Copy Boy by Shelley Blanton-Stroud


“An expressive and striking story that examines what one does for family and for oneself.” ―Kirkus Reviews

Synopsis -

Jane’s a very brave boy. And a very difficult girl. She’ll become a remarkable woman, an icon of her century, but that’s a long way off. Not my fault, she thinks, dropping a bloody crowbar in the irrigation ditch after Daddy. She steals Momma’s Ford and escapes to Depression-era San Francisco, where she fakes her way into work as a newspaper copy boy. Everything’s looking up. She’s climbing the ladder at the paper, winning validation, skill, and connections with the artists and thinkers of her day. But then Daddy reappears on the paper’s front page, his arm around a girl who’s just been beaten into a coma one block from Jane’s newspaper―hit in the head with a crowbar. Jane’s got to find Daddy before he finds her, and before everyone else finds her out. She’s got to protect her invented identity. This is what she thinks she wants. It’s definitely what her dead brother wants.

Review - 

Copy Boy is the first full novel by author Shelley Blanton-Stroud and it's a strong one.  A period novel set back where many doors are not open women, we follow the journey of a poor girl whose family are share croppers. They live in a tent on the low end of even this community.  As the story opens she arrives at her tent to find another man moving her mother and family out. When her dad walks onto the scene, things take a terrible turn with Jane in the eye of the storm. She flees for San Francisco.

Although she finds two women who will at least temporarily let her stay with them, she needs to get a job.  After several failed interviews, the idea pops up to try to pass as a teen boy. She's tall, she's small chested, a bout with Valley Fever gave her a permanently raspy voice and her upbringing left her rough around the edges.  Hair cut short and styled, male clothes on,her transformation is complete. She falls into the new role fairly quickly and lands a job as a newspaper boy, but with big dreams. She has always written in journals, so as a man, perhaps she can become a writer at the paper. But her past comes to haunt her, threatening the fragile new life she is building.

I truly enjoyed reading Copy Boy. The author has a gift for description. I could smell the smells, feel the atmosphere and see the people as I read. During flashbacks to her former life to fill in the story, I experienced the dust and the hopelessness.  And the end, when it came, was a surprise. Bravo.

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Meet the Author -
Fab Author Interview HERE!

Shelley Blanton-Stroud grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants who made good on their ambition to get out of the field. She teaches college writing in Northern California and consults with writers in the energy industry. She co-directs Stories on Stage Sacramento, where actors perform the stories of established and emerging authors, and serves on the advisory board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children. She has also served on the Writers’ Advisory Board for the Belize Writers’ Conference. Copy Boy is her first novel, and she’s currently working on her second. She also writes and publishes flash fiction and non-fiction, which you can find at such journals as Brevity and Cleaver. She and her husband live in Sacramento with an aging beagle and many photos of their out-of-state sons.

Shelley Blanton-Stroud grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants who made good on their ambition to get out of the field. She teaches college writing in Northern California and consults with writers in the energy industry. She co-directs Stories on Stage Sacramento, where actors perform the stories of established and emerging authors, and serves on the advisory board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children. She has also served on the Writers’ Advisory Board for the Belize Writers’ Conference. Copy Boy is her first novel, and she’s currently working on her second. She also writes and publishes flash fiction and non-fiction, which you can find at such journals as Brevity and Cleaver. She and her husband live in Sacramento with an aging beagle and many photos of their out-of-state sons.

Connect with the author: website ~ twitter ~ facebook ~ instagram

Comments

  1. Thank you so much for reading and sharing, Marilyn:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much, Marilyn, for your thoughtful reading of Copy Boy. It means everything to a debut writer to be read so well.:)

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