Matthew Alan's Blog: newspaper reviews.... - Posts Tagged "what-we-leave-behind"
Giveaway tomorrow - cheap today!
Goodreads giveaway starts tomorrow for three paperback versions, but you can pick up an e-book copy all Sunday for 99 cents!
#belikeJane
#belikeJane
E-book sale!!!!!
With the book signing here in Pittsburgh this Saturday, and a 99 cent sale underway for the e-book version of "What We Leave Behind", I thought I would post one of my favorite scenes from the book (early on in chapter 2 - so not really a spoiler)...hope it makes you want to read more. Have a great night!
Matt
As the Solomons continued to wait in Mrs. LaCoe’s office, Jane brushed her hands down her dress and looked at herself in the mirror one last time. She took a deep breath and smiled to calm her nerves. The dress was less than half a year old, but it barely made it down to her knees. It also, unfortunately, because of an incident tripping on a rake in the yard, which Jane took no pleasure in recounting, had a huge green grass stain down the left side.
Despite its seeming shortcomings, on the three occasions Jane had put it on, she felt as if she was in a priceless gown, worn once upon a time by a Disney princess. With wild blue flowers and the remnant of a white lace belt, any time she wore that dress, her spirit lifted. Something big could happen when she had this dress on. It had been a while since something big had happened in her life.
As she made her way to the main office, Jane found herself skipping - the power of the dress and excitement willing her on, as if floating on a cloud and twirling round and round all at the same time.
Mrs. LaCoe must have heard the skipping, twirling, and general dress related merriment coming down the hallway because, without even a momentary pause for Jane to announce herself, she opened the main office door.
Two adults sat in the large leather chairs in Mrs. LaCoe’s office. As Jane glanced towards them, Mrs. LaCoe instructed her to come in. Jane entered the office, and unable to make eye contact with these strangers, smiled at the floor and then grew extremely nervous, immediately self-conscious and supremely excited. She hadn’t been interviewed in over a year, not that she had been counting. It was a lot of pressure, even with the dress on.
Sitting in the little chair and scanning the room instinctively, Jane looked back down at her shoes - the Disney-esque princess twirling confidence, now abruptly curtailed. Though she loved new people, adored the chance to speak with someone from the outside world, she also feared another disappointment. That fear took a slight advantage inside of her as she stared towards the door.
“Jane. This is Mr. and Mrs. Solomon. They would like to speak with you for a little while if that’s alright?”
“Sure,” Jane answered sheepishly after trying to adjust her posture while sitting in the small, oddly uncomfortable red plastic chair to their right. Why would anyone make a chair like this? Jane couldn’t help her distracted thoughts from seeping in. I mean my butt feels like it’s being pinched by the jaws of life on that rescue show we watch Tuesday nights. How does she expect us to sit still in this thing? No wonder none of us older kids get adopted, butts all pinched up and nervous as we are already.
Mrs. Solomon spoke first as she noticed Jane’s discomfort. “Nice to meet you, Jane. I’m Willa and this is my husband, Jason.”
“Nice to meet you too, Ma’am. Sir.”
“So my husband and I are here to talk with you about,” Willa paused, “Well, I guess we’re here to talk with you about you. Get to know you a bit and tell you about us. Is that alright?”
“Yes Ma’am.” Jane wrestled uncomfortably to place her hands in a natural position. Any time she got nervous, her fingers inexplicably lengthened an imaginary five inches, and then she became extremely conscious of how heavy her arms felt. She decided the best course of actions was to just sit on them to cover their length in the hope the Solomons didn’t notice them growing.
“So how’d you get all those bruises and cuts on your legs?” Mr. Solomon asked straightaway looking her up and down, not with malice or judgment but in a more inquisitive way.
Jane thought and then frowned, a moment later she smiled. “Running.” And then she added excitedly while her hands danced in front of her again, “Billy Tarlington wanted to race me the other day. Three times around the yard, that’s the rule and we all follow it. We race once a week for fastest in the yard, it’s kind of an honor and that person always gets the first slice of pizza on pizza day. Anyways, I was kicking his butt and he totally knew I was going to win again, so he had his best friend Bobby Stevers, push me into the fence.”
