Just Like Elizabeth Taylor

WINNER — Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition, Juvenile Division

WINNER — League of Utah Writer’s Juvenile Novel & Diamond Quill

Twelve-year-old Liz Taylor has known for a long time that she would escape—escape the abuse against herself, and against her mother. She just didn’t know how or when.

Then the perfect opportunity comes—money left of the table by her mother’s abuser—and Liz is on the run. But a girl her age doesn’t have many options when it comes to hideouts, making a K.O. A. Kampground and a nearby middle school her perfect choices.

If only she can keep to herself, Liz, now using the name Beth, knows she can make it on her own, until things change, and she realizes she must face her situation head on if she is to save herself and her mom.

Excerpt: I was named after a movie star. Elizabeth Taylor. When Mom was pregnant she watched National Velvet on a cable station playing old movies.

“She was so beautiful, and with our last name being Taylor, I couldn’t resist,” Mom told me. “The doctor in the delivery room placed the tiny bundle that was you across my stomach. Your eyes almost looked violet, and you had a head full of dark hair and a little birthmark on your cheek, just like Elizabeth Taylor. I knew that had to be your name.”

“Liz, if you please,” I reminded her for the millionth time.

I’d read some of the biographies. I didn’t want to spoil Mom’s impression by telling her that baby Elizabeth Taylor had been ugly, her little newborn body covered all over by dark hair. Mom didn’t have any idea that my life—and hers—would turn out to be filled with those same unglamorous experiences her idol had faced. Life wasn’t all movie stars and parties like Mom imagined.

JUST LIKE ELIZABETH TAYLOR, a young adult novel from the Small Town U.S.A. series, is historical fiction with the feel of today. Liz faces challenges too horrific to think about, yet learns much about life and herself as she struggles to survive.

Like with the works of Carol Lynch Williams (Miles from Ordinary), or Sara Zarr (Story of a Girl), readers will find a main character in Liz that they will love, as well as want to save.

Lu Ann Brobst Staheli is a three-time Utah Best of State Medal recipient for Literary Arts and Education, winner of Utah’s Original Writing Competition and the League of Utah Writer’s Diamond Quill for Juvenile Fiction.

Use the Look Inside feature to read more, or click the LIKE button above to share on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. Reviews are appreciated on Amazon or GoodReads.

Small Town U.S.A.

I grew up in Small Town U.S.A. 

Literally! 

My hometown of Alexandria, Indiana, was selected as the focus piece of a booklet, intended as pro-American propaganda during World War II. The booklet, which featured photos of my brother-in-law and his parents and siblings when he was just a kid, was filled with photos of townspeople engaged in shopping, farming, and other family-friendly activities which would show people what a great place America was to be.

Long before I was born, my mother had her picture taken for this booklet, but for whatever editorial reason, her photo didn't make it into the book. That's okay. She knew it was taken, and for the next thirty-five years she made sure other people's photos were treated with more dignity. So did my dad, because the two of them owned and operated Brobst Photo Supplies, originally on Canal Street.

And that was where I started to learn about my hometown and the people in it. I spent most of my young life at the store. My playpen was a Kodak box. I began at an early age to know everyone in town, and it seemed everyone knew me.  By the time I was old enough to roam from store to store on my own, we'd moved to Harrison Street and the center of town. 

In the 1960s, I wasn't worried about the Cuban Missle Crisis, the hippies in Haight-Ashbury, or the war in Vietnam--well, except when my brother's best friend was drafted. In Small Town U.S.A., I spent my time discovering The Beatles and The Monkees, hanging out at the Alex Theater, or grabbing a sloppy joe at the Alexandria Bakery. I made good friends, and even lost some. I changed crushes as often as I changed my clothes. I went to school, and I lived my life.

I was a teenager not much different in desires or fears than kids of today. I may live halfway across the country from my small town home, and despite the fact times have changed, the kids I see each day at school still want the same things I did back in those days--to know they're loved by friends and family, to feel safe, and to succeed and reach their goals.

In "A Note Worth Taking," the first book in my Small Town, U.S.A. series, I give my readers a glimpse into what life was life during the 1960s in a small town. Although this is a work of fiction, the people you meet may feel all too real. Maybe you know them, maybe you don't, but the fun will be in trying to guess who a character might be, if you too grew up in Small Town, U.S.A. 

But that small town didn't have to be Alexandria, Indiana, because these people still exist--everywhere! I've met a few of them multiple times in my years in Utah, and maybe you will know them too, no matter where you live.   

Small Towns are all alike, and as O. Henry once said, "Everyone you meet has a story." I hope you enjoy the ones I choose to share as we visit Small Town, U.S.A. 


 
 

Tides Across the Sea

I've decided to bring my baby out in the public. Although I've worked on this novel for nearly the entire fourteen years I've been married, drafted, rewritten, and submitted it to several places, I'm now taking the marketing and selling of this manuscript more seriously. Alexandra Penfold, Assistant Editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, asked for chapters after we talked last March at the UVSC Forum on Children's Literature. You all know how busy my life can be, but I finally completed all the last minute fine-tuning on those chapters, likely bored members of my critique group silly as they looked at yet another synopsis, and worked, then reworked the query, finally realizing she asked for these pages so all I really needed was a cover letter to remind her of that. Cover letter done, all the necessary pages printed, and this baby is off to New York City. Of course, my husband is taking her to the post office. After all, I have a broken elbow and can't do oh so many things---like drive!

