Try a novel from former Devils Lake resident, Cynthia Engh McCoy
Cynthia Engh McCoy wasn’t always an author, in fact she did many different things during her life as far as a career was concerned, starting out as a skating pro and instructor during her time in Devils Lake. She traveled the world as a skater with the Ice Follies and was featured on the Wheaties cereal box for a while in that capacity. Now she calls herself an author, and artist and an entrepreneur.
She graduated from Devils Lake Central High School in 1963. During her years in the Lake Region one of the jobs she worked was at The Ranch, supper club.
Later she moved to the Twin Cities lured by the big city and a job in modeling and merchandising.
Most recently, however, she tried her hand at writing a novel and it turned out pretty darned good. It took her three to five years to self publish her first book and she has found some success with it, although she was nearly in in her 80s by the time the process was completed.
A job in radio and television advertising brought her to the west coast, she now lives in Rancho Palos Verdes, California with her husband, Ron. McCoy loves traveling and has been to Europe many times as well as volunteer mission trips to Guatemala. She comes back to North Dakota as often as she can, too, keeping a number of friendships from the past close to her heart. While in Devils Lake she always makes a point of dining at The Ranch.
She says she is considering doing a sequil to ‘The Property” someday and perhaps she will.
She set her novel, “The Property,” first in North Dakota, but not Devils Lake, the author’s hometown, but in Grand Forks. She told this reporter that she did that so the people she knew from her home town wouldn’t think she had patterned her cast of characters on any of them.
When asked why she started this venture, she gave credit to her English teacher at Central High, Mr. James Kling. “He’s the reason I always wanted to be a writer,” McCoy stated. “I give him the credit for being my inspiration to become an author. Thank you, Mr. Kling!”
The book’s author’s notes state that it is an adventure story about a young woman named Jady Gray whose life is turned upside down after her grandfather’s death. Her siblings inherit his fortune and Jady, his favorite grandchild, is left with a puzzling inheritance: his signet ring, a truck of papers and an undisclosed property in southern England. However, the summary notes continue, she cannot claim the property until she is 25, a decade away.
Facing heartbreak and an uncertain future, Jady embarks on a journey to build her own life and solve the mystery her grandfather left behind. Her travels take her through different eras and locations:
- Depression-era North Dakota, where she must navigate a new world alone.
- Big city Chicago in the 1940s, where she matures and gains life experience.
- Post-war England, where she finally arrives at the mysterious property, unearths a hidden treasure and finds a new romance.
The Property is available on Amazon and Kindle, if you are interested in purchasing a copy for yourself or a loved one in time for Christmas.
This reporter enjoyed the story and found at times it was a real page turner, as McCoy said it was intended to be, I recommend it to you, our readers of the Devils Lake Journal.
