Making It Home ~ Lone Star Book Blog Tours BONUS Book Club Video & Giveaway!

MAKING IT HOME

Jackson's Pond, Texas Series, Book 3

by Teddy Jones

Publisher: MidTown Publishing

Publication Date: July 26th 2021

Print Length: 275 pages

Genre: Women's Fiction

In this third novel in the Jackson’s Pond, Texas series, fifty-five-year-old Melanie Jackson Banks encounters racism, intolerance, and violence both in her family’s distant past and in current day Jackson’s Pond. She leads family and community efforts to create reconciliation for past wrongs and also to demonstrate strength and defiance in the face of vandalism, cross-burning, domestic violence, threats to Jackson Ranch’s operation, and kidnapping. In the midst of this stormy period, she finds allies in her mother’s long-time companion, Robert Stanley; her mother, Willa Jackson; her daughter Claire Havlicek; and many others.

* Goodreads * Amazon *

* Barnes & Noble * IndieBound *

PRAISE FOR MAKING IT HOME:

“Making It Home  could not be a more timely book… We live in an imperfect world, but it is still possible to think, imagine and make things better. The cast of characters in this strong family affirms this through their hope, decency, and tenacity!” 

--Eleanor Morse, author of Margreete’s Harbor

“Jones' talent for creating indelible characters endures, as does her way with a compelling plot. … This is a timely page-turner.”  

--Robin Lippincott, author of Blue Territory: A Meditation on the Life and Art of Joan Mitchell 

*****

EAVESDROP ON A ZOOM BOOK CLUB MEETING

with two readers who won a contest to have Making It Home characters named after them!

Click to view on Google Drive

Teddy Jones is the author of three published novels, Halfwide, Jackson’s Pond, Texas, and Well Tended, as well as a collection of short stories, Nowhere Near. Her short fiction received the Gold Medal First Prize in the Faulkner-Wisdom competition in 2015. Jackson’s Pond, Texas was a finalist for the 2014 Willa Award in contemporary fiction from Women Writing the West. Her latest novel, Making It Home, was a finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom competition in 2017 and A Good Family was named finalist in that contest in 2018.

Although her fiction tends to be set in West Texas, her characters’ lives embody issues not bounded by geography of any particular region. Families and loners; communities in flux; people struggling, others successful; some folks satisfied in solitude and others yearning for connection populate her work. And they all have in common that they are more human than otherwise.

Jones grew up in a small Texas town, Iowa Park. Earlier she worked as a nurse, a nurse educator, a nursing college administrator, and as a nurse practitioner in Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico. For the past twenty years, she and her husband have lived in the rural West Texas Panhandle where he farms and she writes.

Website * Amazon * BookBub

Facebook * Goodreads  Instagram

GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!:

First Winner: A set of all three novels in the Jackson’s Pond, Texas Series by Teddy Jones

Second Winner: $25 Bookshop gift card + Copy of Nowhere Near by Teddy Jones

(US only, ends 8/5/2021.)

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VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE TOUR PAGE FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH STOP ON THE TOUR, updated daily, or visit the blogs directly:

7/27/21	Notable Quotable	StoreyBook Reviews
7/27/21	BONUS Promo	LSBBT Blog
7/28/21	Review	It's Not All Gravy
7/28/21	BONUS Promo	Hall Ways Blog
7/29/21	Excerpt	The Page Unbound
7/30/21	Review	Book Fidelity
7/31/21	Scrapbook Page	All the Ups and Downs
8/1/21	Author Interview	Missus Gonzo
8/2/21	Review	The Clueless Gent
8/3/21	Series Spotlight	Chapter Break Book Blog
8/4/21	Review	Forgotten Winds
8/5/21	Review	Reading by Moonlight

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Freedom Lessons ~ Book Blog Tour Author Interview & Giveaway!