“Oh my.” Mrs. Solomon gasped. “And what did you do in response to that?”
“Oh, I got back up and then beat him to the finish line anyway, by a lot. I didn’t have to do no more after that since everyone else was making so much fun of Billy for getting beat by a girl, and trying to cheat but still losing. I figured he learned his lesson so why rub it in?”
“Well that was very sporting of you.” Mr. Solomon added smiling and nodding in agreement. “Very sporting of you indeed.”
“Well, no sense in being a sore winner I guess, especially when you’ve already beaten somebody and they already have enough reason to dislike you. That’s kind of how I see it anyways.”
Mrs. Solomon smiled and took her husband’s hand into her own.
In that moment, Jane recognized that she had been talking too fast and too loudly. On multiple occasions, Mrs. LaCoe had warned her about getting overly excited and being unable to control her gestures. She sat on her hands again. She also focused to slow her breathing as she had been instructed to do. I wish Mrs. LaCoe would just give me a list of all the things I’ve needed to work on over the years. At least a few notes or hand signals from her would be nice. I’ll have to remember to ask for a cheat sheet if I ever get another interview.
Mrs. Solomon continued undeterred. “Can you tell us what you like to do? What types of things you enjoy the most?”
“Enjoy?” Jane shot a quizzical look to Mrs. LaCoe.
Mrs. LaCoe gave Jane a look of encouragement.
“Yes.” Mrs. Solomon repeated, “What do you like to do the most in the world? How do you want to spend your free time?”
Jane thought for a moment and then smiled.
Willa melted at that intensity of her smile.
“I love to play outside. And, I guess art is my favorite subject, but I tend to get in trouble for spilling the paint and making a mess all the time, so it’s not as much fun as you’d think. When we get new books in the library, I love to read. Oh!” She almost burst. “And dinner time. Dinner is my favorite time of day.”
Jason laughed hard at this. “Me too, Jane. Me too. I think we’d get along just fine in that area. What are your favorite foods?”
“Pizza. I love Pizza night. Mrs. LaCoe lets us have a pizza party every third Friday of the month. It’s my favorite night of the month. We all get together in the common room, talk, eat, and play games. I love pizza night so much!” She added again with poignant and enthusiastic certainty.
“Jane.” Mrs. LaCoe shook her head. “Maybe that’s enough about pizza?”
Jane looked down at her shoes again and then smiled as she glanced back up. “And ice cream!”
Mrs. Solomon laughed.
In all, they spoke for another forty minutes about school and hobbies, about her friends and all of her past she could remember. She did her best to control her voice and tempo as instructed, and to answer their questions with honesty. Quickly, Jane found a calming comfort in Willa’s open face, and her tendency to smile along with the statements she made. She also liked how Mr. Solomon, though less emotional with his expressions, showed signs of kindness every time Mrs. Solomon touched his hand. At some point in the interview, Jane realized that her arms didn’t feel especially long or awkward any more, that her fingers were hardly noticeable.
When they had finished asking her all of their questions, Willa turned to Jason and then back to Jane. He nodded and she asked, “Do you have any questions for us?”
Jane thought for a moment and then said, “What makes you want to learn more about me?” She paused for a quick moment. “And I guess, uh, why you don’t have your own children?”
“Jane!” Mrs. LaCoe interjected in a tone that startled even Mr. Solomon. “You know we do not ask those kinds of questions young lady. We’ve talked about that being rude and impolite. Is that what you want the Solomons to think of you?”
Jane looked down at her shoes. Guilty yet again from her curiosity, she placed her hands under her butt and fought to keep from tearing up in front of people she had hoped with all her heart to impress.
“No. It’s alright.” Mr. Solomon stepped in to answer while holding his wife’s hand. “Well, we just can’t have children of our own, and we’ve been blessed to have an extremely happy life together. We’re at the point now where want to have someone that will add to that, someone to make us even more complete as a family. We’re both teachers at a high school here in Portland, and love the idea of offering a child a chance to learn from our experiences and share in our love. We’ve had several opportunities to watch you playing, and liked how happy you were in spending hours outside, just talking with all of the other kids. That’s why we’re meeting with you now. We’re curious if you’d consider being a part of something within our family?”
