Strafford News

Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce issued the following announcement on January 28.

Long-time Dover Chamber member Noreen Biehl has recently published her very first novel, titled ‘Guilty News’, which is a fictional mystery based near her hometown of Niagara Falls, NY. The fictional story is inspired by Noreen’s career at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital and ‘A Place of Healing, A History of Wentworth-Douglass Hospital’, which is a historical piece that Biehl published in 2016.

“In many ways it’s autobiographical and based on my 30 years working as a hospital spokesperson,” says Biehl. “When I wrote the history, I added a prologue and epilogue – both fictionalized by bringing the original hospital administrator, Grace Stetson, to life in 1906 and 2016. The idea to bring some fiction into the history came from my writing friends. After I retired from my role at the hospital in 2015, I joined the Jewitt Writers Group and their suggestions have been invaluable as I finished the history and began a novel.”

Biehl says the parts to the novel began to fall into place in her head while she was on her daily walk in 2018.

“I needed a plot and characters and since I am a huge fan of mysteries and thrillers, I needed to solve a murder,” she said. “The main character was easy – someone I knew very well – a hospital spokesperson.  I did not want to make this about Wentworth-Douglass, so I created a unique hospital, set it in Grand Island, NY – just outside my hometown of Niagara Falls, NY. The rest fell into place. Each chapter led to another and another.”

Although the ideas came to Biehl quickly, the process of creating the novel took four years in total. It took about a year to write the 100,000 words, another year to edit and cut unnecessary sections, and then she had several friends review the manuscript and provide feedback. The beginning of the story, the ending, and the title were changed several times throughout the process.

“Some days I could write two thousand words and other days I’d spend hours just rewriting one paragraph,” she said. “I had to cut out some sections even though they were some of my favorites, and got it down to 87,000 words.”

Because the novel includes an advanced orthopedic medicine hospital, and has characters like a professional hockey player, Biehl had to put a lot of research into the novel. She researched things like advances in the medical field, bio lab procedures, NHL hockey seasons and player salaries, and so much more.

Biehl began her love for seeking information and writing in high school, as she wrote for the school newspaper. She went on to major in English/Journalism before taking a job as a reporter for Foster’s. She then moved on to become Assistant PR Director at Wentworth-Douglass before ending her career as the VP of Community Relations.

You can purchase the brand new novel, ‘Guilty News’, on amazon at www.amazon.com/author/noreen.biehl.

Original source can be found here.