FREEDOM LESSONS

BY EILEEN HARRISON SANCHEZ

Book Details:
Book Title:  Freedom Lessons (a novel) by Eileen Harrison Sanchez

Category:  Adult Fiction (18+) ,  245 pages

Genre: American Historical Fiction

Publisher:  She Writes Press

Release date:   November 2019

Content Rating:  PG. This book is a clean read. The use of the words Negro, colored, and a one time reference use of nigger, though not politically correct by today's standards, is era specific and not intended in any kind of pejorative sense.

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Chosen as a 2020 Pulpwood Queens Book Club pick
2019 Best Book Awards Finalist in Fiction (Multicultural)

“This powerful tale offers a beacon of hope that individuals can inspire change.”
―Library Journal

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Book Description:

Freedom Lessons begins in Louisiana 1969 as Colleen, a white northern teacher, enters into the unfamiliar culture of a small Southern town and its unwritten rules as the town surrenders to mandated school integration. She meets Frank, a black high school football player, who is protecting his family with a secret. And Evelyn, an experienced teacher and prominent member of the local black community, who must decide whether she’s willing to place trust in her new white colleague. Told alternately by Colleen, Frank, and Evelyn, Freedom Lessons is the story of how the lives of these three purportedly different people intersect in a time when our nation faced, as it does today, a crisis of race, unity, and identity. 

School desegregation is something we all learn about in history class; perhaps we even remember the striking image of Ruby Bridges being escorted to and from school by the U.S. Marshals. But for most of us in 2019, that’s near the extent of what we understand about that tumultuous time. Eileen Sanchez, the debut novelist behind Freedom Lessons (She Writes Press, November 12, 2019), draws on her own remarkable experience as a young, white teacher in the Jim Crow South during desegregation, to write her immersive work of fiction inspired by those events. The result is an unusually authentic exploration of a snapshot in history through the eyes of characters that are relatable and unmistakably human—living lives and navigating relationships against the backdrop of extreme societal upheaval. Sanchez has woven a beautiful story not just about desegregation as an abstract concept, but about the people who lived it—and asks us to question our assumptions about that time, and the issues it has left in its 50-year wake. 

Buy the Book:
Amazon
Bookshop.org ~ Barnes and Noble
Add to Goodreads

 

Author Interview:

Q: Do you ever get writer’s block? 

A: I think of it as more a signal that this isn’t the way the story is supposed to go. I think writer’s block comes when I’m not listening to myself. 

Q: What helps you overcome it? 

A: I’ve learned to trust myself and either write what my subconscious is suggesting just to get it out and see where that takes me. The characters tell you what they want to do. I also take a break, read, walk, have lunch, and leave it be. The ideas will come, or I let it go for another day. 

Q: If you could go back in time, where would you go? 

A: How interesting! Sometimes I believe I’ve lived before. When I met my husband 50 years ago, I recognized him immediately and knew I would marry him before I knew his name. It was so unusual; I just knew him. We clicked immediately. I’d like to go back to the time I’ve fantasized and meet him in Spain during the Gilded Era between the wars. I think something sad had happened and we were destined to meet again. 

Q: Is there any truth to your story that is personal to you?

A: My book is based on my personal experience that I more fully understood by studying the impact on the black families and teachers forty years later through research and interviews about that school year of 1969-1970. Colleen represents my own experience, and I created two characters to tell the point of view of a black teacher and a black high school student. I fictionalized my experience to create the characters of Frank and Evelyn. Having two POV characters who are black and one white misplaced “Yankee,” I have tried to give a more accurate expression of the small stories and the wide impact of this event. 

Q: In your book you make reference to The Crossover, what is that?

A: My November 12, 2019 publishing date commemorates the 50th anniversary of southern states meeting the mandate of the Brown v BOE decision. It is known as The Crossover in Louisiana. On October 29, 1969, the US Supreme Court ordered schools across the country to desegregate in the little-known but milestone case, Alexander v. Holmes. It was 15 years after Brown v Board and most black students in the South still attended segregated black schools. If they had not integrated public schools, they would have forfeited federal funds on Dec. 31, 1969. Stubborn resistance to move beyond “Freedom of Choice” plans created numerous last-minute decisions to meet the mandate.

