Beulah Land-A Young Adult Novel by Nancy Stewart

Violette Sinclair was always in my heart. She emerged almost fully-formed after the untimely death of my cousin Jill, who faced many obstacles as a lesbian teen. In weaving the narratives of these two powerful women’s lives together, I found they had a comparable tale to tell; one of torment, betrayal, and redemption.

I am speaking of my debut Young Adult novel, Beulah Land, published by Interlude Press, November 17, 2017. As the first year of publication nears, I'd like to revisit not only the book but the reasons why I wrote it. 

Violette (Vi,) Sinclair, a seventeen-year-old young woman, calls the Missouri Ozarks home. It is where her family has lived for two-hundred years. But Vi wonders how long she will stay alive in her own hometown. 

With help from her only friend, Junior, Vi unravels a mystery that puts her in conflict with a vicious tormentor, a dog fight syndicate, and her own mother. Vi's experience galvanizes her strength as she struggles to survive in a place where a person can wake up dead simply because of who she is.

It is my hope that readers find this book not only entertaining but uplifting, and hopeful. Violette is not a victim. She is victorious. But the journey from potential victim to victorious woman is harrowing and rife with many dangers. 

The manuscript won First Place at the State of Florida Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators in 2015. The book, in pre-publishing, won two Five Star Awards (Foreword Reviews and NetGalley.) 

Belleville Native’s Debut YA Novel was Sparked by Cousin’s Death

My Young adult novel, Beulah Land was published by Interlude Press November 2017. I am publishing the review from my hometown newspaper, the Belleville News Democrat (Belleville, IL.) I am grateful to Caitlin Lally, for the lovely review:

A new, young adult fiction book set in the Missouri Ozarks just hit store shelves, and award-winning author Nancy Rosenthal Stewart, a Belleville native, said she drew inspiration from her environment and her own life situations.

“All of us as human beings are just an amalgam of experiences — that’s all we are. Experiences really define who we are, I think, and who we become,” Stewart said.

For Stewart, growing up alongside her cousin and visiting Lake Taneycomo every summer were the experiences that sparked her first novel “Beulah Land,” which was released in November. The book revolves around the life of 17-year-old girl Violette Sinclair, whose family has lived in the Ozarks for 200 years.

“Most summers, my family and I would spend a week or so in the Ozarks, and I just grew to love it. It’s just a wonderful — a bit rugged — place, but beautiful to visit,” Stewart said. “It really made a bigger impression on me than I thought it did at the time.”

Stewart said Violette’s character was influenced by the life of her late cousin, Jill. “My cousin was gay, and she had a very hard time growing up because ... part of the family simply did not accept her.”

Stewart said she began writing the story after her cousin died three years ago. “At her celebration of life party, the novel ‘Beulah Land’ came to me basically fully formed, it was like a Rubik’s Cube — ch, ch, ch, ch, ch — and there it was.”

According to Stewart, the main character needed to be placed in a difficult environment, and for Violette, that would be the rural Ozarks. “Authors always put their protagonist — hero or heroine — in the hardest place possible (to) give them so many things to overcome. So the Ozarks for a girl who is gay, that’s where she had to go.”

However, both the author and editor said Violette’s sexuality is not the main focus of the story.

“Though Violette Sinclair is definitely facing adversity due to her orientation … that’s not the point of what she’s trying to solve in this book,” Annie Harper, executive editor of Interlude Press, said. “What she’s trying to do is solve a mystery to save her family.”

“Vi, at the end of the day, is a wonderful, courageous human being, who just happens to be gay — it’s just one little facet of her life. The rest of her life is so much more,” Stewart said.

A publisher of LGBTQ fiction, Interlude Press has a young adult offshoot called Duet Books, through which “Beulah Land” was produced. Harper said it was important to publish the novel because of what the main character represents.

“She doesn’t just survive — she triumphs,” Harper said. “We don’t have enough stories about girls and women driving the story, driving the action, solving the problem, you know, without necessarily relying on someone else to do it for them.”

Stewart said she caught the attention of publishers after “Beulah Land” won an award in 2015 for being the top book in the state of Florida, where she currently resides. “Believe me, no one was more surprised than I was,” Stewart said.

While some may avoid the young adult section of the bookstore for one reason or another, Stewart said this narrative is not just for teen readers.

“The most important people to read it, I think, would be young people who are just learning about themselves; young people who are conflicted, perhaps, about their sexuality, but having said that, I would really like for their parents to read it, too,” Stewart said. “I really think it is a book for all people because it doesn’t just only deal with a gay girl — it deals with truth, and it deals with honesty, and it deals with valor.”

