This month's #HistFicThursdays have been all art-inspired, so I'm sticking with that theme! A couple of months ago, the Things to Inspire blog was about sketches . Today's is about finished pieces of artwork! Artwork has been an inspiration for millions of people across thousands of years. Just like a book, the finished product can (hopefully!) be an inspiration. Over the years, we've collected one or two pieces of old artworks, and these are a few... Religious artwork has always been used as an inspiration and, historically, this was how the majority of people interacted with biblical stories. This was a barn find - probably created for someone's own interest judging by the naive style of artwork. It looks like it might have been from a panelled wall at some point. I wonder what happened to the rest of the panels and what story they might show when they are all together... Of course, not all artworks are paintings! Here is a scrimshaw of the Battle of Flamborough
This week for #HistFicThursdays, I'm delighted to be teaming up with The Coffee Pot Book Club to shine a spotlight on Jerry Madden's fabulous book, Steel Valley: Coming of Age in the Ohio Valley in the 1960s!
So, let's meet the book...
For readers of The World Played Chess by Robert Dugoni
and Last Summer Boys by Bill Rivers
Love is never easy...even in easier times, like the 1950s
and 1960s in the Ohio Valley with the steel industry booming.
Second-generation immigrant families were reaching for
the American middle class. And Catholic schools-made feasible by selfless
Catholic nuns-promised bigger lives for everyone, including Jack Clark and
Laurie Carmine. As they spent years searching for their separate futures,
though, they were also stumbling toward love just as their world came crashing
down.
Steel Valley depicts a story of love longed for, lost, and perhaps still within reach, just as our nation's mythic yesterday became our troubled today, our last summer of innocence.
You can buy Steel Valley via this Universal Link!
Now, let's meet the author:
Jerry Madden grew up in the Upper Ohio Valley in the 1960s. He holds a B.A. from the College of Steubenville and law degrees from the University of Dayton School of Law and the Georgetown University Law Center. After law school, Jerry served as the sole law clerk to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, C. William O'Neill. He served in the United States Marine Corps (R) between 1970 and 1976.
Jerry has practiced law in Washington, D.C., since 1979, including fourteen years at the Department of Justice as a trial and appellate attorney. He is the principal of The Madden Law Group PLLC in Washington, D.C.
He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, Cyndi, a retired educator. They have two children, Kelsey and Jack, both of whom hold M.Ed. degrees. They have one grandchild, Jamie Maclennan.
You can find Jerry on these links:
To follow the rest of the Steel Valley tour, click on the banner below:
Thank you very much for hosting Jerry Madden with his novel, Steel Valley, today.
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Cathie xx
The Coffee Pot Book Club