Reading Groups —

I love making FREE "distance visits" to reading groups -- to talk about my book, writers and writing, answer questions, whatever. All you need is a phone with a "Speaker" button. To set up a time for me to "visit" your group, just send me an e-mail with the header "Visit for Year the Music Changed."

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Get a FREE READERS' GUIDE to THE YEAR THE MUSIC CHANGED, from my publisher, The Toby Press: http://tobypress.com/books/music_guide.htm

 

About the book

The mid-1950s South is not the best place to nurture a shy, facially disfigured fourteen-year-old named Achsa McEachern, who is too intelligent for her own good and yearns for the Bohemian life in New York. When she fires off a deceptively self-assured fan letter to an achingly earnest young country singer named Elvis Presley, he answers, beseeching her to teach him how to "talk good" so his grammar won't hold him back. The result is a year's worth of letters that rock both their lives.

Lonely Achsa finds solace in listening to her radio and the new, raw rock-and-roll music broadcast over "WDDO, Daddy-O Radio" by the enigmatic late-night deejay Penelope the Dream Weaver, even as her beautiful, emotionally distant mother and her sternly religious father lurch toward tragedy and her own life begins to unravel faster than she can write about it. Elvis acts as her sounding board, and in so doing chronicles his own startling rise to become the greatest rock-and-roller of all time.

Set in the twilight days of the segregated South, THE YEAR THE MUSIC CHANGED can also be read as a small-canvas study of a region -- and a nation -- on the brink of momumental change.

 

Readers Comments

Kathleen - In the past several months (March to August 2007), I have read over 50 Elvis-related books and articles, and "The Year the Music Changed" is one of the few that deeply touched my soul. I am grateful both for your imagination and for your skill at transforming your imagination into words. Morgan - Congratulations! You had me from the start. I got NO work done yesterday, but that's fine. Music was worth it. When I read your closing, "The dark ones, and the ones that keep a light on in the night," I wanted to tap dance around the room. Brilliant! Thank you. Anne G. - It's your fault that I spent the whole day inside instead of doing some much needed yard work! Thanks! Your writing touched me in two different ways: first, as a page-turning thriller -- would they continue writing? was it all just in her imagination? would they ever meet? second, as an emotional touchstone -- in shorthand, it hit me the way "Patch of Blue" did so many years ago. Thank you for a great, satisfying, emotional read. Virginia Craig - A house guest left The Year the Music Changed for a gift and I have enjoyed it and given it to others, including all my children. Thank you for a wonderful read. Allison from Canada - Thank you so much for writing The Year the Music Changed. THe book is a brilliant, satisfying read, memorable mostly for the strength of the characters. Loved Achsa. Loved Elvis. The part at the very end is incredibly moving -- unforgettable. Anyway, I just wanted to say, "Thanks, keep up the good work." Want to add your comment? E-mail Diane at the CONTACT page.