Psst. Kindle readers, looking for a good read that is absolutely free? Then you are in luck. The Swanson Shuffle costs zero to buy Friday, Oct. 17 through Sunday, Oct. 19 on Amazon. Why free? Honestly, because I want more people to read what I feel is one of my best-written novels.
For those who have bought my other books, thank you, consider this a gift. For those who haven’t, hopefully I will get you hooked on my writing, and you want to buy others. You’re in luck, if you are a mystery fan, because I write those, too. Here’s the link.
So what’s The Swanson Shuffleabout?Two years out of college, Bia Fernandes leaves a dead-end job to work and live in a psychiatric halfway house, where she learns more than she expects from the ex-patients who live there.
Swanson House is a century-old mansion that must have been grand in its day when it was owned by the Swanson family who got rich from the mills in that town. Since then, it’s been an inn, a rooming house, and now a psychiatric halfway house. The building will eventually be demolished when an interstate is extended through that town.
That’s the Swanson part.
The Shuffle is a side effect of a medication several of the residents take. I witnessed such a side effect when I was a live-in staff at a psychiatric halfway house a long time ago. To be clear, this book is not a memoir. But I believe my personal experience allows me to give an accurate portrayal of what could happen when people with zero experience in the mental health field are hired to live with ex-patients. It was during the 1970s that Massachusetts was closing its state-run institutions for people with intellectual disabilities and mental illness.
The residents are expected to have jobs, take their medication and do chores. They interact at dinner, meetings, card games, and activities such as volleyball games in the backyard. Yes, there are humorous interactions. The staff members are supposed to be role models and help in any way they can. That’s how Bia feels when she is hired. But, alas, that’s not the what happens in The Swanson Shuffle.
News that happened in 1974 is woven into the book, such as Watergate, the gas crisis, and the kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army. One of my favorite scenes is when Bia and residents watch Richard Nixon resign on TV.
Here’s the link to The Swanson Shuffle. And if you enjoy the read, I would appreciate it so much if you left a review on Amazon.