It’s an honour to host debut novelist, Amanda Cox, on the blog today. Amanda’s time slip novel dealing with adoption, family dynamics, sacrifice, and so much more is a novel for readers of women’s fiction, family drama, and romance.

Carol Award-winning author, Heidi Chiavaroli, has this to say about The Edge of Belonging:

“A beautiful story about broken people coming together to find healing. With a masterful pen, Amanda Cox draws us into a story of dynamic characters, gentle romance, and an authentic celebration of life and humanity. A touching and brilliant debut novel that is sure to linger sweetly in the minds and hearts of readers.“

Enjoy this insight into Amanda’s characters…

When Ivy Rose returns to her hometown to oversee an estate sale, she soon discovers that her grandmother left behind more than trinkets and photo frames–she provided a path to the truth behind Ivy’s adoption. Shocked, Ivy seeks clues to her past, but a key piece to the mystery is missing.

Twenty-four years earlier, Harvey James finds an abandoned newborn who gives him a sense of human connection for the first time in his life. His desire to care for the baby runs up against the stark fact that he is homeless. When he becomes entwined with two people seeking to help him find his way, Harvey knows he must keep the baby a secret or risk losing the only person he’s ever loved.

In this dual-time story from debut novelist Amanda Cox, the truth–both the search for it and the desire to keep it from others–takes center stage as Ivy and Harvey grapple with love, loss, and letting go.

Introducing Harvey & Ivy Rose

Harvey

Physical Stats

Height: Harvey is tall and slim

Hair colour & style: Harvey doesn’t own a mirror. His hair tends to have a general untamed appearance.

Eye colour: One of the other characters in the books describes his eyes color as the color of rich, turned soil.

Favorite accessory or clothing style: When you first meet Harvey, he lives off things lost or discarded along the highway. Anything he can find on his scavenging expeditions. You might catch a glimpse of him in some strange ensembles…like Hawaiian print shirts and camouflage pants. But if he had his choice in the matter, he has a strange partiality to plaid or anything that helps him blend in with “regular people”. He’s actually quite handsome, a fact that is easily overshadowed by some of his eccentricities

Resembles…

Harvey is a little bit older than this guy from my Pinterest board, but something in his expression captures the mistrust Harvey has for everyone he meets early in the book.

Can’t live without…

The newborn baby he finds abandoned along the highway. But before finding the baby, he would say he can’t live without his obsessive independence.

Strengths

Harvey finds a use for anything. Nothing should be wasted. Nothing should be discarded. Everything has a purpose if Harvey looks hard enough for it.

Vulnerabilities

The message his circumstances have told him over and over again is that he is too much trouble to be loved. It is a message he believes to his core.

Passions

Protecting the helpless 

What book/movie would they recommend?

A book on wilderness survival and foraging

What has shaped his character and resilience?

Harvey was orphaned as a young child and never had a long term foster placement due to his issues with attachment. While these experiences have been the source of deep wounds, they have also built some of Harvey’s finer qualities.
 
Your inspiration for the character

Harvey is a tribute to people who often go unnoticed by the world. The people who fall through the cracks—either by choice or by circumstance. Oh, how I love how a tiny baby completely disrupts what he thought was him living his best life. The baby shows him that there is so much more to life that is available to him than he has ever believed. 

Book Trailer

Ivy

Physical Stats

Height: Petite with pixie-like features

Hair colour & style: Long brown hair

Eye colour: She would describe her eyes as “ordinary brown”

Favorite accessory or clothing style: Ivy’s clothes are often a barometer of where she is in life. When Ivy is displaying her truest self, you’ll see her wearing a pop of color, with an element of playfulness. However, that part of herself has been denied for quite some time.

Resembles…

This is the photo I have for Ivy from Pinterest.

Can’t live without…

Her family. Ivy thought she depended on her family too much and tried to break free and make her own path without them, only to find the life she  built crumbling. A big part of her story is learning some balance between relying too much on others and the other extreme of not letting trusted people stand beside her in the midst of her struggles.

Strengths

She has a skill for connecting with people who are hurting, though she doesn’t always recognize it.

Vulnerabilities

Ivy has a tendency to try and become who other people expect/want her to be, which stems from this underlying belief that she needs to prove herself worthy of the opportunities she’s been given.

Passions

Helping hurting people know that they are seen and loved.

What book/movie would they recommend?

I could see Ivy being a fan of Anne of Green Gables. I think Anne’s circumstances and her spunky, big imagination would appeal to Ivy’s long-buried playful side.

What has shaped their character and resilience?

For better or worse  Ivy’s family has tried to shelter her from pain and hurt. Even if that meant shielding her from certain details about her adoption. Her family gives her a strong foundation of being loved, but because they sheltered her so much, this often is a source of why she feels the need to break away from them for a season, to prove to herself that she is strong and capable on her own.

Your inspiration for the character

Adult Ivy was a bit of a challenge for me. I had already imagined the happily ever after that happened for her family in the past timeline. It was difficult to “break” that happily ever after, which had to be done so that Ivy was a real, layered, imperfect character in the present timeline.  

Background to the story

On a long, quiet car trip, I spotted baby bouncer sitting in the median of the highway looking just like someone had placed it there on purpose. Of course, my writer’s brain began spinning a story. On the stretch of highway that I traveled that day—roadway flanked by rolling farmland and occasional wooded areas—I imagined Harvey walking along the shoulder and ducking into the cover of trees to hide away from the world. And that baby bouncer I saw, I imagined instead as an abandoned child. This story quickly became a tribute to blended families that come together in unexpected ways. It is a beautiful thing when people find healing and are able to release hold of their hurts to make room for more love to grow.

Thank you, Amanda – loved getting to know your characters!

Amanda Cox is a blogger and a curriculum developer for a national nonprofit youth leadership organization, but her first love is communicating through story. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Bible and theology and a master’s degree in professional counseling. Her studies and her interactions with hurting families over a decade have allowed her to create multidimensional characters that connect emotionally with readers. Amanda lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with her husband and their three
children.

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Visit Amanda’s website and blog
Buy at Amazon: The Edge of Belonging or Koorong

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