I’m still here and haven’t given up writing, in case you’re wondering. I’m busy working on a new book, Bohemia and Broken Hearts: A Tangled Roots Historical Mystery. The reason it’s taking me so long to write this one is that it requires extensive research.

Not only do I have to do the historical research, but also some genealogy work. A portion of this book is loosely based on a couple of my ancestors. Since writing my earlier Tangled Roots books, I’ve taken a DNA test and started digging into my own ancestry. My father and his sister began an online family tree years ago, and I’ve grown it. I think they would be happy to see it, if they were still alive.

In this new book, Lucas Landry is searching for his mother’s branch of the family, which he always thought was from England. But based on his brother’s recent DNA test and online research, Lucas is flabbergasted. How could they not have known their mother’s family lived in the former Sudetenland, now Czech Republic, near their father’s ancestors?

Facing a major upheaval in his life, and not wanting to stay in his empty apartment, Lucas packs a bag and travels to an area of the Czech Republic that used to be part of the Sudetenland. Will he find what he is looking for? He faces a massive language barrier. And problems pile up.

Alternating with Lucas’s chapters are chapters showing his great-grandparents during WWII in the same small village where Lucas is visiting in the future.

I’m more than halfway through the first draft of the book. Wish me luck!