Mothers

~Happy Mother's Day~ 

Mothers are complicated creatures. Some are mothers by choice, some not. Some are biological mothers. Others are mothers out of necessity. And they aren't perfect by any means. These are the messy, complicated mothers I like to write. Mothers who mean well, but have maybe lost their way, by choice or by accident.

One of my favorite moms is Karla, a new widow trying to care for her depressed daughter, Samantha, in The Color of Water.

Somewhere way down deep, I still love Karla. She’s my mom, but there’s no finding my way back to her.  At least, it doesn’t seem like it to me. For now, I follow her around, sometimes her shadow, other times more distant.  She’s not making me finish my junior year of high school.  There’s no way I could have. I guess she knows that cause she never even brought it up.

But this morning, instead of lying in bed until ten like we have been, Karla’s up packing what little we have into the trunk of her Civic.  She’s been worrying for weeks about money and rent and all, but I really wasn’t paying attention before today.  Just before five in the afternoon, we slid into the seats of her car and she started the engine.

“This will be good for us,” said Karla, staring straight ahead at our now former apartment.  She awakened a curiosity in me that hadn’t been there for awhile.

            “Where are we headed, Karla?” I asked. My voice came out soft from lack of use. She didn’t hear me or she didn’t answer anyway.         

“Good bye, Wilmington.  Beaufort, North Carolina, here we come,” Karla said.  She smiled her “I’m pretending I’m happy about this” smile.  She used it a lot where Dad was concerned.

            At least it’s on the water, I thought, slouching down in my seat as I settled back into sleep.  Cars bore me.  I would rather spend my time sailing with Dad.  Karla always accused us of growing gills and fins.

            “This will be good, right?” she said again. I guess she was trying to convince herself it was a good idea.  With a bittersweet smile, she kissed two fingers and touched them to the picture of me and Dad taped to the dash.  Blowing the blonde strands of hair out of her eyes, she backed the Honda out of the driveway and that was it - our lives changed again.

Others mothers are more difficult to love. They do what they think is best, but sometimes they're wrong because they're human. This is Loretta from Crawdad~

Once, she told me he was living under a rock somewhere. To a little kid like me, I figured that meant he must have magical powers to be able to do that. I looked under rocks in the creek behind our house all the time after that, but all I found were crawdads and snails. The crawdads would raise their little claws up to me like they were saying ‘hey’ if they weren’t too busy scuttling away into the muddy water.

Sometimes I’d catch one and keep it in a bucket or the bed of an old wagon. I’d put in rocks and water, make it like a real terrarium, a home for my crawdad daddy, but mama wouldn’t let me bring them in the house. The raccoons usually got them.

I remember when she found me crying over what was left one morning. I gathered up the little bits of shell the coons didn’t eat. Mama came out of the house with a load of laundry in a blue plastic basket propped up on her hip.

“What’s the matter with you?” she asked.

“My daddy’s gone,” I whimpered.

“You mean your crawdad?”

“My daddy,” I bawled. My seven year old heart was broken. I carefully pet the little fan-shaped crawdad tail in my palm with a fingertip.

“Your daddy ain’t no crawdad, Jamil. He’s just a plain ol’ sorry ass man,” said Mama. She plopped the laundry basket on the soggy Bermuda grass and started hanging up clothes on the line in our backyard.

“But you said he was a crawdad?” Mama snorted.

“I did? Well, I was just messing with you then.” She went on her merry way, hanging clothes like it was nothing. I don’t even think she knew how she just dropped a bomb in my heart. I let the little fan-shaped tail fall from my hand. It was worse than finding out Santa Claus wasn’t real. My daddy wasn’t any enchanted creature trapped in a crawdad body. He wasn’t even special.

Worse than that, he had arms and legs, but he never even come to see me. Didn’t want to hug me. I could understand a person not being able to visit you if they’d been turned into a crustacean, but he was flesh and blood human. Why didn’t he ever come to see me?

And some mothers fail us completely and others have to step in. Thank goodness for grandmothers. Corrine is raised by her grandmother in Hush Puppy~

Almost as soon as it closed, the screen door opened again and in walked a skinny woman with an anxious expression.

“Mama!” I shouted and bounded to the door; she was looking around like she didn’t know anyone. I was in her arms before I knew it.

