Whenever an author pens a family saga, or a detailed individual love story, readers logically remember the famous advice to beginners: write what you know. When – as is the case with this book – you couple that expectation with the fact that the story is all wrapped up in birds, wildlife refuges, and environmental issues – the very same subjects I spent my working life pursuing – it is almost inevitable that more than one reader will ask, “Is this your family? Is this your love story?"
To both questions, I can honestly answer, no. I admit to sharing with Greg some of my experiences from living and working on wildlife refuges. Each refuge, and each job, is a little different, but the basics are pretty much the same. I also shared with Greg some of my (highly modified) early life, just because it helped create a possible back story for a young man growing up in California in the 1940s and 1950s. What I think are most important to the story - his worries about Viet Nam and the military draft, and his life and his relationship, with Vic - are entirely and uniquely his own.
I've never known anyone like Vic. I admit to being a little bit in love with her, and maybe a little bit jealous of Greg. She's my fantasy mix of smartness, sensuality, and fun, but for me it would just be a fantasy. She needed someone who could match her in intellect, sexiness, and fun. She needed Greg. Their secret was that romance wasn't just a prelude, or a technique, with them. They really liked each other's minds. They really enjoyed each other's bodies. They maintained the appreciation of both throughout their lives together. They lived their romance.
Sandy Wilbur
April 2024
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