Monday, February 17, 2020

Celebrate Lit Blog Tour: Childhood by Greg Schaffer

Book: Childhood
Author: Greg Schaffer
Genre: Contemporary
Release Date: February 10, 2020

Katie lived a lonely childhood, her after school time filled with responsibilities to her father and special needs brother. Her chores prevented her from experiencing the carefree life her peers, including Joey, her neighbor and secret crush, lived. She began running to impress Joey, then discovered track as a possible way out of the small town of Nortonville, Tennessee. But as the promise of a college scholarship drew her closer to the escape she had dreamed about since childhood, she wondered why she didn’t feel better. What was missing?

Childhood is the novelette prequel to Fatherhood, a full-length novel about abortion from the father’s point of view.

Click here for your copy.

There is a lot of action and storyline packed into this short 66 page book. We are introduced to Katie at the age of 10 and watched her grow through the book. Katie yearns to have a normal childhood, but many factors have prevented her from doing so, including taking care of her Special Needs brother. She has always has a liking for the neighbor boy, Joey, As a teen, she takes up running, not only to impress Joey, but to possibly win a scholarship. Will Katie and Joey form a relationship? Will Katie get the "Childhood" she so yearns for? I can tell you that this book is that has lots going on, is a quick read and one that I didn't put down as the storyline was VERY intriguing!

Childhood is the prequel to a book upcoming, Fatherhood. I am VERY much looking forward to reading Fatherhood when it is released and I hope it is a GREAT as this book is!!

Greg Schaffer has written several novels, beginning with Forgiveness (2014). Each conveys the message that hope is always available, even in the darkest of times. His other works of fiction include horse-humor and poetry anthologies. A northerner by birth and a southerner by choice, Greg resides with his wife and rescue dogs in Franklin, Tennessee.

More from Greg

My last novel Leaving Darkness was difficult to write. I felt called to showcase depression and how the trusting environment of Christian small groups can lead those lost in the darkness to the light of the life they are meant to live. The novel was a direct response to a God-calling to apply my skills as an author and my experience leading similar type groups to create a story that may serve to help some who feel hopelessly lost.
For the next novel, I waited for a similar calling. And waited. And waited. I tend to be impatient like most. I wanted to get back to the creative process.
I wound up waiting several months. God’s time, not mine.
Then it happened, through an article I read on the Internet about a man suing a clinic for aborting his child without his knowledge. The article delved into the father’s rights in the abortion decision.
Abortion from the father’s point of view. That was the calling.
Very early into the project, though, I realized I had unintentionally created a problem. If I told the story completely from the father’s point of view, the mother’s would be diminished, reduced to a two-dimensional interpretation as seen through the father’s eyes. I could solve that by including both points of view in the novel, but that wouldn’t work well for two reasons: first, there are plot elements that the mother knows that are best kept from the readers as part of establishing tension. Second, as noted before, the project calling is from the father’s point of view. I had to stay within that.
But how to deal with the problem?
That’s when Childhood was born (no pun intended). Childhood is a novelette from the mother’s point of view, following her growth as a person from fourth grade to her first year of college. Through Childhood, readers have the opportunity to understand the character as a protagonist who would then become the antagonist in the novel Fatherhood.