The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress by Tam Francis

The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress by Tam Francis

The past doesn't always stay in the past. Sometimes it comes to life on the dance floor

Enter a world of nostalgic fashion, classic cocktails, and dance halls. 18-year-old June finds herself face to face with one of her deepest desires. Dance. She embarks on a path of discovery and relishes the vintage skirt wrapping around her warm thighs on the crowded dance floor. And the way her partner moves her to distraction by expertly shifting his leg between hers, delicately pushing her into intricately guided steps.

When an accomplished dancer is injured before the international jitterbug contest, June is tapped to take her place. June struggles to overcome her fears, win the contest, and not fall in love with her-otherwise engaged-dance partner.

Fifty years earlier, another 18-year-old jitterbug, Violet, leads the life June and her friends emulate. But Violet's life begins to unravel when she and her sailor beau find her grifting father passed out on her doorstep, blood oozing from his head.

They race against his deployment to tie the knot before the war can tear them apart. When his letters mysteriously stop arriving, Violet is forced to make the decision of a lifetime alone.

Half a century later, while practicing for the contest, June finds an antique dress which may lead her to the one person she's been looking for, her biological grandmother, and the key to unlocking a fifty year-old mystery.

THE GIRL IN THE JITERBUG DRES is the parallel story of two young women struggling with love, loss, and redemption, united across generations by a 1940's swing dress.

Tam Francis has taught swing dancing with her husband for fifteen years and is an avid collector of vintage patterns, vintage clothing and antiques. She has published two indie magazines - From the Ashes (Arts & Literature in the Greater Phoenix area 1990-1994) and Swivel: Vintage Living (all things related to swing dancing and vintage lifestyle culture 1994-2000). Tam has also been a poet (two-time, National Poetry Slam city finalist, Scottsdale Center for the Arts Poetry Art Walk Featured Poet, New Times Feature Poet, Visual Voices Featured Writer) and short story writer (two-time finalist for Scare the Dickens Out of Us contest). And finally blogger and novelist. She began blogging her dance adventures years ago on Myspace, but started her novel when her husband shipped out for Iraq and she was alone with two small children. She now lives in a 1908 home in Lockhart, Texas, which is not only the BBQ capital of Texas, but has the oldest, continuous working library in the state. It is suspected her house might be haunted.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780692662724
ISBN 10	0692662723
Title	The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress
Author	Tam Francis
Series	Jitterbug Dress
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Tam Francis
Year published	2016-05-08
Number of pages	396
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.