We have a winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered the drawing for a signed copy of Michelle Davidson Argyle's CINDERS, a dark, intriguing story of Cinderella after the fairy tale ends.

The winner by random draw is:

Stephanie Thornton

Please e-mail me your mailing address, Stephanie. To sleuthwood (at) yahoo (dot) com

And everyone, please check out Michelle's blog for interviews, contests, updates, etc. Hope you're all having a great weekend.

Contest reminder

I'm not going to be around today, but I want to post a reminder that a signed copy of CINDERS, a dark and riveting look into Cinderella's future, is up for grabs. The novella by Michelle Davidson Argyle, one of the Literary Lab hosts, is a gem. Just leave a comment on the last post, not this one. Happy Thursday, everyone.

CINDERS review and signed-book contest

Fairy tales are often about consequences. Wishes granted, chances taken, deeds done. And then something happens, for better or worse.

In CINDERS, Cinderella is married and living in the castle, but she questions how real this life is and whether her prince truly loves her or is just under a spell. After all, her fairy godmother set the whole thing up.

Cinderella is not only harboring doubts, she's having memories of some other love, elusive and strange. Yes, this Cinderella isn't so sure what she wants now that her original wish has been granted.

Michelle Davidson Argyle has taken the ancient story down a dark future path, following a long tradition of altering fairy tales.

Among the earliest written accounts of Cinderella are 17th century works by Charles Perrault and Madame d'Aulnoy, long before the Brothers Grimm jotted it down, although the seed of the story may be thousands of years old.

Michelle explores a not-so-happy future for the princess in this novella. It's full of mysteries--both personal secrets and castle intrigues that kept me turning pages, reading for hours straight. I was surprised by twists in the story, as well as horrified at several consequences.

I don't like to read spoilers myself, so I don't give away much plot when I review. The only thing I would have liked was a bit more development of some plot points, which shows I was invested enough to want more. I was very satisfied with Cinderella's final choice. Sometimes, the only thing to do is rise from the ashes.

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Here is a writing sample to whet your appetite:

"What have they done to you?" Cinderella saw two images in her mind: the Eolande she had first met in the shadowy darkness of her room--a tall beautiful woman who seemed to be made more of light than anything else, and then, when actual sunlight broke across the horizon, an old woman with cherry-tinged cheeks and a wink in her eye. Neither of these images represented what Cinderella saw now: a skeleton of a woman so thin and aged she looked as if she belonged to the worn stone walls.
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I'm awed by Michelle's creative process in making this book. First, she wrote a fresh, riveting take on an old tale. Then she shot the cover art and self-published it, which had been her intent all along. Now, a gorgeous new book exists in the world, and I hope many people discover it. Check out her blog for contests and events surrounding the release. To purchase, you can go to Amazon.

(P.S. I wrote this review late last night and woke up this morning thinking how much I admire the risk Michelle took in writing a main character who is not always likable. Cinderella does some things that made me cringe, but that's what makes her so real.)

I have a signed copy to give away to one lucky reader. All you have to do is leave a comment that has something to do with fairy tales. Do you have a favorite? Have you ever re-written one or wanted to? The contest will be open through Friday, Aug. 20.

You put a spell on me--the good kind

Anyone who wasn't at least lurking at WriteOnCon missed an amazing experience, but the good news is there are archives so you can read the talks with agents, editors, authors and just plain cool peeps.

I have rarely been so inspired, both by the content and the outstanding energy and quick-thinking of the organizers. If you're a writer or book-lover and don't follow their blogs, do it. You won't be sorry. I'm going to put links at the end of this post should you need them.

There were so many incredible presenters and high points, I don't know what to point out. Among things that inspired me: Give Yourself Permission by editor Molly O'Neill. Agent Joanna Volpe's query critiques. Live query crit with agent Natalie Fischer. An amazing panel with Anica Rissi, Joanna Volpe, Suzie Townsend and Mary Kole. Chat with agent/author Regina Brooks.

Well, I could go on and on, so I hope you do the same and read whatever you missed. (P.S. If you stayed away because it was billed as kidlit, there was a ton of super info for writers of any kind.)

In the midst of this extravaganza, I received a package from New Zealand with this *jumps up and down* dragon spell book. Blogging buddy Wen Baragrey sent it as my prize in a contest, and it couldn't be more perfect. It feels like a spell book, tiny and heavy. And, for those who don't know, I have a YA fantasy currently on the backburner that features a dragon ruby. So, woo-hoo. I just love mysterious signs and portents. Who knows what spells I may cast now?

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And then, and then...I had another wonderful prize in the mail. I won a drabble contest on Bish Denham's blog and she tatted a bookmark in the form of a flamingo. She even has a name, Florence, and a little sister on a ribbon. Is she not the most amazing creature? My book reading will take off, for sure.

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I guess if there is a theme to this post, it's that we can all be inspired and supported by one another. The social networking community is a community even if we don't meet people face-to-face. And, by the way, the organizers of WriteOnCon have only met online and, yet, they pulled some 11,000 other people to check out the event.

As promised, here are the links to their blogs.

Elana Johnson

Shannon Messenger

Laura and Lisa Roecker

Casey McCormick

Jamie Harrington

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Go make friends. I'm so glad you're mine.

Reflect and reflect some more

Went walking. Found this palm island with its doppelganger (but not the evil kind). This one seems wondrous, magical--another world afloat with possibilities. Or, perhaps, something lurks in the depths?

The lake was still. The light was right. The reflection perfect.

This post is mostly reflection, too. As I'm trying to finish my novel, Sea Daughters, I've been inspired reading other books and I've posted about several good reads lately. Most recently, I consumed John Green's Looking for Alaska. The echoes of that story haunt me. and remind me how important theme is. It's one thing to spin a great yarn, it's another to have its emotional resonance reverberate long after the last page. Read it. This is a teen book that explores what it means to be human.

And, so, I go back to noodling where I want my story to end, what reflection I want to leave shimmering behind, what last note may linger.

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On my walks, I stumbled upon two fallen feathers. I don't know who lost them but I loved finding them. I'm sharing two haiku that I wrote about some not-so-frequent hawk behavior I witnessed.

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red-tail hawk skimming
a sea of waving grass--
inland pelican

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red-tail hawk floating,
suspended in mid-air with
no flick of feather

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I hope you're also finding time for reflection. And don't forget that the most awesome free kidlit conference WriteOnCon takes place in just days. See you there!

