Last month, I shared that I’d received a contract offer on Secrets of the Blue Moon, my novel about a grieving woman who battles her own personal ghosts as she chronicles the haunted history of a quaint Georgia town. This month, I decided against signing the contract.

Why?

You might remember I set the book in the weeks surrounding October 31, 2020. The year is important, as a blue moon falls on Halloween only once every 19 years. The publisher wanted all references to the pandemic and the Presidential election out and to market the book as a fantasy. Their prerogative. But I see the book as contemporary fiction with a sprinkle of magical realism and some Southern gothic vibes. The pandemic and the election are peripheral to the story, but, to me, they do play into the main character’s journey. So I turned down the contract.

But what now?

I’m planning to keep the story as is, including pandemic references, some light political satire, and, yes, ghosts. It is a ghost story. But more than that, it’s a tale of staying the course when life’s challenges aren’t so black and white. It’s about overcoming fear and moving forward with hope. I mean, isn’t that something we all strive to do?

As for getting my book out there, I’m still weighing options for a September 2024 release date. I’ll continue to share details as they unfold and update you further in next month’s newsletter, coming your way around March 22.

Cheers ~ J

Four years later, Julie’s brother and his wife die in an accident—with legal instructions for Julie to raise the twins as her own. She seriously doubts her abilities, as do her parents and sister. Add to that, her job is endangered when she needs to take time to deal with grieving children—Lucy, who’s prone to explosive tantrums, and Mikey, who refuses to talk. If all this isn’t complicated enough, the twins’ uncle—the one who donated the sperm—shows up at Julie’s door, saying he wants to help.

But are his motives really that pure?

While I don’t often gravitate toward adult fiction where children have a major presence with lots of dialogue, the author handles this deftly without getting overly saccharine. She also is good at weaving in topics to ponder and discuss, like how people deal with grief in different ways and the complexities of coming to terms with the family we have instead of the one we think we want.

If this sounds like a book you’d enjoy—and to find out what happens to Julie et. al. in print or audio format—you can order it here: 

In honor of Black History Month—and to continue my personal journey to understand and respect different perspectives—here are two more book recs for the month. I listened to each of them recently in audio format. They’re both by male authors who are African American, and they're both widely available for you to purchase from your favorite book retailer.

Between The World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates) is a nonfiction book written as a letter by the author to his fifteen-year-old son in an effort to share the complexities of what it means to grow up as an African American male in 2015. I read it when I learned it was removed from an advanced placement course in South Carolina…in 2023. Curious, I wondered why. Apparently, some reviewers found the narrative angry and leaning too heavily into Critical Race Theory. I did not. I found it to be a thoughtful read that didn’t profess to have all the answers.

James McBride’s novel, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, opens in 1972 Pottstown, Pennsylvania, when a skeleton is discovered at the bottom of a well. Police suspect foul play, but part of the evidence got washed away by Hurricane Agnes. The story wanders back in time to the 1920s and 30s, when a disparate ensemble of characters lived in the Chicken Hill neighborhood. They include an immigrant Jewish couple who own a theater and a grocery store, a young deaf black boy being hidden to keep him from being institutionalized, a white physician who is a member of the Ku Klux Klan…and many, many more. It’s a lot to follow, but McBride has a beautiful way with words and eventually weaves the storylines together. And the reader learns whodunit in the end. Bonus: Dominic Hoffman’s audiobook narration lends a richness to the characters through his apt use of dialects and accents.