Memoirous

Cicadas make an appearance (every 17 years) in my novel CLOUD OF WITNESSES . At the end of the novel with several other apocalyptic events swirling around my young protagonist, Roland fetches his bicycle (late to school again) from under the trailer and finds it covered in cicadas.  I pulled my bike out of the rack in front of the school and shook half a dozen cicadas off the seat. They had begun to hatch earlier in the week, googly red-eyed insects the size of my index finger, emerging from underground near the roots of trees. They clung to whatever they could attach themselves to: mailbox posts, the carcass of the Datsun lying in the ravine, Granny’s vinyl chair. Soon after hatching they molted a tobacco-brown tissue-paper-like exoskeleton. I could barely walk without crunching and cracking them under my feet like dry leaves. Granny had taken to netting and frying them up in her black-iron skillet with a bit of grease. “Taste just like bacon,” she stated, wings and legs sticking ...

You’ll likely see this plea for the month of December. My books are available for download through Amazon Kindle and Smashwords (click on either to go to those pages). Also through Amazon you can order paperbacks of most of my titles. Highlight of this post: Cloud of Witnesses MG novel What reviewers are saying: Cloud of Witnesses hooks the reader with well-developed, interesting characters and snappy dialogue. The story features issues faced by many middle schoolers - coming of age, friendship, loyalty to family and classmates - but is set in the backwoods of Appalachia. The activities and language ring true in this slice-of-life tale about a region not usually featured in books. This is an important fish-out-of-water story about empathy and the dangers of and lessons learned from painting everyone in the same circumstances with the same brush. -- Marlene Targ Brill, best-selling author of over 60 children's books M J Lane 5.0 stars Wonderful coming of age story, set in rural Ohi...

Recently on PBS ln American Experience there has aired a two-part series on the taking of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and what became the American Hostage Crisis that lasted 444 days. Pretty much the course of American policy in Iran since then has been stuck. Very little has changed diplomatically. That period of time was the background for my novel Cloud of Witnesses about a boy growing up in rural poverty in southern Ohio. What, you may ask, has the Iranian Revolution got to do with Athens, Ohio. Well, I was a student then at Ohio University and there were many internationals on campus and from there I spun out a story about an unlikely friendship between 2 boys coming to terms with their own feelings of being an outsider. One was an exile within his own family and the other was truly learning that he wouldn’t be able to go back, that home was out of reach. I tend to start first with an idea and then flesh it out with story. Sort of like a philosophical challenge or...

Everything Sad is Untrue Daniel Nayeri Levine Querido, 2020 In Daniel Nayeri’s Everything Sad is Untrue, winner of the ALA Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults, takes the reader on a wild ride much like the Tornado at the amusement park or like Scheherazade in 1,001 Nights, spinning yarns/memories in order to save his life. This is not just hyperbole. In the face of trauma, he was unloading, taking heavy burdens off his heart and mind. At the same time he was lightening he was enlightening us, the reader, giving us insight into the life of a refugee. A timely story. Doing research for my book Cloud of Witnesses for the character Hassan I read many first-hand accounts of life in Iran pre and post the Revolution. Nayeri describes his family, homes, and life in a beautiful and complex country. We are given a picture of a home full of the sound of birds and the smell of jasmine—and at the same time an open sewage trench and running from the morality...

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/03/09/cicadas-broodx-environment/ Brood X, the last time they appeared in hordes was in 2004. In a few months these monstrous looking bugs will burrow out of their 17-year hiatus and attach themselves to Everything. They will be everywhere, leaving exoskeletons and nesting in trees. If you miss seeing them—don’t worry—you will hear them as the average male mating song can reach 100 decibels, on par with living with a leaf blower. I mention all this as the 17-year cicada makes an appearance in my book Cloud of Witnesses. Roland comes out of his family’s trailer to find his bicycle covered with winged locusts, big-eyed bugs. Later Granny will fry some up to eat in her black-iron skillet. “Tastes like bacon,” she’ll inform Roland.   I pulled my bike out of the rack in front of the school and shook half a dozen cicadas off the seat. They had begun to hatch earlier in the week, googly red-eyed insects the size of...

