Tayvie’s Story by Mim Eichmann with excerpt and giveaway

TAYVIE’S STORY

By Mim Eichmann

GENRE:  Historical Fiction

BLURB:

Chicago, IL – December 1923

Terrified, racing from an irate shopkeeper who has accused her of stealing, her comatose mother sprawled in a dark hallway, four-year-old Tayvie Jackson falls asleep while hiding in a car. Hours later, Tayvie, who understands almost no English, awakens many miles from a home she barely knew. Forced to live with deceitful relatives during the Depression in the Jim Crow south, Tayvie and her adopted mother later escape, hoping to build on Tayvie’s fledging career as a jazz singer.

In 1938, Tayvie innocently signs a six-month contract to appear at the Moulin Rouge in Paris. Almost immediately distorted allegations erupt surrounding her involvement with the historically devastating Kristallnacht, the propaganda broadcasts called Charlie and His Orchestra, and the elite Nazi playgrounds in Berlin and Paris, all of which force her into a demoralizing relationship with a strategic member of Hitler’s most despised inner clique, Dr. Joseph Goebbels.

The extraordinary coming-of-age saga of a talented, young, biracial jazz singer, who perfects her craft on two continents during the volatile 1930’s and ’40s despite appalling circumstances.

Excerpt

But it’s a beautiful place … nothing like this awful cold place where Maman brought me a few months ago on the dark train! This awful place where almost no one understands my words. This place where the man who has been living here with us — the man who was bringing us the food — has now been gone for many, many days. The man I was told to call Papa and when he made me cry one afternoon, hugged me and then took me to a store filled with toys and bought me a bright green parrot with real feathers. The man who yelled at Maman and maybe hit her hard and maybe knocked her down. Again. I don’t really know this, but I think it might have happened. Maybe.

Maman’s friends down in the warm place called Vieux Carré that’s my real home said they thought this might be happening. They thought that the man I was told to call Papa was maybe hitting her hard sometimes. But there have been other men in our apartment too. There’s been a lot of shouting by Maman with these other men too. They all talk in English, so I understand almost nothing that is said. Maybe it’s been one of these other men hitting Maman. I don’t know. I’ve never seen any of them hitting her at all. I’ve only seen her lying on the ground like she is right now. But she’s always gotten up. Always.

But not this time.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

A graduate from the Jordan College of Music at Butler University in Indianapolis, IN, Mim Eichmann has found that her creative journey has taken her down many exciting, interwoven pathways. For well over two decades, she was primarily known in the Chicago area as the artistic director/choreographer for Midwest Ballet Theatre, bringing full-length professional ballet performances to thousands of dance lovers annually. A desire to become involved again in the folk music world brought about the creation of her acoustic quartet Trillium, now in its 19 th year, which performs throughout the Midwest and has released four cds. Among other varied music avenues, she’s recorded two award-winning original children’s cds and an album of early jazz vocals. Her debut historical fiction novel A Sparrow Alone was published by Living Springs Publishers in April 2020 and was a semi-finalist in the 2020 Illinois Library Association’s Soon-to-be-Famous Project Competition. The highly anticipated sequel, Muskrat Ramble, was published by LSP in March 2021. Both books are bestsellers. Her historical thriller Whatever Happened to Cathy Martin was published in August 2022.

Website: http://www.mimeichmann.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EichmannMim

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