Smorgasbord Book Promotions – New Book on the Shelves – #History #1970s #Comingofage – Passages by Mary Clark

Delighted to share the news about Mary Clark’s latest release, a coming of age novel set in the liberated 1970s of New York, Passages

About the book

The 1970s. Anything goes. Sexual liberation. New ideas on how to live. Being young in the city, searching for identity, and love, and the most amazing life possible – that was the story of many back then. They were trailblazers. In Passages, a young man’s coming of age in the “anything goes” of 1970’s New York City, Martin’s story reflects the greater panorama of people seeking freedom of expression. Martin is an aspiring writer who explores the tangled topics of love and living an alternative lifestyle as an artist. He also lives within his male and female identities which fuel his dreams and fantasies.

Martin’s family history of violence, his mental instability, and a friend’s death spur him to escape suburban life. In the city, he meets Simone, an actress on Broadway. In a strange first encounter the embryo of a new self is revealed to him. He struggles to nourish his independent self as he engages in two volatile relationships. Rafaela, who works in a Times Square restaurant, tests his ability to grow beyond his past experiences. Rafaela is pragmatic, driven. Simone is on her way to a legendary career. What will Martin do with the gifts and burdens life has given him?

Head over to buy the book: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK

Also by Mary Clark

A review for Into The Fire

Reading’s my thing5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Look Behind the Scenes of Hell’s Kitchen

Hell’s Kitchen is an area within NYC; not a specific arena or place. It is the home of the Actors Studio training school, and adjacent to Broadway theatres, Hell’s Kitchen has long been a home to fledgling and working actors.

Mary Clark takes us behind the scenes of the many individuals, be they celebrities, poets, artists, or actors and how this group of dedicated people changed an area of New York from undesirable to one of the most sought after places to showcase talent. Not only does Clark provide actual photos but also bits of prose, poetry and works of the people involved as they create a bit of magic within a very unmagical arena.

This is truth and the reality of what it took to bring the name Hell’s Kitchen to a positive vein, rather than negative.

Mary Clark shares her own experiences, yet within a story of strength, determination and dedication to the arts. Yes, there are some violent moments but the stories behind the famous and not so famous far outweigh any negativity.

Could not put this book down and will be one I read again and again. Just loved it.
Monica M Brinkman – review

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK – Follow Mary: Goodreads – Website: Literary Eyes – Facebook:Mary Clark Books – Twitter: @mceyes

About Mary Clark

Mary grew up in Florida and New Jersey, moving to New York City after college. She worked in the arts at a midtown church in the outcast wilds of the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. Her book, Into The Fire: A Poet’s Journey through Hell’s Kitchen, celebrates the poets and the neighborhood. For some years she worked for community organizations. In 1993 she started a community newspaper, combining her two loves: the neighborhood and writing. Her memoir, Community: Journal of Power Politics and Democracy in Hell’s Kitchen, tells the story of community work and city politics in the 1980s and 1990s. A creative memoir, Tally: An Intuitive Life (All Things That Matter Press), is the story of her friendship and “word work” with an elderly Bohemian artist/writer in NYC’s Greenwich Village, a relationship that grew to ultimately transcend time.

She is the author of the novella, Covenant: Growing Up in Florida’s Lost Paradise, and two novels, The Horizon Seekers and Racing The Sun, featuring a woman who lives in both the present and the future and seeks to make her visions real. The poetry novel, Children of Light, published by Ten Penny Players’ BardPress follows two children in a mythic Florida landscape as they journey toward maturity and freedom. Her latest work, Passages, focuses on a young man who is in touch with his male and female identities and finds himself in challenging relationships in the dystopian but inspiring times of the 1970s.

 

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you will be leaving with some books..thanks Sally.