Jennie Samuel

The inspiration to write Beyond The Pond came from actual events and visitors to my own backyard pond. When my first grandson was born, I wanted to pass along the secrets of Pinecone Pond to him. After all, I already had most of my characters -- I just gave them voices on a page.

I wanted to incorporate a Christian message into the story, so the gospel is discussed between several of the characters, including one who has been around since The Beginning.

My background comes from 25 years of writing detailed insurance investigation reports based on interviews with claimants, insureds and witnesses about their car accidents, work injuries or home burglaries. I finally decided to take the "frog leap" from writing fact to fiction in Beyond the Pond. It was fun and challenging to make this change, and I found the skills I learned as an investigator really helped in describing characters and scenes in the book.