Mitzy McGee: Diary of a Super-Geek Stuttering Songbird

by January Joyce

Imagine being born with a speech impediment wherein everyone ridicules you for doing the one thing most people take for granted. Talking. Now imagine if the person who mocks you the most is someone very close to you. Your own Mom. Sounds pretty cruddy, I know, but that's what happened to me. Growing up with a stutter can be challenging. People can be cruel. I never knew who I could trust because sometimes even the best-intentioned people say or do something that feels like a loaded insult. Then one day by fluke - as I listened to the aggravating screech of my brother's band - I learned that I could sing. I could actually sing!!! My choral voice has no stutter, stammer, or pause. There's a technical name for it, but apparently, the singing part of my brain overrides the stuttering part of my brain, and I can belt out harmonies without flaw. One day I'm a freak little sister who spends most of her time huddled in the corner of the garage. I'm the annoying groupie who's always getting yelled at and blamed for things I didn't do. I'm picked on, alienated, ridiculed, and scorned. And the next thing I know, I've taken over the role of lead singer. Me, who would believe it? Our first recording takes off and before I knew it, I'm on the road to becoming a star. I'm Mitzy McGee, and this is my story.

226 pages, Paperback

Published March 5, 2021

About the author

January Joyce is a retired civil servant with 28+ years in state and federal systems who’s enjoying her rocking chair years with a wine glass in her hand, crafting stories.

January’s grandchildren are mixed-race with a variety of ethnicities; therefore, many of her books and poems are threaded with rich cultural identities, promoting inclusion. She aspires to write stories involving all of her grandchildren’s ancestral origins, leaving them a genuinely-personalized legacy of love.

Reviews

[H.L. Karhoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot of the book was interesting enough to make me want to keep reading even though I didn't love the way it was written. If Joyce had done more showing, the story would have been much more enjoyable. Instead, there is a lot of telling which made it difficult to get invested. Despite this, the writing was often quite witty and entertaining, usually when the first person narrator directly addressed the audience. It also read at times like a true account because the writing was very realistic, as if I were actually reading an account of her life written by Mitzy McGee. It read like something a nonwriter would write which can be a great strategy for this type of novel (no one would believe Mitzy is telling the story if it was written in the style of F. Scott Fitzgerald--at least, I wouldn't).