News from Heidi

If you are a writer, or want to be, Poets & Writers magazine should be your bible. It was mine. Whenever I felt frustrated by the writing, or frustrated by the rejections from literary journals, I would turn to P&W and make a plan. The list of contest and submission deadlines gave me just a little bit of hope -- maybe these guys are hoping to find my writing in the big pile. And it gave me a deadline. Deadlines are important. So if you are out there reading this--go get your P&W now: I promise it will help!

My young protagonist, Rachel, is beautiful. And she is constantly struggling to understand what that means to other people--how it often endangers her. Rachel is nothing like me in this respect. I can see the photos and see that I was a cute kid. But I was no beauty in my teens--I was awkward-looking: crazy biracial hair, buck-teeth and a unique (at best) bohemian sensibility of style. I discovered something approaching cute at close to age 30 -- and now age 40--well, I wish I were 30 again! Proof in the pudding is this photo!

I think I'll just say this here and now: I wish my dad were alive so that he could see what's happening in my life now.

Do you remember the Vincent Price Shakespeare albums? Did I make this up? I mention them in The Girl Who Fell From the Sky. I loved Vincent Price growing up ---that voice, that laugh. And I loved to listen to his Shakespeare albums. Anybody have any information for me?

Rachel, the young protagonist of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, is considered a prime contender to become a Links Debutante. I was a Links Debutante--and very proud to receive the academic scholarship awarded to the student with the highest GPA--at the debutante ball. The Links Incorporated, a wonderful women's service organization, puts on a beautiful "coming out" ball each year for young women of color--dance lessons, etiquette training, and teas included in advance. And I loved that my mom made me a new dress! (Photo to come.)

I had forgotten until I was watching This Is It on the plane--but Michael Jackson gets a mention in The Girl Who Fell From the Sky. He was so huge during that time--he's the only pop mention in the whole book.  It was bittersweet to watch the movie -- it's so sad he died so young.

I love Bill & Lynne of Misty Valley Books. I'm doing my first event as a published novelist in Chester, VT, at their invitation. This is a first-rate event! Look at the writers' swag! My face on a wine bottle! It's just too cool!

Here is an interview I did earlier this week with the award-winning poet, Honoree Fannone Jeffers. If you don't know her work, you are missing out on something powerful, moving and beautiful. (Pick up The Gospel of Barbecue and you will know what I mean.)  And if you ever get a chance to hear her read, I suggest you take it. She's amazing LIVE. That's why it was so fun to talk to her LIVE this week on her very first podcast for Phillis Remastered about The Girl Who Fell From the Sky. You'll hear all sorts of fun facts in this hour-long interview,a lot of laughter, and just some everyday kind of talk--I've known Honoree for 13 years.  What do you think? (You can also subscribe to this bi-monthly podcast on itunes for FREE!

It was a great pleasure to provide a piece for the very popular Book Notes feature for the blog, Largehearted Boy. There's a lovely write-up for the book and a short piece by me about some particular songs on my playlist including the song "Flight" exists only in the pages of my book. Here's a little bit of what Larghearted Boy has to say about The Girl Who From the Sky. The link to the complete piece can be found below.

"In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

Heidi Durrow accomplishes several things with her debut novel, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky. The story of a young biracial girl's life after a great tragedy is told through the eyes of several narrators, whose stories converge like a gamma knife. An exceptional coming-of-age story, the novel is also a well-wrought mystery. Durrow skillfully builds suspense about the true nature of the tragedy while also illuminating the nature of her characters, especially the young girl Rachel.

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky won the 2008 Bellwether Prize, which advocates "serious literary fiction that addresses issues of social justice and the impact of culture and politics on human relationships." As the novel's protagonist searches for her own identity as a biracial woman growing up in America, Durrow is not afraid to tackle big issues concerning race and women. For that reason, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky may be the most important book of the year."

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky: Book Notes

I lost something very dear to me today: my almost 35-year-old Pooh Bear who went everywhere with me. My mom made him for me for Christmas 1975 or 1976. He's almost threadbare and frequent patchings still can't stop the stuffing from spilling out of him. Look, in all honesty, no one but me thought of him as cute. And I know it's terribly silly to mourn the loss of a thing. But well, there it is. I miss my bear. He was supposed to come on the book tour. Ah well.