Lauren Clark "Stardust Summer" Perfect Holiday Weekend Read As Chick Lit Author Book Hop Continues

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About the book:

Single mom Grace Mason doesn’t believe in miracles, magic, or love at first sight. She likes the quiet life, complete with her eight-year-old son, their tiny house, and her teaching job. For Grace, happiness means that nothing much ever changes in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

Then, one thousand miles away, tragedy strikes. A massive heart attack leaves Grace’s estranged father comatose in an Upstate New York hospital. While a team of doctors fight to keep Henry Mason alive, Grace and Evan rush to his bedside to say their final goodbyes.

Henry’s passing brings little closure for Grace, but she finds herself inexplicably drawn to her new surroundings. What begins as a short trip results in an entire summer spent with Henry’s second wife, Kathleen, and her next-door neighbor, Ryan Gordon, the town doctor. When a series of unlikely events lead to Evan’s disappearance, Grace must face her worst fears to find her son and bring him back home.

Stardust Summer explores the complexities of forgiveness, what it means to be a family, and the fabulous possibility of falling in love—again.

About the author:

Author Lauren Clark

Lauren Clark writes contemporary novels sprinkled with sunshine, suspense, and secrets. A former TV news anchor, Lauren adores flavored coffee, local book stores, and anywhere she can stick her toes in the sand. Her big loves are her family, paying it forward, and true-blue friends.

Lauren is a member of the Gulf Coast Writers Association, the Mobile Writers Guild, and a regular contributor to Parents & Kids Magazine's Mississippi Gulf Coast Edition. Check out her website .

Lauren Clark visited Book Talk last year on May 30, 2012 with her novel Dancing Naked In Dixie. Click here to see that post.

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Deborah Batterman "SHOES HAIR NAILS"

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Symbols, and their metaphoric underpinnings, play a large part in the stories I write. The title stories of my collection, SHOES HAIR NAILS, for example, might, at first glance, conjure images of frivolousness and vanity. And, yet, by putting them center stage, at the heart of the collection, I'm asking readers to leave aside presumptions, step into narratives built around those very images, look at them in a different light - one that gets beneath the surface and reveals the deeper resonance of everyday symbols. I see writing fiction as a way of making sense of situations - a girl whose mother takes off and leaves her in the hands of a friend, a mother ostracized for being a little offbeat by conventional standards, a man who thinks a trip to Vegas is the antidote, if not the cure, to his father's dementia - and exploring what compels individuals to act the way they do.

When I write essay-type pieces, like the ones on my blog, it's more about reflecting than shaping something into a story. Which brings me to my other book, Because my name is mother. This is a small book, just six essays, whose publication as an e-book I timed to Mother's Day.  I think any short piece -- be it a story or an essay -- has to stand on its own. At the same time, a collection reflects a writer's conscious choices re: what to include/what to leave out, in the interest of a cohesive whole. The essays in Because my name is mother are linked by the reminder that every mother is a daughter, too.  There's a progression in the way they hold together -- the first two from the perspective of the daughter reflecting on her mother, the last two from the perspective of the mother reflecting on her daughter. Smack in the middle sits 'Cute?#@Sixty', a favorite in the way it serves as a fulcrum on which both my mother and my daughter sit. 

Writing tips:

1. Trust that the words/sentences/paragraphs you're trying to shape often come when you stop trying so hard. Take a walk. Listen to music.  Read something. 

2. Don't be impatient and put your work out before it's ready.

3. Revise. Revise. Revise.

A native New Yorker, Deborah Batterman has worked over the years as a writer, editor, and teaching artist. A story from her debut collection was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her stories and essays have appeared in anthologies as well as various print and online journals. She recently finished a novel.

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