I’M RUNNING A GIVEAWAY OF MY NEW NOVEL! SEE BELOW.

Today is my book birthday! Please indulge me–-just a bit.

Comment below for a chance to win a paperback of The Broken Weathervane. 

I’m so grateful to my endorsers and their kind words about this story. In thanks, I will be featuring each of them and their books on the blog over the next few months. Two of them are included below.

Naomi’s complete endorsement:

“Laura DeNooyer winds a unique and mesmerizing strand of story DNA, as she entwines captivating characters, complex plot, and compelling literary beauty in The Broken Weathervane. While she tackles issues of mental illness trauma in a true way that displays both our innate human frailty and beautiful fullness, DeNooyer writes with grace and depth. Most importantly, the story doesn’t fail to culminate in hope and compassion. With her signature style, complicated relationships are explored and the past is unraveled, and DeNooyer drops mentions of other literary works like sweet lemon drops to savor along the way. Readers will relish this enthralling story.”

~ Naomi Musch, Historical fiction author and award finalist for Season of My Enemy, The Angel and the Sky Pilot (Courting the Country Preacher), and Mist O’er the Voyageur

Here’s the BLURB for the novel:

Two co-workers seek the same information. One wants to publish it; the other has good reasons to keep it hidden.

As Leslie Wickersham, Raymond University grants officer, seeks information to unravel a family mystery, English professor Gregory Stafford seeks an elusive interview with one more Buckwalter relative for his upcoming author biography. While Greg and Leslie guard coveted details from each other, her goals are further complicated by letters of blackmail threatening to reveal all she has worked hard to hide.

In this dual timeline novel alternating between 2015 and the 1950s, loyalty is tested and secrets abound when family honor collides with truth. Leslie grapples with the trade-off: how far will a person go to help a loved one thrive?

Genre: Women’s Fiction, Book Club Fiction, Dual Timeline Fiction, Historical Fiction

Available on Amazon.

Suzanne’s complete endorsement:

“This beautifully written novel follows Leslie Wickersham, a grant writer who has always tried to hide her grandparents’ complicated past, until she ends up working for an academic whose research threatens to expose everything—and whose presence in her life becomes impossible to ignore. A Broken Weathervane is a bittersweet story about family secrets, reluctant love, and how the past refuses to stay buried.”

~ Suzanne Woods Fisher, bestselling author of The Moonlight School

You can watch the trailer below. Available on Amazon.

Q & A with myself!!!

What was your inspiration for writing this story? What’s your personal connection to the setting or situation?

The 1950s timeline was inspired by my dad’s family. His father and uncle owned a successful business for decades. A 3rd younger brother worked there but was never officially a part of it. Throughout the younger brother’s mental health challenges, his brothers helped him in every way possible, even trying to set him up in multiple businesses. 

That was the germ of my idea—to explore what could have been going on behind the scenes. But my story, the grocery store business, and Buckwalter family are entirely fictional.

Since I love dual timeline stories so much, I needed a contemporary timeline too. What better way to tie it to the 1950s than by having a scholar seeking the family information while a Buckwalter relative is trying to suppress it.

How did you develop your heroines Leslie (2015) and Klara (1950s)? Did they hijack the story or did you have full rein? 

Leslie and Klara sometimes cooperated and at other times took over. That was especially true with Fritz Buckwalter (1950s), a rather larger-than-life kind of guy who likes to take charge.

What would Leslie and Klara say about YOU? 

They would both (eventually) appreciate my efforts to bring mental illness into the spotlight. They wouldn’t have done this on their own. 🙂

What was your strategy for writing a split-time novel?

With A Hundred Magical Reasons, I used index cards to organize my material prior to writing scenes. This time, I just wrote the scenes in chronological order for one timeline, then started the next timeline when I needed to go back into the 1950s, then returned to 2015. After I’d written most of the scenes, I had to do a little rearranging to maintain a flow between the two timelines, but it was mostly in the right order already.

What’s the most unusual thing you had to do, learn, or research to create this story?

I had to learn about university culture and dynamics. I’m very grateful to five friends (Kevin, Charlene, Ellyn, Nelia Beth, and Erin) who either read my story in the early stages to offer feedback or let me interview them. 

I also needed to learn more about how mental illness and patients were treated in the 1950s. After doing a chunk of that research, I visited the Julaine Farrow Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It preserves the mental health history of the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. I was surprised to find out that there are over a dozen such museums in the USA.

How do you want this story to resonate with readers?

I believe we can reduce the stigma of mental illness only by learning about it, openly discussing it, and by having empathy for those who suffer. Stories (real or fictional) are one of the best ways to create empathy as readers identify with the protagonist.

The Broken Weathervane is conducive to great book club discussion. There are resources and nine questions at the back of the book and on my website. I’d be happy to visit your book club in person or via Zoom.

I invite you to join my monthly newsletter for writing updates, freebies, and giveaways. Sign up and I’ll send you 7 Oz-inspired recipes:  A-Taste-Of-Oz-Cookbook-Sampler.com

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Comment below for a chance to win a paperback of The Broken Weathervane. USA only.

If you enjoyed the book, would you consider posting an honest review on Amazon, GoodReads, BookBub, and Barnes & Noble?

On a similar note . . . My other novels . . . 

A Hundred Magical Reasons (launched January 2025) spotlights L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, his friendship with a young girl, and his impact through the decades. Set in Holland, Michigan, this dual timeline novel alternates between 1980 and the early 1900s. Read more and watch the book trailer here. 

A Hundred Magical Reasons awards:

• First Place in StoryTrade Book Awards for Regional Fiction: USA Midwest (August 7, 2025)
• First Place in AmericanBookFest~American Fiction Award (AFA) for Literary Fiction (June 17, 2025)
• Hawthorne Prize Winner for Fiction (May 25, 2025)
• First Place in The BookFest for Literary Historical Fiction (April 2025)
• First Place in the Firebird Book Awards for Biographical Fiction (April 2025)
• Literary Titan Gold Book Award for Fiction (March 2025) 
• Bronze Medal for the Illumination Book Awards for General Fiction (February 2025)
• Three 5-star Readers’ Favorite reviews

If you like Southern fiction and small town/rural stories about family dynamics and secrets, you might enjoy my novel All That Is Hidden. Set near North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains in 1968, the story spotlights the bond of family and the connections of a tight-knit community. Northern exploitation threatens as a father’s hidden past catches up to him and tests family ties. Learn more and watch the trailer here. All That Is Hidden is now on AUDIOBOOK!

All That Is Hidden awards:

• Pacific Book Review finalist for fiction (May 20, 2025)
• American Legacy Book Awards finalist for Coming of Age (May 2025)
• Three 5-star Readers’ Favorite Reviews (May 2025)
• First Place in the Firebird Book Awards for Southern Fiction (April 2025)
• First Place in the Firebird Book Awards for Literary Fiction (April 2025)
• Winner of the Artisan Book Reviews Book Excellence Award (2022)
• Semifinalist in Serious Writer’s Book of the Decade contest (2022-2023)

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Join me next time for a visit with author Katie Powner.

Meanwhile, have you read any novels that address mental illness? Or have you read stories set in the 1950s?

Answer in the comments below for a chance to win a paperback or ebook of The Broken Weathervane. USA only.

Ever reading and writing,

Laura

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