EQUAL by Joyce Moyer Hostetter: A Review, An Autographed Giveaway, and a Bonus Giveaway!

Congratulations to Danielle Hammelef who won THE SUMMER OF THE TREE ARMY from last week's blog.

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Some people read a book which they really like and rush through it to get to the end. Not me. When I find a book that I love, I stretch it out. I don't want the story to end.

That was doubly true for Joyce Moyer Hostetter's last book in the Bakers Mountain Stories series-- EQUAL (Calkins Creek: 2021). How is it possible that there won't be another story about the Honeycutt family? I'm sorry to say to all her fans--there won't be. 😞 I even knew how the book would turn out AND I still cried at the beautifully crafted ending. But, I'm getting ahead of myself...

REVIEW

                                PROLOGUE

When I went to the river that day in 1959,

I didn't expect to meet a colored boy

who loved birds like I love my cow.

I didn't know what all I'd learn from him

or that a mean old drunk would come along

and force me to see myself as I never had before.

I didn't realize I was face to face with a muddy wide river.

I didn't think when I went into eighth grade

that a teacher would name my strengths

and inspire me to be even stronger.

I didn't know that I'd learn 

to speak up while measuring my words,

to hold back when I wanted revenge,

or to imagine an enemy as my friend.

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EQUAL is the story of two boys--one white and one Black--becoming friends despite their differences, hard feelings, and an act of senseless prejudice. But that only scratches the surface. 

EQUAL is also about what it was like to live in a small, rural town in North Carolina in 1960 on the eve of civil rights. Segregation was the norm. As 8th-grader Jackie Honeycutt finds out, the atmosphere of prejudice not only dictates what school and church Jackie attends, but it leaves his new Black acquaintance, Thomas Freeman, and his family in constant fear of potential harm to themselves or their property.  

Mrs. Cunningham, Jackie's teacher, begins the school year by writing Abraham Lincoln's quote on the chalkboard: "Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them into my friends?" This question haunts Jackie throughout the book and (as you can tell from the cover) is EQUAL's theme. Jackie wrestles with jealousy towards other kids at the 4-H competition; he struggles with anger towards a classmate who constantly mocks him; and he feels irritated towards the woman who leads the local Home Demonstration club and snubs his mother. But most of all, he has to come to resolve that dilemma with Thomas. It is not until he truly empathizes with Thomas and Thomas's family does he realize how he can answer Lincoln's rhetorical question. 

In the last third of the book Jackie is staring at Bakers Mountain from his front porch and thinks, "One thing I was figuring out was--as long as white people didn't know Negroes personally, we could never understand their viewpoint. Thomas had educated me on things I never even thought about before." (p.206) That is Jackie's moment of truth which leads to actions that surprise him, are character-revealing, and lead to the wonderful conclusion.

I have blogged before about the importance of making secondary characters a vital part of the story; there are many other characters in EQUAL who are strong and well-crafted. Readers will be happy to see Ann Fay get reunited with Imogene, her friend from the polio ward in BLUE and now she and Junior are happily married (finally)! But the other person in EQUAL who I want to mention is Jackie's mother. Her character arc is shown as she goes from being afraid of what her neighbors will think when a Black family spends the night during a snow storm to saying to Jackie, "Your father and I have been wrong. I was wrong for letting Blanche scare me away from doing the right thing. I believed her when she said poeple would think we're communists. And she was always saying integration could bring violence. I was scared, Jackie."

That conversation ends with her encouraging Jackie to invite Thomas over so she can really meet him. Jackie doesn't know it--but his learning to make friends with his enemies--changed not only him--but his parents too.

                                        EPILOGUE

When I went into the new year, 1960,

I didn't expect to be snowed in with a colored family

who deserved freedom as much as I did.

I didn't know what all I'd learn from them

or that a personal enemy would make me care enough

to join their fight.

I still didn't know how to cross that muddy wide river.

When I went to graduation that night

I knew I wasn't happy with my speech.

I didn't know that Maribelle would show up and 

I'd see Thomas in my mind's eye.

I didn't imagine that because of them,

and the two Jackies,

and all the brave people

who sat at lunch counters and marched in the streets,

I'd change my words midsentence

and wade right into that muddy wide river.

But I'm glad I did. 

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Equal takes place sixty years ago and is equally as relevant today. Read it with your kids, grandkids, and students.  Explore the Author's Note at the end. Talk about it. I want to hear the discussions that happen as a result of this book--and I'm sure Joyce does too.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE

I've had the privilege of being Joyce's beta reader and read several drafts. You will read the completed story of how Jackie recognizes his racism and deals with it. But I saw how Joyce built the book. She knew Jackie was someone who talked first and regretted his words later. She knew he was a 4-H kid who loved his cow, Lucy, and would learn big lessons when he showed her at the county fair. She knew that fears of bombs from Russia, Communism, and integration would be part of the setting. She had the characters of course--she's been creating stories about the Honeycutts ever since Ann Fay's father left for WWII in BLUE. 

