THE FLICKER — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“Writing is a completely private act. It’s in a way like play but very serious play, and sometimes I can escape into the fictional world that I’m creating so fully as to see hours go by without my noticing it. I think that kind of suspension of time and that mindfulness is a real gift.”


~ Antonya Nelson ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Show don’t tell is very good advice, but according to the article HERE by Andrea Lundgren writing for Ryan Lanz’s blog there are times When Just Showing Isn’t Enough.

I’m always looking for good hints for finding comp titles. Alyssa Matesic has a good post HERE on How to Pick Comp Titles for Your Query Letter.

Revision is something none of us can avoid, so we might as well learn to do it well. HERE is a great article by Jessica Brody with The Most Organized Way to Revise a Novel.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with plenty of family time and good food. We sure did. I made gravy. Yup. That’s all I had to do. My daughter Sara and my granddaughter, Gracie, came over early and cooked up a storm. Sara made a juicy, delicious turkey, and Gracie made everything else — delectable appetizers, a raft of side dishes, and a second gravy, as well as perfect cheesecake and the best chocolate pie I have ever tasted. The next day, my grandson, Gehrig, talked Gracie into making another pie crust (she makes the very best pie crusts!), and Gehrig made a spectacular turkey pot pie. It’s a good thing we don’t do this very often. Anything that tastes as good as all that food can’t be good for us. I only gained two pounds, so that was a victory for me.

As many of you know, I love, love, love good survivor stories, so when I see one, I grab it. When I ran across THE FLICKER by H. E. Edgmon, I couldn’t resist. I almost resisted because it is a post-apocalyptic novel, and I’m not always a big fan of those, but the survivor part of it won out. I’m glad I chose to read it. But it’s more than just a survivor/post-apocalyptic novel. It’s also a story of what family means and also a coming-of-age story. It has a lot going on and a lot going for it. Here is my review.

Stepsisters Millie and Rose live with their parents (Millie’s mom and Rose’s dad) and their baby brother in an underground bunker since the Flicker, a sun flare that devastated Earth. Now both parents are dead, the kids are running out of food and have to go. They head for Millie’s grandmother, a Seminole, who understands the Earth. The girls meet a guy, Ben, driving a bus with several kids. They’d been at summer camp when the Flicker happened. They try to avoid the Hive where really bad people live while searching for other survivors. Can these kids find their way to good people or are they doomed?

H. E. Edgmon has written an intense post-apocalyptic novel with an interesting cast of middle-grade characters and only a few adults to lend the occasional assist. The kids are forced to take on difficult roles at a time when they are still trying to figure out just who they really are. As they fight to stay alive, they learn to cooperate and care for each other. Millie and Rose start out tolerating each other but become true sisters. The writing is a bit uneven and the end is predictable, but kids will love it.

I have a gently-read ARC of this book to give to one of you. All you need to do is be a follower (it’s free and easy — see the top, right corner of the post) with a US Address, and leave a comment. If you share the link to this post on social media, please let me know in your comment, and you will get an extra chance. And please don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.