“Oh, baby,” she called me, wrapping herself around me. “Happy Birthday.”

It didn’t matter how many times she had disappeared without saying goodbye; I caved like a kindergartener when she came back. It wasn’t until she had been around a few days that I would remember her faults. Memaw never forgot. She was probably somewhere silently cursing, but I didn’t care. I was just happy Mama remembered my birthday at all. Most years, she didn’t.

Mama swayed a little, her high heels wobbly on the uneven linoleum, but she leaned on me and I held her tight.

“You looking so fine, Corrine. You done grown up, girl.” She hadn’t seen me in probably a year and a half.

“You too, Mama.”

The music stopped and Uncle Terrance shouted over the chit-chat.

“Look what the cat drug in! It’s Shawna!”

Mama’s eyes lit up as she made a beeline into his arms. I thought I heard a woman’s voice whisper something about a two-dollar hooker. No doubt, Mama was flashy in skin-tight yellow leggings, giant hoop earrings with the gold paint flaking off, and her hair sculpted high on her head, but I thought she was beautiful. A beautiful disaster.

 Happy day to all the moms out there :)

  

Hush Puppy Anniversary~

Today is the 2nd anniversary of Hush Puppy's release back in 2013.

It's been a great experience for me. Hush Puppy will always be one of my favorites, no matter how many books I write. I hope my readers enjoyed it too.

~Praise for Hush Puppy~

"Set in a small town in North Carolina, Hush Puppy is a wonder of a book. Lisa T. Cresswell's writing is simple and clean and clearly evokes the emotional expectations of teenage romance and the tense nature of high school. Encompassing a wide array of thematic concepts, Hush Puppy provides ample fodder for discussion and would be perfect food for thought for parents and teenagers."

—Luisa LaFleur, The Children's Book Review

"So it's not every day I get the chance to read books that feature black female protagonists that embody an honest and true character in YA. Most likely the writer over exaggerates how black teenage girls act, often resulting to finger snapping, head bobbing and poor choice of language. Now I'm not saying a lot of black girls DON'T act this way; I for one can't end my day without bobbing my head when my boyfriend annoys me but that is often just one black experience, there are sooooo many different experiences from the life of a black teenager, but for some reason people always go with the generic. Luckily, the author of this book chose to explore the life of a bookish girl from the rural South, who was more like me than she wasn't. I'm so glad I read this book! I started it yesterday and finished it in the same night!!! I wish there were more books offering different experiences from characters of color, (not even just black) because this by far was one the best books I read this year!"

—Libertad Araceli, Twinja Book Reviews

"References to The Bard abound in Hush Puppy, from Jamie's nickname, to the scenes set in their high school English class, in which Corrine and Jamie are both asked to read lines from Romeo and Juliet. Cresswell is strategic in assigning her characters roles from the play which nicely underscore their predicament; at one point Corrine must play Juliet opposite the white star of the high school football team, with whom she's never seen eye to eye; and he is a mismatched Romeo indeed. What follows is one of the book's most tender moments, in which Jamie publicly confesses his love for her, thinly veiled as literary analysis. 'Juliet is wishing Romeo wasn't a Montague,' he says, 'and Romeo is telling her he'll be anything she wants.'
This leads, ultimately, to the book's major dramatic question: Can love flourish between two teens, one black and one white, in a place like High Rock? Or will their circumstances send Corrine and Jamie the way of Romeo and Juliet? While the answers to their predicament may strike older readers as tidy, this does not detract from the pleasures of the narrative. In Hush Puppy, Cresswell has created an endearing female protagonist whose plight softly echoes that of Juliet's in a briskly-paced drama with plenty of heart."

—Ana Reyes, Southern Literary Review

Hush Puppy can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the Book Depository. 

Writing #QuietYA

I happened across a new-ish hashtag today - #QuietYA - and it inspired this post. Inspired because I'm working on a manuscript, two actually, right now that I think qualify as #QuietYA. There's no vampires, no swearing, no love triangles, no flashy-flash. I've shopped them both a bit to agents and editors and each time they're read, they've been rejected. One agent who said it was really good writing, better than most of what comes across her desk, but no, she can't sell it.

