Today I am excited to have author Laura McHale Holland join us today. Make sure you catch my review of her book The Kiminee Dream.
As a child, Laura McHale Holland loved the musicality of language and often recalled, verbatim, conversations she heard. A lost soul in her teens and early twenties, she righted herself in her mid-twenties and discovered a deep love of the creative process. In her work, she often finds hope in unlikely places.
Laura writes stories true and untrue in multiple forms from flash fiction to novels, memoirs to short plays. Her coming of age memoir, Resilient Ruin, won a National Indie Excellence Award for new adult nonfiction. Prior award-winning books include Reversible Skirt, a childhood memoir, and Sisters Born, Sisters Found, an anthology on sisterhood. Her stories have appeared in several anthologies, including The Best of Every Day Fiction Three and Wisdom Has a Voice. Two of her short plays were produced recently in Northern California; two others received staged readings. The Kiminee Dream is Laura’s first novel. To connect with her, please visit her website.
Take it away Laura!
When I was a child, my stepmom, an accomplished musician, attempted to teach me how to play piano. However, she was shrill, uptight and downright mean. She frightened me immensely. I couldn’t get the hang of reading music, which in turn, irritated her immensely. So, shivering at the keyboard, I watched closely as she played each section of a piece when introducing it to me, and I copied her note for note. This became increasingly difficult as the compositions grew more complicated, but I had no choice but to persist from age five until my father’s death, when I was eleven—a time when my stepmom gave up on most everything, including me.
As a young adult, I decided to see if I could overcome my old piano demons and take lessons, for though my early efforts were dreadful, I had longed very much to play as well as my stepmom had. I found Warner Jepson, a composer who lived within walking distance from a flat I shared in San Francisco at the time. And the lessons began. I made an effort to play the simple pieces he assigned. But it was as if the pages and I were two like magnetic poles repelling each other. So instead of practicing, I noodled around and started writing songs.
After a couple weeks of my not practicing the pieces he’d assigned, Warner asked me to play what I’d made up instead. He liked what I’d done, and from that lesson forward, I brought him what I’d created each week, and he taught me music theory based on that. I learned quite a bit and came up with several lovely songs, accompanied by increasingly resonant piano work, to boot.
I mention this because advice about how to go about creative endeavors abounds. When it comes to writing novels, for example, many people insist that using an outline is the only viable way to go. I believe that outlines work well for many people and are worth trying even if you resist them initially. But, for some of us, outlines lead to persistently blank pages or text that has no vibrancy. When that happens, it’s important to realize there are many ways to write a book that people will want to read. This is true of all creative work. In the end it all comes down to being true to yourself.
About The Kiminee Dream
A deeply poetic, riveting debut novel, The Kiminee Dream is a tale of Midwest charm and quirky characters, but with twists and turns that reveal a dark side you don’t see coming.
It’s true that odd things happen in Kiminee, Illinois. Lilacs bloom in winter. Gravel glows golden on occasion. The river sings as it wends through town. But this is normal for the tight-knit folks who call Kiminee home. So when auburn-tufted Carly Mae Foley learns to read at age two and masters multiplication at age three, the denizens take it in stride and embrace her with pride.
But all is not well in Carly Mae’s family. And when a twister roars though, it decimates their home, along with their emotional bonds, as her mother’s affair is exposed and her father goes missing. A determined grandmother, one-eared dog and generous benefactor come to the gifted child’s aid, but not everyone is rooting for her, and when an appalling crime occurs, long-held animosities boil over. No one can say whether the good folks of Kiminee will pull closer together—or be torn apart.
Influenced by folklore and magical realism, The Kiminee Dream is both hypnotic and endearing. If you like depth as well as whimsy, arresting twists, and details that stir your heart, you’ll love what is ultimately an eloquent exploration of acceptance and a tender tribute to the people of Illinois. Don’t delay. Experience this literary gem today.
Purchase your copy of The Kiminee Dream on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Make sure you add it to your reading list too!
Make sure you enter the giveaway below – you can win a copy of The Kiminee Dream and a copy of her other book Aunt Truly’s Tales along with a $25 Amazon Gift Card.
Laura McHale Holland’s THE KIMINEE DREAM Book Tour Giveaway
Thank you for featuring my guest post on your blog, Nicole. I’ll share this and the review on social media and see what people have to say in response.