Before I get to the news about my upcoming book, The Forever Witness, I’d like to share a few postscripts to my other books—some unexpected happy endings that came after publication.
I love when that happens, when the people who entrusted me with their most precious possessions—their stories—reach out to reveal how their tales and lives turned out. Readers often ask me what became of the characters in my books. So here are three untold endings:
Writing Through the Pain
As the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is set to return to USC in April, it got me thinking about one of my favorite festival moments from a few years ago. A dark-haired man in his thirties, wearing a tie and a dazzling smile, emerged from the crowd and greeted me warmly at my book signing. He clearly knew me, but I couldn’t place him.
“It’s Elias,” he said. And then I did know him.
Elias was 17 the last time I saw him, quiet and angry in his orange jumpsuit, facing transfer from juvenile court to adult prison. He was one of my writing students at Los Angeles Central Juvenile Hall, where I volunteered as I worked on No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court. I’ll never forget Elias’s poignant, searing poetry about life and loss on the streets, or how this fierce kid became so nervous about sharing his writing in class. He would only pass his paper to me folded into a tiny square, so I could read his poem aloud for him.
The last time I saw Elias, he was headed off to 15 years in state prison for being an unarmed passenger in a car involved in a fatal drive-by shooting. I feared he would be lost forever. Yet now an accomplished, together man stood before me, his postscript one of triumph. Elias had kept writing in prison, he told me. He finished high school, earned a college degree, and, continued studying. Now, out of prison at last, he had a good job, a home, and a fiancé. And would I please accept an invitation to his wedding?
Oh, yes.
A Memorial for Nikkol
I spent a year immersed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach, where parents shared their stories during the hardest moments of their lives. I was especially concerned about telling the story of baby Nikkol and her parents, who endured eight long months of hospitalization that ended with a heartbreaking funeral.
When the book came out, many of the nurses, doctors and families portrayed in Baby ER attended the first book signing. Midway through I saw Nikkol’s mom walk in, a tearful look on her face. My heart sank, certain my book had wounded this family. Then I saw Nikkol’s dad, and he was beaming—and pushing a stroller with a new baby inside.
The couple had weathered their grief and decided to bring another child into their lives. And when she was old enough, Nikkol’s mother said, her parents would read her the story of the big sister they had lost. They saw the book as Nikkol’s memorial. Then I got to hold the beautiful baby girl.
JoAnn Parks moments after leaving prison, and at her wedding nine months later
Life After Prison
My most recent book, Burned: A Story of Murder and the Crime That Wasn't, tells the story of JoAnn Parks, convicted of setting fire to her home in 1989 and killing her three young children. The book revealed the flawed fire science and arson investigation used to put her in prison for more than half her life—evidence that, combined with her exemplary behavior in prison, led California's governor to commute her sentence and set her free in 2021.
I was outside the sprawling woman’s prison complex at Chowchilla when, during the height of the pandemic, as inmates were sickening and dying around her, Parks stepped through the gates in mask and gray sweat pants, walking free for the first time in 29 years. She embraced her attorney and asked for two things: Chinese food for lunch and a walk on the beach.
Nine months later, I could scarcely believe the transformation when I saw her again. It was at the family home of one of the fire experts who labored to win her freedom—a former fire captain who passed away before her release, but whose widow and children had become Parks's surrogate family. They hosted her wedding, as she at last married her longtime best friend, Denise. The head of the California Innocence Project, which had championed her case for 12 years, officiated. Her innocence attorney, Raquel Cohen, stepped up as maid of honor.
“I can’t even describe how this feels,” Parks said. “For so many years, I didn’t dare to hope. Now my dreams are coming true.”
What's Next? 'The Forever Witness'
I am excited to share an early peek at my next book, The Forever Witness: How Genetic Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder.
We were living in Seattle when the story broke, and I was instantly drawn to this tale of a young Canadian couple who vanished during an overnight trip to the city in 1987.
More than thirty years later, an arrest was made and murder charges filed at last through a combination of cutting-edge science and dogged police work.
This story has everything I love in a crime narrative: a baffling mystery. An unlikely suspect. A story set partly in the past, partly in the present. And a chance to immerse in the fascinating dual worlds of a cold case detective, and of a pioneering genetic genealogist whose career spans musical theater, acting in TV commercials, and appearing as Barbie at toy trade shows. Now she has identified more suspects in unsolved murders than anyone else on the planet.
That’s why I love narrative nonfiction: You can’t make this stuff up!
The Forever Witness comes out in November with surprising twists right to the final pages. I hope you’ll find this story as compelling as I do, and that you'll consider preordering now.
Catching up….
I’m back in SoCal again. This spring I’m teaching a class in narrative nonfiction at Chapman University in Orange. In summer I’ll be in Los Angeles teaching Introduction to Narrative Nonfiction at the University of Southern California. It’s such a pleasure to be back on campus working with young writers again.
Greyhounds! As you may remember, we’ve been rescuing and adopting greyhounds for more than ten years with Greysave. During the pandemic we started fostering greyhounds fresh off the track and adopted a few. So please meet Dottie, Valiant and Devyn, who helped me cross the finish line with The Forever Witness by keeping me going with plenty of walks and amazingly good, loving company.
Thank you for sharing your precious time by reading this web version of my occasional newsletter. I’ve been meeting with readers and book groups virtually during the pandemic, and I hope to see many of you in person in the fall when The Forever Witness comes out, if not before.
Warm wishes,
Ed