Wow, the universe is working overtime to send me signs this month.
Saw this new book (September) in the Kindle Daily Deals. I read Robert Harris’ Fatherland when it came out, 30 years ago. And during that time I was on again and off again writing a novel about this very topic, the three Regicides that fled Charles II and lived the rest of their lives, in secret, in and around my homeland of New Haven, Connecticut.
It’s a pretty exciting tale, if you’ve never heard it. That’s why I thought it interesting that the new monarch went for Charles III as his name.
I’ve heard the story forever, especially from my father, and you really can’t go anywhere without being reminded of it: Dixwell, Goffe and Whalley are not only that trio’s names, but they’re major streets in New Haven.
I wasn’t writing for publication, more for my own amusement. I put the story aside in the mid-’90s. Thought about reviving it again in October 2019, when I was back home for a brief visit and was walking on The Green and came upon John Dixwell’s grave behind the Church on the Green, about 40 steps from where I used to catch the bus every day for about five months in the spring of 1986. And then in January 2020 I found myself at Charles II’s grave in the magnificent Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey, and it was one of the monarchs there whose story (and whose father’s trial and execution) I knew well). Two signs, right there.
I even ordered a few books on the topic and was reading them when the pandemic hit (and trying to find where I put the draft). Since I covered health care, the pandemic was one of the seven-day-a-week, all-consuming topics I covered so I didn’t have time to even breathe during lockdown and after that. So I went on to the next thing, which was for me Welsh.
Not sorry I followed the Welsh, as it has been inspiring and enriching, and continues to be. But I have always firmly believed in signs and their importance in calling turns in your life. And even if they don’t always point to opportunities but rather missed opportunities.
I chalk this one up to a missed opportunity, and also a sign that I’ve got to get moving. I’ve been writing a lot more lately in the past two months, being inspired I’ll say, and on two particular topics. It was already at a higher level but this makes it more of an obsession. Positive things happen when I’m obsessed. #amwriting
Nows and Forevers 
Leave a comment