You may remember around three weeks ago, I wrote a post about the blog tour I’d organised to promote This Much Huxley Knows. (You can read it here.) Last week, everything went according to plan and book bloggers who had signed up, posted a review or excerpt on the agreed day. It wasn’t without last minute hitches, one blogger had mislaid the electronic copy of This Much Huxley Knows but with only a short while to spare, managed to read and review the novel in record time.
Read the rest of this entry »Say hello to Just One Look by Joanne Kukanza Easley
I am delighted to introduce fellow Black Rose Writing author Joanne Kukanza Easley for an interview. She is an active supporter of women writers and I was pleased to be able to return the favour with an early review of her engaging second novel Just One Look. I was so fascinated by the characters and setting in this novel, I invited Joanne for an interview. She kindly agreed. As today is the release date of Just One Look, we also have the launch to celebrate. Congratulations, Joanne!
About Just One Look
In 1965 Chicago, thirteen-year-old Dani Marek declares she’s in love, and you best believe it. This is no crush, and for six blissful years she fills her hope chest with linens, dinnerware, and dreams of an idyllic future with John. When he is killed in action in Viet Nam, Dani’s world shatters. She launches a one-woman vendetta against the men she seeks out in Rush Street’s singles bars. Her goal: break as many hearts as she can. Dani’s ill-conceived vengeance leads her to a loveless marriage that ends in tragedy. At twenty-four, she’s left a widow with a baby, a small fortune, and a ghost-make that two.
Set in the turbulent Sixties and Seventies, Just One Look explores one woman’s tumultuous journey through grief, denial, and letting go.
Q&A
Just One Look is your second novel, can you tell us about your debut, Sweet Jane?
Sweet Jane tells the story of a young woman who thinks she has overcome her past by putting it in a box. When her estranged mother dies, she returns home to confront the people and events of her past that made her the woman she is. The story unfolds in alternating chapters of past and present, that juxtapose parallel stories of struggle and growth.
The dialogue in Just One Look is so effective and includes humour. How do you create authentic voices for your characters?
I love crafting dialogue and work at hard at nuances of word choice to make my characters distinct. Listening to how people talk is important. I also have a clear mental image of my characters and know their backstory—because I wrote it.
You capture young love effectively. Which books do you admire that also have a yearning love at their centre?
The two classics that come to mind are Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. But I rely on my own experience and memories when I write about love.
Paige, Dani’s younger sister, is a great character and always a foil for Dani’s romantic relationships. Was this always your intention?
Yes, I wanted the contrast between the characters. Not only do the sisters not look alike, they have very different personalities. Dani is jealous of Paige as a teen but grows to appreciate her.
I love the product placement in your novel, for example, the different colognes that you name. How do you choose these items?
I chose them by the era. When I was a teen, the boys drenched themselves in Jade East. And I drenched myself in Yardley’s Oh! De London.
Just One Look is set in the Chicago neighbourhood where you grew up. How important is the setting to your writing?
Just One Look pays homage to the place I grew up and helped form my character. (I’ve assured my childhood friends this a work of fiction.) In each book, the setting is an integral part of the story, almost like a character.
John’s family heritage is from Hungary shown through the food and traditions. How did you research this?
Researching on the internet is my main method; although, as a child, I had a neighbor who baked Hungarian pastries.
With your second novel now published, what are your future writing plans?
I am working on my third novel I’ll Be Seeing You. It’s the story of Lauren Eaton, Sweet Jane’s AA sponsor, who was always secretive about her past. Jane appears in the novel too. The story spans the years from 1940-1986, requires a lot of research, and takes the reader from a Texas cattle ranch to Manhattan, then back to Texas.
About Joanne Kukanza Easley
Joanne Kukanza Easley’s multi-award-winning debut novel, Sweet Jane, was released in March 2020. The novel was named the winner in adult fiction in the 2020 Texas Author project. A retired registered nurse with experience in both the cold, clinical operating room, and the emotionally fraught world of psychiatric hospitals, she lives and writes on a small ranch in the Texas Hill Country. Just One Look, her second novel, will be released on June 24, 2021. Her current project I’ll Be Seeing You features characters from Sweet Jane.
Gail’s review of Just One Look
Set against the backdrop of war in Vietnam, teenage Dani falls in love with John, a new boy from Tennessee. His Hungarian family settle into multicultural Chicago, the city where Just One Look is set. Dani’s commitment to her first love contrasts with the turbulent love life of Paige, her younger sister and the marriage break up of her parents. The narrative is punctuated by national and world events, including conscription. John joins the 101st Airborne but never returns leaving Dani to steel herself for a future without him. Bereft, this young woman navigates family responsibilities, educational and employment challenges, unexpected events and much more to come out the other side ready for a proper new relationship. This character-driven novel is filled with wonderful period, cultural and culinary details that enliven the story. Read this book and experience the tumultuous emotions of a young woman.
Purchase links for Just One Look
Amazon US, Barnes & Noble, Amazon UK
Find Joanne on social media
Approaching publication day
It’s an anxious time waiting for the launch of a new novel. Fortunately, I’ve received lots of wonderful early reviews for This Much Huxley Knows on Goodreads. If you’ve offered one, let me say here and now how terribly grateful I am. Getting positive feedback is a brilliant way to calm the nerves. I’ve also been distracted by housework and went back to one of my old favourites – cleaning the oven – such a satisfying job!