Where shadows cling to the land

I just finished reading a book which stunned me with its honesty and atmosphere. In Ghost Swamp Blues, the sins of the past haunt the present with spirits who emerge from the walls, wearing pink feather hats or rope burns from lynchings. But even though this story whispers and hollers about horrific events tied to slavery and racism, it is more about accountability and familial and cultural nooses that strangle the truth. It's about families torn apart and glued together.
Author Laraine Herring kindly did an interview, which I've included along with some snippets. Herring has masters degrees in creative writing and counseling psychology and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her nonfiction.
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The story travels back and forth from the 1850s to 1970s, weaving a web of intrigue through the voices of Roberta Du Bois, a plantation-owner's wife who walks into a snake-infested swamp in 1859, leaving behind her brutal husband and slave-born half-sister; Lillian Green, who swallows her voice in 1949 rather than reveal the terrible event she witnessed; Hannah Green who leaves letters to her mother around the house, but her mother prefers to talk to ghosts.

This tale lures you into its depths and won't let go.

Here are some snippets, followed by the interview.

Roberta: Time looped around me, caught me in its square knot, and held me tight. Held me here. Watching all of this madness unfolding in front of me, unwinding like snakeskin, dragging everyone along.

Lillian: The earth under my feet was so soft I felt the whole world was sinking. Mother and Daddy's shadows danced in the picture window, faces close, bodies apart. I knew without seeing that Mother's lips were disappearing and that Daddy's mouth was getting bigger, his lips puffier and redder with his rage at Mother's silence.

Hannah: If the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons for seven generations, what, then, is the fate of the daughters?

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Q: The atmosphere in this story is so evocative of the deep South, not only the physical descriptions but the sense of hidden histories, secrets and torments. Is this a story you've long wanted to tell? How difficult was it to go so deep into this painful past?

Laraine: I didn’t know this particular story/plot was one that I wanted to tell, but I have always known that the South is a part of who I am as a writer. I have tried to write novels set in the Southwest (where I currently live) and haven’t been very successful. To me, the landscape is essential to telling the story, and I haven’t been able to access the high desert landscape in the same way as I can access the South. I remember when I was a girl sitting on the porch at my grandmother’s house (the property of Idyllic Grove Rice Plantation is loosely based on her property) and listening to the wind in the trees and all the sounds from the creek and the woods and hearing people whispering all around me. I’ve always felt very lucky that my parents didn’t think I was crazy & put me on meds. :-)


Q: Which character stepped out of the shadows first? How did the story develop from there?

Laraine: I first heard the Swamp Sirens singing. I didn’t know who they were singing to or why they were singing, but I knew where they were and that they were there in some important context in the story. Then, I saw Gabriel in the woods being chased by Tommy. I knew that was going to be the driving question for Lillian even before I knew what her arc might be. Once I had that question and that inciting incident, I just followed it to see what would happen. I didn’t know the ending until I got there. The book went through more rewrites than I can count, but if I got stuck, I always tried to maintain that authenticity with the characters and with the setting and the situation.


Q: What do you hope people come away with when they read Ghost Swamp Blues?

Laraine: I hope they’ll come away feeling they’ve been transported into the world of the story. I wanted the landscape to wrap around the reader and pull him or her into all of its complexities. I also hope that they may come away with a greater respect for and appreciation for the looping nature of time. I hope the world really won’t appear so black and white — that the nuances of what it means to be human will create some space for readers within their own hearts.


Q: Your book is published non-traditionally. Can you explain why you chose this process and what it's given you?

Laraine: This novel is actually the book that got me my agent back in 2001. While trying to sell this novel, we went on to sell three other books. This one just wasn’t hitting. We’d get great rejection letters, and many very, very close calls, one so close it still makes my heart twinge! But it’s hard for editors to take a chance on a new novel, and we also noticed the publishing industry changing so much in the last decade. We continued to love this book, and I even rewrote it as a young adult book two years ago and we sent it out that way.
After so many years, we decided to consider other ways of putting it out there. I’d already had three non-fiction books out through traditional channels and I really wanted to be able to give readers some of my fiction.
White River Press is a collaborative press — meaning both parties contribute to the financial end of the book. Both parties are invested in its success. White River only works with previously published authors, and they provide distribution, ISBN #’s, and other things that are very hard for an individual to get. I feel like I was able to get the book I wanted and not compromise on the quality or the content. I also feel like this is one of the new models of publishing for the future. The traditional model is gasping for breath. Many authors are choosing alternative ways to get their work out and to start to take some control over the income from their books.
I look at it like shopping for clothes – if the jeans aren’t fitting, I can either get depressed or take matters into my own hands and have something tailored to fit me.
I think the next decade is going to be very exciting with literature and books. There are so many more possibilities and avenues for authors. There will always be a place for good writing. People will always want to be swept into a story.
I hope Ghost Swamp Blues carries them off to a place they’ve not seen before.
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Thank you so much, Laraine! I hope everyone finds this as fascinating as I do.

And you thought your high school was hell...

Coming soon!

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I was soooooo lucky to win an ARC of Lisa Desrochers' PERSONAL DEMONS. For anyone who doesn't know, that is an Advanced Reading Copy without the final cover. So the Tor Teen book you will find on the shelves in September has the illustration of Frannie with two hot boys who can't seem to stay away.

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But I get to tell you what I found on the pages of that ARC. Intriguing.? Yes. Page turner? You betcha. Sizzling? Oh. Yeah.

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Frannie has been kicked out of a Catholic school when she meets two new boys at the public Haden High, nicknamed Hades High. They both want something from her really bad--her soul.

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I don't like to give away much plot line, and Lisa has posted sneak peaks from the book on her blog, so you can get more of a taste there, but I do love the way she's given a new twist to beliefs about demons and angels. Even the demons and angels are surprised by what finally happens.

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Here are some teaser lines to give you an idea of voice.

First lines from bad boy Luc: If there's a Hell on Earth, it's high school. And if there's anyone distinctly qualified to make that statement, it would be me.

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First lines from Frannie: Okay, so I'm not generally the swooning type, but Holy Mother of God, I can't believe what just walked into my English class. Tall, dark, and sorta dangerous.

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And there is a little scene at a party when someone else new shows up. Frannie has just used judo to toss a guy who groped her but only seems to have enticed the jerk.

I kick myself mentally, lean against the porch rail hanging my head in defeat, and wait for the inevitable hand on my ass.

