Welcome to Nothing But Books
Today's featured author is Alana White
Come Next Spring Blog Tour
Come Next Spring Blog Tour
Come Next Spring Blog Tour
Publication Date: August 23, 2016
Open Road Media
eBook & Paperback; 178 Pages
ISBN: 978-1-504034234
Genre: Historical Fiction/Young Adult
It’s 1949 in Tennessee Smoky Mountain country, and everything in pre-teen Salina’s life seems suddenly different. Her sister is engaged, her brother is absorbed in caring for his sickly foal, and salina feels she has nothing in common anymore with her best friend. This novel for young people captures the insular spirit of the mountain people, the breathtaking country itself, and a girl’s struggle to accept the inevitability of change.
“An evocative first novel….the message is rounded out with lively characters, period details, and the sustained use of Salina’s childlike point of view.” – Kirkus
“. . . .A story as intricately patterned and multicolored as a practical, quilted coat—one that will warm readers, too.” -ALA Booklist Starred Review
“This finely crafted first novel engagingly depicts early adolescent feelings. All the events in the story occur between the first day of school and Christmas, in a year when Salina Harris moves beyond her concerns for popularity to an unfolding friendship with Scooter Russell, an unwelcome new-comer. . . .It is well paced, building to a dramatic climax; it creates a strong sense of time and place; and the novel includes a likable cast of characters and even a romance.” -Horn Book Magazine
“Salina is a wonderfully drawn character (who), with the help of loving parents and a teacher who challenges her to see a larger picture, realizes that change is inevitable, and that she will be able to accept it.” -School Library Journal
Alana White is the author of fiction and nonfiction for adults and young readers. Her most recent publications are the adult historical mystery novel, The Sign of the Weeping Virgin, set at the height of the Italian Renaissance in Florence, Italy, and Come Next Spring, a coming of age novel set in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee in the 1940s. She is also the author of a biography of Sacagawea, Sacagawea: Westward With Lewis and Clark. She is a longtime member of the Historical Novel Society and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She lives in Nashville, TN.
Alana welcomes readers and is always available for reader group chats. Please visit her at www.AlanaWhite.com for more information. As well as HNS and SCBWI, she is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, the Author’s Guild, and the Women’s National Book Association.
For more information, please visit Alana White’s website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.
How did your life as a writer begin?
It began with me as a constant reader. I'm from a military family, and we moved often. I was always the "new kid" in school, which was painful, and so I escaped into books. Into the library. In "Come Next Spring," Salina is "a reader." A lot of the story is biographical in that respect. Actually, it is biographical in a lot of respects.
How did you come up with the idea for your current
story?
The idea came to me. It is set at a time when the U. S. Government
first considered creating a country wide interstate system. This meant purchasing land from people,
including Smoky Mountain people, who did not want to sell. It happened anyway, of course.
After writing the book I realized I had drawn on the experiences of my own family. They are Kentucky pioneers who settled in the western part of that area and built close-knit communities. Later, to make room for KY Lake, the government bought farmland, flooded the old towns, and built new ones in their place.
This is now a thriving tourist area (The Land Between the Lakes). I remember my mother weeping when they demolished her high school. Her stories had a profound effect on me—which I realized in later days.
After writing the book I realized I had drawn on the experiences of my own family. They are Kentucky pioneers who settled in the western part of that area and built close-knit communities. Later, to make room for KY Lake, the government bought farmland, flooded the old towns, and built new ones in their place.
This is now a thriving tourist area (The Land Between the Lakes). I remember my mother weeping when they demolished her high school. Her stories had a profound effect on me—which I realized in later days.
Tell us about your writing process. Do you outline, or are you more of a seat of your pants type of a writer?
No "pantser" am I, but a feverish outliner. Really, the title of the story comes first. That provides the focus. I write adult historical fiction, as well, and that absolutely requires an outline, as well as a long, well fleshed-out, "pre-story."
What is your favorite scene in the book? Why?
My favorite scene is when Salina receives the letter from NYC regarding her questions to Margaret Mitchell about Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara and whether they get back together at the end of "Gone With the Wind." When Salina reads that letter, it is a highly emotional moment for her, and it was a difficult scene to write. I had to put myself in Salina's place and help her understand life sometimes is hard and can be painful. I can't read that scene before audiences. It makes me cry. I guess that means I like it.
What is your usual writing routine?
I write every day but Sunday, except when on vacations or tending to the business of life. Even then, the story is always on my mind, and I'm constantly jotting down lines and ideas.
What is the highest goal that you desire to meet as an author?
To touch a reader's heart. And to give them something to take with them when they have read the last page.
Can you share with us something off your bucket
list?
I would love to find time to
do more genealogy research. I have done
it in the past and truly enjoy delving into the family connections and
history.
I'm fortunate to live near the old KY courthouses and the small town libraries that hold so much information archives don't have. But—it takes a lot of time.
I'm fortunate to live near the old KY courthouses and the small town libraries that hold so much information archives don't have. But—it takes a lot of time.
Enter Giveaway
To win a paperback copy of Come Next Spring by Alana White, please enter via the Gleam form below. 2 copies are up for grabs!
Rules
– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on October 24th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open to US residents only.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.
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