Story Behind The Book
My husband is from Avenal and his family still lives there. I’ve known Avenal for over twenty-five years and love the people and the history of the town. There’s such a beauty to the hills outside of Avenal and to the way everyone knows each other. I have many special memories there. Some of my favorite times have been over Old Timers’ Day, or on the 4th of July and also at the Sand Drags. There’s a scene in Winnemucca at the Sand Drags. Tar Canyon is just outside Avenal and is where the San Andreas Fault is very visible. “The backbones of the earth” jut out of the ground. To stand there is simply electric. There is a scene in the book in Tar Canyon also. There are many more reasons why I love Avenal but the last one I’ll leave you with is the sight of an abandoned oil derrick decorated with Christmas lights at Christmastime. I’ve always loved the sight of that derrick. Avenal is a very special place as are the people who live there. So I knew I wanted to set a story in this town. I also know that in my own life I don't listen to my intuition as much as I should so I wanted to write about a character that awakens to her intuition in a bold way. In her feet. On a road trip. I have a lot to learn about designing covers though. Here’s a little story about the cover for Winnemucca. The background photo was taken by my hubby Joe. The background image of the cover is a photo of Highway 33 in Avenal where we meet Ginny, a seventeen-year-old girl who is just beginning her enchanted road trip to her true self. One foot in front of the other, her walk will take her to the state prison just outside of town. You see a glimpse of the prison on the right hand side of the cover, complete with barbed wire fences and a guard tower. I really wanted a picture of the Avenal State Prison sign too because it is there at the sign that Ginny becomes “A Child of The Road.” After my husband took this photo he drove further up the road and when he took a few pictures of the sign, he was swarmed with sheriffs. They asked him what he was doing. I wish I could have heard the convo. In my head it goes something like this: My wife wrote a book and the main character takes an enchanted road trip…Um. Our bad. Note to self: can’t take pictures of prisons. The sheriffs were nice enough but deleted a bunch of photos on my husband’s camera. I’m super-happy that they didn’t arrest him and even happier that they didn’t delete this photo, one of two I used to make the cover. And no, those aren’t my legs, but I get that question all the time. I photoshopped them in.
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Reviews
<span style="font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;line-height:normal;font-size:small;">"Exciting from start to finish. Wonderful coming of age book told well. Great characters and a terrific message."<br /><br />"You'll be laughing, cringing, cheering for Ginny - and hoping she'll make Elliott write her a sequel."<br /><br />"Winnemucca is a newborn classic."<br /><br />"Elliott's voice is so unique and captivating, her turn of phrase so poetic and delightful, that it makes this story seem mystical and transcendent in a way that I've not read before."<br /><br />"Overlaid with a sense of the fairy-tale, the novel combines magical elements with the real world to great effect. In every way, Elliott's debut novel delivers."</span>