Maybe its because my manuscripts aren't the biggest concept or a retelling of something everybody already knows. Those seem really hot these days, but I've never been one for retellings. What I write is #QuietYA. It's character-driven, emotional stuff and I get the feeling its not what big publishers think people want to read. And maybe it isn't what most people read, but there are readers out there who enjoy #QuietYA. I've met them. I'm one of them. And I'm ok with that. I kinda like being quiet sometimes.

I remember years ago when I first wanted to write YA, everything I saw marketed for teens was super gritty, serious stuff about anorexia or rape or suicide. (That was before the Twilight craze that brought fantasy back, which I'm actually really glad for.) I wanted to write for middle graders and teens, but it didn't seem like I wrote the kind of stuff that was being published. I spoke to a published author at an Idaho Writer's League conference about my fears. Was there any room for me in publishing?

I don't recall her exact words anymore, but as they say, I do remember how she made me feel. Her answer was, and it still is, yes, there is room in publishing for #QuietYA. There are readers who want quiet, poignant, thought provoking stories.  With that author's encouragement, I started to write the stories I'd always wanted to.

I still worry about marketability and I still fret that quiet stories are passed over far too often for the flashy titles. But I found my own writer's voice and wrote the stories I wanted to read. I'm happy with that. It's where I want to be. Peace~

What it's all about? ~ The importance of theme in your writing and how to find it

The more I read and write, the more I find myself fascinated with themes. Not the “moral of the story”, but what exactly is it I’m trying to say about the world through my medium – the story. Exploring powerful themes like love, war, slavery, kindness, religion – themes we all have some connection to in our own lives – have brought me all my best stories. Let me give you some examples of what I'm talking about.

In Vessel, my newest dystopian/scifi novel, many themes surface throughout the pages. I never plan it consciously, but I find that the things on my mind while I’m writing influence my story a lot. We all have deeply held beliefs about the world around us. Those beliefs often surface in our fiction.

One of the themes that first emerged while I wrote Vessel was slavery. The main character, Alana, begins the story as a slave. Her belief that no one values her is analogous to how many of us are mentally shackled by our own negative self-image. Through the events of the story, Alana learns to break free of that image, mentally and physically. Beauty is also a prominent theme in Vessel – what it is and what it isn’t. True beauty is inside us, not on our face, as Alana learns.

Vessel also explores the themes of power and control, like any good dystopian novel. When politics and armed conflicts are on the news every night, it’s hard to get away from. Even the news outlets these days make one wonder about the nature of knowledge, who has it and who doesn’t. Who uses fear to control people? What is really the truth?

Probably my favorite theme in Vessel is kindness. Alana’s kindness to Recks, even though he’s a prisoner and a thief, is the action that sets the story events into motion. Their kindness to each other is the shining beacon that lights their way through the dark times and holds them together.

While Vessel is science fiction, many of the themes are perfectly relevant to today. My goal in writing with themes is not to lecture readers on what they should believe. My goal is to make my story relevant to everyday life, even if the story itself is perfectly fantastical, and to make readers think. For readers, seeing ourselves inside a story, feeling what the character feels, that’s what’s important. As a writer, that’s the best way to entertain, which is always my ultimate goal. If you want to check out my new dystopian novel, Vessel, now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks and Kobo. *shamless book plug, sorry*

So now that you know what I mean by theme and why I think it makes a story richer, how do you get it? It's very easy for a beginning writer to be too heavy handed with their themes. Many writers for children start off wanting to "teach a lesson" with their story and the result is often a preachy mess nobody enjoys. Nobody enjoys a lecture, and I mean nobody. So Step One is to get off your high horse and get past the "teach a lesson" stage. If you start with the lesson and give no thought to the characters and the plot, except to illustrate your lesson, readers will sense it. They'll know the story lacks any depth beyond the lesson. Kids can smell a rat and you won't be fooling them into "learning something" if that's what you think, so give that up right now.

Step Two is get back to basics. Ask yourself three things: Who is my character? What do they want? What's standing in their way?