About the author

Just as Violette’s family roots run deep, so do Stewart’s. She said her family has lived in the Belleville area for nearly 100 years.

“I’m so fortunate to have grown up in the Midwest, with Midwestern values. I think that Belleville was a great place to grow up,” Stewart said. “I know that smaller communities sometimes get a bad rap, but I don’t feel that way. Belleville will always have a very warm spot in my heart.”

An alumna of Washington University in St. Louis, Stewart went into education and found herself at McKendree Universityteaching children’s and young adult literature when she began to consider writing as a career.

“During those years, I began to toy with the idea of writing, and over about a four- or five-year period it just became clear to me that I wanted to write.”

Stewart has published five children’s books in addition to “Beulah Land.”

Retail price for “Beulah Land” is $15.99. This and other books by Stewart can be purchased on Amazon, at www.nancystewartbooks.com or at Barnes & Noble.

Process-The Crux of Reading Young Adult Novels

The process of reading Young Adult books usually begins around the age of fourteen, when the Middle Grade phase of reading books for pleasure and/or in the curriculum wanes. Young Adult novels sparkle and shine for the older, more mature reader. Let the magic begin!

Young Adult novels can be found in many guises. From fantasy to dystopia to romance to historical fiction to…the sky, as someone said, is the limit. And perhaps even that is not the limit anymore with all the space opera options swirling around the reader.

A teenager, of course, should be the protagonist and preferably the antagonist as well. Adults are certainly welcome within the pages but should only be supporting characters and happily can be villains (as many adults seem to be villains within a teen’s real life.)

The most important part of a Young Adult novel is this: The teenager/s should act like teens! And this is where the process becomes important, because growing up is just that. For the impressionable teen to mature, for new concepts and values to light up his/her brain, the truth must shine through. Of course, that truth can be dark, hurtful, even sinister. But truth must be there, on the page, in the very sinew and soul of the book. If it isn’t, the work will be a sham. It will be false and clearly a danger to the reader, who by virtue of his/her youth, is beyond vulnerable to what s/he reads.

My debut Young Adult novel, Beulah Land, tells the story of a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in the Missouri Ozarks. Part of the book deals with dark, hurtful, and sinister events. The protagonist, Violette Sinclair, is smart, and strong-minded, and gay. She and her best friend, Junior McKenna, navigate treacherous territory in the form of a dog fight ring, a corrupt sheriff, and Vi’s mother, who harbors dark and sinister secrets.

A coming-of-age story, it is my great hope that Beulah Land will not only sparkle and shine for the reader but will give insight, courage, and above all, integrity to all who read the book. And, of course, viva to the process. Once more, let the magic begin!

Beulah Land: Young Adult Novel by Nancy Stewart

How does a seventeen-year-old gay girl survive life in the Missouri Ozarks, where every day can be a threat to her existence? My debut Young Adult novel, Beulah Land, tells that very story.

Violette Sinclair, a smart, ambitious young woman, wants to be a veterinarian like her boss, Claire Campbell. She plans to leave raw and threatening Bucktown, Missouri as soon as possible and never come back.

Her only friend is Junior McKenna, the local high school football star. Together, they begin a saga that leads them through their rural world of family feuds, dog-fighting, and the very real threat of  Vi's being murdered. This is a place where someone who doesn't fit in could wake up dead.

Vi and Junior decide to do whatever it takes to rid Bucktown of Dale Woodbine. The tale takes the two on a journey of self-awareness, and personal growth, and ultimately, of redemption.

This book, in a real way, took me on a journey as well. It began after the death of a much-loved cousin who died too soon from a rare cancer. Although the book is fiction, there are threads of a family story woven throughout the pages.

My cousin was a lesbian and as such, was made to feel unworthy by some people in general and a few family members in particular, including her mother. At Jill's Celebration of Life party, the novel came to me almost fully formed. I began writing it the minute I returned home.

The book, in many ways, was cathartic to write. It led me down a winding path of childhood, through warrens of memories that I had not visited in many years. In doing so, I was able to see the past that had eluded me, and writing it brought it into sharp focus.

My wish from my heart to yours is that you enjoy the book and, if you pick up a piece of wisdom here and there, so much the better. Happy reading!

Young Adult Novel, Beulah Land Coming from Interlude Press, Fall of 2017

Please forgive me for posting some news dear to my heart!  My Young Adult LGBTQ novel Beulah Land is to be published by Duet Books, an imprint of Interlude Press in the autumn of 2017.  I am so delighted to be associated with this august and award-winning publishing house.  I know it is a fitting place for my book to have found a home. 

