A Change of Pace? Or Place?

True Places is about family, it’s about remembering who you are and making hard choices. For me, a mother who struggles to balance work and the duties of my home, Suzanne’s struggles with her own identity struck very close to home. As Yoerg writes, “No one gives in without giving something up, and nothing is given up without cost.”

                                                     Katie Pryal – BookTrib Review

              

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Do you know Sonja Yoerg? Here are some very cool things about her—and you will instantly see why she’s fascinating.

She grew up in Stowe, Vermont, a first-generation American. She waitressed at the Trapp Family Lodge to earn her college tuition. And Maria Von Trapp gave her a cuckoo clock.

I will pause a moment while you sing.

Sonja’s first book was a non-fiction about animal intelligence.  (Should we ask her about that?)

Her first novel was called House Broken, and has a photo of the most winsome dog in the world on the cover.  The Library Journal starred review says: "A stunning debut that will have readers wanting more! Yoerg is on par with Jennifer Weiner and Sarah Pekkanen."

Now she’s on book four! TRUE PLACES. Let me just say this about that (as of yesterday) :

 Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24 Paid in Kindle Store

#1 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Mothers & Children

#2 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Family Life

#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

 So a big lovely standing ovation Jungle Red welcome to Sonja Yoerg!

SONJA YOERG: If you’re reading this, you’ve survived the holidays. Congratulations! Was it a near miss or a clear win? Not sure? Join the club. The Twelfth Day of Christmas ends tomorrow (if that’s your holiday of choice), but we all know it’s more like the Hundred-and-Twelfth Day.

It was not always this way. 

If, like me, you were born in what my children graciously refer to as the Time Before Air, then you remember a simpler time. 

My parents were German immigrants and brought their holiday traditions with them to Vermont. Around the solstice, my father cut a spruce tree and brought it inside, but it was not decorated until Christmas Eve. 

My siblings and I were sequestered in the kitchen with our father as entertainment, while my mother and the Christkind decked the halls. As the Christkind left, he would ring a silver bell used only for this occasion, and we’d storm into the room, hoping to catch a glimpse. 

Missed him again! Never mind. We were spellbound by the magic of the tree, lit with real candles, and the presents under its boughs. A small haul by today’s standards, but it was plenty for us. Funny about that, huh? Here’s me completely enthralled with a pair of slippers.

Of course my mother had the burden of creating this spectacle, but at least it was over in short order. Twelve days later, on Three Kings Day, the tree would come down to stave off bad luck for the year. 

What do you think? Are you nostalgic for an abbreviated holiday season? Would your loved ones cry “Mutiny!” if you proposed a simpler affair?

I’ve thought a lot about holiday madness and, more generally, about our complicated modern lives. 

In fact, that’s the main theme of my new novel, TRUE PLACES. As the story opens, a harried mother, Suzanne Blakemore, finds an emaciated, near-feral girl alongside the Blue Ridge Parkway. Suzanne rescues the girl, Iris, and eventually invites her into her home—a home already strained by difficult teenagers and an ambitious husband.  

Iris has an independence, a love of solitude, and a discomfort with materialism that contrasts with everything the Blakemores stand for—qualities that awaken in Suzanne first a fascination, then a longing. Now Suzanne can’t help but wonder: Is she destined to save Iris, or is Iris the one who will save her?

Several years ago we moved from suburban California to rural Virginia, where the book takes place. It’s quiet here, and life is much simpler. What a pleasure it was to write about the world outside my window, this beautiful corner of the world.

The landscape reminds me of Vermont, and of my childhood. I can breathe here, where the woods lay outside my door, and the mountains fill in my window.

Are you content with the pace of your life? What changes might make a difference? It’s resolution season!

HANK: How about you, Reds and readers? Are you content with the pace of your life? (I am going to pencil in a time to think about that…)

And Sonja will be stopping by to answer questions!

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TRUE PLACES

A girl emerges from the woods, starved, ill, and alone…and collapses.

Suzanne Blakemore hurtles along the Blue Ridge Parkway, away from her overscheduled and completely normal life, and encounters the girl. As Suzanne rushes her to the hospital, she never imagines how the encounter will change her—a change she both fears and desperately needs.

Suzanne has the perfect house, a successful husband, and a thriving family. But beneath the veneer of an ideal life, her daughter is rebelling, her son is withdrawing, her husband is oblivious to it all, and Suzanne is increasingly unsure of her place in the world. After her discovery of the ethereal sixteen-year-old who has never experienced civilization, Suzanne is compelled to invite Iris into her family’s life and all its apparent privileges.

But Iris has an independence, a love of solitude, and a discomfort with materialism that contrasts with everything the Blakemores stand for—qualities that awaken in Suzanne first a fascination, then a longing. Now Suzanne can’t help but wonder: Is she destined to save Iris, or is Iris the one who will save her?