If you craft a compelling character with a compelling problem, BOOM, you just got a theme! Easy peasy! Let me illustrate with my book Hush Puppy. The main character is Corrine, a poor black girl with a fierce determination to get out of her backwater town, go to college, and see the world. What's standing in her way? Lack of money and lack of support. See the theme and the conflict? Where you come from and your economic background have a huge effect on the educational opportunities available to you. The character becomes a real person dealing with a real problem and it's something most anyone can relate to. It's Corrine's choices that illustrate how she deals with her own set of problems. As an author, I'm not trying to lecture anyone on poverty. I'm illuminating it. I'm showing it, not telling it. See the difference? 

Give it a try. Make a character, give them a goal and then make a really big obstacle to overcome. Then come back and let me know what your theme is!  Happy writing~

May Romance Blogfest

Hi and welcome to my bloggy home on the internet :)

I'm excited to be a part of the Romance Blogfest this month and I have several books to share with you!

Read on down the page to learn about my work

and enter the giveaways for Hush Puppy and for my newest novel, Vessel~

Hush Puppy by Lisa T. Cresswell
Featherweight Press, 2013

Hush Puppy is the story of Corrine Lamb, a seventeen year old black girl, and Jamie Armstrong, a poor white boy, living in a backwater North Carolina town. Intelligent Corrine, abandoned by her mother, and artsy Jamie, forced to play football by a redneck father, both dream of leaving their podunk town and never looking back.

Their shared love of literature and a dream of a better life brings them together and a romance blossoms between them in a secret place of their own in the steamy North Carolina woods. When Jamie is involved in the accidental death of a white girl, he's terrified of his abusive father. Corrine takes the blame to protect Jaime, with dire consequences for herself and her dreams of the future. Her life in danger, Corrine's left wondering if Jamie ever cared about her at all.

The events surrounding the death of Trayvon Martin underscore how prevalent fear and hate still is in our country. Sadly, many of the themes explored in Hush Puppy are extremely relevant to today's youth. It's my hope that Hush Puppy is a story not only about poverty and race, but about hope, friendship, and the power of love. Enjoy~

 
                            

~Reviews have been overwhelmingly positive~

Simple and stunning, Hush Puppy is an emotionally powerful story that will stay with readers long after they’ve closed the final page. Crisp, evocative prose and a refreshingly realistic black protagonist make this novel a standout among YA literature. This uncommon YA novel is highly recommended, especially for public and school libraries. The difficult topics the book so deftly addresses are relevant today, and even the day-to-day difficulties of the high school classroom are presented realistically and without dramatic overindulgence.

With a lot of emotion and skill, Cresswell weaves together a story that promotes the power of friendship and the importance of being true to oneself.

Hush Puppy is a sweet, sweet story of conquering prejudices, forgiveness and family, and a reminder that positive perspective, determination, and the support of one special person are enough to overcome whatever trauma life may deal.

To read an excerpt and more about the author, click on over to www.lisatcresswell.com~ You can add her books to your 'to be read' list on Good Reads too!

~Meet Corrine~

My name is Corrine Lamb and my tombstone better not read "Born, lived, and died in Carolville, North Carolina". If I don't get outta this redneck town, go to college, and see the world, I'll be a complete failure. I'll join the Peace Corps if I have to. I live with my grandma, who’s about as protective as it gets. I guess she’s trying to make up for my mama running off and leaving me after daddy died. I had my whole life figured out before Jamie showed up, romancing me with his poetry and books. I never met such a crazy white boy. He’s so wicked smart, but he plays like he’s dumb so his redneck daddy won’t know. I never thought I’d fall for a white boy in a million years. He thinks he can’t go to college, but I’m gonna enter him in a writing contest for a scholarship and he’s gonna win. I just know it. He might be kinda mad when he finds out I took some of his writing, but when he wins, he’ll forget about that, right? I can’t sit by and let him waste his life. It’d be a damn shame.


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Vessel, By Lisa T. Cresswell
Month9Books, May 26, 2015

The sun exploded on April 18, 2112 in a Class X solar storm the likes of which humankind had never seen.

They had exactly nineteen minutes.
Nineteen minutes until a geomagnetic wave washed over the Earth, frying every electrical device created by humans, blacking out entire continents, and every satellite in their sky.

Nineteen minutes to say goodbye to the world they knew, forever, and to prepare for a new Earth, a new Sun.

Generations after solar storms destroyed nearly all human technology on Earth, humans reverted to a middle ages-like existence, books are burned as heresy, and all knowledge of the remaining technology is kept hidden by a privileged few called the Reticents.