Last night, Annette Lyon forwarded a blog to our group from Nathan Bransford, an agent with Curtis Brown, Ltd. , about trends in writing which seem to include Mayans. Well, my novel happens to be about Aztecs, thank you very much, but I started reading Nathan's blog and realized he is in the market for YA novels. Tides Against the Sea is YA---the human sacrifice scene alone should guarantee that. So instead of working on my final graduate paper like I was supposed to be, I spent the rest of the evening reading his submission guidelines and drafting a query to ask him if he thinks my baby is pretty. Hey, I figure it can't hurt. I haven't sent the query yet---that dratted assignment is still weighing heavily on me--but I will by next week. After all, I have to have a minute to recover after my surgery!

In the meantime, if any of you would like to read Chapter One of Tides Across the Sea, you'll find it posted at http://tidesacrossthesea.blogspot.com. I look forward to hearing what you think.

Books, Books and More Books: Parent & Teacher's Guide

Special Offer Books, Books and More Books: A Parent and Teacher's Guide to Adolescent Literature, Vol. 1 CD-ROM version

Successful Teaching Strategies
100 Novel Study Guides
Reading Assessment Chart
Additional Suggested Books

Includes Book Guides on Novels by:

David Almond; Laurie Halse Anderson; Avi; Lois Thompson Bartholomew; Joan Bauer; Gary Blackwood; William J. Brooke; Bruce Brooks; Meg Cabot; Orson Scott Card; Eoin Colfer; Ellen Conford; Caroline B.Cooney; Sharon Creech; Chris Crutcher; Christopher Paul Curtis; Paula Danzinger; Kate DiCamillo Sharon M. Draper; Alane Ferguson; Paul Fleischman; Susan Fletcher; Gail Friesen; Jack Gantos; Amy Gordon; Margaret Peterson Haddix; Mary Downing Hahn; Bruce Hale; Betsy Hearne; Sid Hite; Will Hobbs; Kimberly Willis Holt; Betty Horvath; Kathy Kacer; Ron Koertge; Gail Carson Levine; Ann M. Martin; Norma Fox Mazer; Joyce McDonald; Lois Metzgher; Carolyn Meyer; Walter Dean Meyers; Claudia Mills; Phyllis Reynolds Naylor; John Neufeld; Naomi Shihab Nye; Gary Paulsen; Richard Peck; Rodman Philbrick; Randall Beth Platt; Phillip Pullman; Kristin Randle; Louise Rennison; Ann Rinaldi; John H. Ritter; J. K. Rowling; Pam Muñoz Ryan; Louis Sachar; Gloria Skurzynski; Lemony Snicket; Jerry Spinelli; Todd Strasser; Ross Venokier; Will Weaver; Gloria Whelan; Carol Lynch Williams; Virginia Euwer Wolff; Jacqueline Woodson; and Lawrence Yep.

Special Sale Price: $15.00 plus $2.50 postage/handling
Regular Price: $25.00 SAVE $10.00 while supplies last.
Limited Number Available
Paypal: allstars@prodigy.net
For check or money order, send me an email and I'll send you my address.
luann@luannstaheli.com

Rumors

The e-mail rumor mill is running full blast this month, all about the award-winning book and new movie The Golden Compass. The cry is boycott because the author—gasp—is an atheist! My response is “so what?” Does that mean we don’t read Edgar Allan Poe because he was a heavy drinker, Shel Silverstein because he once published an article in Playboy, or Ernest Hemingway because he committed suicide? All of them espoused ideas and ideals that we might not agree with.

Should only Mormons read Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes by Gordon B. Hinckley, only Catholics read Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI, or only Buddhists read The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by Howard Cutler from interviews with His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama? Of course not. We become more tolerant and understanding, finding the similarities between us more important that the differences when we share the common bond of the written word.

Besides, The Golden Compass is a children’s book. A fantasy, a genre that came into being at the time the highly successful works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis were published. Should we not read The Chronicles of Narnia because Lewis shares his views Christianity, or The Lord of the Rings because Tolkien was a devout Catholic? Has it not always been true that fantasy uses as its basis the war between good and evil? Through the telling of story, both sides are presented, but the didactic efforts to preach a philosophy do not make it to the level of popularity reached by each of these series.

A graduate of Oxford, the same school where both Tolkien and Lewis were among the faculty, Pullman first came up with the idea for the series known as His Dark Materials after reading John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Close friends, Tolkien and Lewis were both members of the informal literary discussion group at Oxford known as the Inklings, defined at Wikipedia as “a group of literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction, and encouraged the writing of fantasy. Although Christian values were notably reflected in several members' work, there were also atheists among the members of the discussion group.”

