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Janet Wells released her historical fiction novel Taming the Wild Grape in 2023.
The novel was based on research she found when investigating a "twiglet" branch of her mother’s side of the family tree.
The sequel, Secrets not Shared, is the continued story of the Pelton family and Gustavus, a small township in Trumbull County, Ohio.
It focuses on Chloe Pelton, the widow of Josiah Pelton, and the risks she takes along with her youngest daughter Phoebe to help fugitive slaves reach the town of Ashtabula.
Mrs Wells said from the moment she first came across the name of Josiah Pelton she felt drawn to share his story.
"It didn’t take me long to realise that the story of the Pelton family could not be told in just one book. That first book was the beginning of something that occupies a lot of my mind these days.
"I have no trouble spending hours, days, weeks researching the history and happenings of 19th-century America. The problem is the more I research the more I want to tell everyone what I have learned.
"I can spend the whole day in my office researching and reading about life in a rural community of Ohio in the 1800s, only to emerge at the end of the day feeling like present day New Zealand is a foreign place and I don’t belong there."
She said her first novel was well received in both the United States and New Zealand.
"A descendant of an 1804 resident of Gustavus wrote a review and in it he said: ‘Very well written especially for someone not from Gustavus. She is an excellent story teller, it is well researched’.
"Another reviewer from New Zealand wrote: ‘I love the detail of your writing. It makes it easy to picture what people looked like and the way the countryside looked’.
"How could I not be pleased with comments like that? People who have read the first book have helped to keep me working on the second book as well."
She said the newest novel would include additions such as a character and relationship list, as some readers had found it difficult to keep up with all the different family members.
"Of course I didn’t because I had lived with them every day for over three years. Readers also suggested that a map of the developing town of Gustavus would be interesting, so I included that as well."
Mrs Wells said she was excited to continue the story beyond the upcoming sequel.
"There are plans for a third book in the series. The third book is called Talk to Me, Mary and details the life and struggles that Josiah Pelton’s granddaughter Mary Sophrania and her husband Harvey Lyman [endure] as they move further west into Iowa to find the perfect life.
"For this book I have drawn material from letters which Mary Sophrania Pelton wrote to her mother who was still living in Gustavus, Ohio at the time. This will probably be the last book about the Pelton family but who knows?
"During a research trip to the US last August I was approached by a friend and asked to write the story of her great aunt’s life in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.
"I am thinking about writing Great Aunt Alice’s story but I am also working on a book about my own life which I think I will call I Didn’t Know We Were Poor.
An official book launch for Secrets not Shared is planned for May 11, 2.30pm-4pm, at the Waimate Hotel in Queen St.
