Crenshaw: A Fascinating Story Grabbed from the Headlines

Imaginary friends are popular among the younger set. I even admit to having had one myself--when I was confined to on the front porch by a gate taller than me. But, Crenshaw by Newbery winner Katherine Applegate is something else. Applegate takes the topic of homelessness and explores its effects on the kids of a working poor family. Crenshaw isn't just a tale torn from the headlines. It's a story of triumph on a small scale.

Jackson, named for his father's guitar, is a practical kid growing up in an artsy family of former muscians. His parents had put their music group aside to join the mainstream economy, but layoffs and MS [musclar dystrophy] knocked them out of the middle class once and is about to make them homeless again. Being working poor in the US isn't a comfortable lifestyle...unless you can develop a side gig that brings in more assets than low-wage jobs.

Jackson can see the signs and fumes that his parents aren't confiding in him. He wants the truth about their situation, not his parents sugar-coatings. Then, Crenshaw, a seven-foot invisable cat who was his imaginary friend the last time his family lived out of the family minivan, returns. It's touch and go whether Crenshaw will be a help or a hinderance. Creshaw's antics, such as surfing and taking bubble baths, supply the humor that leavens the book.

Crenshaw presents a child's perspective on homelessness with insights readers of all ages can appreciate. Suspensefully written, the book doesn't bore the reader, in spite of a long flashback. 

The first person POV seems particularly appropriate for telling Jackson's misery as he fears his family is going homeless again and his parents won't give him a straight answer. In fact, from the way they are characterized, I doubt if the parents are truthful with themselves. Appegate aptly depicts the problem of being practical in an artsy family by making the characters feel real. [Yeah, the opposite would also be a problem, but it's not the subject of this book.]

The book has lots of reviews, some interesting and some saying people liked the book. You can read a sample of some engrossing writing on 

Amazon      Nook

[Incidently, I can't remember the imaginary friend--just the gate and people telling me what I told them about Jerome. Seems like a surprising number of people listened to a three-year-old. Who knows why?]

~~~~~~~

Other Interesting Reading

The Passive Voice guy is one of my favorite blogsters. This week's book had me feeling defensive--like why would a self-respecting adult read a kid's book. I'd have argued that the book told an interesting story. Then, my guru came to my rescue. You can read why he reads kid's lit. It all boils down to an interesting, fast moving story that doesn't bore you. Read his whys here. Anyway, I'm not going to apologize for reading a kid's book.

Another topic of interest to readers is bookstores, especially since there are all sorts of doomsday stories about their eminent demise. Kristine Kathryn Rusch begs to differ in her recent blog: Business Musings: Bookstores (2017 in Review) Since I hardly ever read fiction on a computer screen, I found the blog held my attention and good wishes.

~~~~~~~

My Writing Rut

On the Run is off to the editor. Added about a thousand words to the book, but it's still shorter than There Be Demons. Wonder what excuse I'll find "not to write" next.

Thought I'd run an experiment. My free short stories about demons and mayhem are available on kobo. Click here to see. You'll have to scroll down and there won't be any reviews but it gives an alternative to Amazon.

Magical Murder Most Fluffy--A Cozy Mystery Shines

Murders needing to be solved isn't the only reason to read cozy mysteries. It's all the people surrounding the mystery solver. Yeah, I love the way Bailey Cates builds her characters. Potions and Patries gives several members of Katie Lightfoot's coven and friends moments in the sun with life changing information. Even the mystery solving protagonist gets life changing moment when she figures out what her foretold "sacrifice" is to be.

All satisfying, well, and good. But, how does Cates put her mystery together?

The book starts out with the promise of a "sacrifice" Lightfoot must make, the Traveler fortune teller dies before she can elaborate on her message. With character growth Cates' strong suit, Katie spends the book solving the mystery while wondering what sacrifice she's going to have to make as she and her fiance look look for a larger house than her beloved carriage house. Other characters are face other life changes, which is good for series readers. It reduces the chances they'll get bored.

The book may be feel-good and fluffy, but proving the fortune teller's "suicide" is really murder is the point of the book. All the clues are subtly there as Lightfoot pursues her witchy intuition that murder was committed. Danger follows with several attempts on Lightfoot's life when the perp tries to stop her.  All good clean fun for a mystery reader.

Read a sample and look at other reviews of Potions and Pastries on

Amazon       Nook        kobo    

~~~~~~~~~

Other Interesting Stuff

New York Times Book Review section gave me pause again: a review of Jessica Buder's Nomadland: Surviving in America in the Twenty First Century by Arlee Russell Hochschild. 

Reminded me that real poverty doesn't appear often in the genre fiction I read. There Be Demons touches on it. But my characters don't really suffer physically from poverty, inconvenience abounds but the true pain of living in sub-existential conditions doesn't. With few counties in the US able to offer a one-bedroom apartment affordable by a single, full-time minimum wage earner, you'd think real poverty -- rather than the wanting-mores -- would get more "press" in fiction.

~~~~~~~~

My Writing Rut

Am trying to get Rondezvous with Demon jump-started. Tried doing NaNoWriMo for the first  time since 2010 when my back gave out. Failed again. My writing style, psychi just doesn't respond to competition. Plodding plodder, that's me. One step at a time gets me where I'm going, provided I have fun along the way. Any one else think fun is important?

Am making progess on all the stickey notes I've accumulated. Think half of them have been attached to chapters as notes. Today, I got a bunch of pages from a small spirel binder transferred. Have 20,000-plus words, and I haven't even started writing.

One of the ways I save ideas is to write tthem down on sticky notes. My computer is stacked with piles of them, in all collors, right and left. Started out with enough sticky notes to cover almost a fourth of my desk over an inch high. I decided gettig my ideas posting an approximate chapter a higher priority than just poundinng out words. Do have over 10,000 words connected to Reondezvous, about half coherent writing and the rest jotttings. Still have a 10x7x2 inches deep pile of pink, yellow, green, and blue bits of paper to place.

Not all the pieces of paper are connected to Rendezvous. Some a political tweets, that soothed my growls plus tweets promoting There Be Demons. Yeah, promoting a book takes lots of time. 

Next project is to work the list of review places I've discovered. So far, only have one 2*...because I included too much mundane stuff in the book. Don't know who she is or where she posted but it's not showing up on Amazon or GoodReads. Other readers appreciate my "magical realism".

A Heads Up

There's a giveaway of There Be Demons on Amazon for US readers. To win a chance for a free copy just follow this link.