Jane tried to stay still, tried not to get up from the chair, fought with every fiber of her being not to jump up and throw her arms around Mrs. Solomon’s neck. She lost that battle. Before she could resist the urge, she had hugged them both.
“Jane!” Mrs. LaCoe threw her own hands into the air in total exasperation.
Jane was undaunted now. She hugged Mrs. Solomon again and then added into her ear, “I’m so sorry you can’t have a baby, Mrs. Solomon, but I know I could love you as much as any baby, if you’d just love me back.”
Mrs. Solomon hugged her in return and then looked into those beautiful brown eyes. Wide, earnest eyes. Willa fought to keep the emotional wavering out of her voice. “I’d like that Jane. I’d like that a lot.”
Jason and Willa each took one more hug from Jane before she was instructed by Mrs. LaCoe to head off to dinner. The Solomons stayed in the main office for another hour filling out a seemingly never-ending amount of paperwork to get the adoption process underway.
As they drove back home lost in their thoughts, Jason broke the silence first. “I can’t believe her.” He chuckled. “That story about that race with Billy, and the kid pushing her into the fence, and then getting back up to win the race anyways. Not an ounce of malicious intent or need for retribution in her voice. She actually seemed to forgive him for doing it as she was telling the story.”
“I know.” Willa beamed. “And how honestly she answered all the questions. I just feel like she’s meant to be with us. That she’s the reason none of the other children we’ve met up to this point have worked out for us. Like she’s been waiting for us as much as we’ve been waiting for her.” Willa began to tear up.
Jason shook his head in agreement and then added, “Hey, I meant to ask, what did she whisper in your ear when she hugged you in the office at the end?”
“Oh nothing really, just a little something between us girls.”
http://www.amazon.com/What-Leave-Be…/...…
What We Leave Behind
This is a story about struggle, a story of hope, and mostly, a story about love. A journey with a unique young girl who is so sure of what is out there waiting for her, that she never compromises her belief in finding it. It isn't always an easy path,...
amazon.com
Matt
As the Solomons continued to wait in Mrs. LaCoe’s office, Jane brushed her hands down her dress and looked at herself in the mirror one last time. She took a deep breath and smiled to calm her nerves. The dress was less than half a year old, but it barely made it down to her knees. It also, unfortunately, because of an incident tripping on a rake in the yard, which Jane took no pleasure in recounting, had a huge green grass stain down the left side.
Despite its seeming shortcomings, on the three occasions Jane had put it on, she felt as if she was in a priceless gown, worn once upon a time by a Disney princess. With wild blue flowers and the remnant of a white lace belt, any time she wore that dress, her spirit lifted. Something big could happen when she had this dress on. It had been a while since something big had happened in her life.
As she made her way to the main office, Jane found herself skipping - the power of the dress and excitement willing her on, as if floating on a cloud and twirling round and round all at the same time.
Mrs. LaCoe must have heard the skipping, twirling, and general dress related merriment coming down the hallway because, without even a momentary pause for Jane to announce herself, she opened the main office door.
Two adults sat in the large leather chairs in Mrs. LaCoe’s office. As Jane glanced towards them, Mrs. LaCoe instructed her to come in. Jane entered the office, and unable to make eye contact with these strangers, smiled at the floor and then grew extremely nervous, immediately self-conscious and supremely excited. She hadn’t been interviewed in over a year, not that she had been counting. It was a lot of pressure, even with the dress on.
Sitting in the little chair and scanning the room instinctively, Jane looked back down at her shoes - the Disney-esque princess twirling confidence, now abruptly curtailed. Though she loved new people, adored the chance to speak with someone from the outside world, she also feared another disappointment. That fear took a slight advantage inside of her as she stared towards the door.
“Jane. This is Mr. and Mrs. Solomon. They would like to speak with you for a little while if that’s alright?”
“Sure,” Jane answered sheepishly after trying to adjust her posture while sitting in the small, oddly uncomfortable red plastic chair to their right. Why would anyone make a chair like this? Jane couldn’t help her distracted thoughts from seeping in. I mean my butt feels like it’s being pinched by the jaws of life on that rescue show we watch Tuesday nights. How does she expect us to sit still in this thing? No wonder none of us older kids get adopted, butts all pinched up and nervous as we are already.
