By By LYDIA GRIMES-Features writer
James Carman Weaver is about to have his first novel published and he couldn't be happier.
Weaver's first book, which is entitled "A Table from the Past," is a love story about time and space. The back of the book reads, "1871 and a beautiful woman, An early summer morning and an oak table, Sunshine and clouds, An old house ready for demolition, A table that appears and disappears, 2006 and a real estate broker. All these elements conspire to a time-spanning romance. Laura and Donald find themselves separated by a century but unable to give each other up as Donald races to change the events of the past in A Table from the Past."
This sets the stage for the book's dedication which is to the late Christopher Reeve. His portrayal of Richard Collier in the movie "Somewhere in Time" was the inspiration for the book.
Weaver may be giving the ending away but his description of the book makes it sound like it has an interesting concept.
Weaver was born in Parkersburg, W.Va. He graduated from Parkersburg High School in 1949 in the top 20 percent of his class. He then went into the Air Force and served during the Korean War years from 1950 to 1954. Many of his friends went to Korea but he never did.
He came home after serving the military and got a job with DuPont in Washington, W. Va., near his home and stayed there for the next 11 years. He was married in 1955 and they had a son, James Weaver Jr.
They moved to Florida where they another son, Phillip Weaver. Weaver worked at Kennedy Space Center with TWA while he worked to become a licensed engineer. When TWA lost the contract at Kennedy, Weaver went to work with construction on nuclear plants and moved around a lot in the next few years. They lived in Dothan while he was working at Farley Nuclear Plant. Later, while working in South Carolina, Weaver was on the road when he got word that his wife had an aneurism and died without ever waking up.
After the death of his wife, Weaver moved back to Dothan and went to work at the nuclear plant again so that his son could attend Troy University at Dothan. He later moved to Homestead, Fla., where he worked at another nuclear plant. The time there was very eventful because it was during the time when Homestead was practically wiped out by Hurricane Andrew.
It was while was living in Florida that he met his second wife, Damaris, who is known by the family as "D." They were married in May of 1989.
When Weaver got ready to retire, they looked around to find a place where they could live. They were thinking about moving to Milton when their granddaughter intervened. Their son had become a minister and was pastoring a church in Evergreen. His daughter saw a house for sale near Brewton in the "Thrifty Nickel" and told them it would be perfect.
Weaver set out to do the thing he had always wanted to do-write. He took a course in writing children's books and wrote some stories, but never could get any of them published. He saw a country mill and it gave him the idea to write "Murder at the Mill." This has led him to write a series of murder mysteries with the second being "Golden Bricks." One publisher told him that he needed to work on how to do dialogue. He said he had gotten a lot of advise and been to a lot of writers' workshops. One publisher was very interested but told him he needed to do more work on his writing.
He found Morris Publishing through a website, www.writersmarket.com who he says is very careful about what they take. They have worked with him, giving advice and letting him know what he needs to do to be published.
With the help of Danielle Blankenship doing the editing, his first book has now gone to the publisher and should be ready sometime in August. At that time he will have a book signing, probably at the Brewton Public Library.