About the Book

Book: Chasing the Blue Boat: A Novel of Longing

Author: Connie Kallback

Genre: Historical Coming of Age

Release Date: November 26, 2024

Nine-year-old Dana Foster will follow her older brother, Luke, wherever he goes. From climbing on ledges, jumping in a fish pond, and causing general mischief, Luke is fearless. But when tragedy strikes the Foster family, everything that Dana has ever known is suddenly turned upside down. When the storms of life come, will the Foster family stand firm in their faith? Or will they shatter under the pressure? Suddenly, a blue boat that Dana and Luke received from their uncle leads Dana on a journey of faith, hope, and love that she will not soon forget.

In this coming-of-age story, discover the truths of God’s grace in suffering, the blessing of forgiveness, and how to hold on to your faith when all hope seems lost.

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About the Author

Connie Kallback grew up on the plains of Cheyenne, Wyoming, attended the University of Wyoming, and graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle. She transitioned from English teacher to publishing in New Jersey with CCMI/McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, and CPP, Inc, in positions from writer to acquisitions and managing editor. Her early writing, penned while teaching, appeared in magazines, newspapers and literary journals. No longer wearing the hats of Mary Poppins or Sherlock Holmes, necessities of raising six children in two separate families, she writes in South Carolina where she lives with her husband.

More from Connie

The idea for Chasing the Blue Boat began with the memory of a dangerous escapade from my early childhood years. The thought of it scares me to this day.

I grew up in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and lived one block from the Wyoming State Capitol Building. One day I followed my older brother there, up nearly 20 steps from the ground to the grand side entrance with giant doors flanked by a waist-high wall and soaring support columns. We scaled the wall close to the building and placed our feet on an architectural ledge that circled the entire structure. Hoping to follow it all the way around, we began to sidle sideways, hugging the stone.

I remember being scared, but my unrealistic stage of thinking made me hope the grass would break my fall!

We made it around the first corner – I don’t know how – and continued along the front until a woman in an office inside spotted me. Knowing we shouldn’t be there, we reversed our steps and ran home.

That’s how the fictional coming-of-age story begins. Dana, the young girl, joins her brother in many adventures before a tragedy changes her whole family and sends each of them on separate journeys of suffering, accompanied by hope and forgiveness.

Interview with the Author

Which character did you connect with best in Chasing the Blue Boat?

Dana Foster, main character in this coming-of-age novel, endures many of my own emotional experiences in growing up. You might think I’d connect with her most for that reason, but my favorite character is teenager Seth Morgan who appears later in the book. His devotion to God along with his sense of humor and light-hearted way of approaching life appeals to me. Along with his grandmother, he reminds Dana that God has turned up for her in ways she hadn’t realized. And yet, he seems unable to stay in a serious mode for long. I have no idea where he came from in my creative imagination, but I just love that kid.

Which author influenced you the most?

It may seem strange to name Richard Wilbur as an influencer of my work. Rather than a novelist, he was a poet, translator, essayist, lyricist, and author of children’s books. Words, the connecting points of them all, became the first love of my life and remain so to this day. His poems help me appreciate the wonder and power of words and sounds produced by rhythm, rhyme, and other techniques. An example of a line from an early poem demonstrates onomatopoeia, imitating the sound of what is being described. The slip, slip of the paddlewheel, emulates the water’s sound as it slips through a boat’s paddlewheel.

His poetry is masterful but understandable to most readers. One of my favorite poems, The Writer, describes his daughter writing a story. She types quickly, pauses, and types again.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing

From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys

Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.

The next stanzas detail the struggle of a starling once caught in that room. It tries to find a way out, but bloodied from hitting the window glass, it rests until the poet and daughter steal in to open a window. They watch the bird lifting from a chair, Beating a smooth course for the right window/And clearing the sill of the world.

The final stanza ties the bird’s struggle to that of the daughter, struggling to create. The journey is hard but worth it.

What are you reading right now?

The Collector of Burned Books by Roseanna M. White. A recommendation from a friend, it’s the first of her books I’ve chosen. It was a no-brainer for me because World War II is one of my favorite historical periods of all time. This is why: I was a preschooler when WWII ended – a clue to my ancient state of being. I knew a war was going on even though I was too young to understand it all. My brother and I enthusiastically stomped empty tin cans to flatten them for the war recycling effort and added thin aluminum we stripped from our chewing gum wrappers. I also remember being at my grandparents’ house one night when the town practiced a blackout. Grandpa, a block captain with a smoked-lens flashlight, checked neighboring houses to make sure all lights stayed off. My aunt told me it was to make sure strange airplanes flying over couldn’t see our town. Again, what did I know? I put it all together in retrospect.

Another memory: On August 14, 1945, I rode in the back seat of our family car in Cheyenne, Wyoming, when all the church bells in town rang in competition with deep-throated train whistles from the Union Pacific Railroad and people whooped it up in the streets. From a nearby sidewalk, a paper boy yelled, “Extra, Extra! Read all about it,” like a scene from the movies, and Dad stopped the car to buy a paper from him. It was Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day) that marked the end of WWII. I’ve never witnessed anything like it since. It’s still amazing for me to realize what that day meant.

Describe your view as you’re sitting in your writing chair.

It’s the best writing room I’ve ever had with three walls of glass to let me take in how our back yard slopes toward neighbors’ yards of rolling wooded acres. Activities of rabbits, squirrels, and birds occasionally distract me from writing. I once wrote about a rabbit standing erect as a guard while his mate casually ate the grass, but I cut the scene when the book became too long.

If you could have one book or piece of art or music on a deserted island, what would it be and why? It would be the Holy Bible because it reveals not only the history of life after Adam, but the emotional responses of human behavior ranging from grief, hatred, jealousy, and greed to joy, love, kindness, and forgiveness, to list a few. The characters in Chasing the Blue Boat slip into many of these modes. And selfishly, I wouldn’t run out of reading material. Not only does it contain the greatest story ever told, it presents numerous stories to be read again and again.