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| Excerpt of the Book at Amazon |
Reviews (Excerpts)
- "Kingsley has a direct, honest style that works well to convey feeling without bathos or melodrama, and Angel is a captivating heroine. [...] Kingsley's pacing is perfect as her engaging heroine digs deeper into the family's past, and the novel moves quickly without feeling rushed." - Jane Ryder
- "[...] The story pulls you in to attempt to figure out what is going to happen next. I highly recommend it for many different age groups." - orgchicago
- "[...] This is a book that is hard to put down as you enjoy being immersed in Angel's world." - Moondyoriginal (Amazon)
Book Description
Thirteen-year-old Angel Bishop is fed up with all the unanswered questions about her life, like why did her Daddy run off when she was just a baby, leaving her to grow up fatherless? And why has her Aunt Patsy, the only family member she feels she can talk to, been locked up in a place for crazy people all these years? It seems to Angel like her family fell completely apart right after she was born, which makes her wonder what her coming along had to do with it.
Growing up in a small east Tennessee town with her mother Ruth, who is often distant and preoccupied, and her Bible-thumping grandmother Naomi, Angel is certain there’s more to the story than she’s been told. When her daddy, Calvin, telephones out of the blue one evening and says he’s coming home for Thanksgiving, Angel thinks her dream of a normal family is finally going to come true. Instead, her world starts to unravel.
Desperate for answers, Angel seeks the secrets buried in Aunt Patsy’s troubled mind and the wisdom of Old Susan, the town’s eccentric outcast. She also tries to be supportive of her best friend Sophie, who is facing the imminent loss of her mother, but the relationship becomes strained over things that are happening at school.
As the day for Calvin’s supposed return approaches, Angel’s conflicted feelings grow, driving her to the point of bold and perhaps reckless decisions. She finds herself entangled in a dangerous scenario far beyond her understanding, and becomes the unwitting link between two generations of her family’s dark and unresolved story. What she doesn’t know is how much is at stake for the people she loves. What she learns is that answers are sometimes found where you’d never expect them, and that letting go of what you thought you wanted can be the surest path to a dream come true.
About the Author
Mary was born in Kingsport, Tennessee, a town tucked up in the northeastern part of the state, not far from the Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina lines. Although the town itself sits in a valley along the Holston River, the surrounding hills of southern Appalachia defined the local culture and shaped her childhood.
Writing started to be an important part of her childhood and adolescence. She wrote stories and poems, mostly in secret, wishing to share these things but not knowing how. Somewhere along the line Mary got the idea that writers were a rare breed and for whatever reason she couldn’t really be one, so she would just write on my own.
Family life was Mary's full time job, and she might have convinced herself that writing was a good hobby, something for spare time, had it not been for a recurring, extraordinarily disturbing dream. Night after night she awoke with a jolt and her heart racing, thinking that she had abandoned a child somewhere– strapped in a car, on a street corner, or alone in a house. A wise friend suggested that perhaps the abandoned child was actually a part of Mary, her neglected creative self. The message was clear for Mary– it was time to claim herself as a writer.
In the years that followed Mary wrote essays, parts of novels, and short stories, culminating in an unpublished collection entitled Stories for a Waxing Moon, which included first, second, and third place winners at the Virginia Highlands Festival Creative Writing Contest, and one that was published in an anthology called O, Georgia! A Collection of Georgia’s Newest and Most Promising Writers. She also wrote and published a small volume of meditations and essays entitled Prayers and Seven Contemplations of the Sacred Mother (Woven Word Press, 2004). It was about this time that Mary began writing Angel. It took a while, with three teenagers to raise and a long distance move, but there’s really no stopping a story that wants to be told.
So, now the book is finally here.
Writing started to be an important part of her childhood and adolescence. She wrote stories and poems, mostly in secret, wishing to share these things but not knowing how. Somewhere along the line Mary got the idea that writers were a rare breed and for whatever reason she couldn’t really be one, so she would just write on my own.
Family life was Mary's full time job, and she might have convinced herself that writing was a good hobby, something for spare time, had it not been for a recurring, extraordinarily disturbing dream. Night after night she awoke with a jolt and her heart racing, thinking that she had abandoned a child somewhere– strapped in a car, on a street corner, or alone in a house. A wise friend suggested that perhaps the abandoned child was actually a part of Mary, her neglected creative self. The message was clear for Mary– it was time to claim herself as a writer.
In the years that followed Mary wrote essays, parts of novels, and short stories, culminating in an unpublished collection entitled Stories for a Waxing Moon, which included first, second, and third place winners at the Virginia Highlands Festival Creative Writing Contest, and one that was published in an anthology called O, Georgia! A Collection of Georgia’s Newest and Most Promising Writers. She also wrote and published a small volume of meditations and essays entitled Prayers and Seven Contemplations of the Sacred Mother (Woven Word Press, 2004). It was about this time that Mary began writing Angel. It took a while, with three teenagers to raise and a long distance move, but there’s really no stopping a story that wants to be told.
So, now the book is finally here.
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Mary E. Kingsley on Twitter: @maryekingsley
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