So the voice, smooth as music, scares the snot out of me.

"Looks like you could use someone to run interference."

I look up into these incredible sky-blue eyes, and, if Heaven had a face, I swear this would be it. His tight white T-shirt shows off his tan and some pretty serious muscle definition. He's leaning on the rail next to me like he's been here all along--like he belongs in this godforsaken place rather than on a beach in San Diego with a surfboard under his arm.

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That's all I'm giving up. This book is too fun--and way too hot--for you not to stay up all night reading and fanning yourself.

She waves in passing

Magic lingers in

the cottage down the path where

the hollyhocks grow

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Went for a walk and found a fairytale garden and a storybook house. You don't have to believe in magic for it to exist, but if you believe you find it everywhere.

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This is the meager extent of my blogging for the moment. I have written a new opening to Sea Daughters and reworked three middle chapters and done a beta read for someone else since last I posted. I also read an ARC of Lisa Desrochers' PERSONAL DEMONS, which I intend to write about more fully later in the week. But, for now, let's say that book is so hot, I'm still fanning myself.

Surprise, surprise

Break out the Beach Boys. I just love surprises, so when I drove my sweat-dripping-from-my-earlobe self out of the 105-degree inland temps to the edge of the Pacific Ocean, I was dreaming of cool breezes, damp sand underfoot and the whoosh of waves.

I didn't expect half the known universe to be there, too. Silly me.

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But it turned out to be fantastic. I had stumbled into the San Clemente Ocean Festival where, among other things, cherry woody wagons lined the pier. The detail work was amazing, even the extra touches like the two old single-fin surfboards with inlaid-wood skegs.

There was even a gangsta surf wagon. Is this not Al Capone's beach ride or what?

I love imagination, and there's nothing like wandering into the unexpected to jumpstart creative thoughts. This car screams, "Write a flash fiction about me!"

But not this time. I am determined to spend my creative dollars wisely. I will finish Sea Daughters and get it out to beta readers this summer. Yesterday I revised two chapters so I'm paddling along as promised.

But back to the festival, which was so fun.

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There were contests for dory boats, kayaks and surfboards of assorted kinds.

Lifeguards come from all over the Southern California coast to compete in the boat races. The two-person teams row out through the surf, around markers beyond the end of the pier and come back in through surf. Sometimes the waves flip them, sometimes they get a helluva ride.

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There were sea creature sightings, as well.

People got up close and, um, friendly with the mermaids.

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In keeping with surprises, I decided to try out something other bloggers do called Teaser Tuesday, in which you pick a random page in a book you're reading and share a few lines. I just finished the remarkable WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON by John Green and David Levithan. The book was a surprise in that I won an autographed copy from Frankie Diane Mallis and knew nothing about it other than good buzz. It swept me away with the voices of two entirely different Will Graysons whose paths cross. Utterly real and honest as it dealt with teen relationships, both gay and heterosexual, it was biting, funny and painful. So here's some random lines:

But nothing violates the rules of shutting up and not caring so much as flirting--except possibly for that enchantingly horrible moment when you act upon the flirting, that moment where you seal your heartbreak with a kiss. There should be a third rule, actually: 1. Shut up. 2. Don't care too much. And 3. Never kiss a girl you like.

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How about you? Any refreshing surprises lately?

Dog days? Nah, turtle days

It's so hot you could fry an egg on my head. Eew, gross enough?





Anyway, I struggle on days like this (several in a row of about 105 F). It exhausts me but I can't sleep. I try to write, really I do.





I remembered that on a not-quite-so-hot day I shot these photos of turtles and fish at a pond in a botanic garden.





Wouldn't it be cool to laze and float in the water, dappled with sunlight and reflections of trees?

Yeah. Floating with no particular place to go.

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I may be a bit sporadic in posting this next month. Maybe I'll find somewhere to float, but most likely I'll be finishing the WIP. I see that end in sight, and I'm paddling toward it.

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A big thank you to the Rainy Day Wanderer who gifted me with the Versatile Blogger and One Lovely Blog awards. Since I've received them before, I won't put the badges up again. But check out Wanderer's blog. She's worth visiting.

Couple of contests not to be missed: Janice Hardy writes one of the best advice blogs for writers and is running a contest for ARCs of BLUE FIRE. Besides her own trilogy, The Healing Wars which began with THE SHIFTER, she's nudging readers to check out the anthology EIGHT AGAINST REALITY released by Panverse Publishing, a small press with unusual funding through KickStarter.

Wen Baragrey is taunting me with pineapple lumps again! These New Zealand yummies are part of her giveaway that also includes enticing books. Enter contest before Monday.

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Stay cool. I'll see you when I do.

All things must end

Got endings on my mind. Saw this sunset while crossing an old stone bridge yesterday. The thing about sunsets is we say goodbye to the day and know another will come tomorrow.

When we come to the end of a novel, we want to feel that way, too. There should be a sense of satisfaction but not finality to the lives and world we entered. I stumbled across an article online today in The Irish Times that I found helpful as I approach writing the conclusion of my YA novel, Sea Daughters.

Several authors were asked about how they write endings and if they had any favorites. To read the whole article, click. I've pulled out a few highpoints that resonated with me.

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"The best last line should be like a stone dropped in the pond, settling off ripples." That is from Jon McGregor (IF NOBODY SPEAKS OF REMARKABLE THINGS) .

I like the quiet reflection in that quote. Sometimes when I close a good book, I feel as if the story is rippling through me and I need to be still and let it finish reverberating. Have you ever heard a Tibetan singing bowl? It's like that.

McGregor chose a favorite last line from Per Petterson's OUT STEALING HORSES. "You do decide when it hurts."

I've never read that book, but the final sentence is not one you'd turn your back on. It has such power and depth.

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Tana French (IN THE WOODS) made an analogy to nature when discussing last lines. "It does need to bring the book to rest, like you're bringing a bird in to land after a long flight."

Once again, I like the sense of reflection, not closure, in this approach.

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Gerbrand Bakker (THE TWIN) pointed out a similarity between ending a novel and finishing a poem that speaks to me as a sometimes writer of both. "An ending is very hard, I find; one tends to want to write too much in the end. I always strike the last two to four last lines when I write a poem, something that usually makes the poem much stronger."

Sometimes we don't trust ourselves or our readers to "get" it, I think, so we go on, burying our killer line in verbosity.

