She’s a fitness instructor, business owner, and mom to three kids, but Rye resident Lee Sandford, 54, wanted one more title.
“I didn’t want to be that person who always wanted to write a book. I wanted to have done it,” said Sandford, whose first novel, “The Glass Pass,” was recently published.
The founder of Thryve, formerly Boot Camp by the Beach in Rye Town Park, and a former contributor of health articles to The Rye Record, Sandford is married to Graeme and mom to Gregor, Anna, and Kirsty.
Sandford, who writes under her maiden name Lee Carey, started working on the novel seven years ago, even though she had never written fiction before.
“I’ve always wanted to, but family life takes over,” she said. “When my youngest, Kirsty, was a senior in school, it gave me the opportunity to get going on it.” Big shout out to Kirsty’s dance competitions, where Sandford watched her daughter perform for 15 minutes but then had to sit for hours while other dancers competed. “That gave me a lot of free time! There is not much else to do in places like Atlantic City,” she said with a laugh.
“The Glass Pass” is set in Glasgow, Scotland, where Sandford and her family are originally from. (Only Kirsty was born in the United States.) A group of disparate characters hide out in a long-lost spy station, each with their own reason for being there. There is a hint of mystery, but the focus is really on the interactions of the group: a police sergeant, his young colleague, a future Scottish lord, a young wife fleeing a dangerous husband, and an overwhelmed mom, just looking for some fun. Oh, and did we mention the man on the run from the law?
A Goodreads reviewer called it “a totally engrossing but easy read that grabs you right away and delivers on its early promise of mystery and romance with a fun, surprising, and heartfelt conclusion. I highly recommend!”
Sandford said her inspiration came after reading Frederick Bachman’s novel “Anxious People,” where a group is held hostage in an apartment during an open house.
“It’s a hostage situation but it doesn’t feel dangerous at any point,” she said. “It’s more about the people. That’s what I wanted to look at — how people behave when they are put into this crucible. And all the little twists and mysteries that unravel along the way.”
An accountant by training, Sandford did not take any writing classes to prepare.
“I decided to just go with the flow,” she said. “I didn’t even write it in chronological order. I would jump in and write a scene that I really wanted to write, and then strung them all together.”
She did go back to Scotland for research. She didn’t really have to, but her children are all there now, and she still owns her parents’ house, so why not?
“I went to this beautiful part of the country and was inspired by the surroundings,” she said.
When she finished writing, she gave the manuscript to her family to read and urged them not to hold back criticisms.
“To me, it was more important that I set out to do something hard, and I did it,” she said. “This was already a dream come true.”
A friend texted her a note that said, “You’re my hero. I’ve always wanted to write a book, and you’ve gone and done it.”
“And I thought that’s exactly how I wanted to feel. Yeah, I’ve done it,” Sandford said.
Then came the hard part: Trying to find an agent. Sandford brought her organizational skills from her former life as a chartered accountant — her job when she was living in Scotland — to create a focused attack. Despite her best efforts, she found no takers.
But with Sandford, no is not an option.
“I always said I wouldn’t let pride get in the way and would self-publish. So, I did!” she said. It wasn’t quite as easy as all that: There were many decisions great and small to make, but a friend in the U.K. who also has self-published a book guided her through.
The experience has been so satisfying that Sandford is now two-thirds of the way through her second novel, which follows “The Glass Pass” in an anticipated trilogy, “The Glenberry Chronicles.”
“I like to think I have passed something on to my children,” Sandford said. “When they are in their 40s and maybe feel like they are in a rut, hopefully they will say, ‘My mom published a book at 54!’ and take inspiration from that.”
Sandford will be on a panel with another local author, Karen Dukess, at Rye’s Watershed Literary Festival at the Rye Meeting house on Sunday, Sept. 28 at 5 p.m.
“The Glass Pass” can be found at Arcade Books and will be in the Rye Library soon.
