Good Morning from Bandera, TX,
I would say it's lovely to be here again, (and it is!) but my visit is bittersweet as my beloved Silver Spur Guest Ranch is shut down until sold and I came up for the Farewell Silver Spur Party. 😠One thing we know for sure about life is it's always changing.
Isn't it lovely knowing God never does?!
Today's guest is brand new to our blog, so please welcome Jennifer L Wright with her book, If It Rains - A story of resilience and redemption set against one of America’s defining moments—the Dust Bowl...
It’s 1935 in Oklahoma, and lives are determined by the dust. Fourteen-year-old Kathryn Baile, a spitfire born with a severe clubfoot, is coming of age in desperate times. Once her beloved older sister marries, Kathryn’s only comfort comes in the well-worn pages of her favorite book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Then Kathryn’s father decides to relocate to Indianapolis, and only the promise of a surgery to finally make her “normal” convinces Kathryn to leave Oklahoma behind. But disaster strikes along the way, and Kathryn must rely on her grit and the ragged companions she meets on the road if she is to complete her journey.
Back in Boise City, Melissa Baile Mayfield is the newest member of the wealthiest family in all of Cimarron County. In spite of her poor, rural upbringing, Melissa has just married the town’s most eligible bachelor and is determined to be everything her husband—and her new social class—expects her to be. But as the drought tightens its grip, Henry’s true colors are revealed. Melissa covers her bruises with expensive new makeup and struggles to reconcile her affluent life with that of her starving neighbors. Haunted by the injustice and broken by Henry’s refusal to help, Melissa secretly defies her husband, risking her life to follow God’s leading.
Two sisters, struggling against unspeakable hardship, discover that even in their darkest times, they are still united in spirit, and God is still with them, drawing them home.
Excerpt from Chapter One - Kathryn
Helen lost her third baby on the day of my sister’s wedding.
I’d tried to tell Melissa. Told her Helen was too pregnant, the late-April sky was too ripe, and—most of all—that getting married was a stupid idea anyway. She told me to stop being hateful and help her with her dress. Her dress. All this dirt and dead crops, and what she cared about was looking pretty for Henry.
Sure enough, the sky turned black by midafternoon. But not from rain. It was never from rain anymore. The wedding party scattered before they so much as cut that ridiculous white cake. A few escaped to their cars; the luckiest were able to start them before static cut the ignition. Even then, not many would make it home. Most would pass the storm stuck in a sand drift. At least the wedding would give them something to talk about while they waited. Rubberneckers, all of ’em.
We didn’t even have it that good. We would have to walk. Pa’s truck hadn’t started for weeks. Too much dust or not enough gas. Or both. Sure, we could have stayed at the Mayfields’. Waited it out like the other sheep. But I would rather chance a duster than spend another sec-ond with the new Mr. and Mrs. Mayfield. So I left. Pa and Helen followed.
A cloud of earth swallowed me when I stepped out the front door. Melissa had tried to make her old pink dress look new for me, but the fabric was still thin. Nothing she could do about that. I pulled it up over my mouth and nose, gagging on the cheap perfume Helen had doused me in that morning. “I won’t have you smelling like a pig even if you insist on looking like one,” she’d said. “Not today.” Like it even mattered.
Jennifer L. Wright has been writing since middle school, eventually earning a master’s degree in journalism at Indiana University. However, it took only a few short months of covering the local news for her to realize that writing fiction is much better for the soul and definitely way more fun. A born and bred Hoosier, she was plucked from the Heartland after being swept off her feet by an Air Force pilot and has spent the past decade traveling the world and, every few years, attempting to make old curtains fit in the windows of a new home. She currently resides in New Mexico with her husband, two children, and one rambunctious dachshund.
Find out more about Jennifer by visiting her Website and following her on Twitter @JennWright18 and GoodReads.
Thank you so much Jennifer for sharing your book with us today! We certainly wish you the best of luck and God's blessings with it.
Hope you enjoyed Jennifer's visit as much as I did friends and that you'll drop by weekly and check out Wednesday Words with Friends and Saturday Spotlight!
Until next time take care, God Bless and remember.... Change is inevitable, how you deal with it is optional.
PamT
8 comments:
What a great excerpt, Jennifer. I can't imagine what it was like to live through the Dust Bowl. I'm glad I can read about it and not experience it.
Your account of the sisters living during the Dust Bowl era is riveting. Wish you much success with the book! Thank you.
M. E. Bakos
Thank you so much, Barbara and M.E.! The Dust Bowl is such a fascinating and yet over-looked time in American history. The sheer grit and determination of those who lived through time is awe-inspiring. I hoped not only to bring light to their struggles but also honor them by being authentic to the things they experienced. I truly hope I've done it justice! Thank you for the kind words. :)
This sounds like a very fine novel! So many people suffered during the Great Depression. Those times deserve to be remembered.
Jacqueline, I agree! Such a difficult time in our country that often gets overlooked. I hope 'If It Rains' inspires people to find out more about the Dust Bowl and Great Depression; I believe that's every historical fiction author's goal!
Such a fascinating time period to read about. Hard times!!
Mary Preston--I agree! Such a hard time that is often overlooked, since it fell between two OTHER hard times (World War I and World War II). I hope 'If It Rains' inspires people to read more about the Dust Bowl and discover the incredible strength of those who lived through it.
This sounds amazing. Best of luck with the book!
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