Everyone's Talking About Sisterhood (and The Moon Sisters book giveaway)

Tuesday, March 04, 2014
The Moon Sisters is about will-o-the-wisps, trainhopping, and unrealized dreams…but mostly it’s about sisterhood. So we’re celebrating the release of this novel by gathering some of our favorite bloggers to share their take on sisterhood. First up is Therese Walsh, author of The Moon Sisters, who is visiting The Muffin to tell us about sisterhood in her family.

Sisters Forever: Aimee, Therese, and Heather

On Sisterhood
by Therese Walsh

I have two beloved sisters, both younger, and our interactions with each other—the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful—are all reflected in the story of The Moon Sisters. They’ve also helped to create some of the most memorable moments of my life.

I was eight when my first sister was born, and shortly thereafter—which trying to figure out the mechanics of a diaper—I stepped away from the changing table and my sister rolled over (a new trick!) and fell onto the floor. She wailed as I panicked. I lied to my mother about what had happened until guilt got the better of me, and then I fessed up and apologized.

Earliest lesson: Sisters can get you into trouble.

Also: Never step away from a changing table.

Once, when that same sister was older, she took our youngest sister’s favorite pair of pants and drove them to an embankment and threw them into a stream. Our youngest sister had been driving her crazy for one reason or another, and retaliation had seemed a good option at the time. But somehow, some way, my youngest sister knew—just knew—that our middle sister had taken the pants. Not only that, she had a feeling where those pants had ended up. She actually found them, filthy, wet, at the bottom of the ravine.

Lesson: Sisters know things. Don’t try to prevent this knowledge.

Life with sisters is made up of a million little moments when you’re all living together under the same roof. Waiting together for the ice cream truck. Trying to cheer one another up with crazy antics like dancing stuffed animals. Food experimentation. Secret-telling. Talk of love and sex and politics and health and family and life and death. Everything. Secrets are rare, and the bond can be extraordinarily strong, even when sisters are miffed with one another.

Honesty—it’s the way of sisters, even when it causes conflict.

Now that we’re all grown, we’re just as close as ever. Maybe closer. We’ll never again wonder if that missing CD is in someone else’s bedroom or what happened to that pair of pants!

Last summer I had a health scare, which thankfully turned out just fine. While one sister, in town, visited with me and soothed with face-to-face contact, my other sister, from away, communicated by phone and sent a constant stream of positive thoughts in my direction. Both strengthened me during one of the most tenuous times of my life.

Sisters can be maddening and nosy, and supportive and loving. My sisters are a vital part of my bedrock, and my life with them has helped to define me in complex and significant ways.

Do you have a sister story to share? I’d love to hear it.

About The Moon Sisters

In The Moon Sisters, her second novel, Therese Walsh wanted to write about one sister’s quest to find will-o’-the-wisp light, which was her mother’s unfulfilled dream. Also called “foolish fires,” these lights are sometimes seen over wetlands and are thought to lead those who follow them to treasure. Despite the promise, they are never captured and sometimes lead to injury or even death for adventurers who follow them. The metaphor of that fire – that some dreams and goals are impossible to reach, and that hope itself may not be innately good – eventually rooted its way into deeper meaning as the Moon sisters tried to come to terms with real-world dreams and hopes, and with each other, in their strange new world.

Olivia and Jazz Moon are polar opposites: one a dreamy synesthete, able to see sounds and smell sights and the other controlling and reality driven. What will happen when they are plunged into 24/7 togetherness and control is not an option? Will they ever be able to see the world through the other’s eyes and confront the things they fear the most? Death. Suicide. The loss of faith and hope. Will they ultimately believe that life is worth living, despite the lack of promise?

The writing of The Moon Sisters was a five year journey and at times author Therese Walsh felt like it was her own “foolish fire.” But remember, some fires are worth the chase!

Hardcover: 336 pages (also available in e-formats)
Publisher: Crown (March 4, 2014)
ISBN-10: 0307461602
ISBN-13: 978-0307461605
ASIN: B00F1W0E1M

Read a review of The Moon Sisters on the Muffin here.


***** BOOK GIVEAWAY *****

Thanks to Therese who is giving away a print copy of The Moon Sisters. Just enter the Rafflecopter form below to be entered in the drawing.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Want more chances to win? Visit all the other bloggers talking about sisterhood today to enter.