Mrs. Solomon spoke first as she noticed Jane’s discomfort. “Nice to meet you, Jane. I’m Willa and this is my husband, Jason.”
“Nice to meet you too, Ma’am. Sir.”
“So my husband and I are here to talk with you about,” Willa paused, “Well, I guess we’re here to talk with you about you. Get to know you a bit and tell you about us. Is that alright?”
“Yes Ma’am.” Jane wrestled uncomfortably to place her hands in a natural position. Any time she got nervous, her fingers inexplicably lengthened an imaginary five inches, and then she became extremely conscious of how heavy her arms felt. She decided the best course of actions was to just sit on them to cover their length in the hope the Solomons didn’t notice them growing.
“So how’d you get all those bruises and cuts on your legs?” Mr. Solomon asked straightaway looking her up and down, not with malice or judgment but in a more inquisitive way.
Jane thought and then frowned, a moment later she smiled. “Running.” And then she added excitedly while her hands danced in front of her again, “Billy Tarlington wanted to race me the other day. Three times around the yard, that’s the rule and we all follow it. We race once a week for fastest in the yard, it’s kind of an honor and that person always gets the first slice of pizza on pizza day. Anyways, I was kicking his butt and he totally knew I was going to win again, so he had his best friend Bobby Stevers, push me into the fence.”
“Oh my.” Mrs. Solomon gasped. “And what did you do in response to that?”
“Oh, I got back up and then beat him to the finish line anyway, by a lot. I didn’t have to do no more after that since everyone else was making so much fun of Billy for getting beat by a girl, and trying to cheat but still losing. I figured he learned his lesson so why rub it in?”
“Well that was very sporting of you.” Mr. Solomon added smiling and nodding in agreement. “Very sporting of you indeed.”
“Well, no sense in being a sore winner I guess, especially when you’ve already beaten somebody and they already have enough reason to dislike you. That’s kind of how I see it anyways.”
Mrs. Solomon smiled and took her husband’s hand into her own.
In that moment, Jane recognized that she had been talking too fast and too loudly. On multiple occasions, Mrs. LaCoe had warned her about getting overly excited and being unable to control her gestures. She sat on her hands again. She also focused to slow her breathing as she had been instructed to do. I wish Mrs. LaCoe would just give me a list of all the things I’ve needed to work on over the years. At least a few notes or hand signals from her would be nice. I’ll have to remember to ask for a cheat sheet if I ever get another interview.
Mrs. Solomon continued undeterred. “Can you tell us what you like to do? What types of things you enjoy the most?”
“Enjoy?” Jane shot a quizzical look to Mrs. LaCoe.
Mrs. LaCoe gave Jane a look of encouragement.
“Yes.” Mrs. Solomon repeated, “What do you like to do the most in the world? How do you want to spend your free time?”
Jane thought for a moment and then smiled.
Willa melted at that intensity of her smile.
“I love to play outside. And, I guess art is my favorite subject, but I tend to get in trouble for spilling the paint and making a mess all the time, so it’s not as much fun as you’d think. When we get new books in the library, I love to read. Oh!” She almost burst. “And dinner time. Dinner is my favorite time of day.”
Jason laughed hard at this. “Me too, Jane. Me too. I think we’d get along just fine in that area. What are your favorite foods?”
“Pizza. I love Pizza night. Mrs. LaCoe lets us have a pizza party every third Friday of the month. It’s my favorite night of the month. We all get together in the common room, talk, eat, and play games. I love pizza night so much!” She added again with poignant and enthusiastic certainty.
“Jane.” Mrs. LaCoe shook her head. “Maybe that’s enough about pizza?”
Jane looked down at her shoes again and then smiled as she glanced back up. “And ice cream!”
Mrs. Solomon laughed.
In all, they spoke for another forty minutes about school and hobbies, about her friends and all of her past she could remember. She did her best to control her voice and tempo as instructed, and to answer their questions with honesty. Quickly, Jane found a calming comfort in Willa’s open face, and her tendency to smile along with the statements she made. She also liked how Mr. Solomon, though less emotional with his expressions, showed signs of kindness every time Mrs. Solomon touched his hand. At some point in the interview, Jane realized that her arms didn’t feel especially long or awkward any more, that her fingers were hardly noticeable.