(Adapted from a talk I gave at the 2019 Illinois Reading Council Conference for teachers and librarians.) After writing and publishing my middle-grade novel, Cloud of Witnesses ( Golden Alley Press ), I discovered that it is but one of a handful of books currently being published that represents rural life. Most books coming out today for youth is set in cities or suburbia. Think Jason Reynolds whose books address themes of gang violence and inner-city living. I’m also reminded of Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, herself a product of the exburbs of New York City. Books such as these transport readers into their world very successfully, and are indeed very popular. Yet, it seems that forgotten landscapes, hard-scrabble, rural, rust-belt are falling away from the American consciousness. After the Election of 2016, journalists and political analysts sought to understand what they termed “fly-over” country. Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance shot to the top f the bestseller list and was a...

I sort of hate it when movies, books, media reduce complex issues down into easily digested bites. That’s the trouble with Hillbilly Elegy, the movie now playing on Netflix: distilled into the Hatfield and McCoys. In fact that piece of mountain myth is referenced in the first 15 minutes of the film. My book Cloud of Witnesses and Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance follow the same character arc—sort of. Hillbilly Elegy came out in an election year, 2016, and talk shows turned to it as a way to understand how Trump became President. I’m still not sure how that happened or why still 74 million people voted for him this time. Vance’s memoir served as an in-road to understand people who live paycheck to paycheck in forgotten, dried up manufacturing towns. I guess. I was simply irritated by the book. Because no one story tells the whole story. But from Elegy people (media, Ron Howard) derive memes. The truth depicted just as in Cloud of Witnesses is that Appalachia births resilient peop...

  $8.99 paperback Some glad morning, I’ll fly away. Who cares if he’s “gifted.” Roland Tanner wants to escape his life. He’s stuck in a broken-down trailer in the hills with his family, the sorriest characters he’s ever met. At his new middle school, his classmates only see him as a hillbilly. He has a secret crush on Patty, but so does his friend Hassan, the new kid from Iran. But then comes the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979. And Roland’s father’s health takes a turn for the worse while he’s away in jail. Will Roland accept the cloud of witnesses—the saints and sinners all around him—and realize that his future can be whatever he makes it? Perfect for fans of Erin Entrada Kelly, Sharon Creech, Cynthia Rylant, and Firoozeh Dumas, Cloud of Witnesses is a poignant, humorous book about coming of age in the foothills of the Appalachians. “Weaving fiction and historical events together, this book made me laugh and cry. The characters jump off the page. A great read for all middle schoo...

This past weekend was Nowruz, the New Year according to the lunar calendar that Iran follows. In my book, Cloud of Witnesses , Hassan explains the idea of Nowruz to Roland who likens it to spring cleaning, a time to clear away the old and prepare for the new. “According to the Muslim calendar this is the time for the new year, No Ruz , spring when all things are made new again. It makes sense, doesn’t it?” “Yeah, I guess.” I knew better than to say interesting . Hassan took a colorful scarf out of his backpack and spread it on the ground. “We have a tradition,” he began. On top of the scarf he placed a hard-boiled egg. “Where we eat specific foods. The egg represents new life just as these do—” He plucked a couple of burs and catbriers off of his soccer shirt and placed them on the scarf. “Seeds.” Next from his bag he brought out a baggie of goldfish crackers. “Usually we use real goldfish, but these will have to do, and this is called a noghl ,” he said holding up a smal...

