Spotlight on: Copy Boy by Shelley Blanton-Stroud

Spotlight on: 

Copy Boy

Author pulls from family history, challenges gender norms and explores inherited trauma in noir historical fiction

Sacramento, CA – In Copy Boy (June 23, 2020, She Writes Press), a story of escape, disguise, and coming of age, lecturer and author Shelley Blanton-Stroud follows Jane, a desperate girl seeking work in the Great Depression. Repeatedly turned away from employment, she disguises herself as a boy to get hired, raising questions on women’s struggles in the workplace and how gender norms influence social expectations, then and now.

Jane leaves her messy family life behind to find work as a newspaper copy boy in San Francisco. Creating a new identity as a man opens new opportunities for her, and Jane uses her disguise to escape crimes she may or may not have committed. Things are looking up...until her father’s picture appears in the paper and threatens her safety and new way of life.  

Pulling from her own family’s Dust Bowl history, Blanton-Stroud exposes the need and the cost of ambition and competition through a proactive female protagonist fighting for what she wants. Throughout her career, she has amplified the writing of countless others through teaching college writing in Northern California, consulting with writers in the energy industry, serving on the advisory board of 916 Ink, and co-directing Stories on Stage Sacramento — all leading up to her own electric debut.

More about Shelley Blanton-Stroud

SHELLEY BLANTON-STROUD grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants who made good on their ambition to get out of the field. She teaches college writing in Northern California and consults with writers in the energy industry. She co-directs Stories on Stage Sacramento, where actors perform the stories of established and emerging authors, and serves on the advisory board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children. She has also served on the Writers’ Advisory Board for the Belize Writers’ Conference. Copy Boy is her first novel, and she’s currently working on her second. She also writes and publishes flash fiction and non-fiction, which you can find at such journals as Brevity and Cleaver. She and her husband live in Sacramento with an aging beagle and many photos of their out-of-state sons. To get to know Shelley Blanton-Stroud and her writing better, visit her at https://shelleyblantonstroud.com. 

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.