Today Lynda M. Martin from Nurture Your BooksTourz
chats to us about her book. This Bird Flew Away
, is anovel based on Linda's life and experiences.
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Lynda On Life and Career
I currently live on the Gulf Coast of Florida with my husband, Jim, and two mastiff dogs, Elinore and Remy, a quiet life which I enjoy very much. I pass the time writing, of course, and also work helping the elderly stay in their own homes, providing care, companionship and assistance – very satisfying work. I do miss seeing my children and grandchildren as much as I would like as they are in Canada, but seeing as that is my only regret, I guess I’m quite lucky.
This novel expresses much that I’ve learned over the years dealing with children as an outreach worker, as a mother and a foster mother, as well as my own turbulent youth. No telling about myself can be complete without exploring what was a passion for many years. In the movie, The Color Purple
, the character portrayed by Oprah Winfrey says, “It’s a dangerous world for a girl child.” It certainly is, and the majority of you know this from first-hand experience. As to my writing career, This Bird Flew Away is my first major project in many years, and past novels were so long ago as to be irrelevant (or so I’ve been told by agents.) However, it will not be my last. I’ve done a lot of other writing over the years, articles mostly under various pen names and on a wide variety of subject matter ranging from professional business concerns (very dull) to child protection issues, animal welfare, politics, world events and a considerable amount of writing on writing. If anyone is interested in a sampling of my non-fiction writing, they are welcome to visit my personal publishing at lmmartin.Com.I love to write and I don’t much care about commercial success, a fact I’m sure my publisher rues, only that people read and gain something from my efforts. I imagine I will continue to write and will leave behind outlines and character sketches when I exit this world – and little else.
This Bird Flew Away
This novel is the story of Bria Jean Connelly who we first meet at “almost ten years old,” a neglected, spirited child, full of woe and heavy of heart, trying to make herself invisible while the Connelly clan gathers to bury the man who was her stepfather. Through the efforts of Jack, a young man she considers her best friend, we learn of the burden she carries, the secrets she has sworn to her mother she will keep, but cannot. This is the beginning of a life-long bond between the unlikely pair that will become Bria’s life-raft through the stormy seas of a childhood without a proper home or a real parent.There are two first-person voices, Bria our heroine and Mary, who will eventually become her foster mother and give her the first real home she has known, which may be too little, too late. We never do hear from Jack, the controversial friend/guardian, but see him only through the eyes of our two female narrators.
This triangular relationship, fraught with emotion and perhaps eliciting discomfort in some, forms the foundation for Bria’s growing up over the twenty years we follow her. Whether or not you feel some understanding for what unfolds, or moral outrage, it is a story true to life.
As I’m often fond of quoting: What should be is rarely what is.
Inspiration For Writing This Bird Flew Away.
Reality inspired me to write the book, that is the reality of children’s lives as I’ve known them over the years. As previously stated, I grew fed up with popular media’s treatment of the issues surrounding child abuse, those twisted dark dramas, and even more fed up with those that pretend it doesn’t exist except for some isolated cases.
It seems to me, that popular social myth takes precedence over reality far too much. Our politicians, our many pundits, our head-in-the-sky religious leaders speak of the family and family-life with reverence, expounding on an ideal that does not exist, has never existed and probably never will exist.
This utopian view of family and childhood is so far removed from what goes on every day, on every street and in one out of three households. (Yes!) Like everyone else who has worked in child protection, I’ve seen too much to even listen.
Part of me prays, “May we please find reality somewhere between the extremities of drama and the fantasy of perfection,” because until we look at reality and accept it, we can do little to change it.
This Bird Flew Away
is not a dark, sad book, it is an uplifting one that truly reflects the spirit of those girls I’ve known and their stories – not shocking, not depressing but simply true. These children go on being children no matter what occurs with them, accept their lot with a profound matter of fact attitude and go on. They still laugh, play, scheme and look forward to the future.That’s what I wanted to portray.
Reception Has Been....
Wonderful! I’m so pleased. Recently, the novel was listed as a finalist in literary fiction by the National Independent Excellence Book Awards. Which tickled me greatly, as you might imagine.
My readers have been very kind, many taking the time to contact me and tell me how much they enjoyed the story, and often, to speak of their own episodes, some sharing long-held secrets for the first time.
Reviews have, for the most part, been good, some excellent and one or two seem to have moral objections to the story – which has nothing to do with my writing and more to do with their preconceived notions of right and wrong. Or so I tell myself. So far, only one reviewer was unreservedly negative, again that moral thing and I have no problem with that.
What I find very heartening is a growing audience for the book with the young adult crowd. Readers from twelve to eighteen seem to relate to Bria and her trials even though the book opens in the ‘60’s. And despite the fact that political correctness dictated the book be rated as eighteen years plus.
Of course, I’d like to see wider distribution. One of the problems in publishing with an independent press is the lack of traditional distribution and that most of the marketing is up to the author. As I’ve learned, I’m not great at marketing. It is difficult to attract attention with all the noise in the market place and the couple of million books out there. Still, slowly, one copy after another, the book is finding readers.
What Readers Should Ideally Take Away.
My knee-jerk response is that readers come away with a better understanding of what being a survivor really encompasses, that they’re not all “ruined lives,” that most go on to heal, with scars and after-effects certainly, but heal all the same.
Also, perhaps some readers will expand their view of family, that families come in all shapes and sizes and all that is really important is the love that binds us together.
Work In Progress.
There is a sequel to This Bird Flew Away
, currently in draft form and in the hands of a few selected readers prior to revision and edit. (Any volunteers?) This story finds Bria as a grown woman with a successful legal practice as a child advocate, sitting in her office on a normal working day when the phone rings. That phone call will take her far from her home and comfort zone and into a legal drama. And that’s all I’m going to say about Fly High, Fly Blind (my working title.)Also, as something completely different, I’m working out the skeleton for a new novel. This will involve a heroine in her fifties, left by a husband to live on a much reduced budget, alone and damaged, who must remake herself and her life. Again, that’s all I have to say for the moment.
Wendy thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss these interesting points.
It was an absolute pleasure Lynda, I wish you every success with your book.