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Hugo Hamilton (DISGUISE) brought up advice I'd heard before that there is a connection between the opening and ending of a good novel. "The walk-away line at the end of a novel is just as important as any opening line. It's like closing the door on the story but also leaving it ajar--"

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In October, I wrote another post on last lines, including some picked by editors at the American Book Review and some favorites of mine. Please check it out if you're interested. Do you have books that left you wowed by the way the author wrapped up the story?

Sidelines Blogfest gives nod to supporting players

A couple of my characters are stepping out for the Sidelines Blogfest today. The fest is hosted by Cheree at Justified Lunacy, and she's been doing posts on characters all week. I really like one in which she pointed out how sidekicks can serve different purposes--mentor, nemesis, comic, trickster, messenger, best friend, guardian.

Choosing a scene was tough. It's difficult to find something that doesn't require a lot of backstory or that doesn't give away too much plot, but I wanted something with voice. I hope I found it.

I've chosen part of a scene from SEA DAUGHTERS where the protagonist, Hallie, gets an emotional pick-me-up from her best friend, Suki. It was hard to find the right illustration for this. Rather than typical California blonds Hallie is part Polynesian and Suki is part Japanese. What's most important, they trust each other.

Even though this is YA paranormal, this isn't a scene with supernaturals or battles or mystery. It's a quiet moment and takes place after someone scratched the letters Ho on the door of Hallie's new car and a day after her first date with a popular surfer named Ben.

Hope you enjoy.

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Hallie pushed aside the college letters she'd left scattered on her bed and sank down on the edge. Thinking about going to school in the morning made her stomach churn. What if Chad had been the one who defaced her car? What if Ben ignored her?

She looked at her phone screen again. The only message was a text from Suki: Where r u???

Hallie hesitated, feeling vulnerable, but Suki would be all over her at school if she didn't talk to her now. She punched in the number.

“Where have you been?” Suki blurted.

“Trestles.”

“With Ben?”

“No! We’re not joined at the hip all of a sudden.” Hallie wondered if maybe she wished they were. Why was she getting so worked up?

“Touchy much? Jeez. I’m sorry I mentioned his name. Does that mean last night was a fail? I thought you guys really liked each other.”

“I do like him, and last night was great.” Hallie drew in a breath and held it a moment before adding, “He kissed me.”

“Woo-hoo! Did you just die?”

Hallie closed her eyes, remembering every touch. "I wanted to kiss him forever.”

“But? I can hear a ‘but’ somewhere.”

“But he hasn’t called today.”

“Ah. Well, if it makes you feel any better Nathan hasn’t called me either. He told me a bunch of guys were gonna drive up to County Line in Ventura. It’s, like, a guy thing--everybody jammed into Kalani’s truck. No girls. Whatever. I wouldn’t surf that break anyway, although I know you would.”

“Maybe Ben’s with them.” Hallie stretched out, releasing the tension in her back.

“Could be. Don’t obsess. From what Nathan tells me, Ben asks questions about you non-stop. So unless you peed yourself or punched him out, I don’t think he’s backing off any time soon.”

Hallie laughed for the first time all day. “I didn’t do either of those things. But I did cry—a bunch--when he mentioned my mom. He was so nice to me, I fell apart. It was totally embarrassing.”

“I wouldn’t sweat that. Guys like to comfort girls. Just don’t wipe your snot on his hoodie.”

Hallie snorted with laughter. Suki always knew how to take the edge off. "Thanks. I promise to keep my snot to myself."

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Playing with paper and a winner announced

I am the maker of this particular version of the world (with a little help from cut-up magazines). This week, I went crazy with the craftiness of collage-building. After finding pictures that suited my novel-in-progress, SEA DAUGHTERS, I played around for hours, shuffling images from one spot to another. Sigh.

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But before I talk more of that, I need to announce the winner, chosen by random draw, of DELTA GIRLS by Gayle Brandeis.

Winner is: Jemi Fraser!

Jemi, please e-mail me your mailing address and I will send the book with haste.

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And now back to playing with paper.

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Here is my protagonist, a teenager who loves to surf and is falling for a guy at school who is aiming for the pro circuit.

They have some good times, but there's something in the water--

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Here is Boyfriend. Do you require more?

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I didn't paste the images down or make collage boards. I scattered these montages after photographing them. It reminds me of sand-painting, a creation made for a moment in time and then erased.

Of course, I hope my story will go on living--someday in a book that draws readers into this world. I think this visual, textile playtime was good for me as a writer. I spent time with my characters in a dimension outside my head. Sort of.

Gayle Brandeis's DELTA GIRLS and contest

Gayle Brandeis has a luscious way with words. Reading her books can be like having the juice of a ripe pear fill your mouth. Her newest release, DELTA GIRLS (Ballantine) is rooted in a pear orchard within the Sacramento Delta. While it's main story follows an unusual white migrant farm worker and her daughter, it alternates chapters to a very different world of a teen-age ice skater on the brink of Olympic-size fame. The two lives collide later in a shocking end.
Gayle, who won Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether prize for THE BOOK OF DEAD BIRDS, gives us a glimpse of her writing journey and what inspired this newest book in the interview below. I'll give away a copy of DELTA GIRLS by random drawing to anyone who mentions a favorite fruit in the comment section.
Here are a few snippets to show off Gayle's literary style:

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Rows of pears stretched out as far as I could see, the trees shaggy vases, flaring open to the sky. The air was just on the edge of humid, the river lending a mossy tang. A few barn swallows dipped and swerved overhead, trilling.
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If you leave a pear on the tree too long, he told me, it starts to rot from the inside out. It develops stone cells, little places of hardness that feel like grit in the mouth. It starts to get eaten by birds, by bugs. Better to pluck it when it's green, store it someplace cold, let it forget where it came from.
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Q: What was the seed from which DELTA GIRLS grew--the initial character or situation that started your imagination going?

Gayle: My novel MY LIFE WITH THE LINCOLNS had just been rejected by my editor at Ballantine because she saw it as a YA novel and not right for her list. I suddenly had to write a new novel in the span of a year and had no idea what to write about, so panic was really the first seed! It was around that time, though, that I started to see news stories about a mother and baby whale that had taken a wrong turn and had started swimming up the Sacramento River. This sparked something in me, especially because I had already been intrigued by the region, thanks to my friend Stephan. He had grown up in the Sacramento Delta and I had always loved his stories about his family’s orchard (and have always adored pears). So I started to envision a mother and daughter taking their own wrong turn and ending up at a pear farm in the area.

