SPOTLIGHT: Unspoken~a Dust Novel

1brookallen
Jul 24
3 min read

My Uncle Tex was an intriguing individual. He once told me he was just a child when my grandparents took him and my Aunt Jane--his younger sister across the US in a buckboard wagon from Indiana to northeastern Montana. This was around 1913-14. They wound up in a little town next to nowhere called Saco. Even now when you drive through there, if you blink, you miss it! It's mostly silos, spread-out homesteads, and dust. Lots of dust. Dust in the road, dust on your tires, dust on your motel welcome-mat.

DUST!

Throughout the westward migration of pioneers and settlers of all sorts, whether they were after gold or land, these early Americans dealt with crazy weather and tragedies of all sorts. Ever been on the prairie in summertime? It can really be no different than a desert, sometimes making it difficult to find water for livestock or human consumption. At other times, storms threatened with tennis-ball sized hail or tornados.

This week, allow me to introduce Jann Alexander and her novel, Unspoken, which takes place during the Dust Bowl era in the first half of the 20th century. Scroll down just below for an introduction to Jann's work, and consider giving this one a serious look, since it touches on a sensitive chapter in American history. And welcome to Brook's Journal, Jann!

Read ON, everybody!

ALL ABOUT UNSPOKEN: A DUST NOVEL

Jann Alexander

A farm devastated. A dream destroyed. A family scattered.

And one Texas girl determined to salvage the wreckage.

Ruby Lee Becker can't breathe. It's 1935 in the heart of the Dust Bowl, and the Becker family has clung to its Texas Panhandle farm through six years of drought, dying crops, and dust storms. On Black Sunday, the biggest blackest storm of them all threatens ten-year-old Ruby with deadly dust pneumonia and requires a drastic choice —one her mother, Willa Mae, will forever regret.

To survive, Ruby is forced to leave the only place she's ever known. Far from home in Waco, and worried her mother has abandoned her, she's determined to get back.

Even after twelve years, Willa Mae still clings to memories of her daughter. Unable to reunite with Ruby, she's broken by their separation.

Through rollicking adventures and harrowing setbacks, the tenacious Ruby Lee embarks on her perilous quest for home —and faces her one unspoken fear.

Heart-wrenching and inspiring, the tale of Ruby Lee's dogged perseverance and Willa Mae's endless love for her daughter shines a light on women driven apart by disaster who bravely lean on one another, find comfort in remade families, and redefine what home means.

ALL ABOUT JANN

Jann Alexander writes characters who face down their fears. Her novels are as close-to-true as fiction can get.

Jann is the author of the historical novel, UNSPOKEN, set in the Texas Panhandle during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression eras, and her first book in The Dust Series.

Jann writes on all things creative in her weekly blog, Pairings. She's a 20-year resident of central Texas and creator of the Vanishing Austin photography series. As a former art director for ad agencies and magazines in the D.C. area, and a painter, photographer, and art gallery owner, creativity is her practice and passion.

Jann's lifelong storytelling habit and her more recent zeal for Texas history merged to become the historical Dust Series. When she is not reading, writing, or creating, she bikes, hikes, skis, and kayaks. She lives in central Texas with her own personal Texan (and biggest fan), Karl, and their Texas mutt, Ruby.

Jann always brakes for historical markers.

CONNECT WITH JANN

Book Bub for Unspoken

Amazon Author Page

Goodreads

Goodreads for Unspoken