Alana, a disfigured slave girl, and Recks, a traveling minstrel and sometimes-thief, join forces to bring knowledge and books back to the human race. But when Alana is chosen against her will to be the Vessel, the living repository for all human knowledge, she must find the strength to be what the world needs even if it's the last thing she wants.

To celebrate the upcoming release of Vessel, I'm running a month-long giveaway for a prize pack that includes a Month9Books insulated tumbler, a Vessel notebook, a tea blend (like the one Recks makes for Alana in the book), a $25 Amazon gift card, and a $10 Starbucks gift card. Be sure to enter!

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Come join me on Goodreads, the best place for readers :)

Pre-order Vessel today!

Indie and Small Press Blog Hop Dec. 5-12

Welcome to my blog and the Indie & Small Press Blog Hop. Read on down below about my most recent book and be sure the enter the giveaway at the bottom!

 

Hush Puppy by Lisa T. Cresswell
Featherweight Press, 2013


Hush Puppy is the story of Corrine Lamb, a seventeen year old black girl, and Jamie Armstrong, a poor white boy, living in a backwater North Carolina town. Intelligent Corrine, abandoned by her mother, and artsy Jamie, forced to play football by a redneck father, both dream of leaving their podunk town and never looking back.

Their shared love of literature and a dream of a better life brings them together and a romance blossoms between them in a secret place of their own in the steamy North Carolina woods. When Jamie is involved in the accidental death of a white girl, he's terrified of his abusive father. Corrine takes the blame to protect Jaime, with dire consequences for herself and her dreams of the future. Her life in danger, Corrine's left wondering if Jamie ever cared about her at all.

The events surrounding the death of Trayvon Martin underscore how prevalent fear and hate still is in our country. Sadly, many of the themes explored in Hush Puppy are extremely relevant to today's youth. It's my hope that Hush Puppy is a story not only about poverty and race, but about hope, friendship, and the power of love. Enjoy~

 

                            



Reviews have been overwhelmingly positive:

With a lot of emotion and skill, Cresswell weaves together a story that promotes the power of friendship and the importance of being true to oneself.

Hush Puppy is a sweet, sweet story of conquering prejudices, forgiveness and family, and a reminder that positive perspective, determination, and the support of one special person are enough to overcome whatever trauma life may deal.



To read an excerpt and more about the author, click on over to www.lisatcresswell.com~ You can add her books to your 'to be read' list on Good Reads too!


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And click here to visit the Linky to all

the other blogs in the Indie & Small Press blog hop and enter all the giveaways!

Mayonnaise Biscuits in a book called HUSH PUPPY By Lisa Cresswell

I love to eat hush puppies, but I’m not so great at cooking them. I might be a bit biased, but I'm pretty sure the best place to get hush puppies is on the Carolina Coast.

 

There’s a lot of great food in my book HUSH PUPPY because its set in North Carolina and you can’t go to North Carolina without eating something delicious. I set the story in a place near and dear to my heart – High Rock Lake in the Piedmont.  I spent summer vacations at my grandparents’ house there and ate a lot of wonderful southern food, but one of the things I loved the most was the mayonnaise biscuits, so much so that I put them in HUSH PUPPY.

Here’s the excerpt:

“Thanks. I’m starving.” Jamie joined everyone else passing around the food, piling it on their plates. He stuffed his mouth, eating so fast it made me wonder if he was telling the truth about starving.

            “What did Harley say?” I asked between bites of black eyed peas.

            “Didn’t tell him. He thinks I’m jogging.”

            “No wonder you’re sweating like a pig.”

            “Yeah, sorry about that.”

            “Isn’t he going to wonder where you are?”

            Jamie crunched down on an ear of corn. Butter dribbled down his chin while he chewed. I handed him a paper napkin.

            “He’ll get drunk and pass out before he notices I’m gone,” he said, wiping his mouth. Jamie plowed through several helpings of food, but his favorite was the mayonnaise biscuits. I lost count of how many he ate.

***

 

You can read more at www.lisatcresswell.com

 

If you want to try the biscuits for yourself, here’s the recipe. Super simple and oh, so good.

