More Information

Please visit me at DebraAnastasia.com so I can keep you updated on Poughkeepsie's progress to print. Thank you! or email me at Debra.Anastasia@gmail.com

Editing again

I've had a nibble on the story, but a revision is in order before any decisions are made. I need to decide how much I am willing to change the story. Some of it seems to have a life of its own and I'm not sure I could do the story justice if very much is altered.

I'll crack open the document later and try and look at it with a harder perspective. So that's an update, I'd imagine I'll have more information in about a month or so. Thanks for still carrying a flame for this story, I can't wait to get it on pages. 

The full manuscript

Is in two places right now, and I am waiting. Waiting for a positive answer, hopefully. I check my email a good ten times a day and while it loads I hold my breath.

It's amazing how this process works, it is so time consuming and yet it is all for the hope of a chance. Everyday I am more and more grateful for the readers I have now, it is so nice to have that connection so simply.

I have a certain and uncertain time I am required to wait while the manuscript is considered. There are moments in the day that I try to send the story positive energy, which is probably stupid. I think of my sweet homeless soul, who really only lives in my head, but he is in so many hearts I feel like he is real in a way. Mouse and the knitting needles? His story, his chapter. I want to run my hands over it and know that he is being remembered by someone else as well.

When I have doubts, (which, oh my gosh, is all the time) I try and picture my favorite scenes and believe in them.

Lick, bite, blow.


When he plays the piano and the music falls over her like a waterfall outside the church.

Smile 200.

The sorry tattoo, and how she erased it in the sun.

 My mobster, so vicious and so determined to protect his brothers.

The weddings.

The funeral.

It's still so real to me, though the story was complete a long time ago now.

So I guess this is an update of my losing my mind just a little bit, the more I try the more I want it. The more I learn, the more I realize it is such a hard thing to put into reality.

Wayras Park and the Hudson River

We were driving past this restaurant by the station "Bella Luci"

The train on its way to New York City.

They were refurbishing this, couldn't get closer.

Recognize his shade spot?

There is the parking lot, where he walks her to the car.

The City welcomes us.

There is the platform!

Such an easy word to spell.

What it looks like if you are about to walk into the sign.

The station from the road.

Those third rails are a bitch.

A little backwards reading.

It was a dark and stormy night. Or just olden times.

Just love this picture.

You can see the top of the church in this shot.

When I went up to visit my New York family last fall,  I begged Mr. The King to bring his camera and take some pictures for me. I love how he frames stuff and we had a gorgeous day. I wonder if the actual station matches the one you saw in your head. When I was writing I pictured the Rhinecliff, New York station, But the Rhinecliff train would not be the one she would take to the city in real life, so Poughkeepsie became the destination. I picked the title "Poughkeepsie" because it was simply the most interesting word in the first chapter.

The Query Letters went out!

I sent six query letters out via email on Memorial day. It was heart-pounding to press the "send" button. I know I have to prepare for the rejection letters, (if I am even lucky enough to get those!) but I still felt like it was a step in the right direction. At the very least, it gave me some experience summarizing and trying to form a "hook" for Poughkeepsie. I still love the story, which is nice because I have read it a boopazillion times. I still cry at "Patterns" like someone is pinching me. So now starts the waiting, which is a very inactive thing to do, but the manuscript is clean and as ready as I will ever get it. Hopefully, I am another step closer to getting Poughkeepsie back into the world where it belongs. ~MTK

So where is Poughkeepsie Anyway?

Poughkeepsie started as a one shot. Just put online to hold the story's place in my mind. After reviewers requested more; I added to it.


So I sat and figured out how I wanted the story to end, and commenced writing from there. It is titled "Poughkeepsie" because it was simply the most interesting word in the first chapter. I had no idea I was writing a book, even more clueless that I was writing a long one. I finished Poughkeepsie and left the story online for about two months.


 One day I received information from a friend that my story was being translated. I found the web site and requested that it be removed because it was done without my permission. I had copyrighted the words of my story, with all the Twilight names changed here in America, so I felt that my simple request would be honored. Suffice it to say, it wasn't.


 I went back to my story and peeked at the traffic, it had dwindled since the close of the story tremendously. I proceeded to pull Poughkeepsie on the off chance that the people who stole my story had not thought to copy all the chapters.

 Now,  with the story down, I had some thinking to do. I never dreamed I would write. I don't do it for a living, I never dabbled in it at all. I am a mom and a substitute teacher. I have my degree in Political Science. My only plans for my career included getting my Masters in teaching. I still love teaching and enjoy it immensely.


But now I have a story whose entire message was one I was proud of, a story about women loving fiercely. The brothers who were they only family each other had touched me. So now I am daring to dream that I could one  day see it in print. Honestly, I had to come to terms with spending so much time an effort on something that made my family no money at all. Writing on the internet is a demanding past time to have, and I don't regret it.

I have had probably 99.9% of readers tell me to go for it, to try and publish this story. There are a few that say it shouldn't be done and although I beg to differ, I respect that opinion.

Publishing, trying to publish Poughkeepsie is just for me and the characters I created. I want to let my characters breath and stand tall between the pages of a cover. I want the women that stand in front the  men they love to know that they are not alone when they love not for money, lust or presents, but for heart and commitment to feel justified. When you love simply and basically there are rewards.


When I think of certain chapters I wrote to honor the people I love, like Murphy's Oil, I want to get to hand a copy of the book to my mother in law and flip it open and say "This here? This is how I see you."

When I wrote the wedding scenes? I wrote my wedding down. The crying? The vows? That chapter sums up my love for my husband.

When my heroine stands in front of a gun, when she does CPR, when she prays from somewhere deep inside her? I pulled that from my mother's heart, the place where I keep my love for my kids. I want to point to it when they are older and say "See this here? That's what I feel for you. I love you so much my heart is yours forever, long after I leave this world, my love for you will remain."

The Dad character? That's my own father who would do anything for his girls. The girls friendships? My sister, my mother.

So it's not just a story to me. It is, of course, a fiction. But to see it in print? Wow. All this stuff I keep in my heart would belong to more than just me.

Poughkeepsie is in the final stages of editing. I have racked through it so many times. Then I will send out query letters to agents, publishers. If I get no takers, I will print if myself online. The information for getting a copy of Poughkeepsie will be on this site.