Inspiration in the night

Brookings resident Joanna Nobell reads a passage from her first book, “The White Castle,” about a family in a small coastal town. (The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson)

Two women with local ties publish books

What does it take to write a book?

For two women with connections to the local area, all it took was a bit of inspiration in the night.

Joanna Nobell, a Brookings resident, and Patty James, who used to live in Crescent City and now resides in Redding, recently had books published that are available online.

Nobell will have a book signing at the Barnes and Nobel in Medford on Aug. 15 and is planning one at Words and Pictures in Brookings sometime this fall.

Nobell never thought she would become a writer and is not entirely comfortable being called one, she said. 

“I was a painter,” Nobell explained. “I wrote cutesy poem for my kids.”

She felt the urge to write a story last fall, she said, and now it’s available online through her Web site www.joannanobell.com.

James, too, never thought she would become a writer. Her book, “Visions and Dreams” was inspired by a dream. She ultimately plans for it to be a five-part series.

Both books are available online at major book seller Web sites.

Getting the inspiration

A flash of three words pulled Nobell toward writing, she explained.

“I was asleep one night,” Nobell continued, “and the title, ‘The White Castle,’ came to me.”

Nobell said she asked God what those words meant and was guided to write a story.

“I sat at the computer and had no clue other than the title,” she said about creating a story for “The White Castle.” “It was a world I didn’t know about.”

Nobell found herself getting up at 4:30 in the morning without knowing what she was going write, but in only a few months the book was written.

The story follows the O’Briens, an Irish family who live through the Potato Famine of the 1840s and 1850s and immigrate to America. They travel across the West and end up settling in a small town like Brookings.

A similar event happened to James about three years ago and she felt compelled to start writing what turned into her first novel.

“Believe it or not, I had a dream,” she said. “It all came from a dream. I was having it over and over every night for four months — the same dream.”

The dream was so real James would wake up in cold sweats, still being able to smell the fragrances from her dream. A friend told her to write everything down and what was in James’ dream ended up in the book.

“It all has to do with a woman who had a dream and what she thought was a dream turned out to be a vision of what would happen to her,” James explained.

The cover of former Crescent City resident Patty James’ first book, “Visions and Dreams.” (Submitted)

Developing a plot

Neither women had previous experience writing a novel.

Nobell is an oil painter who specializes in equestrian art. Moving around the West, she said she worked really hard at marketing her paintings. But writing just kind of flowed from her fingers, she said.

“I tried my best with what I had to work with,” Nobell said.

She took the experiences of her life and transferred them into the plot.

“They say, ‘Write what you know,’” Nobell said.

She would wake up each morning from knowing what she was going to write that day, but she believes that God put the words in her mind.

“This is a gift,” Nobell said about “The White Castle.” “I did nothing to deserve it.”

Along the way the characters encounter “spiritual warfare,” she explained. The forces of good and evil are around them and the characters are in situations where they have to try and make the right decisions, even in life and death circumstances.

“It’s their underlying faith that guides them,” she said about how the “power of prayer” plays a role.

There are parts in the book that might make readers cry, laugh or sit on the edge of their seat, Nobell said.

In “Visions and Dreams,” the main character has to decide whether to try and change fate. The plot gets more involved and “snowballs” from there, James said.

“Would you try and stop it?” she said about knowing the future. “She’s stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

She said that her book crosses over into multiple genres from romance to action to thriller and mystery. But she calls it an “action love story.”

“I hope that (the readers) are finding a way to identify with a character and maybe get something out of it,” James said. “That they can escape reality through the adventure and be able to leave their stuff behind for a minute.”