Last few days in Edinburgh
We’re making the most of the little time with have left in Edinburgh with yet another visit to Saughton Park. A walk along the Water of Leith from Stockbridge eventually arrives there. With formal gardens including herbaceous borders as well as neatly-clipped yew hedges, flower and heather beds, what’s not to like? I also admire the renovated bandstand and who can resist a bacon roll from the cafe?
One month until lift-off
My second contemporary novel for adults This Much Huxley Knows will be released by Black Rose Writing on Thursday 8 July 2021. It’s an absolute delight that this uplifting and humorous book will be available in print and on Kindle. There are so many people to thank for bringing This Much Huxley Knows into the world, so if you fancy reading a copy, do check out the acknowledgements. Of course, if you can’t wait until launch day it’s possible to request an electronic copy from Netgalley.
Later this month, the blog tour begins. I am so impressed with the voluntary workforce of bloggers who do so much to promote books and reading. Here’s the poster:
A few delights from Edinburgh
We’ve been in Edinburgh for three weeks and are coming to love the city more and more. Previously, we’ve been here during the Edinburgh Book Festival and the Fringe in August, so spending spring in the city is a new experience. Edinburgh seems such a chilled place outside the summer rush. And the real pleasure has been discovering the walkways and paths that crisscross the city. Here are a few of our adventures.
On my sixtieth birthday, we walked to the summit of Arthur’s Seat. (This is the main peak from an ancient volcano that overlooks the city.) It’s very craggy at the top and I had to scamper up like a mountain goat. The views are spectacular. When we were walking down the other side, we met an elderly woman carrying a shopping bag who was on her way up. We stepped aside to let her pass and my husband told her she was nearly at the top. She replied, ‘Och, I know that. I’m taking a short cut home from my Tai Chi class.’ If I’m that fit at her age, I’ll be very happy.
We are renting a flat in Stockbridge which is a few minutes from the walkway of the Water of Leith. From there we can stroll to the sea or go further around the city. The paths are like nature reserves although recently there’s been a distinct pong from the wild garlic. (The figure in the water is by Anthony Gormley.)
Today we walked along the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal then took a turning back to Stockbridge along the Water of Leith.
Who knows what walking joys await us next week.
Grab a bargain!
You can now pre-order a kindle or paperback copy of This Much Huxley Knows from AmazonUK, AmazonUS, Barnes and Noble or if you want to grab a bargain, order it through the Book Depository with a 10% discount and free postage worldwide.
Lovely reviews continue to be posted on Goodreads about This Much Huxley Knows. Do pop over and take a read – I’m really chuffed with the response to this novel. This Much Huxley Knows will be released on 8 July and I’m planning some social media activity to celebrate the launch.
Meanwhile, I’m continuing to write across genres and I recently had word that a poem I’d written during a workshop offered by Tolu Agbelusi will feature in the first Quay Words anthology to be published by Literature Works.
Onwards and upwards!
First page pitch at Cork World Book Fest
Librarians based in Cork selected the first five hundred words and a two sentence pitch of my work in progress Little Swot for feedback from literary agent Simon Trewin as part of the Cork World Book Fest. Alongside nine others (including Jean M Roberts and Andrew Wolfendon – both fellow Black Rose Writing authors) I read my pitch an opening to a large Zoom audience. The feedback was as follows:
- include only the most pertinent information in the pitch
- think about adding three new paragraphs the at the beginning of the novel to act as a prologue
- make the dialogue sound less written and more spoken
Here’s my revised elevator pitch for Little Swot, a dual timeline crime novel
Following redundancy in 2010, menopausal journalist Stephanie Brett investigates the earlier disappearance of a teenage, West Country girl in a cold case podcast. Through the 1978 timeline, Carolyn Forster tells her own story of infatuation and exploitation.
I’m still working on the new first three paragraphs and the updated dialogue. Watch this space for further developments!
Approaching publication
My second contemporary novel for adults This Much Huxley Knows will be released on 8 July 2021. In preparation for the launch, advance reader copies have been sent to fellow authors and I’ve received some lovely early reviews posted on Goodreads.
One of my favourite reviews is from fellow Black Rose Writing author Sasha Lauren:
This book surprised me. It’s an innovative, delightful, and insightful story told in first person by a child. The narrator, Huxley, is an innocent, playful, provocative seven-year-old, an “only lonely,” (no siblings), who is achingly searching for a true friend and pushing those around him to be caring and reasonable. What is so extraordinary is that Gail Aldwin beautifully transports the reader inside Huxley’s head and heart.
Huxley is a busy guy: he avoids football but longs for his turn on the monkey bars, covets the relationship his best mate Ben has with his wee sister, Juno, (which is both adorable and sightly heartbreaking), and strikes up a sweet friendship with Leonard, an old man in a scooter. All the while, he keeps himself amused, (and captivates or annoys others), with his whimsical words-within-words.
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the writer is a lonely hunter 