But Joyce didn't know Jackie's backstory and why Thomas didn't trust him. I was on the sidelines and watched her figure out that BIG piece of the puzzle and then weave it into the book. 

I tell you all this because some of you reading this are writers, like myself, who realize the enormity of pulling together all of the many threads that go into a novel--and I want to encourage you that even a master writer like Joyce works HARD to accomplish this. Others of you are readers. I want you to know that a story as magnificent as Joyce's doesn't just happen. There are hours and hours of drafting, writing, reorganizing, deleting, revising, and tweaking that go on behind the scenes.

If you are new to my blog and haven't heard of the Bakers Mountain Stories, please check out my other posts: AIM, BLUE, COMFORT, and DRIVE. (In this blog and this one, Joyce explains the order in which the first three books were written.)

TWO GIVEAWAYS!!

Thanks to Calkins Creek's generosity, Joyce is giving away one copy of a personally autographed book to one fortunate winner. Please leave me a comment by 6 PM on May 14 to enter. MAKE SURE you include your name and email address if you are new to my blog. 

DRIVE - with a beautiful new cover-- just came out in paperback and I have a copy of of that to give away also. When you leave a comment, please let me know which book you are interested in winning. Only continental United States addresses please. Sorry, you can't win both!

ONE FINAL WORD

Joyce's virtual launch with SCBWI-Carolinas is on May 27 at 7 PM.  She will be giving away another copy of EQUAL at that time--so if you don't win now, you'll have another chance to win later. You don't need to be a member of SCBWI to sign up and attend. Come and find out why Joyce wrote EQUAL and what she hopes readers will take away from it. 

All About Joyce Hostetter: Write2Ignite Instructor and Author of EQUAL (and pssst... A Cover Reveal Too!)

Congratulations to Jean Hall for winning Otis P. Oliver Protests and Doreen Robinson for winning Travel Guide for Monsters on last week's blog. For those of you who didn't win--stay tuned. I just received a large stack of picture books from Sleeping Bear Press.

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Today I'm going to talk about my friend and writing mentor, Joyce Moyer Hostetter. A number of you are fans of her Bakers Mountain Series and later in this post, you'll find the cover of the fifth book in this series, EQUAL. But first, I want to share an opportunity to participate in an online writing class with Joyce. 

MASTER FICTION WRITING CLASS

Write2Ignite is a Christian writer's organization that I am blessed to be a part of. We are dedicated to helping writers provide excellent books for children and young adults. Usually, we hold our annual conference at North Greenville University in Taylors, SC. Due to Covid, we're going virtual this year--which is the silver lining of this awful pandemic. Now, you can attend from the comfort of your own home (maybe with a few select writing buddies?).

DETAILS

The class is on September 19th and the schedule is packed from 9-5:30. It includes three talks by Joyce:

• Creating Memorable Characters — Tried and true strategies for creating characters.

• On Writing Plot: What’s the Problem — Structure and the power of conflict in creating a great plot.

• View Point and Dialogue— Dialogue that works overtime and strategies for creating an authentic narrator.

     We will also have guided writing activities when conference attendees will meet in Zoom "rooms" for writing and feedback. These groups will be facilitated by the Write2Ignite team. 

    The day will be recorded and will be available on the Write2Ignite website (password protected) for two months.

    All of this for only $79.00! Ready to register? Click HERE. 

I   If you are new to Zoom and are unsure about how to use it, we will hold a practice session on September 18.  After you register, email Write2Ignite to sign up. 

DOOR PRIZE

    All participants will qualify for the door prize: A set of Bakers Mountain books! (minus Equal which isn't due out until April 2021).

COVER REVEAL 

So, be honest. Did you scroll down to catch a glimpse of this lovely cover? I can't blame you if you did. Because you're my friend, I'll still enter your name in the giveaway if you leave me your email address.

"It's the summer of 1959 at the foot of Bakers Mountain in western North Carolina when 13-year-old Jackie Honeycutt first bumps into Thomas Freeman fishing on the riverbank. They hit it off, and Jackie hopes the two of them can be friends. But Jackie is white, and Thomas is Black -- and Jackie quickly learns their growing friendship won't be easy. North Carolina is the focus of the growing civil rights movement, and through his friendship with Thomas, Jackie experiences racism and prejudice first-hand through bullying at school, family turmoil, and pressure from his community. Can Jackie free both his conscience and his voice - and ultimately do what's right?"  From Amazon's description.

