The Way to Stay in Destiny -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.”

~ Vladimir Nabokov ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Fiction University is always worth a look, but some posts are absolutely not to be missed. Janice Hardy is running a series of posts on revision. One of the best HERE is Clean Up the Description and Stage Direction.

HERE is another one from Ms. Hardy. One of the best on revision she has had, and that’s saying something. 

Every wonder how much time your story should cover? Wonder no more. K. M. Weiland explains it all HERE in her post called The Crucial Way to Figure Out How Much Time Your Story Should Take. 

Last time we met, I offered a copy of Scar Boys by Len Vlahos to one of you. This week's winner is Helen! Congratulations, Helen. I will get the book out to you this week. I have another great giveaway this week, so stay tuned.

A year and a half ago, I was lucky enough to attend the Highlight's Whole Novel Historical Fiction workshop. It was a great experience. One of the things that made it great was the wonderful faculty. One member of the faculty was Augusta Scattergood. Her first book, Glory Be, hadn't been out too long, but it certainly had received a great deal of acclaim. It is a wonderful book. If you haven't read it yet, you should. But this week I am going to tell you about her second novel, The Way to Stay in Destiny. When she told me it was about, among other things, a relationship that had love of baseball at it core, she had me. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Here is the review I wrote for the San Francisco Book Review. 

It is the 1970s and young Theo, who lost his parents when he was four, must now leave his grandparents’s Kentucky farm with his uncle, a stranger to Theo, to move to Florida. Uncle Raymond is an angry Vietnam veteran who has very strict rules for Theo as they settle into Miss Sister Grandersole’s Rest Easy Rooming House and Dance Academy in the tiny town of Destiny, Florida. Miss Sister is a kind woman who takes a shine to Theo and encourages his talent for playing piano, something Uncle Raymond has forbidden. Theo is befriended by a girl his age named Anabel who shares his interest in baseball. Anabel’s pushy mother thinks Theo is a bad influence. As soon as Theo begins to feel at home, his uncle threatens to move and disrupt Theo’s life again.

“The only answer is creaking bedsprings, then snoring. Before long, my uncle’s yelling about jungles and guns and spit. Under the sheet, I

cover my ears and listen for musical beats inside

my head.”

Augusta Scattergood has written a middle-grade novel that presents her young

Augusta Scattergood

readers with a picture of small-town America in the 1970s, shortly after the Vietnam War has fractured society. This is a period seldom written about for this age group. The book has excellent writing, compelling characters, strong conflicts, and a solid story that should bring wide readership in the target audience.

I have a gently read hardback copy of this terrific book for one of you. To win, all you need do is have a US address, be a subscriber or follower and tell me that in a comment you leave on this post. If you are reading this in your email, click HERE to go to the blog so you can leave a comment. If you would like extra chances, please spread the word by posting the link on a Tweet, blog post, Facebook, or any other way you like. Let me know what you have done in your comment, and I will put in extra chances for you for each that you do.

Don't forget to check out Shannon Messenger's wonderful blog HERE for many more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday reviews and giveaways.

 

Reviews of Glory Be and Yankee Girl plus a Book Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” ~Hans Hofmann, painter~

Some Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Click HERE for a fun little article telling about odd jobs some great authors had before they got their big breaks.

Randy Ingermanson has a terrific post on making your characters sound different from each other in dialog. Click HERE to read it. 

Becca Puglisi and Angela Ackerman have sage advice about the difference between Conflict & Tension. Not to be missed by writers. Click HERE. 

We have a WINNER! Nancy will be receiving a copy of The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones very soon. Congratulations, Nancy, and thanks for being a reader of my blog. I'll be sending out the book this week. If you did not win, stay tuned. There will be another giveaway at the end of this post.

I have spent the past couple of days in the Deep South of the 1960s thanks to the wonderful time machine called Books. When I recently attended the Highlights workshop, one of our instructors was Augusta Scattergood, author of the widely acclaimed Glory Be. It was an absolute treat to spend time with her. She is a lovely and gracious person. A few weeks ago, Carol Baldwin wrote about a book, Yankee Girl, on her wonderful blog called (wait for it) Carol Baldwin's Blog! If you missed her review (and giveaway that I did NOT win - 8-{ ), you can check it out HERE. After reading about it, I decided it needed to go right near the top of my TBR list. So this weekend, I was going to be spending a lot of time in a car (winter baseball tournament), so I took them both along and read them. Both are set in Mississippi in 1964 and have some things in common, but also have many differences.

Yankee Girl is set in Jackson, MS against the backdrop of the the beginning of school integration.

Alice Anne Moxley has just moved to Jackson because her father, an FBI agent has been transferred there to help with the expected violent reactions to the integration. Alice, a transplanted Yankee, is not welcomed in her new school. The kids pretty much shun her and refer to her as a Yankee, clearly a terrible insult. But Alice has no idea how bad in could be until Valerie Taylor, daughter of an African-American clergyman, comes into her class. Author Mary Ann Rodman, herself the daughter of an FBI agent who moved to Jackson in 1964, pulls no punches in this book and uses the vernacular of the local citizens in her fine book. It is a true coming-of-age story steeped in the history of its setting. This is a terrific read for anyone from middle grades on up.

Augusta Scattergood

Glory Be is set in a small town in Mississippi, also in 1964. Gloriana Hemphill is eleven, but very close to her twelfth birthday. All of her birthdays since she could swim at a very young age have been celebrated with a party at the community pool. Glory is upset that no one seems interesting in helping her plan for her party, especially that her older sister Jesslyn is too busy to care. Now it is less than two weeks before that auspicious day, and Glory hears the pool is going to be closed. The official story is it is closing for repairs, but it is well-known around town it is being closed to avoid having it integrated. A new girl in town, Laura, is visiting for the summer from way up north in Ohio with her mother who has come to help set up a free clinic for the poor in town. Being with Laura is a real eye-opener for Glory, and the time and happenings in the town set Glory on a path to a fast spate of growing up. The writing is simply terrific, as is the story. I was absolutely transported by this book. I recommend it highly. I promise you will not regret this choice for your precious reading time. 

I borrowed Yankee Girl from the library and Augusta Scattergood autographed her book to my granddaughter Gracie, so I cannot give either of these wonderful books away. However, I promised a giveaway, so here you go. Anna Staniszewski wrote a very funny and clever book called My Very Unfairy Tale Life. I have a gently-read copy I am offering to one of my U. S. readers who is a follower (it's free and easy - check to the right) and leaves a comment on this post, so do that. If you post my link on some social media or tweet it, let me know and you will get your name in the hat an extra time.