Publisher's Synopsis
The Holy Snappin'! Series-Book 1 Call me J. Contemporary historical events and pop-cultural reminders abound and mingle with the lives of this 'seemingly' typical mid-century family in this first book of a 3 to 5 book series spanning from 1954 through 2017. Book 1, Call me J delves in deeply, helping the reader fall in love with each character of the Magyar family. Father Max is a first generation Hungarian Canadian. Mother Lily a fierce and loving spirit. The five children are as unique and varied as a box of crayons with protagonist, Annalee introduced in the Prologue as she spends mysterious moments in a Gypsy tent-her life laid out before this cloistered teen. The imagery and sometimes minute detail pull the reader in, engaging them from the beginning 'til the last breathless words on the last page of this fat read of Book 1, Call me J. In reviews since publish in May of 2014, readers and fans express how they were brought back and firmly planted again in THEIR lives in those dozens of moments in time the author highlights and peppers throughout the novel. Remembering when. Example--what DID happen in the average household after the J.F.K. assassination? How DID parents react? In further works of Pamela, where were we when Diana died? Michael Jackson? Initially, in chapter one and into chapter two, the manuscript reads like an idyllic and charming sitcom of the "happy-days' of a 7 member gentleman farmer's family. Reality sets in in chapter three, "Nice guys finish last' when a graphically described tragic, dramatic happening lands on too many laps, bringing to bear how close-knit if not close proximity clans circle their wagons when the chips are down. Annalee begins to journal in earnest here and speaks her mind in spades. Chapter four, 'Lily's in the Valley', will have readers thinking.."OMG!! I cannot IMAGINE!!! I couldn't COPE if that happened to OUR family!" Chapter 5 brings unwanted new beginnings, leading the reader to a place where they cannot WAIT for book 2. Spanning and including over 60 years in the series, this funny, forthright, down-to-earth but melodramatic chronicle of Book 1 begins in the early stages in protagonist Annalee's family's lives, with the infamous Hurricane Hazel of 1954 as it swept through HER place in life, taking young child Annie right on through to her stormy mid-thirties where Annie has found her Prince in shining amour, birthed three children; two who, with the aid of father Robert, are in hot pursuit of eventual NHL fame. Within the series, the author takes a naive high school dropout country gal on unexpected journeys so varied as to be pooh-poohed as unlikely in one lifetime. Annie, born different from her sibs with a soul set on flight-mode more often than not, still happily approaches a decided future settled in a small manufacturing town in southwestern Ontario, Canada. She ventures, instead, to a life of magical adventure. Or misadventure. Reader's choice. This honest, memoir-style work, inspired by true events will have you saying NO WAY! again and again as you follow Annie through a lifespan that brings her and hers many more ups and downs than you would expect in a typical dramatic narrative. This manuscript and future manuscripts brings it in multiples. Put twenty people in a room; all will have had something immense touch their lives. It could be murder, interference and the potential horrors of stranger danger, disfigurement, addictions, violent domestic breakdowns and other tragedies. Or windfalls, exotic locales, puppies on Christmas morning, found loves and tight family circles. Annie Bell and her clan can claim ownership to all 20 of those biggies. Or 30. Or more. All this you will find within the pages of this saga as you lose yourself in Annalee's story. Settings: Central and Eastern Canada, Sarasota, Florida and beyond!