It was also around that time that I started dreaming regularly about figure skating. I had been a serious figure skater when I was a girl, and this seemed like a message for me to get back on the ice. I took lessons for a while, which I loved, but it took a real physical toll, and I realized that maybe instead of skating, I needed to write about skating. The other thread of the novel emerged from there.

I am happy to say My Life with the Lincolns did end up getting published as a YA novel a couple of months ago, so that rejection led to two published novels!

Q: There is some awesome scene setting at an organic pear farm and in the California Delta. Did you spend time there? How did you go about the research?

Gayle: I didn’t even know California had a Delta until Stephan started telling me about his childhood. Since it was only a few hours drive away, I knew I had to go up and see it for myself (I love to do research with all my senses, not just my mind, so it’s helpful for me to be able to really feel and smell the places I’m writing about.) Just thinking about the Delta now makes me relax; there is a slowness, a peace, to the region—I think it’s from all that water steadily flowing along, not to mention all those fruitful trees.

Before my first trip, I found an article about an organic pear farmer, Tim Neuharth, who wanted to increase eco-tourism to the Delta. I contacted him, thinking he’d be a good person to talk to about pear farming, since he was already hoping to spread the word. He and his wife Laura proved to be invaluable. They spent a good portion of the day taking me around Steamboat Acres and answering all my questions about the running of an orchard. Vieira Pears, the farm in Delta Girls, wouldn’t be the same without their help.

During my second research trip, I attended the Pear Fair, a wonderful small town festival celebrating all things pear during the Bartlett harvest. I ended up writing a scene set at the fair, and am excited that I’ll be returning at the end of July to promote my book there.

Q: Delta Girls has a very Bad Boy. Did you know he would behave that badly or did he surprise you?

Gayle: Oh, Nathan, Nathan, Nathan. He was full of surprises from the very beginning, but he definitely went to a darker place than I expected him to. I don’t think I’ve ever written such a “bad” character before; there was something kind of liberating about that.

Q: Was it difficult to write a novel alternating between a first-person narrator and a third-person narrator?

Gayle: I had actually done this before with THE BOOK OF DEAD BIRDS, so I worried I might be repeating myself, but that’s how the story wanted to be written. I think it’s a bit easier for me to write first person narration, because the voice feels so immediate, but the third person scenes felt fairly natural to write as well (although I have to say it took a while for any of it to feel natural. Because I had an imposed deadline and I was still smarting from the Lincolns rejection, it took some time to find the book’s true rhythm. I really had to force myself into the story, but once I was fully immersed, the words began to flow.)

Q: By the story's end, you give redemption to the main character. Did you know there would be a theme of forgiveness, of being able to start fresh?

Gayle: I rarely know what themes are going to emerge when I start to write a story, and this was no exception. That said, I think it would be unusual for me to write a story in which there wasn’t some sort of redemption at the end. And I’m sure the theme of being able to start fresh was informed by my life—I made the incredibly difficult decision to leave my first marriage around that time, so starting fresh was definitely on my mind. I remember telling my friend and first reader Laraine Herring that I was surprised that I wasn’t writing more about the separation, and she told me “But you are” and pointed out the themes in the novel. It’s quite amazing how our lives, our issues, can seep into our fiction without our even realizing it. Our writing selves are so much smarter than our daily selves—at least that’s certainly the case with me!

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If you'd like to meet Gayle, she will be signing books at Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena CA on (postscript: date change)Aug. 6; Borders Books, Riverside CA on July 18; Avid Reader Bookstore, Sacramento CA on July 24; the 38th annual Pear Fair in Courtland CA on July 25; the Lincoln Memorial Shrine, Redlands CA on July 31 and the Riverside Public Library on Aug. 5. The Pear Fair is about twenty minutes south of Sacramento and features music, wines, arts and crafts and pear-inspired food. For more information on books and events check Gayle's website.
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Thanks for reading the interview, and please leave a comment with some fruit love so I can enter your name in the drawing. (Book provided by the publisher)
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Postscript: Today is the Festival of the Trees, so you can bloghop from this pear-tree post to more tree love than you can imagine.

Putting the kick in sidekick

Secondary characters should never be wallpaper.

When Cheree at Justified Lunacy said she was hosting the Sidelines Blogfest for scenes that highlight a secondary character, I had to sign on. I have a character in mind that is a favorite, but I may choose another to challenge myself.

Joss Whedon's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" created some of the most memorable sidekicks ever. I mean, how can you argue with that if you think about these characters: Willow, Xander, Giles, Cordelia, Faith, Angel, Spike, Tara, Anya. Each of them unique and fascinating as they walk the line between what's right and wrong, what's real and not.

Voice. They had it. If you've never watched this show, please give yourself a treat. Hilarious, heartbreaking, witty and terrifying. And, actually, deep, if you care to muse on it. Here, I'll give you a few snippets from Buffy. These are from various episodes so you won't be following a story line, just hearing their different voices:

Absalom: :"Your day is done, girl. I'll grind you into a sticky paste..."

Buffy: "So, are you gonna kill me? Or are you just making small talk?"

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Cordelia: "I am, of course, having my dress specially made. Off-the-rack gives me hives."

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Giles: "Buffy, I believe the subtext here is rapidly becoming text."

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Xander: "Calm may work for Locutus of Borg here, but I'm freaked and I intend to stay that way."

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Buffy: "Vampires are creeps."

Giles: "Yes, that's why one slays them."

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Angel: "This isn't some fairy tale. When I kiss you, you don't wake up from a deep sleep and live happily ever after."

Buffy: "When you kiss me, I want to die."

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After Angel changes back to evil with a specific agenda aimed at Buffy:

Buffy: "It's so weird...Every time something like that happens, my first instinct is to run and tell Angel. I can't believe it's the same person. He's the complete opposite of what he was."

Willow: "Well...sort of, except..."

Buffy: "Except what?"

Willow: "You're still the only thing he thinks about."

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Sign up for this fest. Show your sidekicks some love. Goes live July 8. And if blogfest fun and camaraderie isn't enough, Cheree is offering a $15 gift certificate to a randomly chosen winner among followers who participate in the fest.

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Lydia Kang has given me this pretty award. Thank you! But really, her blog is uber-cool. Every Monday she dispenses answers to questions about medical issues that crop up in your stories. And this week's topic is as cool as it gets.

