The Paragraph Ranch Volume 1 Kay Ellington Barbara Brannon 9781935619192 Books
Download As PDF : The Paragraph Ranch Volume 1 Kay Ellington Barbara Brannon 9781935619192 Books
Every writer knows you can’t go home again. But that’s just what is required of West Texas expatriate Dee Bennett-Kaufmann when her mother is badly injured in a mysterious car accident. Single-again “Dr. Dee” has never been on the "A-team" in her trendy East Coast MFA program. When a prestigious summer fellowship gives her the chance to finally finish her book, salvage her career, and spend some quality time with her college-age daughter, Dee’s certain her luck is about to change. Returning to care for her irascible, widowed mother threatens all of that. With so much at stake, Dee engineers a series of unorthodox strategies and creative tradeoffs to keep her options in play—and despite herself finds friendship, love, and the power of words in the unlikeliest of places.
The Paragraph Ranch Volume 1 Kay Ellington Barbara Brannon 9781935619192 Books
The Paragraph Ranch indeed has something to offer every reader. Evenly divided into twenty-four chapters—like two cartons of farm fresh eggs--TPR feels like a multigenre novel: part creative-writing text, part family saga, and part cozy mystery. Whew! That’s a lot to expect of just one book, but Brannon and Ellington have created one that seizes your attention from the first paragraph (heh heh) and never lets you go.Thirty-something Dee Barnett-Kaufmann, native Texan, is called back to her home from North Carolina, where she teaches literature at Walter Raleigh College. Not only that but she’s recently been awarded a distinguished writing fellowship for the summer, one that would up her cred in her department by giving her time to finish her book about G. H. Templeton, a long-forgotten professor of creative writing. All it takes, however, is one phone call from her sister Penny back in Texas to change all of Dee’s plans. Seems that the youngest Barnett daughter is now needed at home more than ever—a woman who couldn’t wait to flee the town of Claxton, when she was eighteen.
Each chapter is titled in a way that suggests its content but is also headed with an epigram about how writing works—ostensibly from the writings of G. H. Templeton, the author Dee is researching. Chapter 2, for example, is entitled “No Place Like Home.” The epigram reads: “Create an unforgettable sense of place, through close observation, powerful imagery, and precise description” (16). Then the authors proceed to do just that, limning a clear and colorful view of the Barnett ranch outside Claxton in West Texas but also continuing the tension that has begun in Chapter 1.
They tightly weave this strand of the novel—Dee’s thus far vain effort to finish her book—with others: her establishment of a writing group in Claxton, Texas, where she feels she is marooned with her cantankerous mother, who’s just been involved in a mysterious car accident, from which she emerges with two broken wrists; two siblings who now want their mother to sell the family ranch; Dee’s daughter’s flirtation with dropping out of Smith College, as well as a flirtation more fleshly; Dee’s potential relationship with a local landscape photographer (following her marriage that has come to an end). Yep, a bit of romance, too!
The strands of the novel are so well woven together by Brannon and Ellington that the plot appears seamless. As Brannon suggested to me recently, she and Ellington think of the plot as a braid in which one strand is woven over the other until all the loose ends are tied up. And as with any good novel, the reader will, I believe, wish to follow each strand until every curiosity is sated, every mystery solved. A real page-burner!
And what is this I hear? There are two more Paragraph Ranch volumes in production! Can’t wait. And neither should you.
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Tags : The Paragraph Ranch (Volume 1) [Kay Ellington, Barbara Brannon] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Every writer knows you can’t go home again. But that’s just what is required of West Texas expatriate Dee Bennett-Kaufmann when her mother is badly injured in a mysterious car accident. Single-again “Dr. Dee” has never been on the A-team in her trendy East Coast MFA program. When a prestigious summer fellowship gives her the chance to finally finish her book,Kay Ellington, Barbara Brannon,The Paragraph Ranch (Volume 1),Boldface Books,1935619195,FICTION Women,FictionLiterary,FictionRomance - Collections & Anthologies,FICTION Contemporary Women
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The Paragraph Ranch Volume 1 Kay Ellington Barbara Brannon 9781935619192 Books Reviews
The reader in me appreciated the fun cast of characters, richly drawn setting, and interesting plot revolving around who we count as "family" and why. The writer in me loved the details, including those wonderful chapter epigraphs, about the actual craft of writing.
I had a hard time getting into the story and the characters. In fact, I nearly gave up part way through. But I'm glad I didn't. By the end of the book the characters were better developed and I cared more about their situations. I can see why the author made this a series -- I'd like to know what happens to the various characters from here.
I liked the small-town setting and the family dynamics.
