How 'bout a FREE BOOK signed by the author? Crooked River may be yours!

Geary's Crooked River is Rife with Suspense and Secrets!

Valerie will send one lucky person a copy of her book!! 
Keep reading to find out how you can win!
This was an excellent mystery! 
Especially for a debut novel! 
Check out my review here!

BIO: Valerie Geary is the author of the debut novel, Crooked River, out now in paperback! Her short stories have appeared in The Rumpus, Day One, Menda City Review, Boston Literary Magazine, and Foundling Review. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and a pound puppy named Charlie Waffles. In addition to writing, reading, and all things chocolate, Valerie enjoys gardening, hiking, cycling, beer festivals, and playing disc golf.

~Disc golf? That's a new one for me, though I guess it is just what it sounds like (per Wikipedia): According to Paul Ince of the Professional Disc Golf Association, "The object of the game is to traverse a course from beginning to end in the fewest number of throws of the disc." In just 8 years (2000-08) the number of disc golf courses doubled and it's played in about 40 countries. Cool!

1. It seems there have been several books published recently either centered around or 

    including a theme of living in isolation and off the land. What motivated you to include 

    that in this book?

There were multiple reasons I chose to have Bear living alone and off the grid. I think partly, he was a character who because of his past, felt cut off from the world already. Having him live in a teepee in a meadow was a way to show externally how he felt internally. I also think because of his anti-social tendencies, it made it easier for the townspeople to point the finger at him. Finally, I have a deeply rooted love of nature and wild spaces, and I think this book was a great chance for me to share that in an interesting way. 

~Ah...I bet your own love for that setting is what came through the writing and made it all the more real! And it did work for his character just as you stated! [Keep reading for your chance to win!]

2. What was the most confounding part of having your first novel published?

Honestly, as much as I love the word ‘confounding’, I’m not sure I’d use it to describe my feelings toward publishing a book. I did a lot of research about the publishing industry before I ever tried to sell my first book. So a lot of what happened was what I’d been expecting to happen. One thing I’ve been pleasantly surprised by, however, is the various ways Crooked River has been finding its way to readers.

It’s always a little baffling to hear from people who are reading my book—people who don’t know me personally, people who aren’t related to me, people all across the country who’ve just picked it up at a bookstore or the library or an airport. I love it, don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful! Like I said, it’s pleasantly surprising. I’m just always so curious, so nosey: how did they find out about the book, what drew them to open it up and start reading? It’s wonderful to be able to watch this book, that was mine and mine alone for so long, finally find its way to and connect with other people. It is a surreal and exciting experience.

~I won a copy of your wonderful debut through a Goodreads giveaway! A first for me! (So always enter those, folks!) And I'm so very happy to offer a free copy to one lucky winner here! Glad to know getting published wasn't 'confounding' for you! 

3. What was the first idea that made you start writing   

    this particular story?

I read an article about a man who left his family to live off the grid in Eastern Oregon. He dug a kind of hobbit hole in the ground and spent his time making art and contemplating life’s big questions. He had kids, and after I read the article, I couldn’t stop thinking about those kids and what it must have been like for them. I started to imagine Sam and Ollie and their father, Bear, and from this small spark, the story quickly expanded into something bigger and more complicated, into the novel it is today.

~Very cool! It's amazing what can spark the imagination!

4. Was any one of these characters semi-autobiographical

    for you?

In some ways, Sam and Ollie are. I have a sister, it’s just the two of us, and I’m the youngest. So in that way, I’m like Ollie. I was quiet like Ollie when I was a girl, too. But I love the woods like Sam. There are pieces of me and my sister in both girls, elements of our relationship growing up, but there are things about Sam and Ollie that aren’t like us at all—they took on their own life during the course of writing the book. For instance, I’ve never found a dead body floating in a river, never lived in a teepee in the woods, and my father has never been the prime suspect in a murder case…as far as I know anyway!

~Hah! I hope you never experienced all those things! [Read some more for a chance to win!]

5. Did you know who the perpetrator was in the first stages of writing this book? Or did 

    you have to discover that later? 

