Before she was Bette Lischke, the author of In the Waters of Time was known to Ridgefielders as Cathy Hanlon.
Not everyone sees a ship and craves a story. But native Ridgefielder Betty Lischke, whose latest novel, In the Waters of Time, was published this past January, came across the story of a lost Liverpool ship and found herself immediately immersed in the tragedy.
“A shocking, personal, almost sordid story, that stayed in my mind,” she said. “I wanted to know how that could have happened — to live it, to make sense of it.”
The result is a 234 page paperback novel that transcends time, history, and psychology. In the Waters of Time tells the story of Jane Eliot, a 33-year old woman whose visions of a past life as a 19th-Century teacher torment and compel her. The book is “geared to adult readers,” Lischke writes on her website, bettelischke.com, and has garnered positive acclaim from readers across the country.
Before she was Bette Lischke, Ridgefielders knew her as Cathy Hanlon. She moved from New Canaan to Ridgefield her freshman year of high school and lived in town for three years. After relocating to New Fairfield for her senior year, the family moved back to Ridgefield in 1961, and her brother, George, still lives in town.
Lischke currently lives with her husband in Newburyport, Mass., where she is active in theater, the Newburyport Choral Society, and a local peace movement. She also dotes on her seven grandchildren.
Lischke was not always a novelist.
“I have always been a writer, but I didn’t know I needed to write until I was 30,” she said.
She began writing short stories while taking care of her three children. In the past, Lischke has worked as a bookkeeper, executive recruiter, social worker, nanny, and even a hypnotist.
“I became a hypnotist after reading The Unquiet Dead, a book about entity involvement, and practiced hypnotism,” she said. “I enjoyed doing past life regressions.”
Beyond writing novels, Ms. Lischke has also written stories, songs, and plays. She has produced a CD of her story, Santa Claus and the Elf Scout Leaders, which includes seven original songs. She has also written a three-act play for children’s theater, Santa’s Magic, and continues to work on several other creative projects.
“I have the beginnings of a novel that answers another question, and a play that needs producing, skits that make me laugh, and a slew of short stories to assemble. But I feel that this book, In the Waters of Time, is my fourth child, a long time in the making,” she said. “I am so happy to walk with it and share it.”
Her effort at fiction was complicated by a need for critical readers. “The most difficult part of writing the book was finding good readers for good critique,” she says. “I am most proud of the honesty of my book, and of its spiritual depth. I write in order to learn, and I expect to share that learning with my readers.”
The publishing process was also complex. “Publishing would have been a lot easier if I were famous or if I were graduating from a collegiate master of fine arts program. I wasted eons of time writing queries to agents and publishers, and finally looked into independent publishing. As a writer friend once said to me, ‘No one has the right to tell us we can’t publish our books.’”
In the Waters of Time is published by SDP Publishing, and the book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and a handful of New England independent book stores.
“Whether we live in China, Manhattan or Ridgefield, we are here for the singular purpose of loving,” she said. “As I enjoy visiting mansions, workhouses and ships of other times and other lives, so will my friends in Ridgefield.”
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