I finished Ain’t No River by Sharon Ewell Foster today. Good book! Garvin, a lawyer is forced to take administrative leave from her job. She feels she’s being targeted due to the color of her skin. She is told to work on an EEO case during her “vacation.”

A workaholic, who is bitter and dissatisfied with her life, Garvin wonders why this is happening to her. Since she is off of work for awhile she decides to head back to Jacks Creek, her hometown. She is anxious to check on her grandmother who has a new, much younger, male workout partner named GoGo. She suspects Gogo is after her grandmother and she wants to protect her from Gogo, a former playboy.

Once she returns to Jacks Creek, her visit doesn’t go as planned. Her Meemaw(nickname for her grandmother) banishes her to the spare house out back. While Meemaw teaches Garvin to cook, she also tries to teach her how to love and accept the Lord.

Garvin reaches out to Monique, a Jacks Creek youth who is sad and depressed about life. Monique is treated like an outcast because of her mixed heritage, and because she has had a baby out of wedlock, whom has supposedly been given up for adoption.

As Garvin’s plan to “expose” Gogo for his wrongs against her grandmother unfolds, it is soon revealed that the younger man and older woman share a strictly platonic Christian relationship and Gogo is trying to live the life of one who has accepted Christ. He’s thrown away his old ways and is trying to live a new life. Meemaw is somewhat of a mentor to Gogo, teaching him all about the Lord.

Monique reveals to Garvin that her baby has not been adopted and is being held in an orphanage. Garvin campaigns, with Gogo and Meemaw by her side, to allow Monique to stay with her Meemaw(Monique is being raised by a dysfunctional, and emotionally abusive grandmother)as a foster child, and Garvin also manages to start the process, which allows Monique and Destiny(Monique’s child) to stay with Meemaw.

This book was excellent…very excellent! I especially liked the character growth of Garvin, and her friend Ramona(another minor character). Garvin started off a sad and bitter workaholic, but ended up loving and accepting the Lord. I also liked the way Ms. Foster showed the different personalities of the inhabitants of Jacks Creek.

I also want to focus on more conference tips. If attending a conference, be sure to do research for the editors and agents you have appointments with. If you have an appointment with a particular editor, read some of the titles published by the line/imprint that editor handles. Show that you have a good feel for what kinds of books fit this line/imprint, and impress the editor with your knowledge about his/her publishing house.

Although I do not have an agent, I’ve heard that similiar tactics should be used for an agent. You must research what type of fiction that agent handles before pitching your book to him/her. For example, you wouldn’t want to pitch a science fiction or fantasy novel to an agent that only handles mysteries.

Until next time,
Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com
www.blackchristianfiction.com