Monday, February 22, 2021

Sylvie Denied Tour and Giveaway

 


Sylvie Denied
by Deborah Clark Vance
Genre: Women's Fiction


As she enters adulthood in the turbulent 1970s, Sylvie thinks the way to change a violent world is to become a peaceful person. Yet she slowly sees how a childhood trauma thwarts her peaceful intentions and leads her to men with a dark side – including Enzo, the man she marries. Even as his behavior becomes increasingly volatile, she believes she can make things better with love and understanding. But finally living in terror. Sylvie must find a way to escape with her daughter and a way to claim her place in the world.



She’d been in Italy a year before meeting Enzo, who intrigued her as soon as she saw him because his look was more casual American than polished Italian. He was working on an advanced degree and supported himself making leather goods. Sylvie made him teach her how. Soon she was showing him how to streamline his operation by making reusable patterns. In a matter of weeks they were spending most of their time together. She luxuriated in his company when they were together and longed for him when they weren’t. To her, their synergy and her intense feelings spelled love.

She was cutting a pattern and he was attaching a cowhide strap when he blurted out that he wanted to have a family someday. 

“You’re the first man I’ve known who said he wanted children,” she replied.

Truly, she’d never discussed children with a man. But last year in Mantua, she saw her 28-year-old friend Patrizia panic about her waning fertility as her male friends said by age twenty-three a woman was too old for marriage. Such pressure troubled Sylvie too, although she wasn’t raised to be a woman who dreamed of motherhood but rather one to finish college and have a career. In fact, her mom had never exposed her to newborns, and children misbehaving in public always

prompted Mom to mutter, “Lousy little kids.” Whenever Sylvie had asked Mom why she’d had children when they clearly annoyed her, she replied, “Society expects it.”

Now Sylvie told Enzo, “I’m not ready to have children,

if I ever do.”…she wasn’t raised to be a woman who dreamed of motherhood but rather one to finish

college and have a career. In fact, her mom had never exposed her to newborns, and children misbehaving in public always prompted Mom to mutter, “Lousy little kids.” Whenever

Sylvie had asked Mom why she’d had children when they clearly annoyed her, she replied, “Society expects it.”

Now Sylvie told Enzo, “I’m not ready to have children, if I ever do.”

“Ready?” Enzo said. “Capitalist hogwash! Children enrich life—they are life! You just need some extra food and clothes and you pack him up and bring him along. Think what fun with a little baby playing around!” He pulled her close and gazed into her eyes, reminding her

how long she’d yearned to escape suburban artifice and plunge into life’s core, to feel its pulse, to be more in her body. She’d experienced such exuberance in Italy where parents included children in ways unthinkable in Sylvie’s suburban American world. Children were often seen eating at restaurants late into the evening, attending adult parties, listening in on their parents’ conversations, so she was starting to see them as life-affirming rather than an obstacle to her career plans. She enjoyed discovering these cultural differences with Enzo.








Originally from the Chicago suburbs, Deborah Clark Vance has lived throughout the US and in Italy. While raising her children, she earned a living by teaching piano lessons, selling her original artwork, editing a health journal, translating Italian, writing freelance articles and textbook chapters, working on a children's educational TV series, teaching in a day treatment program for adults with mental and emotional illnesses, creating garden designs and teaching as a college adjunct. After completing a Ph.D. in Communication and Culture at Howard University, she taught and served as Chair of the Department of Communication & Cinema at McDaniel College in Maryland. Although she also contributed articles and chapters to academic publications, those only earned her a modicum of prestige rather than income. She's keenly interested in the natural world as well as in social justice, spirituality and women's issues. "Sylvie Denied" is her debut novel.





Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

$20 Amazon


2 comments:

  1. Your blog has such a unique look.Thank you so much for including "Sylvie Denied." I really appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your blog has such a unique design -- thanks for including "Sylvie Denied" here and featuring an excerpt! I greatly appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete

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