For what it’s worth, I’ve met Philip Pullman and had a nice long sit-down luncheon with him at the 2000 National Council of Teachers of English conference. He’s a very nice man, albeit he had a few oddities about himself as a writer. At the time, he wrote his books by hand only on yellow legal pads that were two hole punched, stopping for the day after he had written a single line of text on the next page. His workspace was a gardener’s shed on the back of his property.

Never once did he try to convert me to his way of thinking about religion, just like I never tried to convert him to mine.

Rather than being among those who spread rumors and encourage boycotts, I would hope that readers would at least accept that gossip is never fair, and that the best way to know if the information being presented as fact is indeed true, is, in a situation involving literature, to read the book, in its entirety for yourself. Get to know the author and their intent before you spread the word.

To end with Pullman’s own words from his website: “As a passionate believer in the democracy of reading, I don't think it's the task of the author of a book to tell the reader what it means. The meaning of a story emerges in the meeting between the words on the page and the thoughts in the reader's mind. So when people ask me what I meant by this story, or what was the message I was trying to convey in that one, I have to explain that I'm not going to explain. Anyway, I'm not in the message business; I'm in the ‘Once upon a time’ business.”

Lest I Look Like a Slacker

If you've watched my progress in the Summer Reading Thing, you might think I've been such a slacker. Not true. I may not have yet finished all the books on that list---I go back to work on Wednesday, so summer is over for me---but I've read lots of other books this summer. I'm currently reading New Moon and the copy of Eclipse is on my desk next to where I am typing.
So, I've decided to share a little bit about the other books I've read this summer, so you'll know that I have been reading, just not always the books I said I'd get around to.

1. The Greatest Discovery - Sorensen. Very predictable, a little sappy, but a quick read.

2. My Point, and I do Have One - Ellen Degeneres. Some funny parts, some crude parts.

3. Nobody's Better Than You, Mom - Bowen. Should have made my boys read this one!

4. Aunt Dimity's Christmas - Atherton. Recommended by someoen at critique, but I abandoned.

5. The Elusive Mrs. Polifax - Gilman. A 2nd read for me. I love this series.

6. The Independence Club - Nunes. I enjoyed this one a lot and hope Rachel starts a series.

7. Purple Cow - Godin. Okay, I'm weird because I read marketing and business books for fun.

8. Free Prize Inside - Godin. Lots of good ideas to draw customers to your products.

9. The Peach Cobler Murder - Fluke. Another favorite mystery series for me.

10. Mrs. Polifax and the Whirling Dervish - Gilman. The trouble this woman gets into!

11. Secerts to Zarahemla - Wilson. I kept getting lost. The characters were confusing to me.

12. The Fudge Cupcake Murder - Fluke. I kept craving chocolate, but still loved this one.

13. Life As We Knew It - Pfeffer. Interesting YA novel about the moon moving closer.

14. Ghost of a Chance - Blair. Better than the first book, but some parts still bugged me.

15. Death on Demand - Hart. I discovered a new mystery writer that I liked.

16. Dead as a Doornail - Harris. A disappointing and somewhat crude vampire mystery.

17. Rickles' Book- Don Rickles. Like Ellen, sometimes funny, sometimes VERY crude.

18. Nothing to Regret - Pinkston. Liked it but wish it had been a series with more development.

19. It's All Too Much - Walsh. Loved the book, love the series (Clean Sweep). Loved the advice.

20. When Faith Endures - Van Nuygen. Taught me a lot about LDS, the Vietnamese, and war.

21. Deep Storm - Child. Another great thriller from one of my favorite writers.

22. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Rowling. Thought the ending was PERFECT!

23. Farworld: City Under the Water - Savage. Don't look for this one yet; it's not out til 2008.

24. Loved Like That - Wright. Liked it a lot, but I wonder if my book is too similar in theme?

25. Religious Literacy - Prothero. Interesting view why we are religiously illiterate.

26. One Minute Millionaire - Allen & Hansen. 2nd time reading this. Good motivation.

27. Circle the Truth - Schmatz. MG religious fantasy. IT was oaky, but not a grabber.

28. Twilight - Meyer. Decided to reread this one. Liked it better this 2nd time.

29. Wild Worlds - Moore. YA Graphic novel. Why must the girls be half-naked?

30. Loving Will Shakespeare - Meyer. I'm related to both of Wills' parents.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
(No Spoilers)

It's midnight on Sunday evening. My copy of the final installment of Harry Potter arrived Saturday afternoon, and I just finished reading the last page. I refuse to give any details about the book because I want each of you to have the chance to read it spoiler-free like I did. (Although my oldest son ran through the house shouting out spoilers he had heard from someone. I was far enough along in the book at the time to know that only one thing he said was even true! The rest, bogus.)

Let me just say, I liked the book. So many questions were answered and the story held my attention to the very last page. For those of you with young children, I will say there is some strong language you might want to be aware of or perhaps edit out if you are reading it aloud. But overall, the book was well written and satisfying.

My poor husband has been begging for the book all day, so now that I'm finally done, he's starting to read, despite the fact that it is after midnight!

For any of you who don't yet have a copy, here's a great price through amazon.com.