Hi, lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host John
DeSimone and his new book, “The Road to Delano”! For other stops on his Goddess Fish
Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in
this post.
Be sure to make it to the
end of this post to enter to win a Signed Copy of the featured book, “The
Road to Delano”!! Also, come back
daily to interact with John and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping
by! Wishing you lots of luck in this
fabulous giveaway!
Please note that this
giveaway is only available to US residents.
Sorry INTL – please check out other giveaways on this blog.
The Road to Delano
by John DeSimone
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Historical Fiction
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
It’s
1968, and a strike by field workers in the grape fields has ripped an otherwise
quiet central California town down the middle. Jack Duncan is a Delano high
school senior who is on his way to earning a baseball scholarship, hoping to
escape the turmoil infesting his town. His mother has kept from him the real
cause of his father’s death, who was a prominent grower. But when an old friend
hands Jack evidence indicating his father was murdered, he is compelled to dig
deeper. This throws him and his best friend and teammate, Adrian Sanchez, whose
father is a striking field worker, into the labor conflict led by Cesar Chavez.
Road to Delano is the path Jack and Adrian must take to find their strength,
their duty, and their destiny.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT TWO:
1968
The
voices from the fields woke Jack early on Saturday. The musky odor of grapes
sifted into his bedroom even though his closed window was shut to the morning
cold. He pulled back the drape and row upon row of trellised vines emerged from
the gauzy twilight. They stretched to the horizon on three sides of his house.
He thrust the window up and leaned out, and a biting wind chilled his face.
Thick dark clouds filled the sky, and the voices of workers trimming and
bundling echoed in the morning stillness. In these quiet moments, he imagined
the land calling to him. Did it matter anymore that all of it was gone?
“Jack,
you up?” his mother called from downstairs.
Off
to the east, a red bruise ran across the rugged spine of the Sierra peaks. The
air heavy with moisture, it was time to get on the road before a storm rolled
in.
Jack
slipped into his jeans and plaid shirt, tall and sinewy, hardened from work and
sports. Ella, his girlfriend, always told him he never fought his clothes like
some guys; they moved with him. He didn’t know what to say when she said things
like that. He brushed back his blond crew cut and stooped to tie his boots,
then he snatched his sheepskin coat off the hook by the door. His mother called
again.
The
day was already half gone from the tone of her voice.
In
the kitchen, he grabbed a piece of toast, slurped some coffee, and bolted
outside.
He
mounted the cab of his father’s dirt-splattered combine parked by the rickety
porch of the Victorian, now tired and sagging. Jack fired it up and the engine
idled under his throttle foot. The strong pulses surprised him after all those
years of sitting idle. He revved it up, ready to make its last run into Delano.
The
cab of the boxy, once-bright yellow combine, now the peeling paint, was pocked
with rust, perched over the rotary thresher blade in front, raised for road
travel. The square separation box that stripped the stalks of their grain pods
hunched behind him. Most of the gauges worked—fuel, oil, temp, volts. He
flicked on the headlights in the gray morning, two above on the cab’s roof and
two below, illuminating the rusting threshing blade.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GUEST POST:
Everyone loves a hero! Tell us all about this genuine character
and the inspiration behind their development.
Recently,
I read a story of an ex-football player who sprinted across a parking lot to
catch a child dropped out of a fourth-floor window. The apartment building was
engulfed in flames, and the desperate mother couldn't escape. Out of other
options, she dropped her child out the window, hoping someone would save him.
And that someone was an ex-marine and a college receiver. He snared the child
on a flat-out run. He was an ordinary person who rose to the moment in a heroic
act. In my estimation, he's an everyday hero.
Look,
I enjoy a superman or batman movie like most folks, but heroic exploits are
expected of them. If they don't do something utterly dramatic, I'm bored. But
it's the everyday heroes, those who we have no expectations of going beyond
what they do day in and day out, who stir my imagination. The lunch pail guy
who snares a plunging child out of the air. The waitress who performs the
Heimlich on a choking patron.
Our
neighborhoods are filled with quiet heroes if we looked around. So is our
culture at large. Where does the courage to act in the moment come from when
others stand by and watch? That's what intrigues me about the everyday hero.
It
was nearly a decade ago I read a series of essays on Civil Disobedience that
included a biography of Cesar Chavez. I knew of him at the time, but I didn't
know what he had accomplished. In reading about his life, I was impressed by
how he used nonviolent action. He identified with the poorest of the poor in
California's grape fields and led them on a successful mission to improve their
wages and working conditions. He did it through the practice of nonviolence.
Chavez had an eighth-grade education, he was a devout Catholic, and he had the
gift and experience of organizing people to stand up for their rights. These
fieldworkers were Americans, but they were not treated like other Americans in
their workplaces. Chavez just wanted fairness and justice for the farmworkers.
He refused to stand by and watch his fellow farmworkers treated like chattel.
So he learned what to do and how to do it, and he acted.
What
made him heroic in building a farmworkers union? He never tore down his
community to get what he wanted. He never led a riot. He only wanted mutual
success--for his union members and the growers. They needed each other.
It
seemed so simple. But it wasn't. Farmworkers had been agitating for better
wages and working conditions in the Central Valley for most of the twentieth
century to no avail. That is until Chavez came along and followed the example
of Gandhi and others to use nonviolence as an organizing principle in a labor
struggle.
No one had ever done that before.
That's
what inspired me to write a story set in the grape fields that surround the Ag
town of Delano, California. It's a hot place in the summer and freezing in winter—the
perfect climate to grow delicious table grapes. And I wondered what the kids in
high school thought of his stand on nonviolence. The strike split the town down
the middle, and kids tend to take sides. I had two characters in mind. One the
son of a grower, the other the son of a farmworker. So I asked myself,
"What side were these characters on?"
And
that's the story of the Road to Delano. Two high school students who must
confront their prejudices, their inclinations, and their plans.
The
Road to Delano is the path Jack and Adrian must take to find their strength,
their duty, and their destinies.
It's
a literal road, yes. But it is also a path of moral choices that shape their
futures. I often wonder, what would I have done in similar circumstances? What
would you have done?
I hope you enjoy
reading the Road to Delano.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR BIO:
John DeSimone is a
novelist, memoirist, and editor. He’s co-authored bestselling The Broken
Circle: A memoir of escaping Afghanistan, and others. He taught writing as
an adjunct professor at Biola University and has worked as a freelance editor
and writer for nearly twenty years. His current release, a historical novel, The
Road to Delano, is a coming of age novel set during the Delano grape strike
led by Cesar Chavez. BookSirens said, “It’s more than a little
Steinbeck, in a good way….” He lives in Claremont, Ca, and can be found on
Goodreads and at www.johndesimone.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONNECT WITH JOHN:
Website:
Blog:
Email:
jrd@johndesimone.com
Phone:
714-244-0554
Facebook:
Twitter:
BookBub Author Page:
BookBub Book Page:
Goodreads Author Page:
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BOOK BUY LINKS:
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Kobo Audiobook:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFO:
John will be awarding a signed copy of “The
Road Delano,” (US Only) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during
the tour.
**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase is made, I may receive a small commission to help support this
blog. This does not cost you anything,
it just helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**
This contest is sponsored
by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish
Promotions. Prizes are given away by the
sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish
Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
John ~ Good morning! Welcome to FAB! It is so great to have you here! Congrats on your new book and good luck on the book tour! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting!
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