Meet the Author:

Eileen Harrison Sanchez is now retired after a forty-year career in education. She started as a teacher and ended as a district administrator. She has been writing part time for seven years with a writers group in Summit, NJ. Eileen is a member of the Historical Novel Society, Philadelphia Stories Writers Community, Goodreads American Historical Novels Group, and several online writers’ groups. A reader, a writer, and a perennial—a person with a no-age mindset—she considers family and friends to be the most important parts of her life, followed by traveling and bird watching from her gazebo.

connect with the author: website ~ facebook ~ twitter ~ instagram

Enter the Giveaway

Win an autographed copy of FREEDOM LESSONS

or a $15 Amazon Gift Card

(2 winners, USA only, ends Oct 16)

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Tour Schedule:
Sep 28 – Cover Lover Book Review – book review / giveaway
Sep 28 - Jazzy Book Reviews – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Sep 29 – All Booked Up Reviews – book review
Sep 29 - Pen Possessed – book review
Sep 30 – Rockin' Book Reviews – book review / guest post / giveaway
Sep 30 - Rajiv's Reviews – book review
Oct 1 – Locks, Hooks and Books – book review / author interview / giveaway
Oct 2 – eBook addicts – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 5 – Book World Reviews – book review  
Oct 5 - Momfluenster - book review / giveaway
Oct 5 - Jackie's Book Reviews - book review
Oct 5 - Hall Ways Blog - book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Oct 6 – Library of Clean Reads – book review / giveaway
Oct 6 - Books and Zebras – book review
Oct 7 – My Fictional Oasis – book review
Oct 7 - She Just Loves Books – book review / giveaway
Oct 8 – Literary Flits – book review / giveaway
Oct 8 - Divas With A Purpose - book review / author interview
Oct 9 – On My Bookshelf – book review / author interview / giveaway

 

The Big Inch ~ Lone Star Book Blog Tours Audio Book Review, Audio Clip, & Giveaway!

THE BIG INCH

Misfits and Millionaires #1

by

KIMBERLY FISH
Narrated by Sydney Young

  
Genre: Historical Fiction / Romance / WWII Spies 
Publisher: Fish Tales Publishing

Date of Publication: August 1, 2018

Length: 10 hours, 22 minutes

Scroll down for the giveaway!

Fans of Pam Jenoff, Susan Elia MacNeal, and Kate Quinn will want to read the first book in a sparkling WWII historical fiction series, The Big Inch. Lane Mercer is a spy recovering from a disastrous mission in France when she’s assigned to protect the interests of the new federal project sending American oil to the Allies. Thrown into the high-stakes world of Texas oilmen, she’s inventing maneuvers on the fly to outwit would be counter-intelligence and Fascist sympathizers. Complicating her mission is a handsome con-artist who manages to be under her feet at the most inopportune times. Trapped between trusting her gut or trusting her informers, Lane has to learn to navigate a town that is laced with more intrigue than she’d ever have guessed, and she soon discovers that the life she might have to save. . .is her own.

Kimberly Fish’s well-researched writing drops readers into the colorful world of the American home front known so well to those who lived alongside the Greatest Generation. Buy The Big Inch today to begin this exciting first novel in a WWII series set in Texas.

PRAISE FOR THE BIG INCH: 

“Narrator Makes Book Exciting!” 

-- 5 Stars Review on Audible

“Kimberly Fish’s writing style snatched me out of my easy chair.” 

-- Vickie Phelps, author of Moved, Left No Address

“Kimberly Fish has a gift for combining conflict, emotion, and characterization to create a compelling story.” 

