Unspoken: A Dust Novel  by Jann Alexander

A farm devastated. A dream destroyed. A family scattered.

And one Texas girl determined to salvage the wreckage.

Ruby Lee Becker can’t breathe. It’s 1935 in the heart of the Dust Bowl, and the Becker family has clung to its Texas Panhandle farm through six years of drought, dying crops, and dust storms. On Black Sunday, the biggest blackest storm of them all threatens ten-year-old Ruby with deadly dust pneumonia and requires a drastic choice —one her mother, Willa Mae, will forever regret.

To survive, Ruby is forced to leave the only place she’s ever known. Far from home in Waco, and worried her mother has abandoned her, she’s determined to get back.

Even after twelve years, Willa Mae still clings to memories of her daughter. Unable to reunite with Ruby, she’s broken by their separation.

Through rollicking adventures and harrowing setbacks, the tenacious Ruby Lee embarks on her perilous quest for home —and faces her one unspoken fear.

Heart-wrenching and inspiring, the tale of Ruby Lee’s dogged perseverance and Willa Mae’s endless love for her daughter shines a light on women driven apart by disaster who bravely lean on one another, find comfort in remade families, and redefine what home means.

Buy Links:

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/mqP7ke

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Author’s Website: https://www.jannalexander.com/buy-unspoken

Guest Post:

My Writing Journey’s Taken Me All Over Texas, on Wheels, by Click, and by Page

That’s how I gathered ten years of Texas historical research. Now I’m transforming it into The Dust Series, set in a mythical town in the Texas Panhandle — and wherever the characters roam.

Unspoken is historically accurate, and wickedly fictional.

It’s a true enough tale of a Texas girl more tenacious than fire ants who faces air she can’t breathe, and what’s gone unspoken, to find family and remake home. Set in the Texas Panhandle during the Dirty Thirties and beyond, an era of drought and dusters and war, it’s at once the story of a mother and daughter and a love letter to strong women who blaze trails, bolster one another, and prevail.

“There are things, I wanted to tell him, unspoken things that can never be fixed. But I said nuthin.” —RUBY LEE BECKER in Unspoken

Unspoken is the first Texas novel in The Dust Series to be published.

Featuring dual narratives of estranged daughter and mother, Unspoken is the second Texas novel I’ve completed but first to be published. Its predecessor, Vacancy, is the inspiration for the series and coming soon. Unspoken’s sequel is underway now, which gives my characters (and me) a chance to keep rambling all over Texas, unearthing some lesser-known and fascinating history — as my research into the lesser-known events in the Dust Bowl era in the 1930s revealed.

There are miles and miles of Texas.

If you don’t think so, just set out in your car from Texarkana one morning, and see how long it takes you to arrive in New Mexico. You may end up asleep at the wheel. To research my books, I drove across Texas in many directions, of course, sometimes following old maps I’d discovered, and after one 600-mile road trip, my license plate and front grill showed it.

A 1940 map of Texas shows you how far you can go.

It’s easier to click than to drive. I uncovered a 1940 map (and many more like it) by click, that showed me there’s lots of territory to explore, wherever you land. It’s a map I referred to plenty, as I was moving my characters in Unspoken from the Panhandle to Waco to Wichita Falls and points in-between. (Not all were willing travelers, but those were the tenacious types.)

There were plenty more pages to turn, too, as I researched.

My collection of books on Texas grew, married, had children, cousins, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and so on, as I read out-of-print finds from secondhand bookshops or firsthand nonfiction accounts of events, along with art and photography books of the times. Immersing myself in so many visual and written sources spurred many more characters and plotlines. Stay tuned as The Dust Series unfolds. •

Unspoken, the first book in The Dust Series by Jann Alexander, features strong women facing the worst the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and world war can dish out, and somehow persevere.

About the Author:

Jann Alexander writes characters who face down their fears. Her novels are as close-to-true as fiction can get.

Jann is the author of the historical novel, UNSPOKEN, set in the Texas Panhandle during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression eras, and her first book in The Dust Series.

Jann writes on all things creative in her weekly blog, Pairings. She’s a 20-year resident of central Texas and creator of the Vanishing Austin photography series. As a former art director for ad agencies and magazines in the D.C. area, and a painter, photographer, and art gallery owner, creativity is her practice and passion.

Jann’s  lifelong storytelling habit and her more recent zeal for Texas history merged to become the historical Dust Series. When she is not reading, writing, or creating, she bikes, hikes, skis, and kayaks. She lives in central Texas with her own personal Texan (and biggest fan), Karl, and their Texas mutt, Ruby.

Jann always brakes for historical markers.

Author Links:

Website: https://www.jannalexander.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JannAlexanderAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jannalextx/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jannalextx.bsky.social

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jannalextx/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/2708203210

Book Bub for Unspoken: https://www.bookbub.com/books/unspoken-a-dust-novel-the-dust-series-book-1-by-jann-alexander

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/jannalexander

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jann_alexander

Goodreads for Unspoken: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/230163000-unspoken