Annie Harper, one of the founders of Interlude Press, said she has for years recognized the need for fiction that the teen LGBTQ audience can relate to, yet emphasized the universal appeal of Duet titles. “Like all young adults, characters in YA books are discovering who they are and trying to find the courage to show themselves to the world."

Duet’s name is a play on Interlude Press’s musical connotation and, Harper explained, “also implies a little bit of innocence, as well as the love story theme. But that said,” she added, “we are putting out love stories that have an additional dimension to them. We are focusing on stories where romance serves as a catalyst for characters to discover who they are and show their authentic selves.

Beulah Land, according to the publishing house is the story of:

A courageous teenager fights for social justice, survival, and self-defining truth in the forbidding Missouri Ozarks

It is my hope the book will speak not only to teens but to all people who seek to find truth in their lives and about the world.

Why the Perennial Interest in Coming of Age Novels?

What is a coming of age novel, and why is it appealing to so many people?  Let me answer the first part of the question with a question. 

Who doesn't enjoy looking back, at least with a passing glimpse, to our more callow days filled with emotion, hormones, embarrassment, and lots of learning about life?  

Although perusing those earlier years can be a painful experience, for most people it was a time of self-awareness and growth. And it certainly can be again, if we only take the time to revisit those days from the safety of adulthood.

On a personal note, I've been immersed in writing my own coming of age novel.  The protagonist is a new teenager who has to find her way through a morass not of her own making.  Hopefully, the reader will long for her to emerge from the journey as a whole and happy and more mature young person, ready to face anything that life sends her way.

 The effect of my writing this novel is palpable.  I find myself dredging up memories that I would have thought long gone.  My dreams are full of incidents that happened to me years ago, some good and some not so good.  Long forgotten teachers and incidents and memories of home drift through my sleeping mind like ghosts.  It has been quite a journey of my own, an unintended consequence of delving into my own coming of age experience. 

I have included a few coming of age books that I find to be of note. The time tested novel, of course, is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  Scout morphs from childhood innocence to the realization of good and evil in people. It is a masterpiece of the first water.

 Have a look.  See what you think.  If you have any to add to the list, please mention them in the Comments Section of this post.

Award Winner, Ted Dawe's Book, Banned in New Zealand

In keeping with my previous post, Children's Books Banned from Bookshelves as Late as 1990,  I thought this news from the world of children's literature was decidedly worth a follow-up:

Ted Dawe's young adult novel Into the River won the New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award and was also the winner of the Young Adult Fiction category.  And yet, it is banned by many bookstores and schools. 


But a judge is defending an award-winning children's book, which has been taken off the shelves in some bookstores, saying the book's descriptions of sex acts, drug-taking and coarse language help to tell the real story.


Some bookstores are refusing to sell the book and organizers of the awards have sent out a "explicit content" warning stickers to all booksellers.
The novel has stirred up controversy but chief judge of the Children's Book Awards Bernard Beckett has brushed it off, adding:

 It was a "magnificent" and "important" book...and feels more real than any teen novel I have read in New Zealand."

"I want people to read this book. It's about a young Maori boy, grew up on the East Coast, who moves up to Auckland on a scholarship.  He's a boy with potential, he's smart, he's got the world ahead of him and then that gap between two worlds is too big he ends up in a boarding school where he can't find a place to stand.  It's exactly that story about what happens to these kids who fall through the gaps and what the implications are for them."

Ted Dawe

But its "unnecessarily graphic" content, coarse language including the c-word, drug and sex references has provoked response.  Family First's Bob McCoskrie said Mr Dawe and judges were out to "pollute the moral innocence of kids" and even adults would find it offensive.

Beckett contends the story could not have been told without the coarse language, drug and sex references.:

"In the same way that Macbeth can't be told without a murder, you can tell a different story, but the story you can't tell is the cost of this lifestyle and what happens to these kids."

You decide.  Have a look at Into the River, and assess it for yourself.  The only caveat, as far as your humble blogger is concerned, is that New Zealand is a democracy of the first water and, as such, book banning should be scrutinized at the very least.

The Ballad of Jesse Pearl and its Curriculum Guide (Shannon Hitchcock)

It is my distinct pleasure to showcase the debut upper middle grade novel, The Ballad of Jesse Pearl, written by my friend and colleague,  Shannon Hitchcock.  It was published by namelos.The book was illustrated by Timothy Decker.

To me, Jesse Pearl is a haunting slice of time set in rural North Carolina almost one hundred years ago.  It tells the story of a young girl who must grow up way too fast, when, in fact, she is emerging from childhood herself.

In Jesse's own words:

 Sometimes when the kerosene lamp casts shadows, I think I see Ma’s ghost. If she were still alive, she’d say, Jessie Pearl, you keep on studying. Not everybody is cut out to be a farm wife. We’ll find a way to pay for teachers’ college. Leave your Pa to me.

