A recent
reviewer for The Bridge of Deaths wrote,
“Would you spend 18 years researching anything?” I smiled and my first thought was, these are the words of someone young.
They were indeed the words of a woman in her early 20s. Time is a matter of
perspective and at 52, 18 years does not seem like a very long time to work on
fulfilling a dream or reaching for something as important as the image and love
of a grandparent.
In many of
my earliest memories as a little girl are thoughts and desires to sit on a
grandfather’s lap and to get to know a person that inexplicably I loved and
missed. He died 20 years before I was born, and not all the stories about him
painted the image of a perfect wonderful man, but I felt an amazing affinity to
my mom’s dad. Do you know
the scene in the movie The Parent Trap when the twin who
has never met her grandfather gives him a big bear hug and tells him she is
creating a memory with the smell of pipe tobacco and peppermint? Well it was
that kind of fire that ignited the fuel of my 18 year quest, a fire of longing
and loving for a grandfather.
That type
of fire I refer to is motivated by two very strong forces all of us possess;
love and curiosity. These two strong
elements combined with determination are bound to get anyone to the finish
line. There were understandably some big hurdles and roadblocks and I am not
shy to admit that amongst them one of the biggest was my absolutely limited
knowledge in HISTORY and especially history of the era I had to work with.
This
particular hurdle had a solution that can be useful to many with problems for
variety of career goals. The solution was simply this, a willingness to learn,
work hard and well yes, one could call it study. In my case it was the
self-imposed story of historical data. Some of you may have goals where there
might be a class you can take or a workshop, it can be training physically or
making lifestyle changes. I can tell you
this from my personal experience, if something is important enough to you give
yourself the gift of setting the goal and reaching it.
May all the
Bridges you cross lead to happiness and great success!
The Author - M.C.V Egan
M.C.V.
Egan is the pen name chosen by Maria Catalina Egan the author of The Bridge of Deaths. Catalina was born
in Mexico City, Mexico in 1959, one of eight children. From a very young age
she became obsessed with the story of her maternal Grandfather, Cesar Agustin
Castillo, mostly the story of how he died. She only spent her childhood in
Mexico. Her father became an employee of The World Bank in Washington D.C.
From
the early 1970s at the age of 12 she moved with her entire family to the United
States. She was already fluent in Southern English as she had spent one school
year in the town of Pineville, Louisiana with her grandparents. There she won
the English award; ironically being the only one who had English as a second
language in her class. In the D.C. suburbs she attended various private
Catholic schools and graduated from Winston Churchill HS in Potomac, Maryland
in 1977. She attended Montgomery Community College, where she changed majors
every semester. She also studied in Lyons, France at the Catholic University
for two years. In 1981, due to an impulsive young marriage to a Viking ( The
Swedish kind, not the football player kind)
Catalina moved to Sweden where she resided for five years and taught at
a language school for Swedish, Danish, and Finnish businesspeople. She returned
to the USA where she has been living ever since. She is fluent in Spanish,
English, French and Swedish.
Mrs.
Egan has worked for various companies and holds an Insurance license for the State
of Florida. Not her favorite field but involves very nice folks and makes
money!
Maria
Catalina Egan is married and has one son, who together with their five pound
Chihuahua makes her feel like a fulltime mother. Although she would not call herself an
Astrologer she has taken many classes and taught a few beginner classes in
Astrology. This is one of her many past times when she is not writing or
researching.
She
celebrated her 52nd birthday on July 2nd 2011 and gave
herself self-publishing The Bridge of
Deaths as a gift; she never submitted it to anyone prior to this decision
and has enjoyed the very positive feedback.
Website:
Thank you so much for joining us today - it's always interesting to know how a writer comes up with their ideas. Your dedication showed through in your book.
ReplyDeleteThank you MK for the invite. I love your Blog!
ReplyDeleteM.C.V. Egan