Barbara Burnett with new book

A Lehigh Acres great grandmother, who moved to Lehigh in 2005, has published her first book titled Belle and the Pastor. Author Barbara Leonard Burnett of Hamilton St. has been busy these last few weeks at book signing sessions.

The next book signing session is Sept. 14 at Your Neighborhood Shipping Store in the Winn-Dixie Shopping Center on Homestead Rd. in Lehigh. She has held book signing sessions at other sites such as Panther Community Bank.

Burnett is from Bridgeport, Conn., and spent most of her life raising her and her late husband’s six children, working at different trucking companies as a billing clerk and other jobs. She discovered Lehigh Acres and bought a home next door to a friend because she like the home so much.

“I hadn’t even seen inside, but they told me both houses were built identical, so I wanted to buy the house next door and she did and since has become good friends of the previous owners who visit over the holidays.

But her love for writing goes way back to when she was much younger. She received degrees at Gateway Community College in New Haven, Conn., and a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Southern Connecticut State University, also in New Haven.

Belle and the Pastor is a new novel written by Barbara Leonard Burnett of Lehigh. It is available from the author or it can be purchased on Amazon.com or other online book stores. She will be at Your Neighborhood Shipping Store in the Winn-Dixie Plaza on Sept. 14. All photos by Mel Toadvine

If she’s not writing, she said she enjoy traveling and especially to places like Ireland. She is learning to speak Irish Gaelic, play the Irish whistle, the banjo, electric bass, keyboards and the Naive American flute. She’s also a gardener and loves to listen to the birds singing in her backyard. Even in her living room, she enjoys the sounds of bird chirps and whistling with a bird clock on the wall.

Her new novel, Belle and the Pastor, has taken her about 10 years to write, she said. But once she finished it, she discovered a way to publish it on demand through a firm on the Internet.

It’s fiction and a story about what can happen when a member of the clergy is accused of wrongdoing.

The back of the book gives a hint of what’s inside. It reads: “Once a word exists a mouth, there’s just no way to stuff it back in. It’s a done deal. A spoken word can be as powerful as a bullet when it comes to disrupting lives.

“Just ask Paul Young, pastor of a small community church in Edenville, Conn.

“He has a lovely wife, a teenage daughter, a fine young son, and a new baby girl. His church is growing and his life is a satisfying blend of God, family, and service.

“Then a troubled teenager accuses him of rape. His life as he knows it is over.”

“I came down here after my husband passed away, you guessed it, to write the great American novel,” she tells readers on the back of the book.

Burnett doesn’t look like the typical great grandmother and she doesn’t act like one.

She’s an woman with a head full of stories, about her life, the things around her, her friends, and what may become a second novel.

“I’m thinking it out, the second book,” she smiled. “I am coming up with my characters in my head and when it’s time, I’ll put it down on paper,” she said.

She said she got the idea to write the book 10 years ago when there were so many stories in the national media about clergymen who were accused of sexual assaults on minors.

“You know, after that all started, so many others joined in and said they had been molested … often, I think, just to get money,” she said.

“But when a clergyman or priest is accused of such a horrible thing, their lives are never the same, whether what happened was true or not,” she said. “That gave me the idea to write this book.

Burnett explained that she developed the characters in the book from her own imagination and gave them names. She said they assumed personalities as the process of writing began and continued until the end.

“The end of this book has a little twist,” she said, again smiling. “But you have to read it to see what and how it does end.”

Although she has a computer and that is where the story usually ends up, she prefers to write on paper and then transfer it to a hard drive.

“There’s just something more personal when you are able to express yourself on paper. You can also move things around, make cross outs and put in new words,” she said.

“That era in America when members of the clergy were accused of sex crimes amazed me and I wondered about the effects such charges have on those accused, and of those who are accused and are not guilty. Are they ever free of suspicion, I don’t think so,” she said.

She’s handed out books to family members and all tell her it’s a great read.

The book’s type is easy to read and after a couple of chapters, it is easy to feel where the story is going, but you may be surprised at where it goes, thus, the twist, she promises that is at the end of the book.

The book begins with a young teenage girl whose father has lost his job and he has turned to alcohol and beating his wife and his daughter. The story goes from there.

Because of new technologies, authors today do not have to buy hundreds of books if they decide to publish themselves.

A new process is Print on Demand.

“The publishers can have more books in a day or two,” she said.

The story is the kind that could be brought to life on a movie screen, but Burnett said there is a movie coming out soon that is similar to what she wrote.

What is the genre of the book? Burnett says it is fiction and some call it a adventure,.

“I see it as a story of what can happen and maybe did happen during that time period,” she said.

Anyone who has met Burnett sees an interesting woman who looks much less in age than she admits to.

“After all, I do have a great grandchild,” she laughed.

But she is filled with stories about the experiences of her life. Her mind is filled with ideas and it would seem, given time, she could write several more books.

The cost of the book is $13.95 and she will be glad to autograph it. She also will be glad to attend club meetings or other sites to promote her book.

“I am finding it a lot of fun and I am meeting a lot of really interesting people,” she said.

As for the type of publication referred to as “on demand,” you can go to BBOTW.com and learn more.

It has become a convenient way for new writers to get their books out to the public.

Well-known publishing houses don’t always have the time to read every manuscript that comes to them and the authors who get first choice are those who have proven themselves with the sale of their books.

Printing on Demand can produce excellent writers and it is an excellent way to print a book. You are responsible for the distribution, however.

She sent her manuscript to five agencies, she said, and she received a couple of rejections.

“I’m not sure they even read the book because I know they get so many manuscripts, so I decided to publish on my own. I learned how easily it can be done on the Internet. I will be glad to explain that way of getting published to anyone who wants more information,” she said.

Her first printing was of 50 books and they are selling every time she has a book signing. She also said the book can be purchased on Amazon.com and other online book stores.

“I recently visited Connecticut to see family and in my daughter’s office, everyone purchased my book,” she laughed. She said a sister has bought three for Christmas gifts and she gave family members advance reading copies.

The art on the cover of the book is cleverly done, showing the young woman at the top and the two fists of a clergyman on the bottom in handcuffs.

Published by Infinity Publishing Company, Burnett dedicated the book to her family saying she hopes everyone has a family like hers. The publisher’s website is: infinitypublishing.com.