A Stunning New Novel from My Buddy Christine MacConnell

My longtime friend Christine MacConnell has finally released her debut novel and it's a dilly. The book is Griffin Farm (buy it here) and it is described thusly:

Fast-paced, dramatic, literary, and poetic, C.A. MacConnell's debut novel, Griffin Farm, is a sweeping tale about raging love, murder, addictions, brain disorders, horses, rock and roll, and recovery. Chilling, honest, and undeniably real, the story shows the deeply entangled history of two families, revealing one woman's heroic fight to heal.

Christine MacConnell

Christine, whom I first met years ago, lives near Cincinnati now where she's a freelance writer and a noted musician. She studied writing and film at Hollins, earning a master's in creative writing. While there, she won both the Hollins Fiction Prize and the Hollins Literary Festival Poetry Prize, pretty big deals at Hollins and since Hollins sets the bar for writing, pretty big deals everywhere.

I met her shortly after she finished school and found her to be a delicate, vulnerable, buffalo hide-tough young woman with a strong moral center and a fierce will. She's small, soft-spoken and easy to underestimate. But don't.

She has been a vocal advocate for substance abuse for some time and has won national awards for her courage and clarity on the topic. I love Christine because she doesn't waver, doesn't duck, isn't afraid and her book is like that: clear, direct, honest, chilling and uplifting. If you've had a problem with drugs or alcohol or "alternative lifestyles" or if you haven't, give Griffin Farm a shot. I think you'll be absorbed by it and by this wonderful young talent.