When they had finished asking her all of their questions, Willa turned to Jason and then back to Jane. He nodded and she asked, “Do you have any questions for us?”
Jane thought for a moment and then said, “What makes you want to learn more about me?” She paused for a quick moment. “And I guess, uh, why you don’t have your own children?”
“Jane!” Mrs. LaCoe interjected in a tone that startled even Mr. Solomon. “You know we do not ask those kinds of questions young lady. We’ve talked about that being rude and impolite. Is that what you want the Solomons to think of you?”
Jane looked down at her shoes. Guilty yet again from her curiosity, she placed her hands under her butt and fought to keep from tearing up in front of people she had hoped with all her heart to impress.
“No. It’s alright.” Mr. Solomon stepped in to answer while holding his wife’s hand. “Well, we just can’t have children of our own, and we’ve been blessed to have an extremely happy life together. We’re at the point now where want to have someone that will add to that, someone to make us even more complete as a family. We’re both teachers at a high school here in Portland, and love the idea of offering a child a chance to learn from our experiences and share in our love. We’ve had several opportunities to watch you playing, and liked how happy you were in spending hours outside, just talking with all of the other kids. That’s why we’re meeting with you now. We’re curious if you’d consider being a part of something within our family?”
Jane tried to stay still, tried not to get up from the chair, fought with every fiber of her being not to jump up and throw her arms around Mrs. Solomon’s neck. She lost that battle. Before she could resist the urge, she had hugged them both.
“Jane!” Mrs. LaCoe threw her own hands into the air in total exasperation.
Jane was undaunted now. She hugged Mrs. Solomon again and then added into her ear, “I’m so sorry you can’t have a baby, Mrs. Solomon, but I know I could love you as much as any baby, if you’d just love me back.”
Mrs. Solomon hugged her in return and then looked into those beautiful brown eyes. Wide, earnest eyes. Willa fought to keep the emotional wavering out of her voice. “I’d like that Jane. I’d like that a lot.”
Jason and Willa each took one more hug from Jane before she was instructed by Mrs. LaCoe to head off to dinner. The Solomons stayed in the main office for another hour filling out a seemingly never-ending amount of paperwork to get the adoption process underway.
As they drove back home lost in their thoughts, Jason broke the silence first. “I can’t believe her.” He chuckled. “That story about that race with Billy, and the kid pushing her into the fence, and then getting back up to win the race anyways. Not an ounce of malicious intent or need for retribution in her voice. She actually seemed to forgive him for doing it as she was telling the story.”
“I know.” Willa beamed. “And how honestly she answered all the questions. I just feel like she’s meant to be with us. That she’s the reason none of the other children we’ve met up to this point have worked out for us. Like she’s been waiting for us as much as we’ve been waiting for her.” Willa began to tear up.
Jason shook his head in agreement and then added, “Hey, I meant to ask, what did she whisper in your ear when she hugged you in the office at the end?”
“Oh nothing really, just a little something between us girls.”
http://www.amazon.com/What-Leave-Be…/...…
What We Leave Behind
This is a story about struggle, a story of hope, and mostly, a story about love. A journey with a unique young girl who is so sure of what is out there waiting for her, that she never compromises her belief in finding it. It isn't always an easy path,...
amazon.com
Paperback giveaway
Hi All -
I'm having an end of summer giveaway - any new likes to my page will be entered to receive a signed paperback of "What We Leave Behind"...
Two winners will be selected tomorrow evening (Sunday) at 10:00 pm...
www.facebook.com/matthewalan412
Thanks for playing and have a great weekend!
http://www.amazon.com/What-Leave-Behi...
I'm having an end of summer giveaway - any new likes to my page will be entered to receive a signed paperback of "What We Leave Behind"...
Two winners will be selected tomorrow evening (Sunday) at 10:00 pm...
www.facebook.com/matthewalan412
Thanks for playing and have a great weekend!
http://www.amazon.com/What-Leave-Behi...
