Roberta's Fire

by Kelly Sinclair

The stunning conclusion to the Tantona Trilogy, that started with Accidental Rebels, and continued in If the Wind Were a Woman. In the summer of 1951, a hate crime happened in a small Texas town. It was covered up at the time, but the deadly event changed the lives of everyone involved. One of those, E.L. "Marty" Signoret, went on to write a famous young adult novel.

Now in her eighties, Marty returns to Tantona, Texas, accompanied by her young would-be biographer. Marty is there for the funeral of Roberta—the closeted lesbian who left a path of wounded lovers in her wake.

Roberta Steinhall, beautiful and ruthless, was the queen of the closet for over sixty years, yet she must have been a teenager once. Must have been ready to risk everything for the love of a girl. That girl was Marty.

A house burned down; a life was lost. Lies were told and secrets buried. Now Marty is ready to tell the truth to a circle of lesbians and gay men who knew Roberta in her prime.

In flashbacks that comprise most of the novel, we relive that summer of '51, where a Latino man courts Marty's married sister, a Jewish girl tries to keep her Christian boyfriend under wraps—and teen lovers Marty and Roberta are faced with a life-or-death decision.

175 pages, ebook

About the author

Kelly Sinclair lives in Temple, Texas, but is a transplant from the South Plains. She has been a reporter, a rock singer-songwriter, and is currently a librarian. One of her poems appeared in the Texas Observer political magazine, and her computer-derived prints are featured in art galleries. Sinclair has worked with an experimental art-rock ensemble, written country songs for such Texas acts as the Maines Brothers, and sung backup for funk bands and bluegrass performers. In her writing, she follows a similar path of exploring her creative boundaries, writing scripts, plays, and musical song-cycles. (from the publisher's website)