Today
I’m welcoming my friend and awesome author Amy Fellner Dominy, whose latest YA,
A MATTER OF HEART, just arrived in May from Delacorte. Amy is delightful and
funny and very smart, and I was fortunate to be able to hang out with her at
TLA in Austin this past April. She’s also the author of one of my favorite
books, the award-winning, OyMG, about a
Jewish girl who wins a scholarship to a Christian speech camp and the things
that ensue, both comic and serious from there.
Here’s
the basic premise of A MATTER OF HEART, which author Lauren Myracle calls, “A
novel that will make your heart pound—anxiously, joyfully, triumphantly.”
Readers will happily sink into this
emotionally grounded, contemporary young adult novel about the sudden end of
one girl’s Olympic swimming dreams and the struggles she endures before
realizing there are many things that define who we are.
Sixteen-year-old Abby Lipman is on
track to win the state swim championships and qualify for the Olympic trials
when a fainting incident at a swim meet leads to the diagnosis of a deadly
heart condition. Now Abby is forced to discover who she is without the one
thing that’s defined her entire life.
Hopefully
you are as excited to read this on as I am!
I
asked Amy about her inspiration for A MATTER OF HEART, and here’s what she
said:
What would you do if the one thing you love, the one thing
you’ve ever dreamed of doing, the only
thing you’re good at…is the thing that will kill you?
That’s the question Abby faces in A MATTER OF HEART. Abby is
sixteen, she’s a swimmer good enough to compete for a spot on the Olympic team
in three weeks when she discovers that she has a heart condition. One that
could kill her if she swims.
So what would you do?
What would I do?
That’s how I usually start writing a novel—with a question that
I can’t answer. Of course none of us wants to die. But how do you give up the
one thing you’ve been living for? That’s the thought I had on the day I brought
my kids to their high school for a heart test.
At the time both of my kids were varsity athletes. My daughter
played tennis and my son played baseball. I’d read about a football player from
their school who had died of an enlarged heart (the medical name is
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy) and his mom had started a foundation to bring
heart tests to schools across the country. She never wanted the same thing to
happen to another student athlete.
On the day of the heart test, I met the mom, Sharon Bates. The
story of her son, Anthony, really affected me. It started me thinking and
imagining and questioning.
The result is A MATTER OF HEART and I hope it’s a story that
will touch your heart, too. Abby’s not just dealing with her health and the
pressures of competition, but she’s also got parents she wants to please. A boyfriend
who also swims. And then there’s Alec…well… you’ll read about him.
This is Abby’s story and I hope none of us will ever have to
make the decision that she has to make.
But what if you did?
For
more info about Amy Fellner Dominy and her books, you can visit her at www.amydominy.com
Or
follow her on Twitter: @amydominy
