Introduction

The peaceful coastal town of Milford-Haven is unaware that reporter Chris Christian is being murdered while investigating a half-built house on a bluff overlooking the ocean. Artist Miranda Jones encounters oil magnate Zack Calvin who might be the man of her dreams. Meanwhile on Main Street, Sally is dishing up home cooking and perfecting her eavesdropping on everything from Jack Sawyer's nefarious building practices to Environmental Planning Commissioner Samantha Hugo's secret journal.

The Milford-Haven novels center on the fictitious town of Milford-Haven, in the Central Coast of California. Based on the popular radio drama Milford-Haven USA, the story (which will be completed in 12 novels) chronicles the involvement of town residents and visitors in multiple issues including: romantic relationships, ecology, coastal development and erosion, off-shore oil rigs, adoption, the search for lost children and parents, battered women and domestic violence, espionage and journalism.

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Excerpt

Chapter 20

from Samantha Hugo’s Journal

(Volume 47, maroon cloth cover)

Written at The Cove

There’s a woman in the post office I don’t know well, but often see. When she saw me carrying my journal, she asked if I wrote in it every day. No, I said, but often. Oh, brother, she said, I could fill it up for you. We laughed, but I sensed her pain.

She launched into an abbreviated version of her story—that she’d been hurt by a man. In her head, she knew he was no good for her. But her heart just said, So what? So she lives with this division between the logical and the intuitive sides of herself. It was the same with all her women friends, she said. They’d all decided men were hopelessly stupid and callous about feelings.

Thinking about her afterward, this seemed sad. Not that I don’t agree men can be stupid—it’s amazing how often I think that about Jack! But as women, we’re not doing a good job either, if we’re relegating our intuitions to hopelessly romantic flutterings that cannot inform our choices or infuse us with courage to know what we feel and say what we need.

The linear knowledge of the head can be so vital. In meetings, sometimes, I’ve seen men cut through a morass of details and get right to the issue with a clarity I wish I had. I’ve seen Lorraine chair the Town Council meetings with that same straight-line approach, so it’s not always a gender issue. But I must admit—sometimes grudgingly—men make the world a better place by providing clarity and focus.

Equally important is the contextual, circular knowledge of the heart—often the purview of women. I’m beginning to wonder if the heart isn’t just as much a thinking organ as the brain. It knows so much, yet its information isn’t presented in verbiage. Have we lost its language? Is that why we can’t hear what the heart is trying to tell us? We hear something, but dismiss it as “foolish” or “hopelessly romantic” or “sentimental.” That minimizes its true import.

Maybe it’s because of the noticeable absence of a man in my life, but for so long I’ve ignored the heart and been governed by the head. I’ve made a practice of it, dismissing my feelings as immature vestiges of sentimentality. But all along, the heart has been ticking, and—perhaps more important—knowing. Now it’s made its presence known with an unmistakable depth of emotion far beyond something I can relegate or control.

The anguish of losing a child no one can know but the parent who has suffered the loss. I wouldn’t have believed that thirty years ago. I thought I knew all about loss then.

(Samantha's journal continues...) view abbreviated excerpt only...

Discussion Questions

Book Club and Reading Group Guide
Topics for Discussion "What the Heart Knows"

1. What are the dynamics of a small town? What is nurturing and supportive about a small town? What is intrusive and destructive?

2. Why do people keep journals? Why does Samantha keep a journal? What function does journal writing perform in her life? Is Samantha in crisis? At what point have we encountered her in her life?

3. Is Chris careful or foolhardy? Does she place her job or her personal life first? Was her trip to the Clarke house impetuous or well calculated?

4. Why is Jack so angry? What in his background might have happened to Jack to cause his emotionally abusive behavior toward the people in his life?

5. What makes an artist essentially different from other people? As an artist, what are Miranda's priorities?

6. Why do some women manipulate every personal and business relationship? What are Zelda's motives? What's her history? Why is Cynthia so calculating at such a young age?

7. What is Zack's attraction to Cynthia? What is his ambivalence toward her? What attracts him about Miranda?

8. How does a person tell whether or not they've met the "right" person? Is Miranda responding to a deep and soulful recognition when she meets Zack? Is she wise in pursuing a relationship with him, or is she treading on dangerous ground?

9. Why is this book called What The Heart Knows? Does this phrase apply only to Samantha and her journal writing? How might this apply to Miranda's meeting Zack? To what extent does Sally trust what her heart knows? As the title for the first of a series of twelve books, is it possible this is a theme for Milford-Haven itself, and everyone who's drawn to the town?

Weblinks

»	Haven Books-- The Milford-Haven Novels
»	Reviews
»	Prologue

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