Anytown, USA: A Guest Post from Heather Muzik
Call me crazy, but I love Anytown. I don’t need to escape it. I don’t need a big city in order to come alive or feel alive. Do I love visiting cities? Taking in their skylines, visiting their museums and shops, learning their history? An emphatic YES. But I refuse to accept that life must be bigger than Anytown, Anywhere.
Over the years I have lived in
small towns, larger towns, towns that exist in the shadow of large cities…
even, for a few years, in a large city, and there is one thing I have learned
from all of that moving: Life happens
where you live it. It doesn’t happen out there in some proverbial other place,
but right there where you are, where you choose to be, making of it whatever
you choose to make of it.
For me, I am truly at home in
suburbia. It is where I live. It is where I write. It is where my characters
reside—where they strive and breathe, love and grieve. I am fascinated by it. I
know it is a seemingly idle world of shopping plazas and planned developments,
but it is actually a thronging, teeming, growing space. Suburbia is small town
and big town too. It is where life happens for so many of us. It is the amalgam
of all things American, filling in all that space in the middle, linking city
and country. Unifying. Quite simply, it is where America meets. In between
(which just so happens to be the name of a town of a few hundred that, if
moving wouldn’t be such a pain, I would settle down in just for the S&G of
telling people I live there).
My own Anytown has grown by a mile
since we settled here, and so has our family. Things have changed so much that
we hardly have to leave town for anything. It’s all right here. But one thing
that hasn’t changed is the fabric of existence running through it—triumph and
tragedy interwoven. If you listen hard enough, every town,
big or small, has a true heart that beats inside.
This place, this space right
here, is my American dream… So let me ask, does a dream that is peaceful and
picket-fenced in mean it is passionless? I, for one, say NO. Emphatically.
The Fairytale Mother
Once upon a time two lives intertwined…
A broken heart.
When Andrew Krenshaw’s wife goes missing, terror becomes desperation as he is forced to cope with a world of uncertainty where he has suddenly become a single father, an unfortunate celebrity… a potential murderer.
A hopeful heart.
Melanie Tull has everything she ever wanted in her life… except perhaps love. Her husband is absent and demanding all at once. Her home, a shell of perfection with a cold center. Her life, busy yet vacant.
… Herein lies the tale that binds them.
Buy: Kindle / Paperback /B&N (coming August 8th)
About Heather
After a childhood spent living in various northern states--New Jersey for half of that (South Jersey, exit 4, to be exact)--she struck out on her own. First stop, Atlanta, Georgia. After attending GA Tech to study Industrial Engineering, she settled down in a small town outside the city where she has remained ever since. She keeps house for one husband, two sons, and a thankless dog (who she adores anyway). Her loves: books, bacon, bargains... heavy metal, Christmas movies... a great pair of jeans... and anything cheesy. The four dirtiest words she knows: wash, cook, dust, iron.
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9 Comments
Really, this is Heather's best!!! I really shouldn't say that, I haven't read Pathetic yet. But I've read all the others. I LOVED Celia's Journey but this one....I'm reading and I'm on the edge of my seat. It's been a while since I had a book that makes me late for work!
ReplyDelete:) I can't play favorites myself, but I think readers have some latitude there. As long as we are talking about varying degrees of love, that is. ;) Seriously, I LOVE that you are sharing your thoughts! Hope you weren't too late!
DeleteI hope you weren't too late for work either, Tilbechick! I work from home, so I just get sucked into staying UP too late with my favorite books!
DeleteMe too, Angela! Every night is the same trap--and I get snagged willingly!
DeleteThank you so much for taking part in the tour! I appreciate the chance to share a little something extra about myself and my thoughts with your readers!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Heather! This is the #1 reason why I LOVE author guest posts--my readers get to meet the author outside their favorite books! We all want you to share a bit of yourself!
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ReplyDeleteLove this. I live in anytown too. :-) And I think it is spectacular that when reading Heather's books, I can imagine them being set IN my town. I don't have to make believe that I know anything different or try to learn the landscape of somewhere else (although that is fun too.)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wouldn't trade living in Anytown for anything, Kristie! As for reading, like you, I go both ways. I love familiar settings so much because I am immediately comfortable in the story, but then again, I adore reading historical fiction and being transported to another time and place. Guess it depends on my mood at the time!
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