GUEST POST
The Memory Chair
by Susan White
The Memory Chair is currently on tour with Worldwind Virtual Book Tours. The tour stops here today for a guest post by the author. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
Thirteen-year-old Betony has always hated going to her cranky great-grandmother’s house. It’s old and stuffy and boring and the woodstove in the kitchen is always burning too hot. But her Gram doesn’t have any other family living close by on the Kingston Peninsula, so Betony ends up being dragged along all the time.
She’d rather be pretty much anywhere … until one day Betony sits on her Gram’s favorite chair. She is suddenly transported into the past, and is experiencing her Gram’s life as if it were in her own memory. At first Betony is excited and curious, and begins to develop a close relationship with Gram, even learning to cook and quilt. But after she has experienced a few more of her great-grandmother’s memories, she realizes she is slowly uncovering a terrible, shameful family secret.
Praise for the Book
"This was a fast but sweet and great read. I liked the idea of experiencing your family history as it was your own. But of course not everything was so great, there were a few things Betony learned that were less pleasant. The book was well written and took you straight into Betony’s and her family’s world and you can’t help to see it as she does. It was very easy to read and follow and it a great book for all ages. The characters were easy to relate to and likable." ~ Snoopydoo on Amazon
"Such a great book that took me back to my own grandparents' home next to the river where we fished as kids. A book of love, acceptance, age and memories." ~ Bonnie on Goodreads
Guest Post by the Author
I am a Story Teller
I am a story teller. Something propels me to take that storytelling to the page. I believe I have had that desire for as long as I can remember. For a long time something else always got in the way. It would resurface and I would claim that desire again believing that I could find the time and the dedication required to make it happen. My first book, The Year Mrs. Montague Cried, got written because that force within me was much too strong to ignore. I cannot completely explain that, and part of me resisted going to the place necessary to let that story out, but I did go there and in so many ways it gave me the opportunity and permission to finally do what I had been running from. I finally allowed myself to write. In thinking about why I write I narrowed it down to one word.
Truth. Writing for me is a search for truth, a way to claim a truth, or question a truth. I believe art of any kind is doing that. Truth sometimes comes in small morsels, sometimes in quick flashes and sometimes like a hammer blow. It can be painful to stumble on the truths of life but I believe it is always worth it. We need to keep writing, painting, making music, creating so that we get a chance to see the wonderful and frightening truths life holds.
About the Author
Susan White was born in New Brunswick and moved from one New Brunswick city to another. As a teenager her family moved to the Kingston Peninsula and she only left long enough to earn her BA and BEd at St. Thomas University in Fredericton. Settling on the peninsula, she and her husband raised four children and ran a small farm while she taught elementary school. Since retiring she is grateful to now have the time to work on her writing and the freedom to regularly visit her new granddaughter in Alberta.
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