The Subtle Art of Standing Still

by Bekah Harris

Think your life sucks? Try sharing a name with a worldwide pandemic.

Sixteen-year-old Verona "Rona" Bon-Scott Martin has always felt like a disease.

In fact, she is the living, breathing proof that a physical union between a high school dropout with an affinity for Shakespeare and a burnout who sings lead in an AC/DC cover band will never result in a happily ever after.

Speaking of fairy tales, Rona finds herself about as far away from a happy ending as humanly possible. After getting drunk at a field party and hauled off to the local jail, Rona''s fed-up, single mom ships her off to spend the summer with her Great Aunt Polly, a no-nonsense old maid who runs a destination farm in the middle of nowhere.

Doomed to spend her summer in Hidden Hills, Tennessee, a place where obscure vegetables are celebrated at local festivals and the highlight of one's social life is Sunday morning church service, Rona's summer goes from bad to worse. With her mother in the middle of divorce number four and her father playing watered down rock in a different city every night, Verona has no choice but to trade in her skinny jeans for coveralls and accept her immediate fate as a glorified farmhand.

Through a hot summer of hard work, tough love, and unexpected friendships, Rona must come to terms with the unstable childhood that has taught her to build high walls and run far when things get hard. But if Aunt Polly knows anything, it's this: real love doesn't run. And when faced with the most difficult decision of her young life, Rona must choose whether she will keep running away or embrace the possibilities of standing still.

Filled with humor, romance, and heartache, The Subtle Art of Standing Still is a story about love, family, and what it means to come of age as a female in the Appalachian South.

"Rona's powerful telling will touch you deeply. We can all identify with her search for her true self, for love, and for a way forward after heartbreak." -Rita Sims Quillen, award-winning author of Wayland and Hiding Ezra

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1953658172
• ISBN13: 9781953658173
• Release Date: December 2022
• Publisher: Twisted Vine Press
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"