Local Author Releases First Published Novel

Kathleen Gerard, who has lived in Washington Township her entire life, can now add published novelist to her list of accomplishments. Her first published novel, In Transit, is now in stores.

The novel, which was released Friday, is loosely based on Gerard's friend who took the police exam on a whim after she wasn't making any money as an early childhood educator. She passed and became a police officer for more than 20 years. "It was that germ of her being in the police force that became the seed that sparked my creativity," Gerard said.

Gerard first wrote the book 17 years ago when she was in her mid-20s and had some physical issues that caused her to undergo about 10 surgeries over the course of five years. Her friend who was a police officer would visit her often. During that time, Gerard's agent told her there was a book company that was looking for women in jeopardy stories. She thought of her friend and used that as a jumping off point, conducting research about the law enforcement profession.

Gerard describes In Transit as being about "a wet-behind-the-ears girl that goes into the police academy after a psychic tells her, 'You're going to be destined for greatness and meet a man in uniform.' She meets a lot of men in uniform but she unfortunately picks the wrong one."

After writing the book, Gerard said she shopped it but without success. Then while she was at a writers' intensive workshop years later, a book company editor asked her if she had any works that would be more commercial than what she was presenting. She thought of In Transit and decided to update it to include 9/11, which happened years after she originally wrote it. The novel was picked up by Five Star, part of Gale Cengage, which Gerard described as being a library affiliated publisher.

The lifelong township resident said she started writing when she was young. After her father's death when she was 14, she said she started writing in her journal, which has become a daily habit. She said she also wrote letters to her sister and friends when they were in college, before the days of computers.

Gerard originally went to William Paterson University to study photojournalism, saying her father's side of the family had cinematic and photography backgrounds. But she said her experience in a required women's studies course caused her to add writing to her major. She said she wrote a piece about her parents' marriage and read it aloud in an amphitheater.

"The way I had written it, people were crying, some people were cheering. This was like a rush for me," Gerard said. "That's when the writing bug bit me."

Gerard has been published in numerous anthologies and has won literary prizes for her short fiction, but In Transit is her first published novel.

The book is available at in Westwood, Borders in Ramsey, Books and Greetings in Northvale and Womrath's in Tenalfy. It is also available online.

For more information about Gerard and In Transit, click here.