Regional author Susan Beckham Zurenda will be appearing in Highlands on Oct. 21 to promote and talk about her debut novel, “Bells for Eli.”
Zurenda, who lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina, is a former English teacher, whose short stories and non-fiction works have been published in several literary journals.
Zurenda will be signing her debut novel “Bells for Eli” from 2 – 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 21 at the Hudson Library. Zurenda said, originally Bells for Eli was going to be part of the “Books and Brunch” series at the library until COVID-19 hit.
“Now, with the social distancing and restrictions on serving food, we’ll do this as a book discussion in the early afternoon,” she said.
In “Bells For Eli,” Zurenda delivers a coming-of-age story.
“I based the story on a real-life event involving one of my cousins,” she said. “I was able to take this tragic event and transition it into the foundation of my story. It’s an event that brings the cousins in the story, Eli and Delia together. They are just three years old. The same age. It is at this time that Eli is critically injured in an accident at home.”
Eli’s accident is inspired by a similar accident by her cousin Danny who lived in New Jersey, Zurenda said.
“Danny’s father was blowing up balloons for Danny’s second birthday party,” she said. “Red Devil lye had properties in helium. My cousin came along and drank from the bottle. He survived, but his life, like Eli’s, was severely compromised as a result.”
Danny required a metal tracheotomy in his throat, which would bubble with mucous, much like a nose would run, she said.
Set in rural South Carolina during the 1960s and ’70s, characters Eli and Delia live across the street from each other and have been close from an early age.
“Eli’s recovery from his injuries sustained in the accident is long and difficult, with scars and ongoing difficulties he must deal with every day,” she said. “Delia, ever cognizant of Eli and his moods, is like a ‘mother hen,’ trying to protect Eli as they grow older – and as he begins to take chances and behave recklessly.”
In adolescence, Eli appears normal on the outside – a heartbreaker with a double standard – as he guards Delia’s vulnerability when she ventures into a destructive relationship. Determined as Eli is to rescue his beloved cousin, Delia is equally committed to saving Eli when he falls into the wrong crowd enamored with drugs. Eli and Delia’s relationship grows into an incomparable love that cannot be. The novel concludes with Delia’s discovery of a shocking secret that reveals truths about Eli she had never known before.
“I didn’t originally plan to go there on the ‘cousins romance,’” Zurenda said. “It was one of those things that took on a mind of its own.”
Published in March by Mercer University Press, “Bells For Eli” is garnering high praise from some of South Carolina’s best-known writers.
Ironically, Zurenda and the late Pat Conroy shared the same agent in Marly Rusoff.
“I was very fortunate to work with Marly,” Zurenda said. “And very fortunate to have her as my agent. I broke all the rules in regard to soliciting her services. I called when I wasn’t supposed to, and I asked her to represent me when she’d said she wasn’t taking any new clients.”
The course of writing Bells for Eli took about a year and writing the longer novel was a unique and challenging process.
“I was a teacher for 33 years,” she said. “I’m a planner. It’s in my nature. I know where I’m staring and I know where I’m ending and these are the things I wanted to include in the chapter. The story evolves on its own.”
Currently, Zurenda has a second book with the working title, “When the School Day Ends.”
The story is about two central characters who meet during in-school suspension. Zurenda prefers writing at night, with a glass of wine as opposed to writing in the morning with a cup of coffee.
She writes when she can, in and around promotional events for “Bells for Eli.”
For more information about Bells for Eli, visit Zurenda’s website at www.susanzurenda.com.