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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Lynda Rutledge’s Great First Novel


Wow. What a read! I’m talking about the debut novel of Lynda Rutledge, who some of you will know as Lynda Stephenson, the wife of publishing guru Don Stephenson. Lynda has written a deeply human novel, Faith Bass Darling’s Last Garage Sale. Set in Lynda’s beloved Texas this book speaks lovingly and movingly to the power of memory, family and place. Here is a taste of her writing from a chapter in which Faith Bass Darling is struggling to remember, and not remember:

Just then, however, the elephant clock perched on the porch steps struck the hour, and Faith turned toward it. And as she watched its bronze-cast elephant’s trunk swaying with each chime, the gilded clock began to slowly shimmer with memory and meaning until it was absolutely aglow with Faith’s entire childhood, a childhood full of comforting elephant clock nights. For a breath-snatching moment, Faith Bass Darling, here eyes now locked on the old clock, experienced the comfort as fully as she had as a child—clock ticking, elephant trunk swaying, rocking her gently, so very gently, a soothing motherly tick-tock warmth lulling her to sleep. Then, suddenly, she saw it rocking another child to sleep—her daughter—her blond-haired little girl.

It is a novel full of life and humor, a delight to read and share.


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