-- Louis Gouge, author of Love Inspired Historical Four Star Ranch series

CLICK TO PURCHASE

◆ Amazon ◆ Audible ◆

HALL WAYS REVIEW: Audio book review. 4.5 Stars. I rarely re-read books. True, it’s mostly a matter of time constraints and finding the time to read a book even once, but it’s also a matter of been there, done that. No matter how much I enjoy a story, I mostly don’t feel the need to re-visit it. Plus, there’s always a stack of new temptations waiting for me in my ever-toppling to-be-read pile. But then, The Big Inch was released as an audio book.  Since I’d reviewed the print format of The Big Inch (a fan-girling, gushing, rave review) for Lone Star Book Blog Tours, I wasn’t scheduled as a reviewer for the audio book tour.  But I couldn’t resist, bought myself an audio book copy anyhow, and listened to it the next day…straight through.  The Big Inch is a wonderful exception to my unwritten rule, and since on my second reading of the book I read with my ears, it was like a whole new story. As if immersing myself in Kimberly Fish’s world isn’t treat enough, listeners are also treated to the professional narrating debut performed by Sydney Young. 

“In her world, when trust was broken, it was final.”

When I first read The Big Inch (did I mention fan-girling and gushing?), one of the things that I loved was how author Kimberly Fish could say so much by dropping seemingly innocuous one-liners, but which careful readers would notice were loaded with information. Narrator Sydney Young picks-up on these subtleties -- and all the nuances of words spoken -- and expresses them to perfection.

“Living with her memories was no pardon at all.”

Young gets nuance and subtlety: in her delivery of the wide cast of characters, she not only gives each character a unique voice, but through her diction, varied pacing, and inflection, she projects extra layers to the characters’ personalities. The difference between Young’s delivery of main character Lane Mercer’s internal monologue versus her voice in dialogue is the perfect example. Listeners hear the contrast and see that despite Lane’s introspective, observant, and troubled mind, she has a perkier façade for the outside world.

“Though she’d never stepped on a grenade in France,

she didn’t trust Texas.”

One of the lovely aspects of Sydney Young’s narration is the authenticity of her southern accent. Certain words (soil and oil, to name two) are thoroughly Texan, others reveal just a trace of the accent, while others have a regional flair to them -- exactly right for the mixture of people from around the state who were coming to Longview during the war.

Technically speaking, the quality of the recording of The Big Inch is excellent. There are just a few glitches with uneven sound and one scene that seems spliced, but it’s thoroughly professional and what I would expect in an audio recording.  I found listening at regular speed just a little too lazy for my enjoyment, so as is the norm for me with audio books, I increased speed to 1.25x.  Sometimes, this was a little too fast (especially with Emily Tesco’s lines), but it was especially better for listening to Theo’s Boston accent.  The faster speed resolved some minor issues with too-long pauses and words with peculiar emphasis placed upon them. However, as Lane gets more emotional towards the end of the story, the faster delivery makes her sound panicked, when in reading the text, Lane seems to keep her cool.  Overall, the faster speed is a more natural pace for impatient me, but it isn’t the perfect answer.

As I do with the print version of The Big Inch, (refer to fan-girling, gushing, rave review), I highly recommend the audio book version, too. Kimberly Fish and Sydney Young make a terrific team, and I thank them for taking me to a different world for a day.  I sincerely hope that there are plans for them to reunite and bring Harmon General, book two in the Misfits and Millionaires series, to brilliant audio life.   You’ve got your first sale right here.

I bought this audio book on my own, without any strings attached. Thank you to Lone Star Book Blog Tours for giving me a bonus spot on the tour where I can voice my honest opinion – the only kind I give. 

  

Kimberly Fish has been a professional writer in marketing and media for almost 30 years. In the course of research for the Longview Chamber of Commerce 100-year compilation, she stumbled across a 1940s federal works project that was too good, too war-winning, not to be retold to modern audience. In 2017, she released The Big Inch, her first WWII spy thriller detailing the crazy, big pipeline project that fueled the Allies to a win in Europe. The Big Inch has also been released as an audio download on Audible. That eye-opening novel was so consumed by readers, she quickly followed it with a second WWII spy thriller set in Longview, Harmon General. Both of these novels will be helpful to her work with the City of Longview’s 150^th birthday celebrations which begin in January of 2020. Comfort Plans, a contemporary novel also set in Texas, continues her love of history by weaving old letters into the renovation of an iconic Hill Country farmhouse. 
Kimberly enjoys speaking on the value of weaving history and nostalgia into our plans as we grow our communities for the future. 

