I am excited to announce that the launch date of my debut novel will be February 21, 2026.
Ten years ago, I completed the MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Tampa with a dual emphasis in fiction and nonfiction. At the time, there were a few nonfiction books I was ready to write. But in the back of my mind, several fiction stories started to form and I began outlining them. Bekker’s Burial was the first one.
I wanted the background of the story to focus on early American Dutch history and started doing some research. That’s when I discovered the village of Hockessin, about eight miles west of Wilmington, Delaware. In October 2024, my wife and I spent three days in Hockessin in order to get a feel for the place: restaurants, churches, libraries, schools, parks, roads, and people. Together, we studied the history and took a lot of photos, and the story started coming to life.
Then in November 2024, I used the occasion of NaNoWriMo to write the first draft. For several years I had wanted participate in NaNoWriMo but life circumstances kept preventing me from doing so. This time, however, I succeeded in writing 71,000 words during the month. Here’s the plaque I got for completing the first draft in the month of November with NaNoWriMo 2024.
Many edits later, with the input of several beta readers and my editor, the finished novel has 84,000 words and the plot has more depth and texture. I am thankful for their input and pleased with the outcome.
The novel is Book One in the Hockessin series and here’s why. I originally intended the story to be about a young couple (John & Madison) with the primary focus on John. But as the story took shape, the light shined more on Madison and she took the leading role. So now I need to write Book Two to finish the story about John. My editor told me a week or so ago that there very well could be stories focusing on other characters in Hockessin, too. This is getting fun!
Here’s the cover of the book. The picture is one that I took when we were in Delaware. We saw the actual places I had studied online and in some books. Coffee Run Cemetery is the first Catholic cemetery in Delaware, and today is adjacent to an Assemblies of God church called Trinity Community Church. We met the pastor, and he’s allowing me to put him and the church in the novel.
Every life is a series of stories, and each person an endless repository of action, emotion, and relationship. One of the goals of literature is to capture that collection of raw material, and frame the narrative in such a way that those who read the finished product are invited to participate in a vicarious experience. If the stories are told well, readers can feel pain, joy, love, fear, or wonder. They are able to cry when a lover is betrayed, cringe when the hero of the story is under attack, or crawl under a blanket and hide to escape being discovered by the intruder.
Paul Linzey 