As with two of the other books in the Bakers Mountain Series, AIM and DRIVE, I have been privileged to be one of Joyce's readers. I can say without any hesitation that you will love this book and want to add it to your bookshelf.  

GIVEAWAY

I've mentioned before, you can assist your favorite authors by pre-ordering their books on Amazon. You can also leave me a comment with your email address (if you are new to my blog) and I'll put your name in the hat for an ARC giveaway. I expect the ARCS will be mailed out later this year. Giveaway ends August 15. 

Four Writers and Four Writing Stages--Part II

As I mentioned last week, this is the second post in a two-part series on the variety of stages writers go through when producing a book. Thanks to Jean Hall who said that she is "always in the middle of creation or revision of picture books." Julian Daventry said, "I'm about to start editing my trilogy, after getting all three books drafted. There's still much to be done, but reaching the 'all books are drafted' is a nice milestone. I'm ready for the next step!" Gray Marie contributed, "Sadly school has been detaining me, but I hope to speed up my progress this summer. I am currently outlining and writing out a few of the scenes in my attempt to piece together this puzzle of a story in my head." Sheri Levy wrote, "I am writing the my first draft of the third novel in the Trina Ryan series, For Keeps. My ideas are moving in the story, and I'm trying to write to the end before I start restructuring the plot. This part of writing is fun, but a long process."

JOYCE HOSTETTER

My book, DRIVE, (a story of twins, NASCAR, the Cold War, and competition) is in the design phase so it came back to me recently formatted by a typesetter.  At this point my task was to read through in search of typos, misplaced quotation marks, spacing issues, etc.  Of course, we writers are always tweaking so I slipped in quite a few requests for other small changes.

I began writing DRIVE in August 2016 at a Highlights workshop with my editor, Carolyn Yoder. Since it’s part of a series, I submitted a query and received a contract within a few months. I submitted it within seven months but should have allowed more time in my contract because writing two viewpoints is so hard!  I revised and resubmitted in July and it went through another round of revisions after that. All told – about a year and a half.

My first draft was a mess. Someone died who I decided not to kill after all. Also the twin protagonists weren’t attracted to the same boy and in the final version they are. Polio figures into the final version more than it did previously. The final version feels much more cohesive and I think the twins are more differentiated. Hopefully you still won’t know who to pull for.

After the latest changes have been applied by the typesetter I’ll be rereading again for nitpicky formatting issues. I’m quite certain if I ask for other changes my editor will disown me.

Here is the opening of DRIVE:

As terrible as it sounds, I wanted to rip the ribbons right off my twin sister’s drawing. First place in still life and grand prize! 

Ida stood beside me in the hallway at Mountain View School. She wasn’t saying much even if she was thrilled—which of course she was. But I knew she felt guilty about me only winning honorable mention in my category. For some reason I’d thought a portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower would help me take first place. 

“I’m sorry, Ellie,” whispered Ida. 

“It’s okay,” I said. But I had to bite my lip to keep it from trembling. 

“Maybe you should’ve submitted that drawing of the red high heels. It was really good.” 

“No,” I said. “Because that would have been a still life and I wasn’t about to compete in the same category as you. But of course you beat me anyway.”

In her award winning BLUE, Joyce told the story of her hometown’s compassionate response to a polio epidemic. The characters of this quiet neighborhood took up residence in the hearts of readers so that now Bakers Mountain Stories include AIM, BLUE, COMFORT and the forthcoming DRIVE. When Joyce isn’t writing, researching, or speaking about her books she is usually living the quiet friends-and-family lifestyle exemplified in her stories. She does, however, enjoy travel because the world is actually so much bigger than where she is from!  

CAROL BALDWIN 

Last June I switched over to writing Half-Truths from Kate's POV. That required digging deeper into Kate's backstory, re-thinking, moving chapters, writing new ones, and deleting a lot of material. I'm now close to the end of that draft. Next, I'll print the  manuscript and read it out loud. I'll fill in details that I hadn't taken time to research, check character arcs, hunt down cliche's, tighten, and polish. It will then go to a few beta readers, my two critique partners, and Rebecca Petruck, my wonderful writing coach. After that...I hope it'll be time to start querying agents! 

As some of you know, it has taken me over ten years to get to this point. Although the story takes place sixty years ago, I hope the themes of friendship, racism, and generational legacies will inspire introspection and communication among today's readers.

Here is a snippet from one of the ending chapters. This follows Kate's conversation with her grandmother about their family history:

I ache for my grandmother. For the little girl who was ripped away from her mother and grew up with half-truths fencing her in.  

Half-truths like long spindly fingers that reached out from the grave and strangled us all.

