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Oklahoma Centennial Book, £9.95
The author, who lives in Oadby,
has a writing background - born in Arkansas,
she has a degree in creative writing, experience as a freelance journalist in
California
and as a technical writer in Silicon Valley.
Mama Grace is her first novel.
It is basically the story of her great grandmother, a
doughty woman in the American Go West tradition who, as the story opens, is
driving a covered wagon across Arkansas
with her five children. The year is 1907.
Their home has been devastated by floods, her husband is
remaining behind to salvage his brick-making business, and Grace is taking
the children, two horses, and cooking stove to Oklahoma
to find the farm where her father has settled.
This is an adventure story, with Grace and her family
encountering deadly snakes, the outlaw Three Fingered Dick, Indians, bulls,
and other hazards.
The original book written by her grandmother - the Letha
of the novel - was not accepted for publication. Dana's task was to make it
publishable, and she began it in 2001. The result is a lively tale.
"I'd call it family folklore,'' says Dana.
* Mama Grace, ISBN 0-934188-46-7, is on Amazon, at
Browsers, Allandale
Road, and Leicester
University
bookshop.
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