Beilue: Treasured postcards led to 'Forever Friday'

Tim Lewis and his brother were rummaging through the remains of an estate sale for their great-aunt 15 years ago in Dallas. It was mostly clutter, some old photos and papers and such.

Then he found some old albums belonging to Jewel, his great aunt. Inside were postcards - antique postcards. Lewis thought his great-aunt collected them until he looked closer.

They were hand-written and typed poems, a couple of sentences that seemed to have been written by his late great-uncle, Bob, to wife Jewel.

Hundreds of them.

One said, "Every Friday without fail, she must find a message in the mail."

Further study indicated Bob had sent a Friday postcard weekly to his wife for nearly 60 years, from their marriage in 1927 until his death in 1986. Some years in the collection were skipped, but it appeared to Lewis that Jewel had saved her favorites, tucked away in albums.

To Lewis, the couple, who had no children, seemed to keep the romance in their relationship despite advancing years. They sat close to each other on the wide-bench seat of the car. They held hands. But weekly postcards for six decades? That's more than 3,000 postcards.

"It just says how determined he was that their marriage stay together, and how he wanted that communication to stay healthy and be a spark in their marriage," Lewis said.

Lewis is a writer of short stories, plays and musicals. He took the postcards back to Amarillo, placing them on a shelf in his study.

"I thought, 'Man, this would make a great love story," he said, "but no editor is going to want to publish a book without conflict."

Five years later, in 2003, a long-distance high school friend called to tell him his wife of 20 years had walked out on him. He no longer believed in marriage and was skeptical of love.

Lewis was a listening ear and offered what consolation he could.

But when he hung up, it didn't take long for it to hit him.

"Suddenly, I had my novel," he said. "The light bulb came on in my head immediately. I remember thinking that this is what I've been waiting for. This is the novel I hoped would happen in my head. I guess the muse was kind that day."

That was 10 years ago, illustrating the road from idea to being published seldom is a short one. "Forever Friday" was released in September.

Lewis, 59, spent a year researching the history of the story, and more than a year to complete in early 2006.

"I'm slow and methodical because I want to make sure historical facts line up," Lewis said. "That's just who I am."

"Forever Friday" are fictional ties Lewis wrote from two real incidents. In the book, Adam Colby, going through a divorce, is an estate salesman.

He uncovers weekly postcards from six decades from Gabe Alexander to wife, Pearl. Skeptical of love, and certainly unsure of lasting love, he uncovers the secrets, the foundation of which he sees in these old dusty postcards.

Lewis writes of "long division," the idea that two can grow apart through years of responsibilities that pull against each, and that division needs nurturing for love to remain.

It was Lewis' third novel, and like the first two, it looked as if it too would go unpublished. Lewis' agent had her overtures rejected time and again.

Then, last year, at a conference in Dallas, it was pitched again. Go figure - now three publishing houses wanted "Forever Friday."

The book was not published by a mom-and-pop operation, but by Waterbrook Press, the Inspiration division of Penguin Random House, the world's largest publisher of fiction.

"Tim has a unique voice," said Shannon Marchese, senior editor at Waterbrook. "He has a style similar to Garrison Keillor."

Already, the book has been translated in German, Portugese and Italian. He will have done 20 signings across the state by Christmas.

That's pretty heady stuff for someone teaching a beginning novel-writing class at West Texas A&M University, and whose early life after college focused on music education and theater.

"I knew those postcards were a real treasure," Lewis said. "I knew if I could find a hook, what a story it would be. But here's the deal - it took me about 15 years to get there."

Jon Mark Beilue is an AGN Media columnist. He can be reached at jon.beilue@amarillo.com or 806-345-3318. Follow him on Twitter:

@jonmarkbeilue.