You Heard it Here First: Cover Reveal for DRIVE by Joyce Hostetter

I am honored to share the cover reveal for DRIVE, Joyce Hostetter's newest middle grade book that will be released in September by Calkins Creek. In this interview she gives you a glimpse of the backstory behind the latest in the Bakers Mountain Stories as well as the nitty gritty research she did. Take it away, Joyce!

Photo credit: Wendy Hostetter Davis

Synopsis

Ida and Ellie Honeycutt are identical twins whose personalities and internal drives are quite different. Ellie likes action and loves going to the local stock car speedway with its thrilling competitions. Ida, who hates the noise, dirt, and danger of racing, prefers quiet evenings at home pursuing her love of art.

Ellie tends to lead and Ida is mostly content to let her do so. They find security in their expected roles but entering high school gives them more separate experiences and forces them to function independently of each other. However nothing can stop them from falling for the same charming boy and finding themselves at increasing odds with each other.

Then a car accident forces them into new roles, affirms their unique identities, and leads them back to their deep loyalties to each other.

Carol: How did you arrive at the concept for DRIVE? 

Joyce: After my publisher suggested a prequel to BLUE (which eventually became AIM), I decided to create a series which is now known as the Bakers Mountain Stories. Five books seemed like a satisfactory number of volumes and would give each of the neighborhood youngsters a chance to tell his or her story.  (Ann Fay Honeycutt narrates two books, BLUE and COMFORT since she unknowingly kicked off the series!)   

Next in line were the twins. Of course I could have given them each their own separate books to narrate but being lumped together was also a twin dilemma I could utilize.  Mostly I wanted to explore their individuality in the context of the same story line. So I decided to write DRIVE from both of their voices and let their differing viewpoints create the conflict.  My goal was to have the reader pull for both of them even when they were at odds with each other.

Carol: Why did you call the book DRIVE?

I’ve always thought that, if I wrote a sequel to COMFORT, I’d want to share a bit of North Carolina’s NASCAR history.  The Hickory Motor Speedway opened in 1952, the year my story takes place, and we’ve had a number of exceptional drivers emerge from our area. Ned Jarrett grew up in the community and ran his first race at our speedway on the night that it opened. Jarrett represented racing so well via his competitive drive, his deep integrity, and his trailblazing career in NASCAR broadcasting. Including him as a character in the story was a real honor for me.

The historical backdrop for DRIVE is The Cold War, The Korean Conflict, and the presidential race between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. Ultimately, I see this book as being about competition, the drive to succeed, and what it means to win. 

In any competition, we tend to see winners and losers. But one person or party taking first place doesn’t have to mean loss for others. Winning is the result of facing challenges with integrity, admitting our mistakes, and learning more about ourselves and what makes us valuable—no matter what the outcome of the contest. In DRIVE Ida and Ellie discover what makes them each unique and a winner in her own right.

Carol: What challenges did you encounter while writing DRIVE?

Writing from two viewpoints is always more complicated than I imagine it will be. Each character’s story must be fully fleshed out while complementing the other’s.  There’s so much to cover— scenes they share, separate scenes, more characters to flesh out, and interior monologue and a story arc for each protagonist. My biggest challenge was getting it all in and making it work together without bogging the story down. Based on editor feedback I did some major rewriting which changed the story a lot. The heart of the story was unchanged but the narrative for reaching resolution was quite different.

Also regarding challenges—I have to say that securing a contract to write a novel before it’s actually fleshed out sounds like a writer’s dream. But this presents its own struggle.  Deadlines always arrive more quickly than I like!

Carol: What kind of research did you do?

I read about the twin experience, of course, but conversations with multiple sets of twins were the most helpful in understanding the complicated mix of deep love and intense competition that exists between many of them. I also interviewed local NASCAR legend, Ned Jarrett and spent lots of time at the library reading our local newspaper from 1952 & 1953.

YouTube was great for giving me glimpses of the 1952 presidential election and aspects of the Cold War. I also watched quite a few NASCAR documentaries and attended my first stock car race at Hickory Motor Speedway.

Hickory Motor Speedway

Carol: You mentioned five books in Bakers Mountain Stories.  So far you have AIM, BLUE, COMFORT and DRIVE. What’s next?

Something that starts with an E, of course. I anticipate the title to be EQUALITY since that was a big theme of the sixties. The youngest Honeycutt child, Jackie (a boy) will turn fourteen in 1960 and will experience some history making moments. I can’t wait to see the storyline evolve as I discover ideas while researching. Just getting started on that now!

Thanks so much Carol for listening and sharing DRIVE with your readers!

And without further ado, take a look at this beautiful cover!

One of the ways we can support our favorite authors is by pre-ordering their books. Guess what? DRIVE is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble for pre-order! In 2018 you'll have the opportunity to win the ARC off my blog when I review it--but why wait? Order your copy now!