ISBN: 978-1-936558-00-1 * eISBN: 978-1-936558-01-8 * Paperback $16.95 * E-book $9.99 * Publication: January 8, 2011
“I humbly give this book FIVE STARS, and wish I had more to offer.”
“This book ranks right up there with my top reads for 2010.”
“I did NOT want to put this one down.”
– Confessions of a Real Librarian
“Lou Aronica has definitely created an amazing piece of art in writing Blue.”
“I was blown away.”
– Michelle and Leslie’s Book Picks
“I absolutely loved it!”
Read what others are saying here.
Blue is a novel that means a great deal to me and that took me years to complete. Its inspirations were varied. I wanted to write something that helped me address my anxieties about my oldest daughter going to college (to indicate how long it took me to finish Blue, she graduated this May). I wanted to write about divorce and the impact it has on all involved. I wanted to employ fantasy in my fiction for the first time, something I’d been avoiding because, frankly, if you’ve worked with Ray Bradbury and Neil Gaiman and you don’t feel a little intimidated about trying to do what they do, you probably need some professional help. Most important, I wanted to write a novel that conveyed my feelings about the incomparable value of imagination and hope. Blue puts its characters through the wringer, but it is at its heart an extremely optimistic novel.
The novel is the story of three characters facing enormous challenges:
Chris is a guy who has been stuck in neutral since his marriage ended and the remarkable relationship he had with his daughter suffered in the fallout.
The soft whir of the DVD player was the only sound in the room. Chris sat on the sofa opposite the television, the remote control in his hand, though he didn’t intend to use it. He would just let the machine continue fast-forwarding.
On the screen, the video record of his daughter Becky’s life spun by. The smile he believed to be her first. Her masterpiece, Still Life with Smeared Pureed Pears and Cheerios on Tray Table. Her toddler form calming temporarily for a brief nap on his chest. The two of them running through the sprinkler. The perfectly orchestrated wedding service for her teddy bear and toy dog where Chris served as both best man and maid of honor. Her kerchiefed head at her sixth birthday party. Modeling her new coif when her hair returned once the treatments were over. His ex-wife Polly looking gaunt and tired—or simply angry about something—as she walked out of the auditorium with Becky after the second grade play. Back dives into the swimming pool at the resort in the Berkshires. Becky rolling her eyes at the camera during the school picnic. The forced laughter at the family reunion. The footage she took of him sleeping in the Adirondack chair on what would turn out to be his last full weekend at the house. Becky and Lonnie walking toward Becky’s room in this apartment before they closed the door on him.
Hours and hours of motion sped by at greatly accelerated speed. Like a time-lapse image of Chris’s growing irrelevance in Becky’s life.
Becky, Chris’s daughter, is a strong, vibrant teen who has faced down daunting challenges and now fears that she may need to do so again.
Once inside the dressing room, Becky hung up the jeans she planned to try on, took off her sneakers and pants, and reached for the pair with the teal piping. She had no idea why her best friend Lonnie thought these were too cutesy. She thought they looked stylish, maybe even a little edgy. Lonnie could be very narrow-minded about fashion sometimes.
As Becky bent to try on the jeans, suddenly, out of nowhere, she nearly tipped over. The dressing room seemed like it was spinning on her. She threw an arm out to catch herself on the wall, but the lurching continued. Her head swirled and she couldn’t focus on anything. For a few moments she couldn’t do more than hold on to the wall, and then she slowly lowered her body onto the floor, feeling light-headed and a little nauseous. A second wave of dizziness washed over her and she leaned to the side, trying to take deep breaths.
This one was worse than the other times had been.
A moment later, the disorientation faded. But it was still a few more minutes before she felt steady enough to stand up. She did so only long enough to sit again on the bench in the room. She cupped her face in her hands and tried to calm her breathing, using a technique she’d read about in a book. Eventually it slowed down and she felt something like normal.
Becky didn’t want to think about where this was coming from.
Miea is the young queen of the fantasy world that Becky and Chris created when Becky was a little girl. Hers is a world of majesty and wonder. Yet it is a world in terrible trouble.
Miea held a withered leaf between her thumb and forefinger. She bent to kiss the leaf. To will some of her spirit into its blue planes. It came off in her hands.
Miea bowed her head and closed the leaf in her palm. She shut her eyes tightly and silently whispered a plea for strength and answers. Then she placed the leaf gently on the dirt. She rose, not wishing to make eye contact with the minister of agriculture, but finding it impossible to avoid the worried gaze of his associates.
She had been a child during the Great Blight, aware of the disturbance in her household, but ignorant of the larger and more portentous implications for the world around her. She was not a child any longer. If the Blight returned, what else would be different this time?
At the most challenging junctures of their lives, Becky and Miea discover each other and Miea shares this discovery with Chris. For Becky, it is nearly inconceivable that a place she created has come into existence. For Miea, it is nearly inconceivable that a child created her land. For Chris, it is beyond inconceivable that he is again sharing something important in his daughter’s life. For all of them, it as though a world of opportunity has opened up before them.
But time is not on their side. In fact, time might be running out.
Together, they need to uncover a secret. The secret to why these worlds have joined at this moment. The secret to their purpose. The secret to the future. It is a secret that, when discovered, will redefine imagination for all of them.
If you’d like to read a longer excerpt from Blue, you can do so here.
