A pitch-perfect, heartfelt, and enthralling story of survival, coming-of-age and redemption.
Sandstorm
by Joyce Yarrow
Genre: Urban Fiction
When you trade the straight and narrow for
the crooked pathways of crime, it's likely to become a permanent arrangement.
Unless, like Sandie Donovan, you're a born grifter, determined to use your
knack for deception and crime to restart your life and achieve success as an
actor.
A pitch-perfect, heartfelt, and enthralling story of survival, coming-of-age
and redemption. Sandstorm is a suspenseful, pacy read about a compelling
character whose adventures and misadventures are dramatic and exciting.
Can you, for those
who don't know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an
author?
I started out as a poet in New York City, scribbling my observations of humanity while riding the subway and the bus. At the age of seventeen I saw my work in print for the first time when the Bus Poems were published in Niobe Magazine. Since I also played guitar and sang, songwriting came next and eventually short stories. Gradually the number of words I wrote each day multiplied until, to my surprise, I found myself writing my first mystery novel, Ask the Dead. I chose to write a crime novel because the genre requires a strong plot and structure. I had seen so many friends start work on literary fiction that they never finished.
What is something unique/quirky about
you?
One summer I hitchhiked with a friend across the country, from New York City to northern California and back again. I felt comfortable doing this because as a child I’d hitchhiked with my dad to Orchard Beach in the Bronx, just like Sandie does in Sandstorm.
Tell us something really interesting
that's happened to you!
In New York City, while I was waiting on the subway platform for a train, I was accosted by a drunk who threatened to throw me onto the tracks. “Your mother would be very disappointed in you,” I said, the words popping out of my mouth with no thought behind them. To my amazement, he started to cry and walked away. When we draw on innate empathy, magic happens!
What are some of your pet peeves?
I hate hearing writers complain about how badly they’ve been treated by the book business. As I see it, we’re privileged to have time to be creative when most of the people in the world are struggling to survive. If you love what you do, the world will reward you in unexpected ways. When you trade the straight and narrow for the crooked pathways of crime, it's likely to become a permanent arrangement. Unless, like Sandie Donovan, you're a born grifter, determined to use your knack for deception and crime to restart your life and achieve success as an actor. A pitch-perfect, heartfelt, and enthralling story of survival, coming-of-age and redemption. Sandstorm is a suspenseful, pacy read about a compelling character whose adventures and misadventures are dramatic and exciting.
Where were you born/grew up at?
I grew up in the Southeast Bronx, on a street that had one of the highest crime rates in the city. If it weren’t for the public library, I might have lost all faith in humanity—but as it turned out books saved my life. At first they were an escape – and then a stimulus to draw on my life experience and create worlds of my own.
Who is your hero and why?
Librarians are my heroes! Simply put, they
are standing up to the pressure to ban books that certain people don’t like,
risking fines and imprisonment as “rewards” for their love of literature and
their belief that we all have a right to choose the books we read.
What inspired you to write this book?
Sandstorm began as a short story, The Ring of Truth, that was published in Inkwell Magazine and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. My original purpose in writing in the story was to show that crime does pay – that’s the point of it – but eventually the payment is exacted from the perpetrator. At first I thought it would be an easy transition from the short to the long form. In the end it took me eight years to finish the novel and find the right agent and publisher. And after all this, only a few words of the original story survived!
Do you have any “side stories” about the
characters?
The protagonist of Sandstorm, Sandie Donovan, is based on a childhood “friend.” I place that word in quotes because in the beginning Sandie bullied me unmercifully, usually on my way home from school in the Bronx. She was a lot bigger than me and perhaps my quiet demeanor and bookworm habits led her to believe I was a sissy. I avoided her as much as I could but that became impossible when a circle of kids surrounded us in front of my apartment house and insisted we fight it out.
Sandie took a swing at me and all at once my anger and frustration boiled over. The next thing I knew I’d bloodied her nose and she’d rolled off the sidewalk next to a parked car. To my amazement, she picked herself out and reached out to shake hands with me. We did eventually become real friends. I had earned her respect according to the code of our crazy neighborhood.
Of course now I wish we’d stayed in touch so
I could send her a copy of Sandstorm. I’m sure her life has turned out
very differently than Sandie Donovan’s but perhaps she would appreciate the
tribute.
**ebook is on sale
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Book Links:
Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Sandstorm-Audiobook/B0CNLC4592
Audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Sandstorm/dp/B0CNL62J5B
Kindle ebook: https://www.amazon.com/Sandstorm-Joyce-Yarrow-ebook/dp/B0CNS5XL1C
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/sandstorm-by-joyce-yarrow
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/202354504-sandstorm
Book Trailer:
About the Author
Joyce Yarrow is an award-winning author of
literary novels of suspense that, according to Library Journal, “appeal to
readers who enjoy unusual mysteries with an international setting.”
Her coming-of-age novel SANDSTORM, won a the
2022 gold medal in Women's Fiction at the CIPA/Evvy Awards and her historical
thriller, ZAHARA AND THE LOST BOOKS OF LIGHT, has been awarded 5 Stars by
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and translated into Spanish and Portuguese.
Joyce's other published novels of suspense include ASK THE DEAD, RUSSIAN
RECKONING, and RIVERS RUN BACK (co-authored with Arindam Roy).
A New York City transplant now living in Seattle, Yarrow began her writing life scribbling poems on the subway and observing human behavior from every walk of life. She is a Pushcart Prize Nominee with short stories and essays that have appeared in Inkwell Journal, Whistling Shade, Descant, Arabesques, and Weber: The Contemporary West and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Yarrow is a member of the Sisters in Crime organization and has presented workshops on “The Place of Place in Mystery Writing” at conferences in the US and India.
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Author
Links
Website: https://www.joyceyarrow.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Joyce.Yarrow.Author
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyceyarrrowauthor
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/joyce-yarrow
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Joyce-Yarrow/author/B002EUH9K8
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/403175.Joyce_Yarrow
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