I do a significant amount of brainstorming, plotting, and outlining before I ever start drafting a book. So yes, I knew the “who” early on. However the motives changed a little as I came to know the characters better. There were other things I didn’t know at the start that revealed themselves during the writing, too, but I can’t say what those were without spoiling the ending!

~Thank you for omitting spoilers! :) 

6. I loved the fact that you included information about beekeeping. That accomplished 

    several things for me as a reader: it leant a certain believability/credulity to bear’s 

    independence from society and seeming ability to support himself, it provided insight 

    into bear’s intellectuality, and it afforded Sam an opportunity to learn and grow in a 

    socially-acceptable way, regardless of her virtual isolation. I’m rather curious as to 

    whether your intentions as an author included any of these, or if it was entirely 

    something else.

This is great insight, Lynn! And yes, many of the reasons you mention here were part of my decision to add the bees. I also really liked the way they complemented the supernatural elements of the book. There is a lot of history and myth about honeybees and the souls of the dead, and the more research I did, the more certain I felt that they needed to be included as characters in this story.

~Now that is cool! And will probably initiate a whole afternoon of online research for me!   :)

7. Do you believe certain of us humans are capable of communicating/interacting with 

    beings other than humans, as is Ollie? I ask because I do, but I’m always curious about 

    authors’ beliefs regarding such themes in their published works… For example, I was 

    shocked to learn that Bruce Cameron does not himself believe in reincarnation! 

While I love reading and writing stories with supernatural elements, when it comes to my real life I tend to be more of an open-minded skeptic. I like the idea that there is more to this world than what we see right in front of us. I like to imagine it. And while I don’t think I’d be very surprised if ghosts actually do exist, as of right now I haven’t had enough personal experience or been offered enough proof to say with utmost certainty that it’s possible to communicate with them.

[Almost there for your chance at a free book!]

8. What are you working on next?

I’ve always been a little superstitious about my writing and don’t like to talk much about projects that are in the early stages of creation or books that haven’t yet sold. Part of my reason for this is that the act of creating a story is very different from sharing that finished book with readers. It requires a different set of skills, a different mindset, so I’m usually very protective and private of that creative space. However, I will say this…I’ve been working on a second novel with suspense and supernatural elements that will hopefully make its way into the world someday soon. You and other readers are always welcome to sign up for my newsletter or like my Facebook page—these are the two best ways to get information about future projects and publications!

~I never really considered those differences before. I'm sure that's true. And that, my friends, leads us to the list below of various ways to connect directly with Valerie! She is quite receptive to readers and is a very nice person! 

Website: www.valeriegeary.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ValerieGearyAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ValerieGeary

Instagram: https://instagram.com/valgeary/

Did you want a free copy?!? To have your name entered to win a free copy of Crooked River, just leave a comment below that includes your email address. A winner will be selected by random drawing at 7PM (my time) on Labor Day (in the U.S.), Monday, September 7th! Each person will be entered once. (Leaving 10 comments will not get your name entered 10 times! Yes, someone already asked!) I will email the lucky winner for their mailing information. Good luck!! I sure was lucky to win my copy, so it is nice of Valerie to allow someone else to do the same! 

And the winner was Emily! Her free copy of this wonderfully written debut, signed by the author, is on its way to her!

Crooked or straight---this river held secrets!!

Crooked River by Valerie Geary

Win a free signed copy!! Simply comment and include your email address here! :) You have until Monday, September 7th at 7PM! 

As I finished reading this debut novel I was reminded of two other debut mystery/thrillers: Tana French's In the Woods and Heather Gudenkauf's The Weight of Silence. High praise from me, since these are two of my favorite writers! The similarity to Gudenkauf's book may well stem from the fact that like Calli, Ollie is also mute. The resemblance to Tana French is in the fact that Geary can create the environment/atmosphere in which to couch the whole story--that virtually becomes a character in and of itself! Difficult to believe this was a debut novel, it was, in my opinion, so excellently written! 

Fifteen-year-old Sam and her 10-year-old sister, Ollie, discover a dead woman floating in the river and although neither of them recognizes her:

  Still, she was somebody's somebody and we couldn't just leave her.