1 cup flour 

1/2 cup milk

1/4 mayo

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

 

Mix all ingredients until smooth. Drop large spoonfuls on a cookie sheet to make about six biscuits. Cook at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  The recipe can be doubled to make more biscuits and you can add cheese or herbs if you'd like. Enjoy!

The Place Ideas Come From~

Hush Puppy started years ago as a correspondence course assignment consisting of just three chapters and an outline. I like to think of that book as an ode to my childhood, growing up in the South with the ever present racial and social divides between people. You’d think these things would be dead and buried in the past, but you still see them every day on the news.  I originally set Hush Puppy in the 1980’s to be more like the world I knew, but an agent asked me “Does it have to be in the past?” The answer was no, because racism and discrimination are still happening today.

More and more, I find myself mining fiction ideas from what I see going on in the world around me. In my upcoming novel, Vessel, I wondered about modern e-books. What if all our written knowledge became digital in the future and we suddenly lost it all? What would life be like without books?? Kind of a terrifying thought.

A lot of my ideas come from themes that strike me as especially poignant in my own life. Themes in Hush Puppy include accepting yourself for who you are, as well as accepting others, and resisting the temptation to try to change others.

My current work in progress (title is still kind of a secret) has themes of doing the best we can with the hand we’ve been dealt and not letting that hand get the better of us. It’s also about following your bliss, no matter how hard that might be. A lot of kids out there (and adults) are not “living the dream” as defined by popular media. I write because I want those kids to know they aren’t alone, that lots of us aren’t living in a pop culture wonderland either. Life can be hard. It can also be very beautiful. Those beautiful moments are what make the hard times worth it and they are the inspiration for my stories. Enjoy~

Hush Puppy play list

I don't usually start writing fiction with music in mind or even with music on. I find music with words is too distracting for first drafting for me. It's usually after I write a rough draft that I come across music that fits the story.  Here's the play list for Hush Puppy. Have a listen.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops just evokes the South to me in such a funky, soulful way. I love it. Especially Snowden's Jig, which is almost ominous. I could easily see it leading up to the climatic scene of the book.

Linkin Park may seem like a strange choice, but they have some really beautiful voices when they aren't screaming, trust me. Their lyrics really seem to speak to what it's like to be poor and disrespected, striving for something more in life. Maybe getting it and maybe not.

And Stay by Rhianna and Mikky Ekko is just plain beautiful. Just like in Hush Puppy, the romance goes in circles, there's hesitation and deep affection. It's just the sort of confusing, crazy in love story as Corrine and Jaime have.

 

 

If you haven't read Hush Puppy yet, here's a link to it on Southern Literary Review. Check it out~

My Teen Wish~

The well accepted cliché is that teens ignore everything their parents and other adults say, right? Nothing could be further from the truth.

Teens are like big sponges, soaking up everything around them. It may not look like it to the untrained eye, but everything is taken in, filed away, and locked deep down inside until it gets expressed later. Teens don't truly ignore anything, although sometimes I wish they would.

Every "we can't afford it", every "you look like a beached whale", and every "you'll never succeed with that idea because you're too lazy/dumb/poor/insert your own awful word - all of those words are held onto, whether they're worth keeping or not.

I wish every one of us was born with our own personal "garbage detector", but we aren't. We have to learn what's crap or fact the hard way, that the lies some people told us are just that - lies.

So here's what I wish for teens~

Be deaf to anyone who tells you that you shouldn't aspire to be something greater. Be deaf to "can't" and "won't" and "shouldn't". Refuse to hear "poor" or "lazy" or "stupid" when someone uses it on you and never let it hold you back from your dreams.

Setting: The Silent Character

I’ve heard it said that setting can act as another character in a novel and I tend to agree. A rich setting can create a mood or an atmosphere that compliments a story, perhaps even illustrates the theme in a subtle way. It’s true, a character-driven story may not rely that much on setting, but even those need a sense of place. Sometime a place can even be a driving force for a character. What would Gone with the Wind have been without Tara and Scarlet’s love for it?