During Christmas I listened to Dolly Parton's America , a podcast from journalist and podcast celebrity Jad Abumrad, creator of Radiolab and More Perfect. Like all good podcasts there are surprising and insane connections made—where the conversation takes a left turn to something else. I loved the interweaving of themes and threads=all from Dolly Parton. This is America in all its forms. The podcasts begin with Parton in Nashville on the Porter Wagoner Show. She was meant to be the “Dumb Blonde”, second fiddle to the main man, but her ability to carry an audience and build her own fan base was immediately apparent. What Abumrad emphasized is that Dolly’s fans are diverse. She appeals to not only country music fans but to the LGBT crowd. People who vote for Trump, people who would rather die than vote for Trump. In fact, she has more of a following now in her 70s than she did when at age 21 she broke onto the scene on Wagoner’s show. Her songs speak to a whole range of peopl...

New Title for Young People Features Iranian/American Relations Cloud of Witnesses by Jane Hertenstein (ages 11- 14, published by Golden Alley Press) is set in Athens, Ohio during the Iran Hostage Crisis. Roland Tanner is a hillbilly, someone from rural Appalachia, and often feels like an outsider within his family and community. Tested as gifted, he is bused from his rural trailer to the town middle school where he meets Hassan, another outsider, whose family has relocated to from Iran to Athens where his father works at the university. The friendship is challenged when hostages are taken when the U.S. Embassy in Tehran is overrun in November 1979. While crowds in the streets of Tehran chanted “Death to America,” news outlets depict incidents of Americans burning the Iranian flag. Roland is forced to examine his alliances and loyalties. In many ways Roland and Hassan have a lot in common—both feel like they don’t belong. Hassan: “The kids at school think I’m a terror...

Children’s Book Title Suddenly Relevant   There has been an uptick of interest in southeast Ohio because of Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow’s viral speech. In his acceptance speech he mentioned his hometown and the poverty affecting that part of Ohio, where, as he mentioned, students often go to bed hungry. Cloud of Witnesses recently released by Golden Alley Press is a middle-grade novel about an Athens, Ohio eighth grader struggling to find his place in school, his family, and the world outside his small-town. Author Jane Hertenstein has given talks and compiled a bibliography of books written about children growing up in rural areas of America. “There are very few resources that reflect these children and their particular struggles.” She gave a seminar at the Illinois Reading Council for teachers and librarians. She cited Dave Eggers’ new novel The Lifters as a book using a rural setting. Appalachia and what is termed “fly-over country” has suddenly captured our ...

I have only the most tenuous hold on my time and schedule lately. Since returning home from a bike trip to the Adirondacks and Vermont I have been working hard on a manuscript about bicycling--not a travelogue. There are so many loose threads I'm trying to hold together--I need two or three monitors for this book! Right now I have about 40 tabs open--which drives my friends crazy--except it should be me going insane and not them! Anyway, apologies for being a slacker at the blog. The blog slog. This past weekend I experienced a first: the first time I presented a seminar and met someone who traveled to get there. Meaning: she said she came up the night before and stayed in a motel. Wow! I thought, I'm just like a real author. My talk was about flash writing and flash being the building blocks to longer writing--such as the novel. About 12 people sat through my rambling. They did seem to get something out of it. Kathleen definitely won the prize for coming from the furth...

This will be a very personal post. When we write, even fiction, we are revealing a little part of ourselves. Indeed, this may be why I write: to crack open the soul. So then . . . after I've done my part, written and cracked, ached and revised, what next? I'm not a hobbyist, so I put it out there--for the world to read. Or at least I hope so. I send out my flashes and short stories and essays and generally after a lot of coming and going and wrestling, they are published. The novels take much, much longer. If I can't get an agent for the work then I try for smaller presses which are still reading manuscripts. Sometimes I go the self-publish route. Either way eventually these also get published. After all this then I help market and publicize the work. I begin to intentionally engage with readers. And, this is where I have hit the wall. I can't make people read my book, just like you can lead a horse to water but can't make them drink. I asked friends t...

