Guest Post & Giveaway: Mary Lowry

Today I’m pleased to have Mary Lowry, author of The Earthquake Machine, here to stop by Inklings Read with a guest post….AND giveaway!

About Mary Lowry

Goodreads | Website | Twitter

Mary Pauline Lowry has worked as a forest firefighter, screenwriter, open water lifeguard, construction worker, and advocate in the movement to end violence against women. Due to no fault of her sweet parents, at 15 she ran away from home and made it all the way to Matamoros, Mexico. She believes girls should make art, have adventures, and read books that show them the way.

---

girls can’t do that?, or can they?

by Mary Lowry

I wasn’t much of a tomboy growing up. I was mostly a bookworm. I devoured books. I hated that school classes distracted me from reading and by junior high I was a pro at hiding a novel behind a propped-open binder and reading my way through the school day.

The books I read allowed me to live fantastical lives and go on all sorts of adventures. But I wasn’t very old before I realized I wanted to have adventures myself.

When I was 15 I ran away from home. I went south from my hometown of Austin to South Padre Island and then to Matamoros, Mexico. That trip inspired my novel THE EARTHQUAKE MACHINE about a girl who leaves behind her country, her family, and everything she knows to travel deep into the heart of Mexico.

The book questions the expectations placed on young girls. That’s a subject I grappled with myself when I was growing up. Though I love toenail polish and girl talk as much as the next gal, I also wanted the chance to roam the world and have adventures the way I often saw boys doing in movies. So when I graduated college I joined an elite crew of forest firefighters. Together we traveled the American West battling blazes. I decided back then that I never wanted to have a normal sort of life.

I want girls who read THE EARTHQUAKE MACHINE to understand that they can shed expectations that being “girly” and “feminine” also means being docile and shying away from challenges and adventures.

---

Giveaway

Mary has been generous enough to giveaway one ebook copy of her book, The Earthquake Machine! To enter, please use the rafflecopter form below! If you can't see it you may need to click "Read More" at the bottom of this post. But first, here’s a bit about the prize:

The Earthquake Machine

Goodreads | Amazon.com

The book every girl should read, and every girl’s parents hope she’ll never read.

The Earthquake Machine tells the story of 14 year-old Rhonda. On the outside, everything looks perfect in Rhonda’s world, but at home Rhonda has to deal with a manipulative father who keeps her mentally ill mother hooked on pharmaceuticals. The only reliable person in Rhonda’s life is her family’s Mexican yardman, Jesús. But when the INS deports Jesús back to his home state of Oaxaca, Rhonda is left alone with her increasingly painful family situation.

Determined to find her friend Jésus, Rhonda seizes an opportunity to run away during a camping trip with friends to Big Bend National Park. She swims to the Mexican side of the Rio Grande and makes her way to the border town of Milagros, Mexico. There a peyote- addled bartender convinces her she won’t be safe traveling alone into the country’s interior. So with the bartender’s help, Rhonda cuts her hair and assumes the identity of a Mexican boy named Angel. She then sets off on a burro across the desert to look for Jesús. Thus begins a wild adventure that fulfills the longing of readers eager for a brave and brazen female protagonist.

a Rafflecopter giveaway