Also a big thank you to Stephanie Thornton for the Beautiful Blogger award and the wonderfully kind words that went with it. Since I've received it before, the button is in the sidebar.

And a heads-up to watch for on an interview with Gayle Brandeis on her latest book, DELTA GIRLS, which I'm going to post soon.

And, hey, if you care to share a favorite Buffy sidekick moment, please do! I never tire of them.

Part II: How I got waylaid

I had plans and then...my path was crossed by this.

Stopped in my tracks? You betcha.

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I had considered doing a flash fiction of the monkey-puzzle tree for Part II of my offerings to the Festival of the Trees. I've written most of a story and thought I might let you guys write the final graph.

But when nature bedecks your path with buckets of red and lavender blossoms you gotta go with the flow, be in the moment. Right?

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So here is what I offer. The surprise and wonder of trees. I was in a botanic garden's Australian section. I recognized the jacaranda tree but not the other, which took my breath away.

I searched through the leaves and fallen flowers at the base of the tree but no handy identifying sign was there. I've decided this must be a flame tree. What better name could there be?

Whether you are looking up... or down.

Happy tree fest, everyone.

You can see Part I, which has haiku and flash fic or the monkey-puzzle tree, if you please.

And, oh! The huge dry leaf in Part I turns out to be from the Chinese parasol tree. Is that a cool name or what?

Going crazy for the Festival of the Trees

I confess. I'm a wanton lover of trees. So when Yvonne Osborne asked for participants for the Festival of the Trees I waved my hand madly, but I realized I could never pick a favorite tree. I find something wondrous and fascinating about them all.

I sifted through my pictures of trees--ones that made me stop to capture their images, and I share these with no mention of favorites. I'm tossing in a few haiku and a flash fiction, too.

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The desert palo verde does an amazing transformation. While its name springs from the unreal green shade of its bark, the annual profusion of sunny blossoms turn its normally stark, stick-like appearance into a fairy bower. I mean, really. Can't you see the fairies?

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Walking in a botanic garden, I picked up a sap-green leaf that was wider than my head. Since the tree, whose name I no longer recall, had released the leaf, I took it home.

It lived with me for years, curling so slightly inward from its edges, turning a rich golden brown. It reminds me of the work leaves do to convert sunlight into nourishment and carry it to the tree.

And in that process, they release oxygen to our world. Leaves carry life itself.

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a weathered oak

by the dead stream, standing firm

through the dry season

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Trees also provide homes to countless creatures--birds, rodents and mammals.

But I was stopped in my tracks on a foggy walk through a park by this gigantic spiderweb.

While it can freak you out to suddenly be whacked in the face with a web, there is no denying the awesome design, industriousness and fragile strength of this creation.

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lichen-bright trunks

light the way through damp woods,

the path is swallowed

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Some people love palms and some hate them. I'm not sure why that is. They can be stately like these queen palms or give sustenance like date palms.

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in whipping wind

a palm frond squawk-squawks,

new kind of crow

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And now for a flash fiction in honor of the festival. The story grew out of my fascination with Montezuma cypress trees, which can live thousands of years. One in Oaxaca, Mexico is almost 38 feet in diameter. And there are creation myths surrounding the trees, but this story is purely my imagination.

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Bored with listening to sap flow, Zapo exclaimed, "Is this all there is? Standing still for centuries? Nothing more?"

Zapo was young as Montezuma cypress go, but he'd still lost count of how many fishermen he'd watched cast lines in this lake or how many children tossed crumbs at ducks. His roots had long ago stretched so far around his base they looked like a nest of pythons. His crown was haven to weighty herons and bratty crows. In short, he was cranky with being a monument.

Zapo's fingers levered open a crack in his thick bark, and he gloried in the fresh air. He stared wistfully at a leaf drifting by and the clouds reflected in the lake's surface. He reached out a gnarled foot, his long toes dipping in the cool liquid.

He could be a boy and run free. Why not? But his feet shook the ground like thunder. When he turned his head, wind whirled and birds scattered. He looked down and saw people falling to their knees before him.

"Well, shoots and saplings," he muttered. "So much for blending in."

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Sorry if the formatting is weird on this. Blogger kept arguing with me on the placement of photos and text.

There still is time to put up a tree post before June 28 and send the link to Yvonne. On July 1 all the fest links are posted so you can blog hop.
I may even post a Part II with a different flash fiction about the monkey-puzzle tree since my photo of it in the previous post was such a hit. Got trees on my mind, and that's not a bad thing.

(Postscript added after a trip to the botanic garden where the huge dry leaf was found. It's from a Chinese parasol tree, whose leaves are as big and lovely green as I remember.)

For the love of trees and my fellow bloggers

You can stare up into a monkey-puzzle tree forever and never figure out where all the limbs go. It's a lattice-work of complexity and grandeur.

I'm going to get back to trees in this post because there is a tree-licious event coming, but first I want to shout-out a huge thank you to Lydia Kang at The Word is My Oyster, who helped me sort out a puzzle of a different stripe.

Lydia is a writer and a physician who offers the unique Medical Mondays, in which she helps you diagnose your characters' maladies. No free med advice for you, please--just your stories.

Today, she brought out the virtual IV and ultrasound and tackled my questions about broken ribs. Have you ever heard of flail chest? Yikes. There's a term to set your imagination running. I'm so grateful for the informative and useful post.

In former Medical Mondays posts, Lydia has filled us in on memory loss, blood types, heart problems, phantom pain and more. Oh, and an added tree-connection bonus--Lydia posted on the properties of willow bark! Do yourself a favor and go get a checkup.

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The Festival of Trees is coming! Well, it does come every month, but this time our blogging buddy Yvonne Osborne is hosting. All you do is notify her that you have posted some arboreal love by June 28. So from today you have a week to put up your post and send your link to Yvonne. The links of all participants are posted July 1 so readers can blog-hop through a carnival of trees. It may be a photo of a favorite tree, a short story, a poem or an artwork. I'm in. Hope you are, too.

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A big thank you to Julie Dao who gave me the Pertinent Posts Award, saying what she looks for in blogs are ones with strong voice. I kinda needed that boost, so woo-hoo!

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I've decided to pass that award on the two bloggers above who are so wonderfully pertinent to me right now: Lydia Kang and Yvonne Osborne.

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Julie also passed along the Fantasy & Sci-fi award from Aubrie at Flutey Words. I had to snag that since that's my world!

