Three love stories are entwined in this poignant and dramatic debut novel, The Meeting of Air and Water. In 1923, Dolores, a sensitive young girl in a small coastal Louisiana town receives the gift of a camera which offers her a window into an otherwise frightening world. The haunting, mythical culture of the Acadians feeds her imagination as her talent for the art of photography develops. A romance begins in childhood with Earl, her loyal champion, and they move to the volatile city of New Orleans where she continues to pursue her artistic path despite the societal and cultural conventions that discourage it.
Over fifty years later, Dolores' granddaughter, Elaine, reeling from a divorce and struggling to find her own artistic calling, returns to New Orleans to care for her grandfather Earl, now a feisty octogenarian, who lives in Little Woods, a community of fishing camps on Lake Pontchartrain. Elaine is pursued by two former lovers, one an abusive, alcoholic city prosecutor, the other a handsome Cajun fisherman-opposites who appeal to different sides of Elaine's personality.
When Elaine discovers that her grandmother's photographs have been kept secret, she goes on a mission to learn all she can about Dolores and her mysterious life. Family wounds that have been deepening for decades come to the surface and must be confronted in light of Elaine's discoveries. Meanwhile, Earl, despite his infirmities, decides to pursue romance one last time and falls in love with a wise soul, Audrey, from Appalachia, who encourages Earl to bring to light the truth of Dolores' inspired life and work. The characters find healing through these revelations and their newfound loves.
Steeped in the exotic atmosphere of southern Louisiana, The Meeting of Air and Water celebrates the healing power of love at any age while exploring the nature and fragility of the human need to create, and the complications and struggles that arrive when this need is denied. With insight and humor the novel reveals the dangers of kept family secrets and the healing that can occur when truth comes to light.
The novel was a finalist in the William Wisdom-William Faulkner novel-in-progress competition. It was inspired by the photographs of Fonville Winans, who traveled the coast of Louisiana in the 1920s documenting Cajun life.
