Author's first book: Just one more accomplishment

MILFORD — In today's world, the average person who writes their first book and sends it off to a publisher can only hope that it will make it to the top of the stack of countless books being submitted to publishers today.

Lillian Longendorfer of Milford sent her first book, “The Quad Consortium and the Sword of Bale,” a science fiction/fantasy story to one publisher, was told that it would be reviewed by a team and got a call in a week saying they were interested in publishing it. She immediately called her husband John to share the news.

She was inspired by her mother-in-law, who was KYW Station manager and a writer, who wrote a poem about a knight fighting a dragon for her son when he was young boy. It made her think about her own potential to write. She thought about it for years and even had an idea for a story.

It had to wait because Lillian was a doctor with a thriving general family practice in the Philadelphia area. She was married, had a child. After eight years, the community that her practice was in began to change. Her office was robbed four times and she and her husband decided to move to the Milford area.

She wanted to spend more time with her family so she made a career change that would enable her to work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in pathology and presently runs the lab in Honesdale at Lee Memorial Hospital.

Putting pen to paper
The story idea wouldn't go away and she took a creative writing course. The children's book turned out to be an adult book and the teacher encouraged her. She wrote every day after work.

“The characters took over,” said Lillian, “I would drive to work wondering what the characters will do today and how will they get out of it.”

She knew how she wanted the story to end. She actually wrote the last chapter first, but how she got to the ending is different than she thought she would.

The main characters, a young geologist and his archeologist girlfriend find a magic sword that has power against evil but can only be wielded by a primitive tribe at the end of the Milky Way galaxy. There are four planets that function independently yet have a symbionic relationship, supportive of each other.

One evil person becomes intent on harnessing the properties of the four planets for his own intent and builds a super high energy computer powerful enough to destroy all four planets. The story took about two and a half years to write. Her son, who is now 30, was a great resource, allowing her to bounce ideas off of him. Playing devil's advocate, he would also ask questions that he thought a reader might ask which helped her to tighten the story and connect the dots.

Both her husband John of 44 years and her son were very supportive of her efforts.

Once the story was written and accepted by the publisher, it took months of editing, cover design, and more to bring the book to fruition. It is now available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon in hard cover, soft cover and as an e-book.

People who have read the book have been very encouraging for her to write a sequel and she has in fact gotten her first chapter written towards her second book. She belongs to a writer's group but has not yet brought the book to share with the group.

In addition to working as a physician and writing, Lillian is an pastel artist who specializes in impressionistic style realism and has her work in the Golden Fish Gallery in Milford owned by her husband and son who are also artists whose creativity is more fantasy oriented. They have lived in Milford for fifteen years and participate in Milford's Art after Dark. She also has been known to play the banjo on occasion.

There is going to be a book signing on Saturday, May 30 between 3 and 5 p.m. at the Milford Library.