By Isabella Zarate
“I didn’t set out to write novels.”
Mahomet resident, Cherie Roberson, shares her thoughts as she anticipates the release of her debut novel, Man in the Mist.
“People often ask if I dreamed of becoming an author. The short answer is ‘No,’ but the longer
answer is ‘Maybe and I didn’t know it?’”
“Fiction is a more difficult writing form for me.” Roberson explained, “conveying with words the story I visualize in my head and heart.”
“Non-fiction flows more freely.”
Before taking a deep dive into the role of novel author, Roberson first began sharing her writing in May of 2013 through a blog, simply composed of her random thoughts.
“I challenged myself to sit down and write and edit a blog in one sitting and then publish it for the public’s eye.”
“It’s a scary test of resilience and vulnerability to share my thoughts and feelings and leave them up to interpretation for the world,” Roberson added.
Though significant, Roberson’s blog is not the only factor that led her to writing this novel.
“I’ve always been a reader,” she shared. “I love a great story.”
As a child growing up in St. Louis, Roberson frequently found herself in the local library.
While others were out playing with things like chalk, and bubbles, Roberson was more often than not infatuated with a book.
“I read through the largest stack of books the library would loan me.”
Spending so much time with her nose in a book it is no wonder that Roberson discovered romance at a young age.
In fact she shares that her favorite romance is “the love Billy had for his
two coon dogs in Where the Red Fern Grows.”
“It’s the first book that made me cry,” Roberson notes.
“As a young adult, Francine Rivers’ historical fiction Redeeming Love captivated my heart with the way Michael Hosea’s unconditional love taught Angel to trust and believe in the redemptive power of love.”
From her early love of reading spurred what now seems to be a lifetime of writing.
“Since I was a child, writing has been the easiest way to express myself,” Roberson explained.
“It slows my brain and helps me sort my feelings and thoughts.”
Some of Roberson’s early work came in the form of notes.
“As a teen, I wrote notes to my mom, leaving them on her pillow to read.”
“She wrote back and set them on mine.”
To Roberson, those little notes were a piece of her mother.
“She offered me a piece of herself in her note—her heart in script—and it soothed me in a crazy world.”
Aside from notes, the writer would keep an occasional diary as well as a number of poetry pieces.
While in high school, Roberson spent a summer in Ireland, time she kept track of in her travel journal.
When she was not writing, Roberson worked as a teacher, until her retirement in 2019.
Time passed and Roberson was spending a day in the garden with her mother, when she asked, “What’s something you think you’d like to do now?”
Taking a moment to reflect, Roberson replied “travel and write a book.”
And that is exactly what she has done.
While vacationing on a foggy Florida beach, Roberson and her husband found themselves startled by a mysterious man who appeared on a nearby patio.
“We created an entire story in which he was the ghost of the dead husband of a
a woman we actually saw standing on a balcony waving to him,” Roberson shared.
“While Man in the Mist detoured greatly from that story, that was where the initial idea took flight,” she noted.
“At the end of our elaborate exchange regarding bits of the story, my husband said, ‘You should write that.’”
What started as a “COVID project” transformed over the course of two years into Roberson’s now finished novel.
Raey, the novel’s main character, is a notion of sorts to some of the questions that have haunted the author throughout different stages of her life.
“Raey, admittedly, has a bit of me in her.”
Roberson added that “Her name is a twist on my middle name, Rae.”
While Roberson herself has not traversed the path of losing a husband as Raey does, she still imagines the anguish of the character’s circumstances.
“When I married in 1987, my husband was a St. Louis County policeman and later worked undercover narcotics. He faced danger daily,” Roberson claimed.
“People often asked,’How do you live with his job?’ I wrestled with the question of what I would do if something ever happened to him. How would I live without the love of my life?”
“Raey faced the “real-life” grief of that circumstance,” she concluded.
To summarize, Man in the Mist is a story of love, loss, and grief. And as the cover of the novel states, “The hardest part of love is goodbye…and hello.”
Man in the Mist will be released on Amazon on September 18. To celebrate the launch, Roberson will host a book signing at Yo-Yos on October 15 from 1-3 p.m.
For more information, visit Roberson’s blog at www.cherieroberson.com
