Novel Title: Changing Spaces
Genre: Women's Fiction (Regional: New Mexico)
Author: Nancy King
Pub. Date: Jan. 1, 2014
Publisher: Plain View Press
ISBN: 978-1-891386-43-5-51895
Paperback Pages: 420
(Nancy King, Ph.D. is also the author of Morning Light, The Stones Speak, Dancing with Wonder, Woman Walking)
This novel will do for New Mexico
what Moby Dick did for whales!
We are thrilled that Nancy King's newest book will have its Santa Fe launch February 7, 2014 at Collected Works bookstore in Santa Fe at 6:00pm. Nancy will give a talk on the healing power of New Mexico on wounded newcomers who feel they have lost the life they've always known.
If you are in the area, please join us!
What
if you woke up in your usual life, and
by the end of the day, everything had
changed?
That's
the question Nancy King poses in her newest book, Changing Spaces, as she introduces us to Laura
Feldman who suddenly loses the "life" she has lived for the past
forty years. When her husband suddenly wants a divorce, shaken-to-her-core
Laura embarks on a bumpy ride that takes her away from her black & white
Midwestern life to the bold colors of New Mexico.
In
this new landscape where anything might happen—and does—Laura finds
inspiration, strength, and transformation in the friendship of Santa Fe women
who help her walk the winding road to self-discovery and the home of her
heart.
Advance Praise for Changing Spaces:
“Location.
Location. Location. Nancy King gets it right when she explores how a woman
radically changes her life by changing her location. A plant can't thrive in
any old soil; it has to be the right terrain. Changing Spaces is a reminder that one can
leave the past behind, find new soil, and thrive in a different, and better,
present and future.”
—JUDITH FEIN, Author of Life Is a Trip: The
Transformative Magic of Travel and The Spoon from Minkowitz: A Bittersweet Deep
Roots Journey
“Heartbreak
turns to intrigue. A season of grief leads
to a
wig, a closet, a script, cookie recipes, new
friendships,
and a wide-open future.”
—JEANNE MURRAY WALKER, Author of Geography of Memory
================
Changing Spaces
©Nancy King
Summary of Story's Opening Scenes:
Laura
woke up one morning happily married. By evening, her husband had told her he
wanted a divorce. After a week of emotional rollercoastering, she fled to a grant- development conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Unwilling to return home to a place
that no longer felt like home, she went to the airport and reserved a seat on
the first shuttle leaving, which happened to be going to Santa Fe.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Excerpt:
Feeling
the bitterness of heartache and anger and self-pity take hold, Laura opened her
eyes and glanced at the passenger sitting next to her. Despite the dim light
Laura could see she wasn’t young, although how old she was, Laura couldn’t
tell. The woman was large and sat comfortably across two seats, her long purple
skirt flowing over her feet. Her turquoise blouse was rimmed with purple thread
that didn’t quite match the purple skirt. She had rings on every finger and
large earrings dangling from her ears; a silver and turquoise necklace covered
most of the front of her blouse. A stole, which looked handmade, was draped
comfortably around her body. Her head was against the window, her mouth open,
her eyes closed. Laura wondered what it took to dress like that. Did she dress
like this all the time? Where had she come from? Who was she?
“So,
do you like what you see?” asked the woman, her eyes still closed.
Embarrassed,
Laura didn’t know what to say. How could the woman tell she was looking at her
if her eyes were closed? Laura turned away, as if this might block the woman’s
vision, but the woman’s scent, patchouli and some kind of spice and lemon, was
comforting, and she felt like nestling closer. She moved toward the far end of
the seat but was so uncomfortable she had to move back.
“Moving
away won’t solve anything.”
“I
beg your pardon?” Laura responded, not sure she’d heard her correctly.
“You
can beg my pardon all you like. It’s about you, not me.”
Laura
wondered if the woman was crazy. Maybe going to Santa Fe wasn’t such a good
idea, although the other people boarding the shuttle had looked normal enough.
The
woman laughed a deep throaty laugh. “Bet you’ve never been in this part of the
country before.”
“No,
I haven’t.”
“So
what’d you come for?”
“I
don’t know.” Laura wished she weren’t in the back of the van.
“That’s
all right. Lots of people come thinking they know what they want but they don’t
and then get themselves into all kinds of trouble.” She chuckled, as if
remembering something amusing, then turned to look at Laura. “How long you
planning to stay?” She sighed, “Doesn’t matter. Plans don’t mean shit in Santa
Fe. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about.”
Since
Laura had no idea what the woman was talking about she said politely, “I’m sure
you do.”
“What
makes you so sure?”
Startled,
Laura mumbled, “You sound sure.”
“You
always go by what you hear?” When Laura did not respond the woman laughed
again.
“What’s
so funny?” asked Laura, more than a little discomforted.
“It’s
much too easy to discombobulate you. Fight back, for godssake.”
“Don’t
have any fight left in me.”
“What
are you doing tomorrow at three?”
“Seems
my dance card is empty.”
“Not
any longer, Babe. My name’s Bountiful Sunshine. What’s yours?”
Laura
decided the woman had made up her name, so she could, too. “Melody Fine,” she
said. Where had that name come from? She hated to sing and she wasn’t fine.
“Pleased
to meet you, Melody.” The woman’s voice was low and rumbly, soothing to Laura’s
jangled nerves.
“What
brings you to Santa Fe?” asked Laura, wishing her name were Melody.
“Been
here all my life. Why?”
“Just
wondering.”
“What
else are you wondering?”
“Who
I’ll be now that I’m no longer Mrs. Zachery Feldman. How I’m going to live. “Oh, what Santa Fe is like.”
“Depends.
It’s different for everyone. Always has been. Not an easy place to live.”
“So
why do you stay?”
Bountiful
laughed, “’Cause I’m difficult. Suits me perfectly.” She looked more carefully
at Laura, who wondered what she was seeing.
Laura
could imagine what she looked like: A tight, tense, frightened woman holding
herself together. One tap and she’d fall apart. Disappear. The melody would
definitely not be fine.
When
the van reached the corner of Sandoval and Water Streets, her stop, Laura
hesitated, suddenly exhausted.
“No
sense postponing the inevitable,” said Bountiful, just behind her.
Laura
wanted to throttle her.
“Easy
does it, so go easy,” laughed Bountiful.
Laura
could not think of a quip biting enough.
The
van pulled away. A red truck pulled up. The driver, a fiftyish woman with a
waist-length salt and pepper braid hopped out. She was wearing a long denim
dress and a leather vest.
“Bounti! Long time no see.”
“Yeah,
I know. You come to meet Melody?”
The
woman frowned. “I think her name is Laura.”
Bounti
grinned at Laura approvingly. “Hey, ya got the Santa Fe idea. No need to be who
you were. Be who you want to be.”
About Nancy King, Ph.D.
Changing Spaces grew out of a conversation
Nancy King had with a woman who said:
“That was before I lost my life.”
Nancy King's novel The Stones Speak has been Boptioned for a film, and won first place in the New Mexico Presswomen’s Communications Contest. A prolific playwright and essayist, King has also written seven nonfiction books—most recently Dancing With Wonder: Self-Discovery Through Stories—an exploration of her writing and drama workshops in the US and abroad.
She feels fortunate to be privy to the stories people share.
Nancy King lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she weaves, writes, and finds inspiration hiking in the mountains. She is a contributing writer for the online journal Your Life Is A Trip at www.yourlifeisatrip.com/home/author/nancyking.
Please visit Nancy King’s website at http://www.nancykingstories.com for more information on her books and workshops. You may also contact her through her publicist at memoircity at gmail.
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