Celestial Blue Skies: June 2015

Friday, June 12, 2015

Reluctant Cassandra

Premonition is part of our animalistic nature. Elephants have long been known to be psychic and use telepathy when they grieve. Well Cassandra is in tune with her premonitions. I love the opening line because it is about Cassandra’s premonition; “I feel change rolling through Eagle Valley like a mist before the storm.” Cassandra feels things before they happen and this is the reason she is often reluctant. She was named for the Greek Cassandra who had the gift of foreseeing the future.

Reluctant Cassandra is a brilliant southern novel that has a strong sense of setting. It is set in a historic southern town where change doesn’t happen often, and when it does it is often unsettling. History and family are important.

The recession has taken a toll on the ritualistic lives of historic Eagle Valley where American flags line Maine Street and the historic architecture is so iconic. Cassandra works at an antique shop, and she tells stories about the old furniture she sells using her psychic abilities.

The mist of change that has taken over the town and Cassandra’s life includes her father being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and other problems. She must sell her parents’ home and leave the life she has grown to love. On top of that she and her boyfriend break up.

I love this novel because it was relaxing and easy to read. I loved the dog Thor and the characters grew on me. This is a great literary novel. It is about family, friends, and neighbors and coming together. It’s about love overcoming obstacles and individuals being in tune with the universe and their premonitions and who they are. I would recommend this novel to study groups, book clubs, or anyone planning on writing a good southern novel. The book cover, editing, and formatting are all awesome.

Maggie Collins

Author of Celestial Blue Skies

Maggie Perrodin-Collins

I was born and raised under the clear blue skies of Loreauville, Louisiana. I majored in English at the University of Louisiana and later earned a Master’s degree from the University of New Orleans where I earned the title Educational Diagnostician. I have two boys and a wonderful husband. An excerpt of my novel was published in Louisiana Cultural Vistas. Celestial Blue Skies which was once titled The Curse of the Mulatto was a 2009 finalist finalist for the worldwide William Faulkner William Wisdom writing contest. It also placed as a finalist in the same 2011 competition as Celestial Blue Skies. I am a Center for Black Literature fellow.

Celestial Blue Skies Synopsis

Celestial Blue Skies is a coming of age story about young biracial Celeste who lives in poverty with her mentally ill mother, her grandmother, Maymay, her Aunt Bumblebee, her Uncle T-Red, her three sisters, and her cousins. Celeste learns how to fend for herself and her sisters at a young age while also fighting rumors about her mother, Tut, a sleepy one traffic- light Southwestern Louisiana town. Her mother Tut wants to leave all of them and live with a man she finds working in the sugarcane fields. Maymay fears that Celeste will end up like her mother. Will Celeste end up like her mother, or will she redeem her family from hoodoo and the Curse of the Mulatto? Will she find love herself with someone with a culture just as exotic as hers?