A marvelous read for kids? A growth experience as well?  A piece of American history to absorb?  All that and more.  And those three questions answer why a curriculum guide is so beneficial, particularly to a historical fiction novel.  

The curriculum guide, (prepared by Debbie Gonzalas) that accompanies Jesse Pearl helps students achieve so much and adds a rich dimension to the book.  Why a curriculum guide one may ask?  Several reasons.

A good curriculum guide lists core standards.  These legitimize the study process itself and gives skills to be achieved.

A curriculum guide may act as an outline of important events for students to assimilate.

The guide will provide seminal discussion questions, hopefully using the Socratic Method--one question leading to another and so on.  

The guide may give one or more activities for students to do.  It may give examples of songs, poetry or other artifacts or examples of the times.

And the curriculum guide for The Ballad of Jesse Pearl?  It contains all of the above, including a rich array of activities.  It is thorough, thoughtful, direct and multi-leveled.  An excellent novel with a first-rate curriculum guide.  A winning combination for your young person, and for you...It can be found at:  http://www.shannonhitchcock.com/forteachers.html
 
 Have a look for yourself!

Brava, Shannon!

Interview with Linda Murphy, Author of Young Adult Book, Reaper

I am so delighted today to showcase and interview Linda Murphy (LS Murphy) and her soon-to-be released young adult novel, Reaper, published by J. Taylor Publishing.  It's particularly fun to have Linda here, as we are in the same SCBWI critique group in the St. Louis area. 

NS  Please tell the readers when and how your muse came knocking at your door, urging you to write.

LM  It’s just something that I’ve always done. When I was a kid, I would tell stories and write them down. I was always jotting down notes, ideas, character sketches, and fragments of stories. 
 
 NS  I know you write and are mainly interested in young adult fiction.  Any thoughts to give another genre a go?  And if so, what?

LM  I also write short fiction when an idea hits me. Sometimes I stray into horror, dark fantasy, and contemporary romance. Odd combo, right?J
 NS Tell us how you organize a typical writing day.

LM  I don’t. Since I work full-time & have a family, my writing time can be sporadic at best. Sometimes I get up at four a.m., sometimes I steal five minutes here and five minutes there. I do what I can when I can.

 NS  Please share with us your writing support group/s.  How do you feel about the merits of critique groups, writing organizations, etc. within your professional life?

LM  The best thing I ever did for my writing career was find a supportive critique group. For years, I harbored the desire to be a writer. It wasn’t until my daughter was born that I realized I couldn’t encourage her to follow her dreams if I didn’t follow my own.
I discovered SCBWI and found a critique group through there. Like I said, best thing I ever did. The other authors are supportive, helpful, and encouraging. They are also brutally honest.

NS  I know you have a new agent. Congratulations, and please introduce us.  Share with us information about your debut novel, Reaper, and tell us what is next!

LM  Thanks. I signed with Julia A. Weber with J. A. Weber Literaturagentur last month. I’m so thrilled to have Julia as an agent. She’s wonderful.

Reaper will be released January 7^th, 2013 through J. Taylor Publishing. Here’s the blurb:

There's no way sixteen year old Quincy Amarante will become the fifth grim reaper. None. Not over her shiny blue Mustang. Her Jimmy Choos. Or her dead body.

She’s supposed to enjoy her sophomore year, not learn about some freaky future Destiny says she has no choice but to fulfill.

It doesn’t take long for Quincy to realize the only way out of the game is to play along especially since Death can find her anyway, anywhere, anytime. And does.

Like when she’s reassuring her friends she wants nothing to do with former best friend Ben Moorland, who’s returned from god-knows-where, and fails. Miserably.

Instead of maintaining her coveted popularity status, Quincy’s goes down like the Titanic.

Maybe ... just maybe ... that’s okay.

It seems, perhaps, becoming a grim reaper isn’t just about the dead but more about a much needed shift in Quincy’s priorities—from who she thinks she wants to be to who she really is.

LM  I have several things in the works, one of which is a YA contemporary novel about a girl who just wants to play baseball.

NS We may contact you at:

Best place, and the most frequent place to find me online, is Twitter: https://twitter.com/LSMurphy
I’m also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LSMurphyAuthor
Goodreads is a favorite haunt too: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5046440.L_S_Murphy
My blog is: http://lsmurphy.com/
My email is LSMurphy524@gmail.com
You can find my agent at: http://jaw-litagent.com/
And my publisher for Reaper: http://www.jtaylorpublishing.com/

Thanks so much, Linda, for the interview.  Here's wishing you the best and brightest future with Reaper and so many more!