Spanning 20 years, Mama’s Shoes is a haunting saga of love, despair and forgiveness as a cadence of female voices weaves a spell of mountain lore and secrets, defines family as more than blood kin, and proves second chances can bring happiness.
Never Say Never Never say, “Don’t bother to enter those contests. No one ever wins.” Because I did and I have the book to prove it! The contest was sponsored by Writer’s Digest and Abbott Press and was called #Pitch2Win Writing and Publishing Contest. I discovered it on Twitter, and it sounded simple enough - in a single tweet of 140 characters or less, pitch your novel. I had just completed a novel called Mama’s Shoes, and had waded into the frustrating world of agents and publishers. And now, on the computer in front of me, was a contest that promised the winner a publishing contract with Abbott Press. I read the rules and decided I wanted to enter. There was only one problem, the contest ended at midnight, on Sunday, March 27, 2011 and it was just after 11:00 PM on March 26! I had less than an hour to come up with my pitch and the clock was ticking. I remember staring at the computer screen in front of me. How could I describe my novel in 140 characters? For the next half hour, I typed and erased; typed and erased. Just before midnight, I filled the space with a line from my novel, “Mama always said you can tell a real lady by the shoes she wears, but then nobody ever accused Mama of being a lady.” I clicked send. I knew I had found the perfect tweet to describe Mama’s Shoes. After all, it was that line that was runner-up in another contest, this one in Writer’s Digest Magazine. If you keep every issue of Writer’s Digest like I do, pull out the October 2003 issue. On page 14, you will find the winners of “Your Opening Line #8 Contest.” The object of the contest was simple; based on a tiny black and white picture of flip flops on a beach; write the opening line for a novel. It took me eight years, but that’s exactly what I did. That line, “Mama always said you can tell a real lady by the shoes she wears, but then nobody ever accused Mama of being a lady” became the foundation for Mama’s Shoes. And even though it’s not the opening line, it is in the first chapter. Page nine.
From its perfect first paragraph straight through to
its hard-won resolution, Mama's Shoes is an absolutely wonderful novel ,its
setting a beautifully realized small Appalachian coal town, its
characters so vivid they're practically jumping off the page, There's conflict
aplenty here too--between mother and daughter, truth and lies,
rich and poor, past and present----as thirteen year old Sassy tries
to determine the truth of who she really is. Rebecca Elswick captures her
readers by writing straight from the heart. ~ Lee Smith, author of 12 novels, including On Agate Hill and Fair and Tender Ladies
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