Dear Reader,Fran Hawthorne has been writing novels since she was four years old, although she was sidetracked for several decades by journalism. During that award-winning career, she wrote eight nonfiction books, mainly about consumer activism, the drug industry, and the financial world, and has also been an editor or regular contributor for The New York Times, Business Week, Fortune, and many other publications. But Fran never abandoned her true love: Her debut novel The Heirs was published in 2018, and now her second novel, I Meant to Tell You, is being released next week. From her home in Brooklyn NY, she's at work on her next novel and also writes book reviews for the New York Journal of Books.
When Miranda Isaacs agrees to help her friend Ronit, in the midst of a messy divorce, take her young daughter to see her grandparents in Israel, she doesn't realize they're breaking the law. Seven years later, the repercussions of their arrest at Dulles Airport will threaten Miranda's engagement and her fiancé's job, and unravel three families' long-held secrets, stretching back to 1960s-era Vietnam War protests.
Be sure to read below how you can enter Fran's giveaway of five copies of her new novel, I Meant to Tell You.
WHAT MY HAIR TAUGHT ME
Growing up in surfer California, where beauty was defined as straight blonde hair, I hated, hated, hated my thick brunette mess of frizz and curls.
I once burned my cheek while trying to iron my hair straight. I spent hours sitting under a portable dryer with my hair in huge rollers, then sleeping with it wrapped tightly around my head. I avoided the Pacific Ocean and swimming pools as if they were earthquake fault lines.
Even after I moved to the East Coast and curly (though not frizzy) hair became fashionable, it was too late. My trauma had been set.
Then I was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer. I would need to undergo chemotherapy, and all my hair would fall out.
I wish I could report that this prospect made me immediately appreciate the hair I was born with, but, sorry, no. I simply dreamed that my reward for all my suffering would be that my hair would grow back straight.
Meanwhile, I wasn't brave enough to stride through life starkly bald, so I bought scarves, hats, and a wig to cover up my head. Of course, all the available wigs had straight hair or perhaps a cascade of perfectly sculpted curls. The world was confirming that no one would choose a frizz-curl combo if they weren't born with it.
Still, with my wig, I temporarily managed to fulfill my lifelong dream: I had straight (albeit fake) hair.
In fact, at my son's eleventh birthday party that summer, the mother of one of his friends complimented me on my new hairstyle. (Um, what had she thought of my hair before this?)
Slowly, after the chemo ended, my hair began to return. I was thrilled: It was straight!
Sure, it was, because it was too short--at maybe one-quarter of an inch--to curl.
As the hair grew in further, however, so did the realization: It was still frizzy-curly. Moreover, now it was grey.
My hair, unlike me, had accepted itself for what it was.
Now, at Thanksgiving, I'm grateful for many things. My health, certainly. My family, friends, two published novels, hobbies. And, finally, my beautiful hair.
Thanks for reading this post. If you'd like to share your thoughts about hair, books, or anything--or enter the giveaway for one of five copies of my newest novel, I Meant to Tell You, please email me at: [email protected] (If you're entering the giveaway, include your mailing address)
-- Fran Hawthorne
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
KIDSBUZZ: Click here to discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win.
KIDSBUZZ: THE LAST HUNTRESS by Lenore Borja
For teens who like magic, fantasy and the TV shows Buffy the Vampire and Charmed, be sure to check out Lenore Borja's YA novel The Last Huntress. For a chance to win free copies, talk with the author, and more, see www.authorbuzz.com/kidsbuzz.
* This month's Penguin Classics is Metamorphosis by Ovid, a sensuous and witty poem in an accessible translation by David Raeburn. I have a copy of the book to share with a lucky reader, so start reading and enter for your chance to win.
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