Like A Flip Turn
Jenny. Lydia. Ruby.
Three narrators. Three lives. Three stories.
Three very different women living very different lives.
And yet.
And yet, these very different women living very different lives manage to impact one another in ways unimaginable. Because some obstacles are too treacherous to tackle alone. Because sometimes it's a complete stranger who enables the impossible to be accomplished. And because sometimes a hint of magic also helps.
Jenny. Lydia. Ruby.
Lives intertwine, stories connect, magic occurs.
The Story Behind the Story: 9.5.2016
When I wrote Like A Flip Turn, I was coming off of a reading phase. It was June and I'd just finished Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. I'd fallen in love with Douglas Spalding; I remember wishing I could experience a new pair of sneakers the same way he had and indulge in a lime-vanilla ice cream at the local parlor. But these were elements unique to Green Town, Illinois, circa 1928.
I was entering into the summer of 2014. It was a very different time.
But still... I wanted to capture that magic of childhood in a small town, and since Lake Caywood has existed in my mind for so many decades now, it seemed a logical setting to choose.
The characters just sort of walked into my head one day: Jenny Johnson, struggling to bounce back from one of life's hardships; Petey Goode, boyish and lovable and, well, good; Lydia Franklin, oblivious to the fact that she has been hollowed by a great loss; Sam Finley and Gabe Wynne, who came to me fully formed... a combination of two of my real-life favorite people and two of my literature-life favorite characters (Jim and Will of Something Wicked This Way Comes fame).
If you've read Like A Flip Turn, you've probably noticed that Ruby Gallagher is missing from the cast of characters listed above. It's because I never truly knew Ruby... I don't really remember writing her chapters and I never knew what she was going to have me say until I sat down to say it. Ruby's story is her own; I had very little to do with it.
Despite the fact that Ruby Gallagher basically took it upon herself to write her own chapters, the rest of Like A Flip Turn was a challenge for me. At least, it was at first. I started the novel multiple times, but couldn't quite figure out where it was going. And then one June day I was at the swimming pool with my other mother Amy Gorman, talking about what I was writing (or rather, trying to write), and she said to me, "Is there magic in this one? I hope there's magic in this one."
Up until that point, there'd been no "magic in this one."
I went home later that day, added some magic, and Like A Flip Turn came together.
Like A Flip Turn Playlist
“Home” – Phillip Phillips
“Brighter Than the Sun” – Colbie Caillat
“Drive By” – Train
“Kick Drum Heart” – The Avett Brothers
“Shell Game” – Bright Eyes
“Rock & Roll” – Eric Hutchinson
“Haven’t Met You Yet” – Michael Bublé
“Feel Good” – Mike Del Rio
“Do You Remember” – Jack Johnson
“Road Outside Columbus” – O.A.R.
“Bad Day” – Daniel Powter
“Sometime Around Midnight” – The Airborne Toxic Event
“Faster” – Matt Nathanson
“Hey, Soul Sister” – Train
“Put It On Me” – Ben Harper
“Somebody That I Used to Know” – Gotye
“Me & Bobby McGee” – Janis Joplin
