"For the Heart's Treasure" is the story of a young man and a young woman who fall in love just before the 1929 crash of the New York Stock Market, the harbinger of the Great Depression. They are diametric opposites.
Jack Stewart, 28, movie-star handsome, is a dedicated skirt-chaser. A WWI army veteran and former U.S. Navy sailor, he admits to distributing his DNA all over the world in his conquests of women.
Eva Conner, 24, severely damaged by her upbringing and by a marriage to a man who left her with gonorrhea, is not ready for another relationship with any man. Her mother, a cruel and domineering passive-aggressive, continues to affect her adult life, and her father, divorced from her mother and remarried, is a drunk and a wife beater. Moreover, her five brothers are destructive alcoholics and her little sister is showing signs of a sociopathy.
Set against the Great Depression that subjected countless lives to turmoil and suffering similar to Eva's, they are married. Overshadowing their tenuous relationship is Jack's past exploits and Eva's fear that he may not have changed.
The action takes the reader from 1929 Chicago, to Louisville, Port Arthur, TX, and Denver. The characters are indelible.
The Story Behind This Book
My parents served as models for my main characters Jack and Eva. Truth is, I never knew much about their history, but I did know they met at a restaurant in Chicago in 1930. That's all I knew. So, being intrigued with the history of the Great Depression and knowing they began their married life right after the 1929 crash, I imagined them there. I so enjoyed writing the novel, learning about the Great Depression, and "watching" them negotiate the times.