When Alison, from Claire McKinney PR, contacted me with a synopsis of today’s showcased book, I wanted to know more. So I ask for help in welcoming Ms. Nicole Lundrigan to CMash Reads!
NICOLE LUNDRIGAN
Nicole Lundrigan is the author of three critically acclaimed novels: Unraveling Arva, Thaw, and The Seary Line. She grew up in Newfoundland and now lives in Ontario with her family.
Visit Nicole at her website here.
GUEST POST
I never dreamed about being a writer. When I was little, I had a children’s biography of Louis Pasteur, and I dreamed of being a scientist. I imagined my grown-up self in a lab somewhere making discoveries that would help people.
During school, I enjoyed my English classes, but Science still held me. I was always curious to understand why things worked the way they did. How did that happen? While at university, my gears shifted slightly, and I became interested in forensic science – particularly forensic anthropology, with its crime scene analysis and study of skeletal material. After some floundering, testing out different areas of study, I had finally found my path.
As I was working through graduate school, I assumed I would continue my education and earn a PhD. But life had other plans for me. I gave birth to my first child just months after graduation, and I quickly I realized the immensity of that responsibility. I made the decision to stay at home and care for her.
While that was a joyful time, I can’t deny it was also a period of intense isolation. I missed university. I missed talking to people who were studying the same subjects as I was. I missed having to puzzle over something until my head became woozy. I missed simply walking the halls of those old buildings and breathing in that air. I’ve often wondered just why I started writing, and part of me knows it was to assuage that loneliness. I’ve never actually admitted that before, but I know it’s true.
Some days I still think about my Louis Pasteur biography and my childhood declaration of being a scientist. Do I feel I’ve lost something by leaving science behind and jumping headlong into motherhood with a side order of writing? Not really. In many ways, science and writing overlap. Both involve observation and precise steps towards understanding. Both are infinitely complicated. And if we watch and listen carefully, both can lead to exciting and meaningful discoveries. About the world. Or about ourselves.
ABOUT THE BOOK
“Deftly walks the line between light and dark, hope and fear, with dazzling honesty and truth.”~Ami McKay, author of The Birth House
Secrets and denial can exist in tandem. Families are fond of hiding things about their loved ones hoping that the future will bring brighter days devoid of any ill effects from the past. The problem is, the tendency to hide those things that are dark or shameful can produce an explosion down the road, where everything is exposed whether one likes it or not. In her new novel GLASS BOYS (Douglas & McIntyre; September 1, 2012; $18.95) Nicole Lundrigan explores these themes in a small town in Newfoundland where two families find out how deadly hiding the past can be.
Garrett Glass has a secret. He has a pickle jar filled with some illicit pictures of a boy he once knew. When his stepfather discovers this treasure and confronts Garrett another young man, Roy Fagan is accidentally killed. Lewis Fagan the surviving brother of Roy, becomes a local cop in their town, and keeps his eye on the family that murdered his kin. For his part, Garrett’s stepfather never told anyone about Garrett’s special pictures. He did not realize that this was a deviant sign that would eventually cause many more problems.
Lewis Fagan went on with his life, met a girl, and had a family, but his wife was a troubled soul. Wilda was abused by her mother and as a teenager she ran away from home to find a life on the streets. A kind man and owner of an antique shop gave her a home and a job, but her feelings about her past seedy behavior never went away. Even the adoration held for her by her oldest son Melvin, was no comfort. When the storm finally comes to these two families, they will find that one cannot escape the past or ignore evil when it offers a glimpse of bad things to come.
GLASS BOYS is a dark story with lessons to be learned, but there is hope that even in its worst moments, life can indeed go on.
DISCLAIMER
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family and/or friends.