In my novel Hush Puppy, the forbidden romance between Corrine and Jamie could probably take place anywhere in the world there’s prejudice. I chose to set the book in rural North Carolina for several reasons. The South is a place of great contradictions and conflict, beauty and ugliness. As any author knows, the best stories have strong tension. Having grown up there myself and experienced that tension, it seemed the natural place to set the story. My feelings about my childhood home are complex and multi-faceted, filled with contrasting memories of love and hatred. I wanted to show the reader that complexity, so I used the setting to invoke both positive and negative emotions.  The sweet tanginess of wild blackberries, the burn of the summer sun sizzling in August, the smell of cigarettes and perfume in Mama’s hair all gently remind the reader that there is no black and white. No good or bad. Only shades of gray in a world that’s doing the best it can.

You can read more about me and Hush Puppy at www.lisatcresswell.com

 

A Lovely Review~

I like to think I'm not a braggart, but I just had to share this with you. It's a review that appeared in the Entertainer, a print publication in southeastern Washington State this week. Many thanks to Uncle Dennis who submitted it to the book reviewer! It's stuff like this that keeps me going. :) Many thanks to all of you who've read and reviewed my book.

***

Hush Puppy by Lisa T. Cresswell

Idaho author Lisa T. Cresswell’s first traditionally published debut novel, Hush Puppy, is a brilliantly gutsy young adult coming-of-age story that doesn’t shy away from dealing with difficult themes.

Set in the small town of Carolville, North Carolina, Hush Puppy tells the story of Corrine, an intelligent and ambitious young girl about to enter her senior year of high school. Despite her poverty and the absence of her parents, Corrine finds support in her caring extended family and her academic achievements; she dreams of college and traveling the world outside of her backwater town, where issues of race and class still subtly dominate the landscape.

Soon, she finds herself unexpectedly drawn to the new boy in town, her white trash neighbor’s son, Jaime. Sensitive, intelligent, but insecure, Jaime is a poet trapped in his father’s dreams of high school football glory who must keep his creativity hidden. Together, Jaime and Corrine share their love of literature and dream of a better life away from the oppressive norms of Carolville.

But Jaime is naïve about the realities of racism in his community. He can’t understand that just because he doesn’t care that Corrine is black, that doesn’t mean that the rest of the world is so forgiving of their friendship. When tragedy strikes their small town, Jaime yet again seeks out Corrine to make things better for him. As she discovers the dire consequences that result and begins to see her dreams for the future dim and fade, Corrine is forced to ask herself if she was wrong about their relationship all along. Will she be able navigate the difficult waters of early adulthood, or has she unwittingly already made the misstep that will put her dreams out of reach forever?

Simple and stunning, Hush Puppy is an emotionally powerful story that will stay with readers long after they’ve closed the final page. Crisp, evocative prose and a refreshingly realistic black protagonist make this novel a standout among YA literature. This uncommon YA novel is highly recommended, especially for public and school libraries. The difficult topics the book so deftly addresses are relevant today, and even the day-to-day difficulties of the high school classroom are presented realistically and without dramatic overindulgence.

While there is some mature content in terms of thematic elements, there’s nothing objectionable or inappropriate in the novel. Rather, the harsh realities that Hush Puppy brings up present an ideal discussion point for difficult situations that young adults can encounter. Love, loss, poverty, and the legacies of racism are just a few of the complex topics brought up in the novel. Corrine manages to be both highly relatable and a surprisingly good role model for readers who may recognize some of the difficulties she faces as their own.

Hush Puppy is available in paperback and ebook formats from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and your local bookseller. For more information on the author and her work, including Hush Puppy discussion questions for teenage readers, visit her website at www.lisatcresswell.com

~Andrea Green

ENTERTAINER, March 2014

At Year's End~

 

 

I think it’s always good to take a moment, now and then, to look around yourself, see where you’ve been and where you’re going, to appreciate what you’ve achieved, and to consider new goals you’d like to reach for. 2013 was a good year for me in many ways.

 

Hush Puppy was published by a small press and I self-published The Last Page, the final Storyteller book. I marketed all my books online with a lot of support from fellow writers and bloggers. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate their help. I attended several book signings, which gave me the opportunity to talk with readers. And then my manuscript Vessel was offered a contract with Month9Books. That was probably the best feeling of all.

