When Susan Tate's seventeen-year-old daughter, Lily,
announces she is pregnant, Susan is stunned. A single
mother, she has struggled to do everything right. She sees
the pregnancy as an unimaginable tragedy for both Lily and
herself.
Then comes word of two more pregnancies among high school
juniors who happen to be Lily's best friends-and the town
turns to talk of a pact. As fingers start pointing, the
most ardent criticism is directed at Susan. As principal
of the high school, she has always been held up as a role
model of hard work and core values. Now her detractors
accuse her of being a lax mother, perhaps not worthy of
the job of shepherding impressionable students. As Susan
struggles with the implications of her daughter's
pregnancy, her job, financial independence, and long-
fought-for dreams are all at risk.
The emotional ties between mothers and daughters are
stretched to breaking in this emotionally wrenching story
of love and forgiveness. Once again, Barbara Delinsky has
given us a powerful novel, one that asks a central
question: What does it take to be a good mother?
cant wait for the new book (Becky Kinkead 1:32pm December 17, 2009)
What a wonderful giveaway. Heading over to Barbara's website. (Shirley Kulesza 9:07am December 19, 2009)
Great prizes (Pat Clark 8:59pm December 27, 2009)
Awesome sweepstakes!!! (Cara Fisher 12:12pm December 29, 2009)
Thanks for your thoughtfulness. (Rose Granholm 3:48pm December 29, 2009)
Barbara Delinsky: Thank you for your post. I hope it will encourage other writers to venture into topics and themes they have not already covered.
Based on my experience, I've found that though there's much I don't know, there's nothing I can't research. One of the best investments for a writer (or anyone else) is to spend a little time learning how to use efficiently the research avenues provided by the Internet.
I can remember the days when any information worth having was hard to come by. Today the big problem is TMI: too much information.
The number of sources of information is huge and growing all the time. The trick is to find the exact information one needs, no more and no less, in as short a time as possible.
A researcher must also consider how good the information is. Is it up-to-date? Is it complete? Is it objective? Was it written or compiled by someone with an ax to grind? Do others consider a given source credible and reliable?
Careless reporting, rumours, factoids, hoaxes, urban legends, and other forms of misinformation have always posed problems for researchers. Now that information can be disseminated in a flash, the situation has grown exponentially worse.
Remember the news story in late 2009 that Obama would call the White House Christmas tree a "holiday tree"? That proved to be false, but not before many people believed it and raised a big fuss over it.
There's a saying in journalism: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." To verify a piece of information, there's no substitute for a second independent source.
Keep up the good work! (Mary Anne Landers 3:03pm January 8, 2010)
The thing about research is to check the source and depend more heavily on the ones you've used in the past. The imagination has no boundaries and is not bound by restrictions. There's a believablity factor involved and running it past your gut and sounding it out amongst experts helps, too. (Alyson Widen 3:59pm January 8, 2010)
Fabulous insight. I imagine there would be a lot of research & fact checking even with the familiar. (Mary Preston 6:15pm January 8, 2010)
Great Giveaway!! Thanks so much for the chance. [email protected] (Penny Tuttle 9:34pm January 8, 2010)
Great interview! I have got to get a copy of this book! (Lisa Glidewell 11:17pm January 8, 2010)
What a thought provoking subject. I remember when I had to make a report in grade school & I needed information, my mom, a teacher herself, always pointed me to the library to do my "digging". And I had wonderful librarians who would suggest not one, but many books for me to lug home & read (many hours)for the "great unknown"! Now if you want to research a place or topic, all you need do is type it into your computer & it whisks you away to the magic land of information! (Jean Merriott 1:11am January 9, 2010)
I'm happy to see your report here, Ms. Delinsky. I've been reading your books for decades. One thing that I always want to do when reading is broadening my horizons. I can do that with writers like you who don't write only romance but always put in other issues as well, like running races, legal items, etc. and now in more recent ones I've read: why a white-skinned couple should have a black-skinned child. For me, those things are as important as, say, the "love" story or affirmation of any kind.
Thanks so much for the delightful books you've written over the years and still write. (Sigrun Schulz 7:57pm January 10, 2010)
When I see your name on a book then I know that it is one that I want. Thank you for an interesting article that explains why your books are a welcome read for me. Hasn't the internet made the world considerably smaller and more easily explored by more people....even those who would otherwise never be able to learn about things by going and seeing them for themselves. I am glad to be living with today's technology. Tomorrow's will be even more amazing. (Ruby Davis 12:00pm January 12, 2010)
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy