When the Ocean Flies

 

WHEN THE OCEAN FLIES

Heather G. Marshall

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GENRE:  Women's Fiction

 

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BLURB:

 

An email from a stranger tells Alison Earley that her natural father, whom she has known for only six years, has died suddenly. What begins as a short trip back to Scotland for a funeral soon becomes a journey that puts adoption, sexuality, and identity on a collision course as Alison finds herself caught between the life and family she has so carefully constructed on one continent and the family from which she was taken on another.

 

Shunned by her father's family, reunited with her natural mother, and reconnected with a long-lost love, Alison finds herself trying to shepherd her youngest child towards college while questioning everything she thought she knew about herself.

 

When her natural mother uncovers a series of letters written to Alison from the grandmother she never knew, resurrecting stories of generations of women--stories long buried by patriarchal rule--Alison realizes that she must find the courage to face and reveal the secrets of her own past. At what cost, though? And who and what will be left in the aftermath?

 

When the Ocean Flies explores the pain of separation and abuse, and the power of love to heal even over huge gaps in time and geographical distance.

 

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EXCERPT

 

Blue microfiche, the image yellowed. Alison perched on the edge of the chair. There was her name. Not her name, now. Not Alison. The one she started with: Jayne. Jayne Kerr. The handwriting small and neat. Mother’s name: Mary MacGilavry Kerr. 

 

Jayne.

 

And Mary.

 

The tight signature at the bottom: her mother’s signature. She lifted one hand to the screen. Her chest clenched. She pulled her notebook from her bag, copied the name, as though she was likely to forget. Father’s name ______________.

 

Heat. Red cheeks in this gray basement. She wished she were stoat, or beaver, water creature, able to dive down. Cool, dark water. She held her breath. Held her tears. Who are these people? This Mary? This Jayne? Who am I? Jayne and Alison, like two separate people, with two separate lines of possibility, one body. No father. She couldn’t look at it a second longer.

 

She pushed the chair back, suddenly taken by the need to burst up, out, back to light and air.

A Word With the Author

 

1.Did you always want to be an author?

 

I always wrote, but when I was a child, I wanted to be a large animal vet. I didn’t think ‘author’ was on the list of options, so I just wrote for fun and concentrated on doing well in school. Somewhere in my teens, I gave up the vet notion, though I still love animals. I got my undergraduate degree in English and Journalism, still wrote, and still didn’t think ‘author’ was on the list of possibilities! It wasn’t until I started graduate school—I have an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte—that I truly believed I could be an author.

2.Tell us about the publication of your first book.

My first novel, The Thorn Tree, came out ten years ago. It was absolutely amazing to hold the book in my hands. That publication gave me the confidence to be more adventurous in my writing, which resulted in When the Ocean Flies, which released in February of this year (2024). I still love The Thorn Tree, but I think When the Ocean Flies mines more challenging emotional terrain, which I wasn’t ready to do ten years ago as a writer or as a human.

3.Besides yourself, who is your favorite author in the genre you write in?

Just one? Sarah Waters. I read The Night Watch years ago, and more recently, The Paying Guests. I love her approach to writing history and to female characters, defying the times in which they live. 

4.What's the best part of being an author? The worst?

Other than the writing? I love exploring new characters and worlds, which is the writing part. And it is wonderful beyond words when my work resonates with a reader—just marvelous. The worst—having to market and do things like ask for reviews. 

5.What are you working on now?

A few wee things—the start to another novel which digs into the backstory of one of the minor characters in When the Ocean Flies, Mrs. MacInnes. In When the Ocean Flies, she’s the awful woman who is the grandmother of the protagonist and who is responsible for the breakup of the parents’ relationship and subsequent relinquishment of the baby. And she has her own secrets to be explored and understood.    

                                 

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Heather G. Marshall is an adoptee, author, speaker, teacher, coach, and traveler. Her short fiction has been published in a variety of journals, including Black Middens: New Writing Scotland, and Quarried, an anthology of the best of three decades of Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel. Her first novel, The Thorn Tree, released in 2014 (MP Publishing). Her TED talk, “Letting Go of Expectations,” centers around her adoption and reunion. Her second novel, When the Ocean Flies, released in February 2024 (Vine Leaves Press). In her writing, Heather explores family, adoption, women (especially older ones), the natural environment, and how these intersect. When she isn’t writing, she likes to hike, travel, practice yoga and meditation, do a wee bit of knitting, and, of course, read. Originally from Scotland, Heather is currently based in Massachusetts.

 

Links to Heather’s socials

Website: https://heathergmarshall.com

Substack: https://heathergmarshall.substack.com

Instagram: @heather_g_marshall  https://www.instagram.com/heather_g_marshall

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heather.marshall.3956

 

Buy links for When the Ocean Flies

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/when-the-ocean-flies-heather-g-marshall/20885419

 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/When-Ocean-Flies-Heather-Marshall/dp/3988320455/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3GF4RZ028WIA&keywords=when+the+ocean+flies+heather+g+marshall&qid=1708029183&sprefix=when+the+ocean+flies%2Caps%2C103&sr=8-1

 

Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/when-the-ocean-flies/heather-g-marshall/9783988320452

 

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-the-ocean-flies-heather-g-marshall/1144381375

 

 

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION 

 

Heather G. Marshall will award a randomly drawn winner a $20 Amazon/BN GC.

 

 

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