How is it possible to check and re-check and check again and still find mistakes in printed material?  I’ve found 42 errors in the proof copy of White Lies, the novel I’m bringing out on Amazon.  Forty-two!  The number is so huge, it needs spelling out.  I’ve now corrected the proof and it’s quivering on the brink of publication … but maybe there’s a 43rd typo still lurking there, a grinning little gremlin of a mistype or stupidly blind mistake.

This latest novel is a story of adoption seen from three angles.  The fictional adoption in question took place in the late 60s as that’s the period I know from personal experience as an adoptive parent.  I’ve dedicated the book to our children, now middle-aged:

For Sophie and Ben

who are not in these pages

but in our lives

with love, gratitude and respect

How lucky we were.  Nowadays, adoptive parents take on the far greater challenges presented by older children, often with histories of neglect or abuse.  In fact, in some cases, parenthood is an impossible task.  A severely damaged older child needs special care, beyond the means of a parent to provide it.   The burning wish to heal and love such a child causes heartache without possible resolution.  As difficult as it may be to say, some children should not be placed for adoption.  They will do better in foster homes where the expectations are not so weighty, so intense, on both sides.