She didn’t write all that much.

Now, nine years into her retirement, Deborah Madar can’t stop writing and has released her second novel, “Dark Riddle.”

She said her son, Jesse Stratton, who resides in Los Angeles, Calif., kept after her to start writing.

“And I, you know, once I sat down, the premise for the first book came to me, right out of a page in my daily life,” she said. But so I sat down and started to write that book. It took me nine months, and I just, I loved every minute of it.”

Deborah Madar

Her first novel “Convergence,” was published in 2014.

Madar said her new book took about six years to write.

The author said her routine is simple. She writes four days a week and usually begins each day before 9 a.m. She said that when writing her goal is to get words on a page than to set a word count goal for the day. She said when she has finished her session for the day, she writes in her journal. “I always write in my journal what it is I want to do the next day.”

Madar added that she does not like to edit day-to-day because she is rewriting as she is writing instead waiting to finish the project and then edit it and rewrite what needs to be rewritten.

“When a child goes ‘bad,’ who, or what, is to blame? Until the day that 16-year-old Luke Clayton commits a heinous crime and then takes his own life, his struggling single mother of five values his serious nature and dependability. Luke leaves no explanation for his horrendous actions and no suicide note, but inside the dead teen’s jacket is a short story. His devastated mother and the author of that story become unlikely partners as they plumb the depths of Luke’s shadowy journey from good son to evil murderer,” Madar said of the synopsis.

She calls the author in the book her supporting actor. “I have a character who is a writer, a successful writer. A short, short story. I get to see that mismatch as it’s found, and this kid’s body commits this atrocity. And, you know, they can’t find any suicide notes or anything on this computer.” she added.

Some novelists sometimes write about writers and how they motivate certain people. “There have been through history these writers who have created something that somehow motivates someone who is emotionally disturbed in some way to commit a crime and one of the things that my supporting character, the writer does, is just as easy as this. Of course he is highly-disturbed and highly-interested in figuring out what was missing,” she added.

Madar said she wants readers to understand is her book is not about a school shooting, but rather a book about a mother’s horror and grief, and eventually figuring out what she missed. “But she acts and she doesn’t get a complete picture and neither does the author of this kid, but they come close to putting some pieces together.” the author noted.

“Dark Riddle” was published April 17 by NFB, based in Buffalo. It’s available as a hard cover and also available as an ebook. To learn more about the author, go to deborahmadar.tumblr.com.