HAYWIRE is a fun and touching middle grade novel that is FREE today and tomorrow only! I've read it and highly recommend it--I especially think it would be a great book to read with/to your children. And both boys and girls will enjoy it.
So, don't wait! Hop on over to Amazon and get yourself a copy of HAYWIRE while it's still free! And as if that wasn't generous enough, Elle wrote us an awesome article on characterizing your setting ...
Small Towns as Characters
by Elle Strauss
Often in fiction we’ll read something and think, the house is a character in this story, or the car, or the town, just because it’s such an important player, that without the house/car/town, the story wouldn’t work.
Small towns make great characters in fiction and In my mind the fictional town of Hayward, WA, aka, Haywire, in IT’S A LITTLE HAYWIRE is such a character. The creek, the train tracks, the general store, the quirky characters-- all pivotal to the story. But it’s not just the features of the town that make it a character, it’s the essence.
Long, hot dry windy days, cool, quiet, mysterious nights. Everything in walking distance. Everyone knows everybody’s business.
Haywire is a juxtaposition of two real life towns. Years ago we visited Omak WA, a little town in the semi desert region called the Okanogan Valley. This valley is the geographical extension of the valley I live in north of the border in British Columbia. (Except for some reason we spell it Okanagan. Canadian’s like “A”’s, eh?) So I’m familiar with the landscape and the mood.
The other town is significant to my childhood. It’s a very small town called Scott, Saskatchewan, literally a four by three graph of flat gravel roads. Both sets of my grandparents lived on either end of the first street you came to when you drove in from the north called 4th Ave. I spent a lot of long dry summer days there, playing with my aunts who were only a year and three years older than me, working in massive gardens and walking across town to spend 25 cents at the general store. Back then 25 cents bought you a bottle of pop and a candy bar!
The Scott I knew had a hotel and a town hall, a restaurant and a school. And of course a general store. There’s nothing left in Scott these days except a post office. I took my kids there two summers ago for the 100 year anniversary. My son Levi had finished his book and asked me as we drove through the prairies if there was a Chapters (Canadian bookstore chain) in Scott. I told him there was nothing in Scott.
They thought I was joking. When we took a walking tour of the town my son Jordan quipped, “It’s like Corner Gas (Canadian sit com that takes place in a small prairie town) without the Gas.”
Elle Strauss writes Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction. She's a married mom of four, and lives in the beautiful Okanagan Valley, famous for beaches and vineyards. She's fond of Lindt's sea salt dark chocolate and hiking in good weather. Her Young Adult rom/com time-travel CLOCKWISE and contemporary/otherworldly Middle Grade IT'S A LITTLE HAYWIRE are now available on Amazon.
Owen True is eleven and eleven twelfths and has been "exiled" to the small crazy town of Hayward, WA, aka, Haywire, while his mother is on her honeymoon. All he has to whittle away the time is the company of Gramps, his black lab Daisy, and his Haywire friends, Mason and Mikala Sweet. They don't look so hot this year, in fact, the whole town has gone to pot since the mill shut down.
Owen has his first encounter with a real life homeless man who ends up needing Owen's help in more ways than one. But how does a rich city kid help the small town's suffering citizens?
And what is Owen to make of the fog train and its scary, otherworldy occupants that appears out of thin air on the old tracks behind Gramps' house? Do they have the answer Owen is looking for
I didn't grow up in a small town, but I can imagine it! And in IT'S A LITTLE HAYWIRE, you totally feel the place--it really does come alive in Elle's hands!
Don't forget to spread the word that IT'S A LITTLE HAYWIRE is free today!
16 karate chops:
I love those types of stories when a location or object feels like another character in the story. Congrats to Elle!
Hope you're having a great week, Ali!
I didn't know Elle is from Canada. I know all the places she's talking about (with vacation in the Okanagan every summer). And I LOVED Corner Gas!!!!!
Awesome post, Elle!
I'm kind of working on something where the setting definitely has character...so yeah, it's its own character!
I didn't know Elle is from Canada either. I know a small town like that it's in southern Alberta and I think I'm related to most everyone who lives there.
What a GREAT post!!!!!! And I already have Haywire on my Kindle--can't wait to read it. :-)
Thanks for having me, Ali!
I love small towns and stories set in them. Have to add this one to the TBR list.
Love the idea of making the setting more of a character. I've watched Corner Gas - great show!
I haven't had a chance to read this novel, but Tuesdays at the Castle is supposed to have quite the quirky castle in it, making it a wonderful character all its own.
Congratulations, Elle!
I love reading stories when location is another character!
Hogwarts felt like a character to me. And the circus in THE NIGHT CIRCUS was so real and alive, I felt like I was living inside of it.
Great post! I love stories where the setting is like a character. I think it's a great tool that a lot of people forget to use.
Laura ~ Me too! Thanks Laura--you too!
Stina ~ And I didn't know that YOU were a Canadian too! I am, though I've been relocated to the US. One day I hope to live in the Great White North again!
Teri Anne ~ That's awesome! Reading Elle's book, and her post today, made me realize that I could do better on one of my stories. It's set at sea, and I think I should make the sea a character. :D
Patti ~ LOL! My hubby is from Foremost!
Shannon ~ HAYWIRE would be a great one for your Marvelous Middle Grade Monday!
Elle ~ Thank you for including me in your celebrations! I wish you all the best!
Jaye ~ I hope you do! It's a real feel-good story that's both fresh and contemporary (with modern-day problems) but in that classic old style that is so heartwarming.
Stacy ~ I think it would be fun to have a horse be a character! Or a ranch or something. :)
Angela ~ Ooh, a quirky castle. I love it!
Alex ~ Thanks for visiting!
Nicole ~ I've never thought much about it before now, but thinking back, I think I do too!
Liesl! I've never read that book, but now I want to! Thanks for stopping by!
Krispy ~ That's what I'm thinking too. Now I want to do a revision pass on my seafaring story and make the sea a character. I think that could add a lot of interesting depth to it. *wheels are turning*
Corner Gas without the gas... ahahaha! Now THAT would be a small town. :)
I love when the setting feels like a character -- when it influences everyone and everything!
It sounds like such a great book! Congrats Elle!!!
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