By now, it's as rote as the lyrics to "Happy Birthday." Every first-time novelist, emerging from any creative writing or grad workshop in the world, knows it's best to "write what you know."

But here's the tricky part: how do you write what you know without blatantly relying on a thinly-disguised autobiography as the plot skeleton?

Well, consider "Night Blindness" (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press), the mesmerizing debut novel from Essex writer Susan Strecker. After aimless years away from home, trying to forget her past, protagonist Jensen "Jenny" Reilly returns to her family's Connecticut home to help care for her father, Sterling, an ex-NFL star who's been diagnosed with brain cancer.

It's not that Jenny hasn't missed her mother and father or her first love, Ryder Anderson. Instead, she abandoned them and her own promising career as a pianist because, after a horrific night in which her beloved brother, Will, died in a fall, she blames herself for the fatal incident.

It's an intriguing hook for a novel - and, yes, Strecker spent years nursing her own father, who was terminally ill with a malignant brain tumor. She also lost an older brother she worshipped (in a car accident hundreds of miles away).

Despite the overlapping nature of these elements, the real-life events bear little resemblance to the narrative in "Night Blindness."

"It's still hard to even talk about my dad and brother without the hairs on my neck standing up," Strecker admits in a phone conversation from the home she shares in Essex with her husband and two children. "I miss them every day. But, was I just writing about my dad and brother with different names? No. In the book, any similarities would be the feelings of love and loss and grief rather than just repeating details from my life. Even the types of brain tumors and the experiences of the illnesses were very different."

Strecker started writing the manuscript that would become "Night Blindness" during the last month of her father's life in 1998. He was in Florida for treatment and, though there were visits from family and friends, Strecker's was the only permanent presence.

She remembers, "When I wasn't with my dad, I was by and large by myself in a hotel room. I started writing because the grief was eating me inside-out. And once I started, I found it a very cathartic experience."

And while Strecker has led a tremendously varied life - she has a master's degree in marriage and family therapy, worked in the field of adolescent alcohol and drug abuse treatment, and ran a multi-venue motorsports park for a decade - her own bio varies significantly from her fictional hero.

Jenny, a piano prodigy, was born into an affluent and exotic life. In addition to her famous athlete father, her mother, Jamie, runs an elite modeling agency. Before his fatal accident, brother Will was headed to Notre Dame as a highly touted football recruit. And Ryder, with whom she and Will comprised an inseparable trio, was committed to becoming a pediatrician. She and Ryder had just consummated their secret romantic relationship at the time of Will's passing.

After her brother dies, though, Jenny ends up in Santa Fe, married to Nic, a world-renowned sculptor, embedded in a hip artists' community, and trying without much success to paint. More often, she works as a nude model for other artists. If not productive, it's nonetheless a lifestyle that helps her forget Will's death and keeps subverted the deep feelings she still has for Ryder.

If the cast of exotic characters seems like something torn from the pages of Entertainment Weekly, Strecker knew she'd have to imbue them with flawed humanity to avoid caricature.

"I wanted all of the characters to be larger than life so they'd be memorable," Strecker says. She laughs. "One thing I hate is to be reading a book and have to go back and have to look stuff up because the secondary characters are forgettable. But I also worried about the stereotyping issue. It took years to write this, and sometimes I overdid their personalities. I had to keep working to make sure they were real and three-dimensional."

They are indeed very human - as Jenny discovers when she's back in her childhood home after 13 years. Jenny absolutely knows that she's flawed, but now she realizes she's not the only one significantly changed by Will's death. Her father - always kind and good-hearted - started a charitable foundation in memory of his son and is perhaps slavishly committed to the project. Meanwhile, her mother stays engrossed in the world of fashion and seeks occasional comfort through affairs.

Jenny also becomes reacquainted with Ryder, who has become a neurosurgeon and is now handling her father's treatment. The close proximity not only confirms her passion for him - but it's clear he also feels the same way about her even though her disappearance has wounded him in a big way.

Over the course of a summer, as Jenny tries to keep her father's and family's spirits buoyed by recreating magical moments from the past, she also has to deal with cruel realities: her dad's health is failing; she has to navigate rough emotional waters with several people she's hurt; and, oh, yeah, there's the fact that she's still married to Nic - someone she genuinely cares for.

But at the core of all her anguish is the secret she and Ryder share: they're the only two people who know what really happened the night Will died.

The ways in which Strecker handles the plot threads and spins a resolution are beautifully handled and contain a few surprises - and it's not giving away too much to say there are answers that will surprise readers who might not even have known there were questions.

"I don't think I ever thought of this as a mystery novel," Strecker says. "But (a seemingly offstage character) came into play when I realized there would have to be a plot twist to make it unpredictable. But I had to struggle with that, too. At first, (the character) came off as a devil personified, but I had to really think about that and, in the end, it had to be modified."

In fact, the ultimate outcome of the book was something of a surprise to Strecker. "The ending is about the eighth version I wrote," she laughs. "Each time, I KNEW it was the right one - and then I'd realize it wasn't quite right. Some were happier and some were sadder, but in the end I think the right outcome prevailed."

It would seem so. Within 10 days of Strecker turning in the absolute final version to her agent, Lisa Gallagher, "Night Blindness" went to auction with five publishing houses bidding for the manuscript and Strecker emerged with a two-book deal.

"I'm too dumb to know how the publishing business works," she says, "but I know a first novel going to auction is rare. I'm very fortunate, and I definitely hit the jackpot when Lisa decided to represent me."

r.koster@theday.com

Twitter: @rickattheday

IF YOU GO

Who: Essex novelist Susan Strecker

What: Author luncheon, signing for her debut novel, “Night Blindness”

When: Noon, Thursday

Where: Bank Square Books, 53 Main St., Mystic (free, $10 with lunch, $30 with lunch and signed copy); and a reception and talk sponsored by Breakwater Books, 7 p.m. Thursday, Ballou's Wine Bar, 51 Whitfield St. #1, Guilford.

Info: Bank Square Books, (860) 536-3795, banksquarebooks.com; Breakwater Books, (203) 453-4141, breakwaterbooks.com.