 ║ Website ║ Facebook ║ Twitter ║ Instagram║ Goodreads ║
║ Pinterest ║ Amazon Author Page ║  

Sydney Young is a lawyer, award-winning writer and audio book narrator from the Lone Star State. Her next theatrical project will be directing “SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE,” for the Paris Community Theatre stage (Feb. 2019), while her novel “I AM HOUSTON,” is being submitted for publication by the Loiacono Literary Agency. Sydney has long been a reading advocate, including with her readings to an adopted second grade class each year. She loved voicing THE BIG INCH for all of its authentic Texas voices and true characters, all while she learned the history of the East Texas oil effort for World War II.  Visit Sydney’s website for more information on her writings, theatre, and audio books.

║ Website ║ Facebook ║ Instagram ║ Twitter ║

-------------------------------------

GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

ONE WINNER! 
Choice of Audio or Signed Print Copy of The Big Inch 
+ $25 Amazon Gift Card + a WWII Themed Surprise Gift!
NOVEMBER 5-12, 2018

(U.S. Only)

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VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

11/5/18	Joint Guest Post	Nerd Narration
11/6/18	Audio Book Review	Chapter Break Book Blog
11/7/18	Audio Book Review	Tangled in Text
11/8/18	Narrator Interview	StoreyBook Reviews
11/9/18	Audio Book Review	The Book Review
11/10/18	Audio Book Review	The Page Unbound
11/11/18	Guest Post	Momma on the Rocks
11/12/18	Audio Book Review	Kelly Well Read
11/12/18	Audio Book Review	Forgotten Winds
11/13/18	BONUS Audio Book Review	Hall Ways Blog

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Equal Opportunity Hero ~ ~ ~ ~ Blog Tour & Review!

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY HERO
T.J. Patterson's Service to West Texas

by

PHIL PRICE

  Genre: Biography / African American Leaders
Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
on Twitter  ┃ on Facebook

Date of Publication: November 20, 2017

Number of Pages: 277

On April 7, 1984, T. J. Patterson became the first African American elected to the Lubbock City Council, winning handily over his four opponents. It was a position he would go on to hold for more than twenty years, and his natural leadership would lead him to state and national recognition.

Patterson grew up during a time of American social unrest, protest, and upheaval, and he recounts memorable instances of segregation and integration in West Texas. As a two-year-old, he survived polio when African Americans were excluded from "whites only" hospitals. When he attempted to enroll at Texas Tech after graduating from all-black Bishop College, he was not allowed even to enter the administration building--the president would speak with him only outside, and then only to say Patterson could not be enrolled. Two years later, his aunt would become the first African American to attend Texas Tech.

Patterson spent his whole adult life as a grassroots activist, and as a city councilman he understood how important it was to work in solid partnership with representatives from the predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods of the city. Over the years, Patterson took every opportunity to join African American and Hispanic forces, but with a few exceptions, the traditional geographic divide of the minority population limited his efforts--and yet Patterson never gave up. His brave public marches to homes of known drug dealers brought attention to their undesirable activities. Patterson also supported city investment in Lubbock history and culture, plus new development activity, from annexation to paved roads to water mains to fire stations. During his long career he truly was an equal-opportunity hero for all of Lubbock's citizens.

CLICK TO PURCHASE

HALL WAYS REVIEW: ✪✪✪✪✪ Author Phil Price begins Equal Opportunity Hero by telling us where we are going to end up. Clearly, the author knows Patterson well, which enables him to provide angles and perspectives that some biographers simply don't have on their subject matter. The result in Equal Opportunity Hero is that the biography is infused with T.J. Patterson’s voice and vibrant personality.  I would have liked a more linear timeline, which would have avoided some repetition of information; as it is, it's one year forward, ten (or thirty) years back. However, the way Equal Opportunity Hero is written makes it feel like listening to stories told around the dinner table with that uncle who knows his dates. It’s comfortable, enjoyable, and filled with fascinating asides. (For example, Patterson’s Aunt Rose was a bootlegger, but bootlegging was important to the economy. Liquor was even stored at Lubbock churches because they wouldn’t be raided, and Lubbock was known as "the wettest dry town in the nation.")

