Author Archives: Rosanne Parry
First reviews for The Turn of the Tide
It’s always a treat to see the first reviews of new work. I’m very happy to share these two from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.
Author: Rosanne Parry
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: January 12, 2016
ISBN ( Hardcover ): 978-0-375-86972-3
ISBN ( Library Ed ): 978-0-375-96972-0
ISBN ( e-book ): 978-0-375-98535-5
After a tsunami destroys their community, Kai’s parents, busy repairing a power plant, send him to Astoria, Oregon, to stay with relatives he barely knows, including his cousin Jet, whose ambition is to pilot ships across the dangerous Columbia River bar. His white father grew up in Astoria, but Kai, raised in Japan, identifies as Japanese. Being biracial in a culture that values conformity becomes more challenging than ever after his failed, maverick attempt to rescue his grandparents. Equally adrift, Jet doesn’t share friends Bridgie and Skye’s obsession with shopping and boyfriends; another old friend has found a new pal to sail with. Jet’s thrilled that Kai sails too, but she’s blinded by her single-minded focus on sailing. Accepting Kai’s help to repair her boat and crew in the Treasure Island Race, she forgets his trauma; pushing him into the water too soon nearly sinks their friendship. Kai had wanted to stay and help rebuild his Japanese town; he suspects fitting in will be harder when he returns. “Not so easy to be a boy between cultures,” Uncle Per says, then points out, “Lots of mariners are like you—a foot in more than one place. Captain a ship and you’re a citizen of the whole world.” Parry tells her story in third-person chapters that alternate perspective between Kai and Jet, effectively getting readers under the skin of both. Thematically rich, by turns exciting and reflective, this affectionate homage to the mariner life celebrates human commonality and difference in an increasingly interconnected world. (map, message for young mariners, author note) (Fiction. 9-12)
Irony
This past weekend I was at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Trade Show in Portland. (PNBA) While there I did a workshop on using social media as an author, bookseller or publisher. I had every intention of live tweeting the event and even began with a picture and tweet about Amber Keyser and her new novel The Way Back from Broken.
And then a funny thing happened. I went to some sessions that really expanded my thinking about the book world, including one with a very detailed explanation about exactly how books earn money and why some of them don’t. I sat in on a conversation about how the PNBA book award is chosen. I fell into one interesting conversation after another. I found booksellers and shared ideas for promoting my upcoming novel. I met publishers and talked about the kind of author who is the best fit for an event at Annie Blooms Bookstore. I found books that I wanted to immediately put in the hands of librarians from my school district.
And I completely forgot to tweet. Didn’t post a single thing on Facebook. I know. Missed opportunity.
Here’s what I didn’t miss. The joy of seeing a friend who is passionate about books absolutely in her element and making her dreams of becoming a publisher come true. Dozens of short conversations with publishers about the books they are passionate about. A long leisurely conversation over dinner with a new author friend, and a rather raucous late night conversation with a table full of booksellers. Not a single one of those experiences would have been enhanced by pausing to tweet, post, pin, or snap.
So thank you to the PNBA for an amazing weekend. I’m enriched. I’m exhausted. I’m going to spend every possible minute in the next week reading the amazing books and ARCs I brought home. And thank you to my northwest bookselling community for the mentoring and the inspiration.
The Pleasures of being a Secret Poet
Poetry has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My mother and father both read poetry, and I had a big picture book of poetry I read and reread so often that many of those poems linger in my mind though I never consciously memorized them. “A violet by a mossy stone half hidden from the eye. Fair as a star when only one is shining in the sky” is a line that reliably comes to mind every time I go hiking and find wildflowers clinging to unlikely spots along the trail.
SMART Author Fair at Powells
I am so honored to be invited to participate in this years SMART author fair at Powells bookstore.
SMART is great program which brings adults from the community into the school to read aloud with students who struggle to read. Next year it will mark the 25th anniversary of the Start Making A Reader Today program.
I will be signing copies of Written in Stone from 2-4. It’s a great way to support a terrific cause. I hope to see you there.