Today I bring you My Diary from the Edge of the World, by Jodi Lynn Anderson. It’s a story about trying to protect those you love at all costs. It’s a perilous journey mapping where love can take you, for better and for worse, when faced with the threat of loss.
Here’s the summary:
“Spirited, restless, Gracie Lockwood, twelve, of Cliffden, Maine, living in a world where sasquatches, dragons, giants, and mermaids are common, keeps a diary of her family’s journey in a used Winnebago as they seek The Extraordinary World in hopes of keeping her little brother, Sam, safe against all odds.”
As the inside flap says, “It’s a coming of age story set against a backdrop of wonders; a gentle family portrait that sparkles with science, myth, magic, and the strange beauty of everyday marvels we sometimes forget to notice.”
I suppose the setting qualifies the book as fantasy, (it’s just like our world—they have 60 Minutes and The Enquirer, their history just happens to have played out a little differently and includes species like dragons!)—but the strength of the characters and their relationships with each other is squarely set in reality.
In that way it’s very much like my books: fictional setting, very real relationships.
An update: I still hope to “launch” Becoming Piper Pan on Amazon before the week is out. Check your in-box! If you live near Sequim, please come see me during the March 4th First Friday Art Walk at Hart’s Fine Books. I’ll be there signing books from 5—8pm.
Author Jodi Lynn Anderson’s voice really shines through her first person narrative.
“First person narrative? What does that mean?”
I hear you. It just means the story is told using the pronoun “I.” The main character talks, not just in dialogue, but in all the description in-between, from his or her own point of view: When I saw my cat curled up asleep in the sunshine, I wished I could join her. Like that. Third person narrative, the most common way stories are told, would be: When she saw her cat curled up asleep in the sunshine, she wished she could spend her afternoon the same way.
Writing in first person can be a powerful way to get inside a character’s head. Even if your story isn’t going to be written that way, it’s a good exercise for character exploration.
My Diary from the Edge of the World is, of course, a diary—and what better format for telling a story in first person?
Dash on down to your library and put a hold on this book—and travel the path where love can take you in this extraordinary world.