail’ is a sequel. It does branch from the story which was told in the first book, but it is its own story. Josias Lancaster whom we met in the first book, ‘A Ship Called Abigail,’ made it clear to me that his story of loss, and his new love found, although it was partly told in the former book, here the whole story must be told. His story. In honoring his wishes, this book is the result.

Josias introduced me to the lady who came into his life after his own loss. She repaired the broken pieces of his life, and she became his bride. I learned that Ann Merriweather had suffered her own heartbreak, and abandonment, even though she had not previously been a wife.

Loss, however it comes about, or whatever form it takes, creates an indelible mark on the heart, and even on the spirit, which becomes a part of who we are for the remainder of our days.

It is a simple truth that even later in life we can start on the path of living which we may have missed in our younger years. Ann found the truth in that statement, and her story gave me a new perspective on love found, and I hope, an even greater appreciation for this thing called ‘Second Chances.’

When Love Finds Hannah

During the writing of ‘Voyage of Abigail, where we first met Harold and Hannah, little did I know that their story would need to be told in greater completeness. I soon came to realize that there was more to their story to be told. Thus this book came about.

Within each book as it was written, new people were introduced to me. And for some of those people, their own stories demand to be told. I am simply the recorder of their stories.

Now two young people, Harold and Hannah coming from entirely different worlds met. And they fell in love. This book fills out the telling of their story which we first read of in ‘Voyage of Abigail.’

Harold Whitmore was running away from his vision of what life would be if he remained at home, and married his childhood sweetheart. His desire to have one last go at adventure, and his growing doubts that his love for the girl was as real, and as strong as everyone else in his life perceived it to be, drove him to leave her for what he thought would be his new life.

The chance to become the cook on a lighter than air ship on its maiden voyage promised the adventure he sought. He had no idea that this voyage would lead him to the girl who was meant to be the real love of his life.

Hannah was a nurse in a small hospital on a previously undiscovered island in the mid-Atlantic. An island and a people who have not previously been known by those living in the Western Hemisphere.

She saw her life, and her future, consisting of nothing but a long string of sameness. Day after day, until she would grow old, nothing more would be her lot.

Hannah discovered that a man, looking quite different from her, from a world she had never heard of before, but who was now her patient, would be the one she had dreamed of since girlhood.

That is, if she did not allow a nagging and unreasonable fear cause her to miss taking a chance on love.

The books in the ‘Legacy of Abigail’ series are not serials themselves. Rather they are sequels branching out from the initial book, ‘A Ship Called Abigail.’

They each tell their own story but even though they can be read individually, they belong together and the reader will find each story enriches the story before it, and the story to come.

An Empty Quiet Place

Now we go back to the beginning. Sarah Vandergriff was fourteen years old when the story began. She is the daughter of Martin and Rachael Vandergriff.

Bryan Wimberly had just, with his recent birthday also become fourteen years old. But, being a few months younger than Sarah, he was, in her opinion, a younger kid, and Sarah was not interested in a “younger kid” becoming her beau.

From his first sighting of Sarah, Bryan, in his young heart, picked her to be his girl. Sarah, on the other hand, has her mind set on finding someone older, more mature, and certainly more sophisticated. Bryan was a great chum. But to her, that’s all he would ever be.

Now a few years have passed. Bryan has just completed his final year of his university studies. Following graduation, he returned to his home in Merryville. He has accepted a position in the engineering department of Lancaster Iron Works in Topeka.

Sarah was also away from home, just now entering her final year of her university studies. It seemed inevitable that Bryan and Sarah should wed. After all, everyone could see, not only the affection Bryan held for her, but it just seemed right for the two of them seemed to be made for each other. Everyone could see that except for Sarah herself.

As I followed Bryan and Sarah’s stories from my vantage point as the author, I too wondered if Sarah would ever see what everyone else could see so clearly. A couple of times during this period of her life, I wondered, as did, I’m sure, her other family members and friends who knew her closely, if she would make a serious relationship mistake which would affect her life from here on out. Thankfully, she did not. And I for one am convinced that it was much owed to the raising her mother gave her.

But nobody saw what was about to happen. We did not expect the horrible accident which left her changed in body, mind and spirit.

Mister Weatherspoon's Unfortunate Clock

Sometimes the strangest of things will become the inspiration for a new story. For this one, it was one of those times my wife and I were engaged in one of our favorite pastimes. Walking antique malls.

It was an old lamp. I don't now recall just what it looked like, but it brought to mind the image of the old Aladdin story of the genie in the lamp. From there the imagination took over and somehow,

Mr. Elijah Weatherspoon came into my acquaintance, and his story of his topsy turvy encounter with the mischievous genie took form. This book is the result.

Miss Penny's Wedding Dress

This is a hard one. Honestly, I cannot say that I know just how the inspiration came about for this story. I know that the hint of an idea came my way, but where it came from, what its roots were, I don't know.

Somewhere in my past there was something. Perhaps it was an old story I read, even as far back as in my youth. The idea remained vague other than just the premise. A living person who is haunted by something which attaches a romantic interest in him. Something not alive. But there can be no real relationship, romantic or otherwise between the living and the dead.

The story is pure fantasy. Readers should not take the events described within the story as having real world truth. As a Christian writer, I know full well that the spirits of the departed do not hang around on this earth and they certainly do not seek romantic connection with the living.

But perhaps it's not that at all. Perhaps it's not an actual ghost, or spirit of a departed person. Perhaps it's just a psychological thriller and what the individuals within the story experienced was strictly psychological illusions. Such things can happen.

But what is real, and is really the full telling of the story is that betrayal is a real thing. Loss of fortune is likewise. And, finding love, second chance love, and second chance fortune can be real. Jonathan Wells lived all of that.