I met Amy Hatvany at the Tucson book festival number of years ago. We were on the same panel and I felt like I had met my soul sister. I loved her from the start and am a fan of her books and her massive heart. So delighted to have Amy on my blog as she shares about her new release,Somewhere Out There.
Here’s Amy!
As so often happens in my writing life, the idea for Somewhere Out There began in the smallest of ways, after my cousin—a wonderful, single man who has fostered and adopted several children over the years—told me how one of the young boys he was fostering reacted upon seeing a fully stocked pantry in their home. This six-year-old child had never lived in an actual home, instead spending most of his short life sleeping in car with his mother.
My cousin’s description of this undernourished child’s reaction to seeing a pantry full of food—”Is this all ours?” the boy asked as he sat down and began to touch the cans of peaches and boxes of rice. “Do we really get to eat it?”—was an image that my heart couldn’t shake, and it was from there that the premise for Somewhere Out There was born.
As I began my research, I learned that a child enters the foster care system every two minutes in the United States, most commonly because of parental abuse or neglect. Of these children, some are adopted, but most spend years bouncing from one foster family to another or living in a state institution, never having a place to truly call home. I thought about what kind of circumstances would lead a mother to sign away her parental rights, giving up her two young daughters to the state because she was unable to care for them. I imagined how different the sisters’ lives might be if one of them was adopted and the other ended up never having a family to call her own. I considered what might happen if the younger sister’s adoptive parents waited more than three decades to tell her that she had an older sister, and how the two sisters find each other, then have to decide whether or not to search out the mother who abandoned them.
How different would these two women be, considering how each of them was raised? Would they connect, simply because they were sisters, or would it easier for both of them to just walk away? And what about their mother? What had she gone through over the years? How did she survive the guilt of abandoning her own children, and what happens when they manage to find her? These are just some of the questions I address in this story, told from all three women’s point of view.
By the time I finished writing, I felt as though I had experienced each woman’s journey firsthand. Somewhere Out There was a joy to create, and I hope that after reading it, you end up feeling the same way.
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Thank you, Amy for sharing with us! Readers, I hope you’ll get your own copy of this book to enjoy. She has a talent for penning such realistic, flawed characters who steal into your heart and never really let go. Look for Amy and her new release online:
Amazon | B&N | IndieBound | Amy’s Website
Before you go, I have a special giveaway of some of my favorite women’s fiction novels by my favorite authors and friends for one lucky winner. Leave a comment and you’ll be entered for a chance to win! Contest ends Sunday with winner announced Monday.
my grandma was a foster mother for many years, many of the foster children kept in touch after they were adopted.
love the plot for your story addressing a lot of the questions people would have learning of adoption and siblings.
Somewhere Out There sounds good. Fostering and adopting children is a blessing to many children.
As a foster parent and an adoptive parent, this book hits home. I could write a book about the children I fostered and the inhumane living conditions and treatment they endured. It’s heartbreaking. I can’t wait to read Amy’s new book. It sounds wonderful.
I SO want to read this book. It’s a wonderful description and having grown up with a sister I could not have imagined life without her. I have always hope that I one day have the courage to become a foster parent. Congratulations on your new release.
Congratulations on your new release. I have a cousin who foster parent for special need children and has adopted 2 of them. My grandparents were foster parents for many years. I have cousins who were adopted from their foster care, and they had an older brother, who they have never known or found. He was adopted by someone else.
Amy, this sounds like an amazing book. What a journey for all of these characters. I used to represent the state in dependency cases, they are so difficult and heartbreaking. Even the good cases, had so many questions. This will go on my TBR pile for sure!
Congratulations on your new book! It sounds really good. I’ve added it to my “must read” list.
I love her and I can’t wait to read this book!
Congratulations on your book Amy. It sounds like a fascinating and emotional read. I look forward to reading it.
Carol L
This sounds wonderful–and reminds me a bit of a book I read decades ago and sti s with me: Danielle Steele’s Kaleidoscope. Can’t wait to pick this up!!!
**still is with me
Sorry about that!
Congrats on your new book Amy. I’ve read some of your previous books and loved them!! Recommending them to everyone I know. I am retired after 37 years of teaching high school & middle school. I have first hand knowledge of the lives of some of those in foster homes, never being adopted. It is heart breaking, yet I’ve seem some really resilliant kids who made a wonderful life for themselves. One even had a baby when she was a junior.
I am looking forward to reading this new book of yours and seeing how you dealt with this difficult situation.
this book sounds like an emotional read. it will be interesting to read this story from the 3 women’s point of views.
I’m ready to have my heart broken. Sounds like such a marvellous and emotional read.
Thanks for featuring Amy. Excited to read this book!
that’s for introducing me to a new author Amy, the book sounds so good, the kids I tutor some our foster kids and some don’t have enough food to eat its sad, I help out at farm share and get them the food they need for I feel no one should go hungry, I’ve been there and my kids came first! love to read this book!
Congratulations and best wishes on this
captivating new release. Thanks for this fascinating post and wonderful feature.
Congrats on your new release, sounds like an awesome read and I would love to read it.
Sounds fabulous….a whole box of Kleenex type book!
I am really excited for this book. It looks so good. Thanks for the opportunity.
It really does sound like an amazing books! Thanks for sharing with us!
Congratulations on your new book!
it sounds interesting
This sounds like an excellent read!
Sound like a wonderful story. I look forward to reading it.
This book sounds so good. And I enjoyed reading about how Amy thought of the story to begin with. I hope that little boy enjoyed eating the food in the pantry. Bless his heart.
Congratulations, #21, Amber Kuehler, you are the winner of my favorite Women’s Fiction bundle. Please email me with your mailing address and I’ll get your package in the mail. 🙂
Happy Reading, all!