My kingdom for a voice

I seem to have misplaced my voice. You know, it's that unique little POV way of expressing yourself that every writer and that writer's characters need if they don't want to be lost in the crowd.

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Moira Hahn's "Heaven and Hell" precisely illustrates my howling need. This series of paintings explore an afterlife that is a mashup of Eastern and Western beliefs and culture. I adore the work for its visual voice. It sure gets your attention in a stunning way, doesn't it?

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Voice is on my mind for a variety of reasons. I've been wanting to post a comment Neil Gaiman made in The Guardian's article on writing rules. Among his "rules" were these two:

"Laugh at your own jokes." Really, that's brilliant. You should be chuckling if you're composing a funny scene or witty banter. I do and then wonder if it just my own twisted humor. But when I take my scene to my face-to-face crit group and hear them laugh as I read, relief rushes through me. Okay, I managed to find voice and it was funny.

"Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter." So says Neil, who has one of the world's great voices.

Now, here I'm going to say I am an avid reader of Neil's blog, which he has been writing for almost a decade. Yes, you read that right. He is one of the original blogging authors. But I can always tell when his stand-in guy writes a post. It's not Neil's voice. It's someone telling us about Neil's life, because Neil can't blog at the moment. That throws me off and drives home the point of how important voice really is.

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And that brings me to my voice, which has gone missing in my query drafts. Sigh. I mean, I think I have a voice, but when I try to wrangle the essence of a novel into a few paragraphs, it becomes these overworked, dull-as-dirt sentences. Luckily for me, I won a query critique from Writing Out the Angst and the wonderful Suzy Hayze has lit a torch to help me find my lost voice.

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What about you, have you found your voice? Are you searching for it? Do you have any idea what it looks like?

A film about writing and an epic online event

How do you tell a friend you think their newly-completed, beloved manuscript sucks? Eep.

"The Blue Tooth Virgin" is the title of the fictional screenplay being critiqued as well as the title of this indie film, which is a must-see for writers of any sort. It's a low-budget movie and has its flaws, but the central question of why we write (for art, for money, for validation?) and how we react to other people's opinions is fascinating. And, often, hilarious.

In the opening, the critiquer, who is a magazine editor played by Bryce Johnson, asks that simple question many writers find daunting: What's it about?

"It's a character-driven thriller. It's about the characters, but it's a thriller. That's what this is, so if you could pay attention to the characters, if you find them interesting and likable--but not too likable..." replies the screenwriter portrayed by Austin Peck.

Okay, then. Vague enough?

So, the magazine editor reads it, hates it and asks advice of a neighbor and film editor played with humorous pragmatism by Tom Gilroy. Here's part of that exchange:

"What's it about?"

"I don't know."

"Are there characters?"

"I'm not sure."

"Well, it sounds like an indie film."

As you might imagine, the moment of critique truth doesn't go over well. In case you decide to rent this one, I don't want to give away what happens, but there is a great scene with Golden Globe winner Karen Black as a New Age script consultant. And wacky as she is, she drives to the heart of the problem.

I'm going to do the segue thing now into other writerly things of interest, because if you don't want your beloved manuscript lost in the slushpile, there's work (with fun stuff!) along the road ahead.

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WriteOnCon is coming! This astounding, amazing, stupefying event is brought to you by these fabulous writer/bloggers: Casey McCormick, Elana Johnson, Shannon Messenger, Laura and Lisa Roecker, Jamie Harrington, Jen Stayrook.

This free, online conference for kidlit writers takes place Aug. 10-12 and features literary agents, editors and published authors. Did you hear me? It's free!

Some participants: Suzie Townsend, Mark McVeigh, Steven Malk, Joanna Stampfel-Volpe, Anica Rissi, Mandy Hubbard, Lisa Schroeder. Does that have your attention? And there are many more. When you are quite done with me, go follow the WriteOnCon web site so you can keep up on the news. Registration opens July 1.

Talk about Paying it Forward. Some people are just made of awesome.

To stay or not to stay is sometimes a question

Gayle Forman's IF I STAY confronts a question many people would rather avoid. How do you go forward after it seems you've lost everything, when despair and grief mute your world?


I just finished reading this slim YA novel about a budding teenage cellist named Mia. I felt as if it ended abruptly. I would have liked a few more moments of what her decision means, because the questions are well drawn. How much can we suffer? When do we step out of "I" into "us" and what role do family and friends play in our choices? Are we truly alone if our lives and memories are filled with others?



I was intrigued with how the book was structured, because it breaks rules. The first line is an odd sort of all-knowing comment that is followed by first-person present tense. Then the book switches between present and past tense. As writers, we're told to avoid backstory, and, yet, in this story it's integral.



Warning: spoilers ahead in this paragraph. Since Mia is in a coma but is lucid, she weaves past events into the present, trying to make sense of what has happened to her life. I was aware that I was reading backstory, but it felt like a natural process of sorting out her life, appreciating people and experiences while she puts that into context with her current condition. And the story got richer with those layers. The reader is on a journey of discovery with her. But we are oddly detached, as though Mia is looking through a lens from a distance and feeling little emotion. I was okay with that since she is in this altered mental state, but the ending would have more impact if Mia switched from telling us to showing us her loss and pain. This was the moment when the floodgates could be opened and the life raft of love and hope was within reach.

Still, I recommend this book for raising important questions and for taking risks by being told from the viewpoint of a girl in a coma. Writing and life are about risks--if you never take any, nothing happens. You may as well be comatose.
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I'm going to segue to Abby Sunderland for a moment. I was so worried for the 16-year-old sailor the night it was announced that her emergency signals had been activated. I pictured her alone in her crippled sailboat in 30-foot waves. Obviously, my panic did her no good, but her experience as a sailor and her state-of-the-art equipment did. And then there was her family and the volunteers who set to work to get her rescued. I don't wish to discuss whether she should have been out there or who pays for rescues or any of that. Instead, I'm interested in her battle to survive and the support of her family, friends, volunteers and the many people who filled her blog comments with prayers and well wishes.


Her story is far different than IF I STAY but also alike in how we're all faced with decisions and risks and must reach inside ourselves for the will to survive and how that inner strength is bolstered by the support of others.

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So, it seems appropriate as I muse on what helps us make it through the trials and traumas of life that Liza Carens Salerno gave me this Journey Support Award. Thank you, Liza for being one of the people I've met online who make the writing and blogging adventure such a joy.

