My Wife and Tanglewood Road

I am often asked where I came up with the idea for Tanglewood Road. I have to blame it on my late wife.   After we'd made the four hour visit to her family in St. Louis, on our return home, she'd usually sit very quietly in the car for the first hour.  I'd asked her what was wrong. and she always answered nothing. Finally she did. "I'm cutting the umbilical cord that tried to reattach in St. Louis." Jane had a very loving family but Jane felt they always stuck their noses where they didn't belong. She and her family never reached the point where they were family and friends.  Jane felt like they always wanted her to make changes in her life and that they always knew best. Later, when we had time to talk away from our children, I told Jane that I had worked with some women that felt the same way and their situations were far worse than Jane's. These situations seemed very foreign to me. It was hard for me to understand. Jane talked to other women and she also found others who were in her situation. One day on the way back from St. Louis, Jane ended one of her quiet periods by turning to me and say ingI should write about mothers and daughters who never make it to the friendship stage. She laughed and said she'd be my technical advisor. It took a long time to finish the novel but Jane was behind me every step of the way. The Porter family is nothing like Jane's family. They are the extreme. So whatever the success of Tanglewood Road, I owe it to my wife.