Who else is talking about sisterhood?

The blogs listed below have all decided to share their stories, essays, poems, photos, or other means of creative expression on the topic of sisterhood. We really have no idea what bloggers will come up with, but we can't wait to find out! So check out the blogs listed below and see what they're up to!

Lit Ladies

The Unfaithful Widow

Caroline Clemmons

A Ponderance of Things

One Sister’s Journey

Words by Webb

Mother-Daughter Book Club

Vickie S. Miller

One Writer’s Journey

Renee’s Pages

A Book Lover’s Retreat

Biblioteca

I Love to Read and Review Books!

Traveling with T.

Me and Reading

Laurie Here

Cassandra M’s Place

The GaGa Sisterhood

Deal Sharing Aunt

Choices

12 comments:

Sioux Roslawski said...

Jodi--Thanks for the post.

Therese--I had a French "sister" for a year during my senior year of high school (she was a foreign exchange student who lived with us) and she is still my sister almost forty years later.

Before her, I only had a brother.

Then, when I was in my forties, I discovered I had two half-sisters (we're all adopted), so my "sister stories" are a bit different than most people's. Your book looks like it's a great read. Congratulations.

NaDell said...

I have a sister who's four years younger than me (with two brothers between us!) We were so different growing up. I thought I was shy. She was NOT shy one bit. She went over to our new (grandparent age) neighbor's house and met them and would go visit them all the time. They still call me "Big Janessa" because they didn't know my name for such a long time...

Renee Roberson said...

I'm so excited to be a part of this party, and I can't wait to check out Therese's new book (I loved The Last Will of Moira Leahy). This is actually the second book I've come across that features a character with synesthesia--the other was the MG novel A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass--so I'm even more intrigued!

Wanda (A Book Lover's Retreat) said...

This was such a great idea and I am glad to be a part of it. Thanks for the invite and I am looking forward to reading this book! :)

Therese Walsh said...

Jodi, and everyone who participated in this sisterly effort today, THANK YOU! I have been like a person with ADD today -- going back and forth from one social media outlet to another -- and I haven't yet had the time to read all of your stories, but rest assured I will. I look forward to hearing each one of these tales. Olivia, Jazz, and I thank you from the bottoms of our hearts for your support of The Moon Sisters!

Unknown said...

Theresa, it's been great to follow your journey via Facebook and Writer Unboxed. Nice to see you here too. This is definitely on my to-read list-- not "just" to support you, but selfishly, because I want to read this story! Thanks and all the best to you.

Anonymous said...

I have been dying to read this book. The cover is gorgeous!! I don't have a sister, but I do have the best brother in the world. : )

SuzyQ4PR(at)aol(dot)com

Jennifer Lyn King said...

Congratulations on the publication of your new novel, Therese! I loved Moira Leahy and I can't wait to read The Moon Sisters.

I have a brother (no sisters), but love having a sister-in-law now. And then there are friends who become sisters ... right?

Congrats!

Emerald said...

I can't wait to read it- sounds really good! Congratulations :)

pippirose said...

I don't have any blood sisters, but I have a friend that I call my "soul sister".

Carl Scott said...

My sisters are two of the coolest people I know (don't tell them I said that, OK?) ;^)

Therese Walsh said...

Julie, thank you (and can I just say that I like your "selfishness"?)! I hope you enjoy The Moon Sisters!

SuzyQ, I do feel like I won the cover-art sweepstakes, thank you. I even interviewed my cover artist for my blog (and it was great fun to see the covers that *might* have been art for The Moon Sisters). One last note: Jazz Moon, the older sister in The Moon Sisters, was nearly a brother. When I first worked on the draft of the book, I wasn't sure which way to go. Then it became clear: It had to be a sister.

Jennifer, thank you! I remember and appreciate your support of The Last Will of Moira Leahy, and I do hope you enjoy The Moon Sisters! You'll notice some similar themes, though they are very different books. There are definitely friends who become sisters -- I have several of those myself, and I can't imagine life without them.

Thank you, Emerald!

Pippirose, you have the best of both worlds!

And, Carl, your secret is safe with me. :-)

Thank you again, Jodi!

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