In fact, I pass this award on to all the bloggers who follow my musings here and/or have left me wonderful comments. I love having you with me on this journey!

Cheery nonsense, good friends and super contests

Dr. Seuss was such a great motivator, wrapping empowering messages in the most delightfully silly language. The author, whose name was Theodore Seuss Geisel, has been widely quoted as saying, "I like nonsense. It wakes up the brain cells."

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Another writer suggested starting every day by writing a limerick as a way to achieve the same thing. I've yet to try. It sure would be a fun addition to my morning coffee, so here goes:

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There once was a girl from the sea

whose life was wrapped in ennui

until one day she stepped out

and kicked off her doubt

and now she's content to just be.

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I put up HORTON HEARS A WHO! cover because I want to also share this little gem from it:

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Don't give up! I believe in you all.

A person's a person, no matter how small!

And you very small persons will not have to die

If you make yourselves heard! So come on, now and, TRY!

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I don't know about you, but I want to make myself heard. Each of us has a voice, a story, but it may not be heard if we think we are small.

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Now, I want to shout-out two of my favorite bloggers who have contests going on to mark milestones.

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Wen Prior at On Words and Upwards is celebrating her almost-anniversary, giving away books and other treats. Wen's humor and storytelling shine through in her posts. She is not only a prolific blogger, she writes fascinating tales, paints and plays music. And she also writes killer pitches and recently was one of five people picked out of 500 in agent Rachelle Gardner's one-sentence summary contest. Visit Wen. Stay awhile. You won't be sorry.

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Angela Ackerman at The Bookshelf Muse has created a site that is like the most amazing Thesaurus ever. Do you need help thinking of new ways to describe anticipation or guilt? Maybe you've never been to an abandoned mine or prison cell. She's got descriptions to help you. So many people make their way to her blog, she is celebrating more than 800 followers and more than 200,000 page views! Whew. Her prizes will knock your socks clear off. I was lucky enough to win a critique from her once. Trust me. You want to enter.

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Okay, then. If you have anything silly to say, please do!

Finding the way home

I went to the ocean this weekend. It was Rx, rather than R&R. Sometimes, I need the sea to wash me clean.

Moist, salt wind filled my lungs, infused my blood, my brain. Cold water splashed up my legs, saying: Remember. When you are alive and in love with being alive, doubts and burdens drift away with the breeze.

I became light enough to fly wingtip-to-wingtip with a pelican, to dance on the lip of eternity.

But my feet were grounded, toes digging into wet sand and feeling its shift, constant movement, tide in, tide out, the sea's breath.

So much life is happening right here. On these rocks. In this ebb and flow. These two tidal boulders remind me of mammals, of whale or walrus backs.

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Would they take me on a journey?

Carry me below and teach me how to breathe again?

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Many creatures live here, plant and animal scrunched on rock that gets pounded, submerged, dried out. It's a harsh environment. But it's home.

This chiton is anchored so tight to this rock, I wasn't sure it was alive, at first.

These tiny mollusks, also called sea cradles, have mouths and teeth to eat algae. They have a nervous system resembling a ladder and use a muscular foot, similar to limpets, to hold on. But here's the thing that blows me away. Chitons, although they seem rooted to the rock, can move, and they can find their way home again.

Another lesson from the sea.

Living with the dead and learning something

Some things keep me up at night. And they aren't pleasant--worries about finances, anxiety over whether I'll ever finish and sell a book, demands of helping a relative who suffers from a touch of the crazies.

But sometimes the late-night culprit is actually a pleasure--a story that captivates me, won't let me close the book covers and turn off the light. THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES grabbed me by the throat from page one and glued itself to my eyeballs. Yep, the experience was that visceral, and it dragged me long into the wee hours.

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I want to know why. So I'm shuffling through the pages looking for clues.

Zombies are not my usual paranormal crush. (Even though I did write zombie haiku here.) I had to nudge myself to read the first book in this series by Carrie Ryan--THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH. And although I enjoyed that one, the protagonist isn't someone you love at first sight. She's a loner, always colliding with other characters and dreaming of getting away. That said, I shed real tears at the end. Water fell from my eyes. Tissues were required. Ms. Ryan twisted the knife. Something she seems quite good at.

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But here's what happened when I cracked open THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES. First of all, there wasn't a lot of backstory telling us what already occurred in this world--that kind of writing bores me senseless when an author essentially gives pages of synopsis of the last book's storyline. Instead, the few paragraphs that set the scene in this book connected directly to the current world, and there was action and tension by the fifth paragraph. We're talking just a bit over 200 words in. That's tight.

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Opening line: The story goes that even after the Return they tried to keep the roller coasters going.

I can't speak for anyone else, but that grabbed me and told me I was in a dystopian world where amusement rides are no longer possible. That's eerie and sad. Within the next couple of paragraphs we learn people, despite being hunted by flesh-eating Mudo, wanted the rides kept open so they could feel normal. But eventually it became too dangerous to step outside the walls surrounding safe zones.

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Then comes the heart-in-your-throat moment. Our teenage protagonist is being prodded by her friends to sneak into the park. Typical teenage bravado. Do what's forbidden, because nothing can touch you.

Only the sixth paragraph in: Already a few of the older kids have skimmed over the top, their feet a flash against the night sky. I rub my palms against my legs, my heart a thrum in my chest.

Excellent example of showing us her fear. Ms. Ryan doesn't say Gabry's scared or even that her hands are sweating. She shows us Gabry rubbing her hands, and we know. We're right there, heart thrumming, with her.

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Then before we're off page two, Ms. Ryan adds another element guaranteed to hook a fair number of readers. She throws in this: There are a thousand reasons why I don't want to go with them into the ruins, not the least of which is that it's forbidden. But there's one reason I do want to take the risk. I glance past Cira to her brother and his eyes catch mine.

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Now, I don't want to ruin this book for anyone who hasn't read it, so I'm not going to give away the plot. But I think you can figure out that this little foray into the amusement park is not going to end well.

Gabry's life gets jerked around more than any ride for the rest of the book. Every time I thought we might be pulling back into the safety zone, there was another twist. Gabry's world is not safe. Perhaps, never will be. But she grows from a girl afraid of everything beyond the walls to one who's willing to push back and try to lay claim to a new life.

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I learned a thing or two by looking back through this book. I love discovering what makes a story so good you can't turn out the light.

Have you read any such books lately?