Congressman Randy Neugebauer said in 2004 that T.J. Patterson is a man of many firsts. Patterson had his pulse on the black community and where there was a need, he stepped-up and helped meet it. Whether it was forming a black community newspaper (the Southwest Digest that is to this day still running strong), serving in local or state government and on committees (usually as the first black to do so), or doing outreach work for his church, Patterson lives it as he says it:  "We shouldn’t wait around for other people to do what we should do ourselves."

Driven, and dedicated to self-improvement to better serve others, in every position he held, Patterson always managed to take the role one step further to help more people or better help them. Patterson was always well-received and is charismatic. And he is not only personally responsible for effecting great change, he is often connected to it. It is in this way that Equal Opportunity Hero is not just a biography of one man; it's chock full of details and references to what was going on in the bigger picture of what it was and is to be a black American -- including the most horrific statistics (3,437 blacks lynched between 1882 and 1951; the 1923 ordinance defining "The Flats" area of Lubbock; the violent response to the Freedom Riders in 1961) and touchstones for the civil rights movement, all which put what Patterson was doing in context. As a young man, Patterson went from accepting that segregation was just the way it was, to deciding "it was about time" when protests began -- particularly when students from his alma mater (Bishop College) were involved. He believed in equality, and said, "You see, you don’t ever know who’s going to bring you a cup of water. It behooves us to treat all humans fair.” 

To Patterson, it all boils down to the importance of family & community. I enjoyed reading about his family dynamics and attitudes on discipline and respect - and loving parental discipline. Of Patterson's view on parenting, Price says Patterson believes, "children need a strong and steady adult hand in their raising, a hand that extends to their back side sometimes." Whatever Patterson and his wife did was successful, as his three children all lead lives steeped in service to their communities as public servants and active church members - and daughter Shelia has made things come full circle by occupying her father's old seat on the Lubbock City Council.

Significant portions of the book are about people other than Patterson, but who were integral to his life, including family members, his friend and business partner Eddie Richardson, and numerous community and political figures. Again, all the information presented is in context of the bigger picture of what was happening in our nation and world regarding civil rights movements. Author Phil Price enlightens the readers, presenting Lubbock and West Texas black history lessons I would venture to say most have never learned.

Price’s writing is immaculate and the book is cleanly edited, so there is nothing to interfere with the enjoyment of the book. The foreword, written by T.J. Patterson himself, is excellent in providing perspective to the rest of the book. Additionally, mid-point in the book, there is a wonderful selection of photos, and finishing out the book are end notes (organized by chapter) and an index, both which make it easy for the reader to navigate the book.

I highly recommend this book not only for anyone who’s lived in or been to Lubbock, but for a wider audience of readers who want to see a model of a life well-lived, a life of “solutions and action, not rhetoric,” and a truly remarkable man.

Thank you to Lone Star Book Blog Tours and Texas Tech University Press for providing me an eBook copy in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give. 

Phil Price has been friends with T. J. Patterson for more than twenty years. Now retired, Price was President and CEO of a marketing and design agency. Over the years he has served the Lubbock Independent School District, the Lubbock Better Business Bureau, the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce, and other city agencies. He lives in Lubbock USA, with his wife, Victoria.

CHECK OUT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

10/3	Promo	Tangled in Text
10/4	Review	Bibliotica
10/5	Promo	Missus Gonzo
10/6	Review	A Page Before Bedtime
10/7	Author Interview	StoreyBook Reviews
10/8	Promo	Texas Book Lover
10/9	Review	Hall Ways Blog
10/10	Excerpt	Texan Girl Reads
10/11	Review	Reading By Moonlight
10/12	Promo	Chapter Break Book Blog

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