Khomeini waves to followers as he appears on the balcony of his headquarters in Tehran on February 2, 1979. February 1, 2019 marks the 40 th year of Ayatollah Khomeini’s return to Iran from exile. What does this mean to the rest of the world? Many leaders in the Middle East placated the West by calling for democracy and modernization—while at the same time maintaining a regime of suppression and human right abuse. Today we can point to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, colloquially known as MbS. In the 1970s America supported Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. In 1979 the Shah abdicated his throne and Ayatollah Khomeini helped establish the Islamic Republic. https://www.rferl.org/a/khomeini-tehran-iran/29739627.html So what does this have to do with Appalachia, with Cloud of Witnesses ? Though Cloud of Witnesses feels contemporary, it is a historical novel set 1979/1980. A sub-story in the novel has to do with a young ...

Cloud of Witnesses  hooks the reader with well-developed, interesting characters and snappy dialogue. The story features issues faced by many middle schoolers - coming of age, friendship, loyalty to family and classmates - but is set in the backwoods of Appalachia. The activities and language ring true in this slice-of-life tale about a region not usually featured in books. This is an important fish-out-of-water story about empathy and the dangers of and lessons learned from painting everyone in the same circumstances with the same brush.   --  Marlene Targ Brill , best-selling author of over 60 children's books Available from Amazon , Barnes & Noble, Golden Alley Press , order from your local bookseller

--from a reader: When my mom lived in Ohio she made it to the State Final as a Quiz kid. All I could think of when I read your book. At my book launch I had a diverse crowd. From my contacts in the neighborhood there were a few folks who used to sleep under the bridge in the park, and are now, thankfully, housed. A few days after the launch ----- approached me and said, “I read your book.” I told her it means a lot to me that she bought one (on her limited budget!), and that she’d read it already. “Oh, that’s nothing—I’m half way through reading it a second time.” I really did want to cry. I appreciate so much her reading it once let alone a second time. “You know who I identify with? Hassan, the kid they made fun of, an outsider.” You see my friend grew up outside of American society. As a Native American she has struggled all her life with identity; how does she fit in this land, this country? Thank you friend for your kind words and thoughtful reading. Thank...

Join me in Peoria at the  Illinois Reading Council Conference  on Friday, October 5 The theme is Read the World, Oct. 4-6, 2018 at the Peoria Civic Center My presentation is The Rural Child in Juvenile Literature

Weaving fiction and historical events together, this book made me laugh and cry. The characters jump off the page. A great read for all middle school students. — Marilee Amodt, M.S.Ed., long-time Middle School Curriculum Resource Teacher Cloud of Witnesses hooks the reader with well-developed, interesting characters and snappy dialogue. The story features issues faced by many middle schoolers—coming of age, friendship, loyalties to family and classmates--but is set in the backwoods of Appalachia. This is an important fish-out-of-water story about empathy and the dangers of painting everyone in similar circumstances with the same brush. — Marlene Targ Brill, author of Dolores Huerta Stands Strong: The Women Who Demanded Justice In this present era of unusual cruelty and persecution of others in America, Cloud of Witnesses provides a gentle reminder of what it is to wonder, to love, to experience suffering and loss, and how letting go is also a bridge to joy. Cloud of Witn...

I’ve been so busy with my Cloud of Witnesses book launch that I’ve had very little time to create. As the day draws nigh I’ve been working on a book trailer which I will preview here in a bit. What’s truly wonderful is finding someone else’s work that resonates. While working on the book trailer (okay, I’m not a videographer or film editor, my friend Juan Carlos Garcon is the one working the magic) I felt like we needed some images that represented the region. It’s hard enough for kids to imagine life in the 1979/1980, let alone what things looked like in Athens County. Anyway, I stumbled onto a group of photographers and a project called “ Looking at Appalachia ” https://lookingatappalachia.org/ There were many pics that worked well with the book and the scenes I wanted to highlight, but had no idea of how to contact the photographers. We wanted to have the project done in time for the book launch. Alan Pittman’s photographs of West Virginia were just great. He had images...