A Bend
in the Willow
by
Susan Clayton-Goldner
Published:
January 18, 2017
Publisher:
Tirgearr Publishing
Genre:
Contemporary, Historical
Blurb:
Willowood,
Kentucky 1965 - Robin Lee Carter sets a fire that kills her rapist, then
disappears. She reinvents herself and is living a respectable life as Catherine
Henry, married to a medical school dean in Tucson, Arizona. In 1985, when their
5-year-old son, Michael, is diagnosed with a chemotherapy-resistant leukemia,
Catherine must return to Willowood, face her family and the 19-year-old son, a
product of her rape, she gave up for adoption. She knows her return will lead
to a murder charge, but Michael needs a bone marrow transplant. Will she find
forgiveness, and is she willing to lose everything, including her life, to save
her dying son?
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My
Review:
Robin
Lee Carter had a very loving and caring mother whom she loved very much and two
brothers whom she also loved and adorned very much as well. Robin Lee left home
just shy of her eighteenth birthday. She left because of a tragic accident that
could put her behind bars for a very long time.
When
Robin Lee left home she had her name changed met a wonderful man Ben Henry whom
she fell in love with and married and had a little boy Michael. Now Catherine
has a wonderful life and has put her past behind her. Until one day Michael has
an accident and is sent to the hospital. While at the hospital they discover
that he has a chemotherapy-resistant leukemia and needs a donor.
Catherine
has told so many lies over the years about her past and now it may all come tumbling
out. To save Michael’s life Catherine may have to return home and face her past
and the people she left behind.
How
will she ever tell the man she loves that she has lied to him about who she
truly is and what she did all those years ago. How will the people she left
behind on that tragic day except her now? What is going to happen to Michael?
What will happen to Catherine when she returns home to face the music? Can she
save her son? Will her marriage be left behind this time?
Robin
Lee/Catherine is one very strong woman to have endeared all that she lived
through her whole life. With never having gone through anything even close to
what she did there is no way I can identify with her. There is no way I can
ever say that I know what you are going through or I know how you feel because
there is no way I ever could. I can feel for her; have compassion for her but I
cannot know how she feels.
Michael
is a very strong, loving and compassionate person as well. He is so adorable. I
loved what he told his Uncle Kyle when he met him in the hospital. Kyle was a
very strong and loving man as well and has very big heart and a soft spot for
children.
With
A Bend in the Willow Susan Clayton-Goldner had me from the summary not the
first page. Once I picked it up and started reading I didn’t want to put it
down. Although there were times I couldn’t see the pages for my eyes tearing
up. A Bend in the Willow will grab a hold of your heart and squeeze and squeeze
and squeeze until you think you can’t handle anymore. A Bend in the Willow is
one of those stories that will stay with you forever and forever; never letting
go.
Interview with Susan Clayton-Goldner
What
inspired you to write A Bend In The Willow?
While the book is definitely fiction and a product of my
imagination, I was inspired to write this book by some events in my own
childhood and the way, as a child, I wanted to reinvent myself. Writing Robin
Lee and Catherine’s story enabled me to do that. I think the possibility of
losing a child is one of the most fearful things that could ever happen to a
parent. When my children were young, it was my worst nightmare. Writing about
Michael’s leukemia helped me face that fear.
Can
you tell us a little bit about the next books or what you have planned for the
future?
My next book will come out in May. It is entitled
Redemption Lake and is a story of love and betrayal. It’s about truth and lies,
friendship and redemption, about assuming responsibility, and the risks a
father and son will take to protect each other. The detective in this story,
Winston Radhauser, reappears in my next novel, a kidnapping story entitled When
Time Is A River—scheduled to release in the late fall of 2017. I plan to write a third book utilizing
Winston Radhauser as my detective and then move onto Unforgettable—the story of
a young priest who falls in love with one of his married parishioners.
Can
you tell us a little bit about the characters in A Bend In The Willow?
I generally try to
orchestrate my characters by making them opposites. In A Bend In The Willow,
Catherine is lying about her past. She has good reason to do so, but her
husband, Ben, suspects nothing until after Michael is diagnosed with a
chemotherapy-resistant leukemia. Ben is a stickler for honesty. He was five
years old when he fled Nazi Germany with his parents. He saw what Hitler’s lies
did to his family and friends. Ben values truth above all other virtues. When a
writer sets up her characters this way, they are ripe for conflict.
You
know I think we all have a favorite author. Who is your favorite author and
why?
Jodi Picoult is my favorite contemporary author. I love
the way she takes an issue and shows both sides. In her novel about the school
shooting she did such an amazing job of showing us the shooter that the reader
actually understood what drove that tormented boy to commit those heinous
crimes.
If
you could time-travel would you travel to the future or the past? Where would you like to go and why would you
like to visit this particular time period?
I would go back in time to Concord, Mass and talk with
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. We’d get in a rowboat on Walden’s
pond and I’d have quite a few questions for the two of them. Maybe we’d invite
Emily Dickinson to join us.
Do
you have any little fuzzy friends? Like a dog or a cat? Or any pets?
We have always had pets. Dogs and cats. When we had our
ranch, we had house cats, porch cats, and barn cats. Our most recent cat, a beautiful
ragdoll named Topaz, died of congestive heart failure last year, we were
devastated. She was only five years old. And my constant companion. We have not
gotten over our grief enough to adopt another cat, but I’m sure we will.
Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit
with us today.
Thank you so much for the interview, Nancy.
AUTHOR BIO:
Susan Clayton-Goldner was born in New
Castle, Delaware and grew up with four brothers along the banks of the Delaware
River. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona's Creative Writing
Program and has been writing most of her life. Her novels have been finalists
for The Hemingway Award, the Heeken Foundation Fellowship, the Writers
Foundation and the Publishing On-line Contest. Susan won the National Writers'
Association Novel Award twice for unpublished novels and her poetry was
nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Her work has appeared in numerous
literary journals and anthologies including Animals as Teachers and Healers,
published by Ballantine Books, Our Mothers/Ourselves, by the Greenwood
Publishing Group, The Hawaii Pacific Review-Best of a Decade, and New
Millennium Writings. A collection of her poems, A Question of Mortality was released in 2014 by Wellstone Press.
Prior to writing full time, Susan worked as the Director of Corporate Relations
for University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona.
Susan
shares a life in Grants Pass, Oregon with her husband, Andreas, her fictional
characters, and more books than one person could count.
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