Amy MacKinnon never believed she'd be a book author. It was a wild dream. Instead, her early career path propelled her into politics-an area she felt best suited her at the time. After all, she reasoned, you have to be smart to be a writer, right? Right. That explains why Amy is now one of the most talked about new novelists on the planet.

Her book, "Tethered", was published in the United States last summer, and has since been picked up by 10 foreign publishers. She is preparing for a book tour in Italy in June, and, her life, she admits, is much different than she ever expected it would be.

Indeed, Amy started her writing career by writing her own obituary. It's a good exercise she recently told a group attending an author event at the Scituate Town Library. For MacKinnon, it helped her focus and ask the hard questions, like, "What do I want to do with my life?"

After leaving her job in politics to raise her three children, Amy did some freelance writing for newspapers, but it never occurred to her that writing fiction could be fun-or even in her future. The process really took shape for her when she started to listen to and interact with other authors. For example, it was in that same Scituate Library room a few years ago that Amy sat in the audience to listen and learn from Claire Cook, author of "Must Love Dogs' and "Life's a Beach", among other titles.

Cook writes humorous suburban novels. And, Amy, following the advice of Hemingway to write what you know, also writes about suburbia-but she tackles much darker subjects. That's because, "[Claire] is funny, I'm not," Amy explained with a smile.

Actually, Amy is funny in an upbeat, witty, and comforting way. She is not anything like the main character in her novel, Clara Marsh. Clara, an undertaker in a Whitman funeral home who doesn't believe in God, is more at ease preparing the dead in lonely surroundings, than she is interacting with the people around her. The story centers around one particular death, an unidentified little girl-known only as Precious Doe-whose body Clara prepared for burial three years earlier.

MacKinnon delivers the story in a smooth, straight-forward style that grabs the reader immediately with its opening line and leaves you surprised, and wanting to read the book all over again upon digesting the final word.

Upon starting the writing process, "I knew the first and last line, but I had no idea what was in between," Amy said.

The twists and turns of the story take the reader on a suspenseful, sobering, and sometimes haunting journey as Clara's own tortured past is revealed. And, while this book is a work of fiction, it takes place on the South Shore-referencing the places we know-the Marshfield Fair, Kennedy's Country Gardens, and Tedeschi's, making this imaginary experience feel so real.

And, then there's Precious Doe, who is more than just a character in a book. Amy wrote a fictitious account, but the real Precious Doe was a 3-year-old girl who was found in the woods in Kansas City in 2001. She was naked, decapitated, and nameless.

Amy recently wrote a blog that details the moment years later when she first heard the little girl's name. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-mackinnon/precious-doe_b_139832.html.

"That spring day in 2005, while I sat in my car, prosecutors from Jackson County announced the arrests of her parents and her true name: Erica Michelle Maria Green. It wasn't until the line of cars behind me started honking in unison that I realized I was weeping, mourning for a child I never knew."

So it is no surprise that Tethered is dedicated to Erica Michelle Maria Green "and all the other children who were never loved enough".

"I was worried that people would think [the book] is too dark," Amy said. "But life is dark, just read the newspapers."

Tethered, however, is more about life, faith, choices, and the ties that bind, than it is about darkness and death.

"I really feel that some of the [book] reviews missed the point," said Scituate Town Library director, Kathy Meeker, during the author event featuring Amy, which was sponsored by Front Street Book Shop and Friends of the Scituate Town Library. Meeker, like many Tethered readers, could not put the book down.  "This is a cut above 99% of the fiction out there," she said. "We can't wait to see what's next!"

MacKinnon is a thoughtful writer who effectively brings her characters to life, likely because they are real to her. Clara, for example, unveiled her story to Amy in pieces.

"From the beginning it was clear that hers was a life of trauma," MacKinnon writes on her website. "It took months to complete the first few pages, and still I didn't know her name."

MacKinnon said soon it was clear that her name was Clara Marsh, and that was solidified when, while browsing in an antique shop, she spotted a yellowed envelope with a one-cent stamp and the name Clara Marsh scripted across the front.

 It took Amy 18 months to write Tethered-six months on chapter one alone. She would get up at 4:00 a.m. to have two hours to write before starting her hectic day caring for her kids. She labored over every word. "On a good day I'd get out two paragraphs," she said. But when she typed that last word of the book, and celebrated her accomplishment, little did she know that it was just the beginning. It was then that she entered a world of literary agents, editors, re-writes, publishing auctions, art directors, and travel.

"This business requires huge patience and a lot of self-esteem," Amy said. "There is a lot of rejection...The writers who are published are the writers who never gave up."

She never gave up. And now, "I'm living the dream," Amy said.

To learn more about Amy MacKinnon, visit her website at: www.amymackinnon.com

By Stephanie Neil

Stephanie Neil is a journalist. Her business, technology, and human interest stories have appeared in a variety of print and online newspapers and magazines including eWeek, Managing Automation, The Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Huggies Baby Network, South Shore Woman, and The Boston Globe.  She lives on the South Shore with her two kids, two cats, and a dog. Contact info: stephanieneil@comcast.net  or 781-378-1652. Follow her on Twitter @StephanieNeil