Yeah, it’s history. But history’s now.
Jane’s a very difficult girl. She’ll become a remarkable woman, an icon of her century, but that’s a long way off.
Not my fault, she thinks, dropping a bloody crowbar in the irrigation ditch after Daddy. She steals Momma’s Ford and escapes to Depression-era San Francisco, where she fakes her way into work as a newspaper copy boy.
Everything’s looking up. She’s climbing the ladder at the paper, scoring connections with the artists and thinkers of her day. But then Daddy reappears on the paper’s front page, his arm around a girl who’s just been beaten into a coma one block from Jane’s newspaper―hit in the head with a crowbar.
Copy Boy, A Jane Benjamin Novel
“Blanton-Stroud’s prose sings and crackles with so much compassion and beauty and wisdom. An engaging, wonderfully original book.”
“A stellar debut. Combining the best elements of noir, historical fiction, and coming-of-age stories, Blanton-Stroud has written a compelling, nuanced story. Deftly plotted and expertly executed… Highly recommended.”
“Full of adventure, chutzpah, historical detail, and, most of all, heart, Copy Boy is a thrilling, Depression-era coming-of-age story well suited to our times.”
“Copy Boy explores place and identity with sharp-edged suspense and intrigue. Smart, lively, and suspenseful, this is Raymond Chandler for feminists.”
“A bravura debut–I’m expecting great things from this author.”
THE LATEST
Sifting through fragments
(Illustrator Jacqueline Tam in The Atavist Magazine.) My friend Kathy Butler shared a story with me, knowing how I feel about the quest of excavating people in history and using [...]
A new dust bowl
Researching and writing Copy Boy, I knew historical events and conditions in the 1930s would connect with some of those today. Still, it threw me to see how the stories [...]
Signing books in real life
The Stories on Stage Sacramento crew (Dorothy Rice, Sue Staats, the missing-from-the-picture Jessica Laskey, and I) were thrilled to host an actual, in-person, booksigning for our first ever publication--TWENTY TWENTY: [...]
Scenes from Copy Boy––performed by actors Amanda McTigue, Jessica Laskey and Ian C. Hopps.
In One Page Reading by Amanda McTigue (7:55) Amanda introduces Jane, who finds that it’s hard to be ambitious when you’re poor.
In One Page Reading by Jessica Laskey (9:38) Jessica makes Momma’s case for why she wants a man who can turn on the lights.
In One Page Reading by Ian C. Hopps (10:04) Ian helps Jane into something a little more comfortable, because sometimes a pocket is not just a pocket.
In Copy Boy’s Launch (1:34:05) Dorothy Rice emcees, Amanda McTigue, Jessica Laskey and Ian C. Hopps perform one-page-readings from the novel, Shelley answers questions, Capital Books gives away prizes and friends and family chat.