{"id":27901,"date":"2024-04-25T23:15:31","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T05:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-author-to-publish-novel-centered-around-grief-in-2025\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:15:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:15:01","slug":"local-author-to-publish-novel-centered-around-grief-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-author-to-publish-novel-centered-around-grief-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Local author to publish novel centered around grief in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lisa
Lisa Taylor\u2019s novel, \u201cThe Shape of What Remains,\u201d will publish in March of 2025. (Unsplash)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Local author Lisa Taylor\u2019s novel, \u201cThe Shape of What Remains,\u201d is set to publish in March of 2025.<\/p>\n

Taylor shared that this book has been 10 years in the making, and she is eager to share her character\u2019s story with the world.<\/p>\n

The theme of the book is \u201clong grief,\u201d and it follows the story of a woman named Teresa, who is dealing with the loss of her 6-year-old daughter in a tragic accident 10 years before.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really her story,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cTen years later, she is still mired in grief and depression, and her husband has kind of moved on and doesn\u2019t understand why she\u2019s stuck. The novel is about her journey as she comes back, and her husband\u2019s, as he has never really dealt with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lisa
Lisa Taylor.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After two years of writing this novel, the story became even more personal.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy next-door neighbor had a daughter exactly the same age (as the child in the book) and she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, which is a pretty deadly brain tumor. She eventually died from it. So while I was working on this novel about grief, my next door neighbor was going through it,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

At one point, Taylor also led a grief group for teenagers who had lost parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that helped me write the book and helped me understand the process,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cI very much believe that grief is highly individual, and we do not allow people they time they need. You never really get over the loss of a loved one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a section in the book that the editor liked very much where I describe how colors change, like bright blue is more of a muted blue now. Things aren\u2019t as vivid because she\u2019s always living in that grief,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Taylor said characters just come to her, and once she grabs hold of a character, a story is not far behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel compelled to tell their story,\u201d she said. \u201cI remember doing a program at a college, and a friend of mine introduced me and said, \u2018Lisa has characters that live in her head.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know where Teresa came from,\u201d she said. \u201cShe just got in my head one day and I was thinking about how people deal with the worst thing that could happen to them. She\u2019s a college professor, and I was a college professor. She\u2019s very snarky, she\u2019s funny, and I like snarky and funny. If she were a real person I would probably be friends with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

While this will be Taylor\u2019s first published novel, she has had published three collections of poetry, two poetry chapbooks and two collections of short fiction. She also taught at Eastern Connecticut State University before moving to the Four Corners area. Now, she teaches online.<\/p>\n

Taylor said while writing the book, she kept thinking how quickly people are to judge others without knowing the full story.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe child was hit by a truck, and the guy with the truck had his own story,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cHe was trying to get to a job interview to feed his family and he\u2019s really poor and has kids too. He thought it was a deer and he was going to be late for the interview. She (Teresa) wants to hate him, but she can\u2019t because he had a story too, and it wasn\u2019t entirely his fault. Her daughter ran out into the road. You can blame, but blame doesn\u2019t really get you anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor shared that having her novel published next year is a dream come true.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I have a narrative I love, I want to stay in it a long time. I want to live in their world,\u201d she said. \u201cI get sad sometimes when a really good novel ends because I don\u2019t want these characters to go away. I know them, but I\u2019m very excited because it was always my dream to publish a novel, and this is a dream come true for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, Taylor hopes her book will be a positive message of healing and a comfort to those who are also grieving.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve lost a loved one, you\u2019re always going to see people in similar situations, and that will make you miss them,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cIt has a very positive message and I do want it to be helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

has been in the works for 10 years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[639,21,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-27901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-book","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80232,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27901\/revisions\/80232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27901"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=27901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}