About the Book

Book: Chasing the Blue Boat: A Novel of Longing

Author: Connie Kallback

Genre: Historical Coming of Age

Release Date: November 26, 2024

Nine-year-old Dana Foster will follow her older brother, Luke, wherever he goes. From climbing on ledges, jumping in a fish pond, and causing general mischief, Luke is fearless. But when tragedy strikes the Foster family, everything that Dana has ever known is suddenly turned upside down. When the storms of life come, will the Foster family stand firm in their faith? Or will they shatter under the pressure? Suddenly, a blue boat that Dana and Luke received from their uncle leads Dana on a journey of faith, hope, and love that she will not soon forget.

In this coming-of-age story, discover the truths of God’s grace in suffering, the blessing of forgiveness, and how to hold on to your faith when all hope seems lost.

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

Connie Kallback grew up on the plains of Cheyenne, Wyoming, attended the University of Wyoming, and graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle. She transitioned from English teacher to publishing in New Jersey with CCMI/McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, and CPP, Inc, in positions from writer to acquisitions and managing editor. Her early writing, penned while teaching, appeared in magazines, newspapers and literary journals. No longer wearing the hats of Mary Poppins or Sherlock Holmes, necessities of raising six children in two separate families, she writes in South Carolina where she lives with her husband.

 

 

More from Connie

The idea for Chasing the Blue Boat began with the memory of a dangerous escapade from my early childhood years. The thought of it scares me to this day.

I grew up in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and lived one block from the Wyoming State Capitol Building. One day I followed my older brother there, up nearly 20 steps from the ground to the grand side entrance with giant doors flanked by a waist-high wall and soaring support columns. We scaled the wall close to the building and placed our feet on an architectural ledge that circled the entire structure. Hoping to follow it all the way around, we began to sidle sideways, hugging the stone.

I remember being scared, but my unrealistic stage of thinking made me hope the grass would break my fall!

We made it around the first corner – I don’t know how – and continued along the front until a woman in an office inside spotted me. Knowing we shouldn’t be there, we reversed our steps and ran home.

That’s how the fictional coming-of-age story begins. Dana, the young girl, joins her brother in many adventures before a tragedy changes her whole family and sends each of them on separate journeys of suffering, accompanied by hope and forgiveness.

Author Interview

• Are you a one-project-at-a-time author, or do you have multiple projects going at once?

I’m a one-at-a-time gal, probably because I let too many other chores in life distract me. I could never handle more than one book at a time. On the other hand, I’ve written creative nonfiction pieces that languished half-finished in my PC while I worked on one that suited my fancy at the moment. I’ve never been diagnosed with ADHD, but sometimes I wonder.

• What is the funniest thing to happen in the process of writing one of your books?

My husband Gary has always been an amazingly objective first reader.

In writing Chasing the Blue Boat, I borrowed a real-life incident from my childhood. After a hard rain, my brother sailed a toy boat in a street gutter’s make-shift creek with a driving current. The boat looked like the real thing and went so fast, we couldn’t keep up. At the end of the block, it swooped down a storm drain! The speed of its disappearance shocked us.

Gary read it and said, “They have to find that boat.”

I told him it couldn’t happen. We never saw it again. When he repeated it, I said with anger rising, “It disappeared. I was there. It was gone forever!”

He casually stood up and said before he left the room, “They’ve rescued cats and dogs from those drains. There must be a way.”

After much thought and a return to the keyboard, I was amazed at what happened. A small change suddenly shaped the trajectory of the novel! As it evolved, that seemingly insignificant scene became the novel’s symbolic focus and naturally had to become the title.

• Who is your favorite author? Why?

There are many, but Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See, captured my attention in a way that many books haven’t. Set in Germany and France in World War II, my favorite historical era, it’s the story of a blind French girl and orphaned German boy conscripted into the army. In contrast to the war’s inexplicable evil, its emotional range depicts a touching scene when the boy enters the house where the girl is hiding. He first heard her voice on a forbidden radio and had searched for her since then. On the sixth floor, he finds a large wardrobe that he suspects covers the attic doorway. He is close enough to hear the girl breathing on the other side. In French, he asks, “Es-tu la?”

To me, it is one of the most tender scenes in literature.

He convinces her he’s no threat and has come to rescue her. Together the starving couple uses a brick to force his knife tip into a can to let them share the peaches inside and drink the syrup.

The book taught me that chapters don’t have to be the same length as those before and after, as long as they fit the story. Although the chapters jump from character to character, readers know who is featured in each with a range from one paragraph to numerous pages. It’s a masterpiece that took ten years to write and won a Pulitzer. 

• Do you remember the first book you read? What sort of impact did it make on you?

On my first trip to the library, circa 1946, I came home clutching, This is a Watchbird Watching You. Each page described a bad habit such as not cleaning your plate. At the top of the page, the Watchbird, a funny, gawky bird with an elongated beak asked, “Were you a dirty plate today?” I was forever hooked on books. As I went through school, I became rapt with anything related to words – not only literature, but grammar as well.

• What do you need in your writing space to help you stay focused?

I’ve never quite figured that out. My biggest problem with writing is getting to my office and positioning myself in the chair in front of my PC. If I can get that far and ignore emails and messages, I’ve made it.

Blog Stops

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, November 1

Texas Book-aholic, November 2

Simple Harvest Reads, November 3 (Author Interview)

Inspired by Fiction, November 4

lakesidelivingsiste, November 4

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, November 5

Artistic Nobody, November 6 (Author Interview)

For Him and My Family, November 6

Becca Hope: Book Obsessed, November 7

Devoted To Hope, November 8

Guild Master, November 9 (Author Interview)

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, November 10

Fiction Book Lover, November 11 (Author Interview)

Blossoms and Blessings, November 12 (Author Interview)

Cover Lover Book Review, November 13

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, November 14 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Connie is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card and a copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/3dc6b/chasing-the-blue-boat-a-novel-of-longing-celebration-tour-giveaway