Shadows of Doubt by Patricia McAlexander

Welcome, Patricia. What do you write?

I write short stories, novellas, and now novels. My first published work of fiction was the thriller-romance novella, Stranger in the Storm, which the Wild Rose Press published as an ebook in 2020. Shadows of Doubt (2021) is a short novel, but meets the word requirement for print (at least 45,000 words), and so WRP has published it both as an ebook and in paperback. My short story “Falling” was recently a runner-up in the Atlanta Writers Club’s Terry Kay Prize for Fiction contest.

Former grade school bully and, later, amateur drug dealer Jeff Hudson turns his life around and is pursuing a degree in agriculture. His future, as well as a budding relationship with fellow student Sandy Harris, is threatened when a former dealer threatens to expose Jeff's past to university authorities if he doesn't rejoin the ring.

Realizing that Jeff is no longer an angry, misunderstood boy, Sandy must take a stand against her family and friends who swear he is no good and will only cause her unhappiness. Together, can they escape the past in order to forge a future?

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What drew you to writing?

Here I am with my granddog on a bridge over the Middle Oconee River. It joins the North Oconee below Athens to form the Oconee River, where I have Sandy and Jeff go canoeing.

My writing journey began early; writing must have been in my genes. My father let me type on his Underwood typewriter when I was five years old. He never got it back. In first grade, we learned to read with Dick and Jane books. At home I wrote a similar series named Jean and Jerry. In later grade school years, my younger sister and I wrote stories together, each of us creating different characters. In high school I wrote stories, typed and stapled the pages together and our friends read them.

What was your inspiration for Shadows of Doubt?

What directly inspired me was an early version of this novel, written in the 1980s when I’d taken a year off from teaching. I meant it to be a YA and so the main characters were in high school. But I went back to teaching, and not until I retired did I pull out the old, yellowed, literally cut-and-pasted-on typescript. I re-read it and thought it had possibilities. I rewrote the novel, making the main characters college students and adding the drug dealer elements for stronger drama.

Do you find inspiration in your own life for your writing? 

This is the bench at Oconee Forest Park where I imagined Jeff meeting his drug supplier in Shadows of Doubt.

I do. My characters are in part based on real people—including myself. Sandy has some of my traits: I like photography and an alternate career for me would have been as a journalist. I admired a family who owned an upstate New York dairy farm near my parents’ lake house—an intelligent, strong, practical father and his sons. I am sure I based Jeff and his uncle at least in part on them. And Sandy’s mother is based in part on my teacher mother, who turned for support to my sister and me when our father died—and who sometimes did not approve of our boyfriends. 

Tell us about your experience with the publishing process.

Not wanting to go through a possibly lengthy process of finding an agent, I went the small press route and submitted Stranger in the Storm to the Wild Rose Press. Editor Kaycee John thought it had potential and suggested I read James Scott Bell’s Revision and Self-Editing for Publication and revise. That book gave helpful advice that I took—and my next draft was accepted. I learned even more about writing fiction during editing process with Kaycee. Kaycee helped me again with Shadows of Doubt, suggesting I add more drama and conflict to my first draft. As a result, I added the plot element of Jeff being a reformed drug dealer,and she was right: it made the novel much more compelling. I feel very lucky that I decided to go the small press route with Wild Rose.

Any new projects on the horizon?

I have a draft of a third thriller-romance titled (for now) The Arborist, about a young woman teaching a college class of adult students. One of the students is a handsome young man, of course—an arborist. I’m also hoping someday to publish a work of historical fiction based on my great-great-grandfather and his second wife, Rosa. I have visited the graveyard in Boonville where they are buried. It was quite an experience to see their gravestones, his at least amazingly well-preserved. Now there was an inspiration for writing!

Words of advice for fellow writers in the trenches:

1) Read some good books on writing. My favorite is James Scott Bell’s Revision and Self-Editing, which gives great advice about how to work in the backstory and how to keep the reader engaged with tension and drama.

2) Let reader-writer friends read your manuscript, but be sure to ask for honest comments.

3) Attend writers’ conferences. The talks and panels give valuable information, and if you have a draft ready, sign up for a critique from or pitch to a professional. It’s worth the investment.

4) And I am told to be persistent. Don’t give up. Believe in your work.

What was the most interesting part of the story to research?

I had to do research about the current youth drug culture—reading books (Beautiful Boy, Tweak), googling, clipping newspaper articles, and interviewing people—including a high school student. It was hard because I knew so little about the subject, but also interesting.

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