 

I also met my weight loss goal in 2013. I had no idea I could do it, but I’m telling you, exercise is the key. And I mean the kind that makes you sweat, the kind that makes you feel tired when you’re done. If you aren’t sweating, it isn’t going to help you lose weight. For 2014, I intend to stay at my goal weight, which means remaining vigilant over what I eat and how much I exercise. It’s so easy for it to sneak back up on you. Curse you, Starbucks!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2014, my writing goals include working on Vessel edits and getting my manuscript The Color of Water into shape for submission. After that, I’d like to start a new book. I have a few tiny seeds of ideas knocking about in my pocket, but I need to plant one and water it a bit more to see where it goes. Vessel is due out in early 2015, so I’m sure I’ll be gearing up to market it this time next year. I’ll be blogging here and there, but right now I feel like hibernating! I’m so ready for a long winter’s rest.

 

 

 

 

 

I also want to read more books in 2014. I tend to read books like a writer now, looking for tips and tricks and voice. I’m always searching to see what I can glean from each author. I did pretty well reading more books in 2013, but I’m sure I could do better. And I want to continue to write on a regular basis, most every day if I can.

 

 

 

 

 

How about you? How was your 2013? How will you make 2014 even better?

 

 

 

October 29 ~ #Gratitude Day

As a way of saying thanks to the lovely bloggers that supported the Hush Puppy blog tour, I wanted to feature each one for a moment and let you know what they’re up to. Each one is a writer in her own right. You might want to check out their work if you enjoy young adult and new adult fiction~

 

 

Stephanie Wardrop has just released “Pride and Prep School”, a delightful play on Jane Austen with a modern, young adult touch. There’s four novellas in this quirky series now. Be sure to check them out on Amazon.

 

Marissa Ames is about to release her newest novel “Minstrel”. It’s available for pre-order on Amazon now and looks very intriguing. I love anything with a historical feel to it. Having met the lovely Marissa in a Facebook group known as “The Dark Fairy Queen and her Brilliant Minions”, I have a feeling there will be a bit of the fantastical to it as well. Just a hunch.

 

Morgan Shamy is super-blogger. She has so many followers because everyone loves her so much. I also happen to know she has some mad writing skills and will be shopping around her latest manuscript soon, if she isn’t already. Look out world! This wildcat’s gonna knock your socks off.

 

CJ Burright is a lover of all things romance. She has a new novel coming out in January from Swoon Romance that you might want to put on your ‘To be read’ list. Plus, she’s a sweetie pie.

 

Kenya Wright writes on the spicy side. I mean like habanero hot stuff. She’s not afraid to boldly go anywhere! And she’s kick-in-the-pants sassy. Be sure to pay her blog a visit for a little walk on the wild side.

 

Rachel Schieffelbein’s latest work “Run for the Roses” is out next month! She’s an accomplished horsewoman herself, so I’m sure her novella will be awesome. If you love horses, this one’s for you.

 

Kara Leigh Miller’s newest romance out is “Love and Other Games”, but she’s written a whole range of books from sweet to smexy. Check her out!

 

Laura James is currently working very hard (with Marissa Ames) to compile a group of fifty-something, Christmas-themed, flash fiction stories from dozens of authors, collectively and affectionately known as the Merry Minions. It should be available soon for free download. I, myself, made a contribution to the anthology.  I can’t imagine the amount of work these two ladies have put in on this anthology already. They’re truly an inspiration.

 

So thank you again, ladies! I appreciate your support so very much and I wish you every success in your future endeavors. 

October 20 ~ Another Milestone Reached

Well, Saturday behind us, I can now say I've had a real book signing in a real bookstore.  (My first signing was a bust because the store didn't receive the copies in time.)  Here's the pic to prove it...

That's my Hannah, who wandered the store, perusing manga books to buy, pestering strangers to check out my book, and bugging me for Starbuck's frappachinos. She's great support.  And then there's my super fan!

 

Obviously, she's a dear friend of mine, pictured here with four of the five copies she bought as gifts. She makes my day every time I see her.

 

Probably my favorite person of the day was the six year old girl that stopped by, not to look at the book, but to ask where the bathroom was. What a cutie!  I gave her bookmark. And then there was the lady who asked me all about writing children's books and getting published, but didn't buy a book. Oops! That's ok. The book isn't for everyone. I'll just say my favorite authors are the ones who support other authors. Have a lovely Sunday~ I hope you have time to pick up a book. :)