Catherine West decided to write about an issue close to home as she penned her second book, ‘Hidden in the Heart’.She was adopted at birth and always had questions about who her biological parents were. That curiosity eventually led her on a search to find her mother in her early 30s.The author said her latest book is an entirely fictional story, but many of the emotions the main character goes through were driven by her own experience.“Some of the little bits and pieces are similar to my experience, but it’s definitely not my story verbatim at all,” she said.‘Hidden in the Heart’ is about a young woman, named Claire, who goes through an early life crisis after losing her mother and suffering a miscarriage.Her husband is fine with trying again for another baby, but she can’t handle the emotions that come from that and turns to pills and alcohol for relief.Claire uses the search to find her biological family as a way to see if there was something in her medical history that could explain the miscarriage.She ends up reconnecting with her birth family, a strong group of characters who help her to get better.Mrs West was already a mother when she began her own personal search for her family and said she was also keen to know more about her medical history.The more she found out about her past, the more she wanted to know about who her birth mother was and why she wasn’t kept.“So the closer I got to finding her the more important it was to finish it,” she said. “I was not necessarily hoping for a relationship because that doesn’t always work out that way.“I always advise people to be very sure this is what they want to do [before they start digging].“But for me it was definitely a part of my personal journey I had to take because I was able to look back to see a lot of my behaviours as a child and teenager related to the whole abandonment issue.”She started the search after her adopted mother passed away; she got approval and backing from her adopted father. The hardest part was gathering information because adoption records were kept closed in Bermuda at the time of her birth in the 60s.Friends who heard her story encouraged her to write it down.Mrs West said she it was always “a big dream” of hers to be a writer. She worked as a summer student at The Royal Gazette, but she quickly decided journalism wasn’t the best career route for her.After pursuing English at the university level, she was looking to do something with writing, but then got married and decided to stay at home with her children.She really started writing fiction once her children were settled in primary school.“Writing is just one of those things you can’t not do,” she said. “It’s almost like being an artist or singer; that’s who I am. I tried to give it up for a while because the timing wasn’t right but it’s hard. It’s always there in the back of your mind and I knew one day I would get back to it when the time was right and once the kids were in school.”Her first book, ‘Yesterday’s Tomorrow’ is about a female journalist who goes to Vietnam to cover the war and make a name for herself. She meets a photographer and they fall in love; he turns out to be a CIA agent. “It’s adventure and intrigue,” she said.The Christian novel, published in 2011 by Oaktara, has been a difficult sell in the spiritual market because it’s considered ‘edgy fiction’.Mrs West said most faith-based books are sweet romances, but more people are becoming interested in reading about everyday, imperfect characters who find salvation, thanks to the grace of God.She said there are spiritual themes in both of her books, although she tries not to hit the reader over the head with it.“I would say that the characters are on a spiritual journey both of them.“In ‘Yesterday’s Tomorrow’, the main character is very estranged from God and doesn’t want anything to do with Him in the beginning of the story and all her experiences along the way point her back to her faith.“So there are themes through the books, but I wouldn’t bash the readers over their heads with it, that’s not my intention,” she said.“For me, my faith is everything and I wouldn’t be able to write a book without including something in there about spirituality because that’s who I am.“I don’t want to preach at anyone but just want them to know God is real, whether they believe it or not, and that is where my characters are at.”Since writing the books she has met people who praise her for giving them something to think about. She has also been invited to take part in a few women’s Bible study groups and talk about her stories.The books are available on amazon.com.Mrs West will sign copies of her novel at Book Cellar’s on Water Street in St George’s on March 30 at 4pm.Useful website: www.catherinejwest.com.