This story resonated on so many levels for me -- dealing with the demands of career, family and the care of a parents is a huge part of my life.I liked the way the book was organized with each chapter opening with a writing tip.The dialogue and characters were spot on. I'm ready for the next installment of Dee Ana and company. I think we're seeing the debut of a new Maeve Binchy with a West Texas twang!
Semi-estranged daughter comes home to small town in Texas to take care of cantankerous injured mother because her two older siblings are "too busy". Mysteries (Did someone really run mom off the road? Who stole mom's egg money? Why does the neighbor want to buy a run down old farm?); multi-generational mother-daughter angst (haven't most of us been through it?); and an interesting group of budding authors all kept my attention until the very end.
Let me just say that I loved this book! The numerous references to Abilene & Sweetwater made me feel like I truly knew these folks. The story line was believable, the small town folks were just like the ones where I live and the writing was well crafted. As an editor I was pleased with the quality of the book and found it to be the perfect Christmas Day read. Treat yourself to small town Texas. You'll love The Paragraph Ranch!
Reading The Paragraph Ranch felt like a trip back home to Texas! I loved all the Texas-isms used by the authors to add color and humor to the story -- fixin' to, which means I'm about to do something; and bob war, which is Texan for barbed wire, just to name two examples.
I especially enjoyed getting to know Dee, the youngest of three siblings (divorced, with a college-age daughter) who has returned to rural West Texas to take charge of her mother's health care ... temporarily. The challenges she faces will resonate with so many women in the "sandwich" generation. Her mother Alice is a hoot!
I'm looking forward to reading Book Two in the series A Wedding at the Paragraph Ranch
Read this book with a cool glass of lemonade at your side. This book develops at a leisurely pace under the hot, dry West Texas sun. Dee returns home to care for her injured mother, and we travel with her on the journey across the sere landscapes of her farm and her heart, and watch as the rains come to revitalize both. The author never takes a cheap shot, never goes for the violent or sensational, but rather allows this very real, flawed woman to come to terms with her mother, her lover, and her daughter. She sees with unflinching eyes her repetition of the family patterns of undemonstrative, restrained, or denied affection and the withering effect this has on the growth of the child's own heart.
I especially enjoyed the research and writing process of Dee's own book, and the flowering of the West Texas writers, and I was grateful for the well-crafted paragraphs, the excellent phrases and unsentimental observations. While the male characters are not fully realized, especially Max, the women fairly shimmer with life on the page. This book is ideal for book clubs as well as for readers who enjoy a beautifully written story of growing up at forty.
The Paragraph Ranch indeed has something to offer every reader. Evenly divided into twenty-four chapters—like two cartons of farm fresh eggs--TPR feels like a multigenre novel part creative-writing text, part family saga, and part cozy mystery. Whew! That’s a lot to expect of just one book, but Brannon and Ellington have created one that seizes your attention from the first paragraph (heh heh) and never lets you go.
Thirty-something Dee Barnett-Kaufmann, native Texan, is called back to her home from North Carolina, where she teaches literature at Walter Raleigh College. Not only that but she’s recently been awarded a distinguished writing fellowship for the summer, one that would up her cred in her department by giving her time to finish her book about G. H. Templeton, a long-forgotten professor of creative writing. All it takes, however, is one phone call from her sister Penny back in Texas to change all of Dee’s plans. Seems that the youngest Barnett daughter is now needed at home more than ever—a woman who couldn’t wait to flee the town of Claxton, when she was eighteen.
Each chapter is titled in a way that suggests its content but is also headed with an epigram about how writing works—ostensibly from the writings of G. H. Templeton, the author Dee is researching. Chapter 2, for example, is entitled “No Place Like Home.” The epigram reads “Create an unforgettable sense of place, through close observation, powerful imagery, and precise description” (16). Then the authors proceed to do just that, limning a clear and colorful view of the Barnett ranch outside Claxton in West Texas but also continuing the tension that has begun in Chapter 1.
They tightly weave this strand of the novel—Dee’s thus far vain effort to finish her book—with others her establishment of a writing group in Claxton, Texas, where she feels she is marooned with her cantankerous mother, who’s just been involved in a mysterious car accident, from which she emerges with two broken wrists; two siblings who now want their mother to sell the family ranch; Dee’s daughter’s flirtation with dropping out of Smith College, as well as a flirtation more fleshly; Dee’s potential relationship with a local landscape photographer (following her marriage that has come to an end). Yep, a bit of romance, too!
The strands of the novel are so well woven together by Brannon and Ellington that the plot appears seamless. As Brannon suggested to me recently, she and Ellington think of the plot as a braid in which one strand is woven over the other until all the loose ends are tied up. And as with any good novel, the reader will, I believe, wish to follow each strand until every curiosity is sated, every mystery solved. A real page-burner!
And what is this I hear? There are two more Paragraph Ranch volumes in production! Can’t wait. And neither should you.
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