 We should do something. Shouldn't we? Tell someone? And then again, because I couldn't remember if I said it out loud the first time, "We should do something." (3)

And this rather sets the tone for this story--nobody seems to do anything when they should to avoid the virtually inevitable suspicion and ultimate arrest of their father, Bear. For the past 8 years Bear had lived in Zeb's pasture,

"...he hadn't changed much. He put up a teepee and planted a vegetable garden, dug a fire pit and an outhouse, and brought in a picnic table, and of course there were the hives. But there was no electricity, only the sun. No plumbing, only the river and a barrel to catch the rain. No roof over our heads to blot out the stars, no television to drown out the bird and cricket songs, no asphalt to burn the soles of our feet. Most kids would probably hate a place like this, but to me it was home. (4)

His landlord, Zeb, and his wife, were actually more parents to Bear (whose parents had died before his children were born) and grandparents to his daughters, than his wife's parents who visited once a year and sent $20 checks on the girls' birthdays. Their mother dies and they go to live with Bear,

  But this was only a trial period. We have six months to prove the meadow was safe and Bear was a good father. Six months to convince her we could thrive here. Three days in, we weren't off to a very good start. (6)

True. It would freak most parents out nowadays if children were allowed to play off by themselves at a river and discovered a dead body! Probably not the best of starts, and may well explain their reticence to report it to the proper authorities. With other evidence accumulated that incriminated Bear, even Sam began wondering if perhaps she didn't know her father very well, or at least not well enough to feel secure in the knowledge that he could never have committed this crime...she had some doubt of his innocence initially, reminding me of Finding Jake by Bryan Reardon (Another one of my favorite reads that I really must review on this blog! Soon!).

After Zeb and Bear have moved the bee hives to better pollen sources, Sam wonders why they don't try to "fly back home," but her Dad explains,
  "Their hive is their home....Wherever the queen is, that's where they return."
  "But what if the queen's not there?"
  "The colony falls apart." (7)

Could be a bit of symbolism or foreshadowing? Without its mother/wife/'queen bee,' their family...could also...

Ollie has one book that she's been reading since the beginning of the summer, Alice in Wonderland. She and her mother had been reading together in it every night, but had managed to only get halfway through... It is, however, this book that ultimately saves her! 

Ollie immediately senses that Travis is bad.

  I do not like this in-between boy, this almost man. 

  He's not who you think he is.

  He's not your friend.

  We can't trust him. 

  He'll hurt us. 

  Tell him to go away. (80)

She knew... I believe Ollie had what many of us may call a "sixth sense" about people. 

Sam is rather a loner,

  Bear and I both thought trees made better friends than people did. (16)

There are times I would agree! ;)

Per Travis, 
Sometimes the people we love most are the people we know least. (178)

Sam talks to Bear: 
  I clamped my teeth down hard, biting back all the words I wanted to scream at him, all the ways he'd failed us....All the explanations and apologies in the world couldn't change what had happened. We carry our pasts with us, no matter how hard we fight to break free. He knew it, Mom knew it. I knew it now, too. I took a deep breath, and then another. I came here for the truth, and that's what Bear was giving me--take it or leave it. (216)

The epitaph on their mother's grave, 
Beloved Daughter and Mother. As if that was all that counted. As if an entire person was made up of only two parts. 
  She was other things, too. Stargazer, storyteller, bibliophile, chocoholic and something of a weekend wino, gardener, collector of roosters and spoons and oddly shaped rocks, a good hugger, a better back-scratcher, a terrible cook, loyal, passionate, ever the eternal optimist, wife. A loving wife. Despite how it may have looked to people on the outside,...Mom had never stopped loving Bear. And he had never stopped loving her. (238-239)

  "Your sister needs you right now."
  Funny, I always thought I was the one who needed her.
  I guess it comes down to this: Sam and me, we need each other. (314)

These two sisters bravely fight to prove their father's innocence, but what they find is incriminating. Is he innocent? If this sounds as intriguing to you as it did to me, I would highly recommend it! A fantastic debut and mystery!

A note: Valerie graciously agreed to an author interview and even gave a free book to one of the lucky readers and commenters! How nice is that?!? I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway and felt grateful that as a result of my review posting, another reader would also receive a free copy! Wow... :)