I've been writing a story for almost seven months. Finally, after much research, and a gazillion hours
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| When the DNA is strong |
of putting in the hard work, I finished the manuscript. My husband asked if I was feeling celebratory. My response was a blank stare.
After I type the best two words (THE END), My brain goes hard into overdrive. Did I forget something or someone? Did I tie things up? Did I drop something I started along the way? Did someone have a cat and I never mention it again? That's before I dive deep into the editing. Then there's the timeline. Days, months, years. Did I stick with the continuity of it all?
That's when I ask some folks to read it with fresh eyes and give it to me straight. I can't do it alone. I don't trust myself after rolling around in the words for so long. Plus, there are multiple points of view, which makes it even more complicated. Every scene from each POV has to match up the next time I'm in their head. Pardon my brain fog...
But I'm excited about the story--or I will be once it's all cleaned up.
It's a story of a woman who gets a DNA test as a gift instead of her expected engagement ring. Predictably, for a great story, the results aren't as expected. Not only does she figure out that she was adopted at birth, a minor detail her loving parents never found the right time to tell her, but she's got a sister who shows up on her "connections" profile. This leads her to her birth mother, who doesn't want her to know who her birth father is except to say, "He's a bad man."
But as fate and fiction would have it, she gets an alert on her profile soon after that she has another connection. A brother on her birth father's side. Now, there's a whole new branch on the family tree; one that's far more complicated.
This is a story about family; the old, the new, and finding out that some things, as unwelcome as they seem, can complicate and enrich one's life in equal measure.
Set in the Low Country around the Sea Islands.
Let me just say that researching unexpected DNA results was fascinating. I spoke to several people who'd found out they had siblings and parents who were different than they'd believed. One woman in Florida found four sisters she knew nothing about. Her father had impregnated women throughout the state. They expect to find more matches.
I haven't done a DNA test personally, but I look so much like both my parents that I wouldn't expect any surprises, but I might do one for the sake of genealogy.
How about you? Do you have a good DNA story?
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!
Susan Sands
