Liquid Grace: A Novel

by Lutricia Clifton

Part history and part mystery, Liquid Grace occurs in the early 1940s at the beginning of WWII. Set in downtrodden eastern Oklahoma and the fertile valleys of central California, the story is told from the viewpoint of an older woman named Jane and deals with an eventful summer when she was thirteen. By telling the story, Jane hopes that she can put to rest dark memories of that summer, which have haunted her into old age. In her words, that summer was “thorny . . . tainted with temptation and transgression, desertion and death.” In vivid detail, she charts her memories of train trips and fruit orchards, minstrel shows and mushrooms, harvest gypsies and rivers in a box--as well as her mother’s mysterious calling to help someone in need. An excited teenager when her mother and four siblings caught the train west, Jane is an adult by summer’s end, left on her own to get what remains of the unraveled family back to eastern Oklahoma safely. Will Jane reach a resolution by the end of the book or will that summer haunt her into the afterlife?

320 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2020

About the author

Lutricia "Lu" Clifton writes novels for both children and adults. Most of her adult novels are set in southeastern Oklahoma and include a mingling of Native American cultural beliefs and traditions. She became interested in those cultural traditions while tracing her mother’s Choctaw roots.

She was born in and spent her early childhood in southeastern Oklahoma, then moved to the Texas Panhandle with her family. She completed an associate degree at Amarillo Junior College in Texas and a B.A. and M.A. in English at Colorado State University. She now resides in Illinois with a gray tabby named Mary Jane that she rescued from a shelter. Her oldest son and wife life in Oregon and her youngest son and wife live in Illinois.

She is a member of the Oklahoma Writers Federation, Mystery Writers of America, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

NEW RELEASE: SEEKING GRACE IN BEULAH LAND, A Novel -- April 1, 2019

HONORS/AWARDS:

FREAKY FAST FRANKIE JOE -- 2012 Friends of American Writers Award for Juvenile Fiction

SEEKING CASANDRA --Winner of the 2017 Oklahoma Book Award for YA Fiction

SCALP DANCE--A Sam Chitto Mystery --Finalist for the 2017 Oklahoma Book Award for Fiction

THE BONE PICKER, A Sam Chitto Mystery Finalist for 2018 Oklahoma Book Award in Fiction

THE HORNED OWL --A Sam Chitto Mystery -- Finalist for 2019 Oklahoma Book Award in Fiction