Ginnah Howard is local, a Cedar Key author and poet.

Book 1 of the trilogy, Rope & Bone, is now available in paperback at http://www.amazon.com/ Rope & Bone's thirty-four stories span the years from 1946 to 1993 and act as a kind of prequel to Night Navigation and Doing Time Outside. These stories are told in the voices of all of the members of both families: the Merricks and the Morlettis. They all get a chance to give their "take" on their formative years. Do check my revised Web site just completed by the web designer, Marianne Mukai of Delhi: http://www.ginnahhoward.com/ 

  "Rope & Bone traces the parallel, and eventually interwoven, lives of two very different women whose courage, originality and humor will carry them through the darkest of times and the toughest things that life can sling at them... Howard's writing is deft, clear-eyed, gripping, and often both witty and lyrical.   She presents her characters and the world they live in with honesty, understanding and deep affection."--Charlotte Zoe Walker, O. Henry Award winner and author of Condor and Hummingbird

Rope & Bone's thirty-four story/chapters span the years from 1946 to 1993. The novel opens in 1984 on Chicken Farm Road when Del Merrick, an art teacher living without plumbing or electricity, enlists help in changing a flat tire from Carla Morletti, a member of the Pagan Bikers' auxiliary, now studying for her G.E.D. This chance connection between these two women will reroute their lives and the lives of their children.

The first section of the novel, "Wildest Dreams," flashes back to pivotal moments in the past. Part 2, "Castanets," tells of Carla and Del's misadventures as they try to raise their kids, get their old cars started on subzero mornings, and put in enough wood to get through until April--at the same time they're testing their theory: a good man's hard to find. In Part 3, "Shelter," Carla and Del's friendship darkens as their children's lives become more chaotic.

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