Stacy Milbouer

Published: Monday, April 14, 2008

For writer, book is new lease on life

For most writers, an 18-year-hiatus between books might seem daunting. But for Nashua resident Lynn Gravbelle, it represents a victory over grief.

Gravbelle's second murder mystery, "Meditative Rose" will be released today, also the writer's "50-something birthday."

"Meditative Rose" has a lesbian protagonist, the art-loving private investigator Paula Graham, whom Gravbelle says is pretty much "me" in the book.In fact, in the prologue the character Paula Graham, talks about the recent death of her long-term partner, which parallels Gravbelle's own story.

"In 1975 when we met," she wrote, "there was no same-sex marriage, no such things as civil unions. Yet, somehow, against all odds, Georgia and I managed to live together as partners for almost 30 years. Our lives entwined, like wild vines, each needing the other to survive . . . She left me lost and alone, wondering, but not really caring where, how or even if my life would go on."

Needless to say when the real-life Georgia died from lung problems five years ago, Gravbelle, like her detective alter ego, didn't think she could make a new life for herself. But both did.

Gravbelle moved from the South where she lived with her partner, "back home" to New England. The writer was born in Lowell, Mass., and grew up in Pepperell, Mass.

In the book Paula Graham leaves her job as a Boston police officer and becomes a private eye and the owner of an antique shop. Gravbelle tried an antique shop too, in Hudson, which closed last year. But while Gravbelle didn't take up sleuthing, she did pick up her pen again to create what she hopes will be a series of mysteries based on the Paula Graham character.

"The first book I wrote 'The Butcher' which sold over 5,000 copies was about twin brothers who were brought up by an aunt. It didn't have a lesbian character, but I was in it. I was the criminal. I was the sheriff. Do you know why I like to write fiction? I want to be the good guy and the bad guy."

"The criminal and the sheriff. I can do all the things I couldn't and wouldn't do in the real word."

Between books Gravbelle didn't work on writing. She helped raise her partner's children. She raised and trained show horses and worked at a battered-women's shelter.

But now she's back to the keyboard and doesn't want to leave. She even has a tattoo on her wrist with the Chinese symbol for author.

It took her about a year to write "Meditative Rose" but almost no time to get it published.

"I couldn't believe it. I finished the book in January, sent it out and 13 days later I found Alpha World Press was going to publish it. I know from my previous experience that this kind of thing just doesn't happen. I can't tell you how many rejection letters I got before a California publisher accepted it."

Gravbelle said the editors at Alpha World in Green Bay, Wis., worked closely with her, as did her friend Lynn King, of Nashua, who also served as the literary manager for the book.

Lynn also makes an appearance in "Meditative Rose," in the character of police detective Bobbie Kerry, a "heavy-set, a heavy smoker" with sandy-brown hair, green eyes "and always eating junk food. She was a sloppy dresser, the worst record-keeper in history, an expert shooter . . . and as it turned out, a great friend."

And just how does Lynn feel about that description?

"My mother laughed like crazy because she thought it was so perfect."

Gravbelle's neighbors Donna and David Nelson, of Nashua, are also in the book in the form of curvaceous art dealer Darla DeVito and medical examiner Frank Nelson.

Both loved playing a part in Gravbelle's murder mystery but aren't really sure what those parts are exactly because they haven't seen a copy of the manuscript yet.

"I know we're people in her book and I know I don't have an art gallery and my husband isn't a medical examiner, so we're really curious to see how we're portrayed and we're really kind of honored in a way," Donna Nelson said.

Gravbelle says anything is possible. It's a new start for her, or as the character Paula Graham says in the book, " . . . "I had been given that rare second chance at happiness that few people ever get."

Stacy Milbouer can be reached at smilbouer@nashuatelegraph.com.