Author says novel inspiration came to her in middle of night

The origin of Sandra Campbell’s new novel, “Way’s Way,” is — as she puts it — “mysterious.”

The story tells the tale of Dingo Way, who takes a sabbatical from his law firm to take care of his ailing father in Whitefish. Overcome with grief after his father’s death, Way heads into Casey’s Bar and Grill in Whitefish for a drink, where he fatefully meets Bernadette Lucas. The story, Campbell says, came from Way himself.

“One night I’m sound asleep and somebody’s calling out my name. I’m looking over and [my husband] Charlie is asleep, my cat is asleep, and maybe somebody is downstairs calling my name. And this voice says, ‘No, it’s me, Dingo. Stay awake because I’m going to tell you my story,’” Campbell recalled. “By six in the morning he’d basically told me his story.”

It was an unusual bout of inspiration, she admits, but within the next four months she fleshed out the story and at the end of it, emerged with her second self-published novel through Amazon. Campbell, who writes under the pen name Marlette Bess, has written 14 finished books overall.

“Usually it doesn’t come that way,” she said. “But when a character possesses your mind, you just have to get it down.”

Campbell will read from “Way’s Way” at Casey’s on Saturday, Aug. 19 from 5 to 7 p.m.

A writer of contemporary fiction, Campbell said she got started putting her ideas on the page after a move from Rainier to Ashland, Oregon.

“I didn’t know anybody, I didn’t have any friends and I just started writing. I didn’t know if I could write a book, but I just sat down and did it,” she said.

For Campbell, life experiences feed into her characters’ own journeys.

For example, after a battle with breast cancer more than a decade ago, Campbell joined a few friends for an African adventure. During the trip she visited countries like Botswana, Zambia and South Africa, and the environment and experiences had a profound effect on her.

In just six weeks she channeled those experiences into her first published novel, “Into the Bush,” which follows solo traveler Sunny Franklin as she and bush pilot Jamie Bevins return to Africa, where they met, while Franklin battles breast cancer and they explore the vast continent.

While her stories are fiction, Campbell says there’s a lot of truth in her characters and events.

“I think you have to live a life in order to write,” she said. “What I write about is my life experiences through the characters. To me, sure it’s all fiction, but you have to have kind of a basis in reality to bring your characters to life.”

In the case of “Way’s Way,” a lot of inspiration seems to come from the setting. Way meets Lucas in Casey’s during his grieving, and Campbell herself will read their story at the same location, making the setting of the novel even more real for the reader.

Whitefish, she says, has something to it that encourages her creativity.

“It has a vibe, and if you’re able to tap into it, it can help you be more creative,” she says. “There is something here that inspires you.”

For more information on Campbell and her novels, visit marlettebess.com or search for “Into the Bush” and “Way’s Way” on amazon.com.