Monthly Archives: September 2025

by | September 21, 2025 · 5:20 am

Book Tour Stop: Book Review of Deborah Brasket’s When Things Go Missing

I’m thrilled to be part of the blog tour for the new novel written by Deborah Brasket whose blog Writing on the Edge of the Wild  I’ve been reading almost as long as I have been blogging.  I’ve reviewed this very special book, and I’d love for you to read the review, hoping that will motivate you to pick it up for yourself.

EBOOK GIVEAWAY The top 3 people who leave the most likes and comments on the participating blogs will be emailed a free eBook of When Things Go Missing (epub or mobi) PLUS two extra chapters (pdf or doc file)

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REVIEW

As I began reading Deborah Brasket’s debut novel, When Things Go Missing, I was expecting a smart and well-written story since I had been reading Brasket’s thoughtful blog for at least ten years. What I didn’t expect was such gorgeous writing, significant and densely woven themes and images, or how strongly the book would make me feel.

This novel is the story of a traditionally structured family of four and how the pieces that are the individuals fit together—smoothly, imperfectly, and jaggedly. The mother leaves one day without saying goodbye or providing a destination. At that point, daughter, son, and husband all respond differently, depending on their relationship with Mom/Frannie. As might be expected, they feel as if the center of the family is gone, leaving them with only tenuous connections to each other.

When Franny leaves town, her son, Cal, is a heroin addict who relies on the help of a rotating roster of enablers—including his mother—to give him money or a place to stay. The younger child, Kay, is a graduate student in archaeology, focused on finding a place for herself in her field. They both rely on their mother emotionally, but with the maternal tenderness spigot suddenly all but closed tight, they struggle to discover who they are and how they can succeed in life whether their mother is a part of their day-to-day lives or not.

The character portraits are carefully drawn. Brasket captures not only Cal’s addictive personality, but his sister’s love wrapped in resentment for the way he siphons attention for negative reasons. Even if the characters and their fascinating evolution throughout the book were all When Things Go Missing has to offer, it would be enough. I couldn’t look away for an instant. Every moment was a surprise and yet each new action made absolute sense for these people and their troubles and their conflicted emotions for each other.

Anyone who has an addict in their lives will be able to relate to this book at a profound level. Anyone who is part of a dysfunctional family group will be compelled to learn from the psychology at work here. And, finally, any parent who ever wanted to just get away from everyone and everything to search for peace and to find themselves, will feel a connection with the character who is missing throughout the novel—Franny herself. Where Franny finds herself will surprise and please you. The character her husband and children find within themselves will gratify you. I promise.

When Things Go Missing made me cry. I could not stop thinking about it when I finished reading. Frankly, I was stunned by the beauty and the brilliance.

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Following you will find the book information, description, and author bio–as well as the blog tour schedule.

PUBLISHER: Sea Stone Press
PUB DATE: September 22, 2025
PAGE COUNT: 352
FORMAT: E-book $8.99, paperback $14,95, hardback $21.95
AVAILABLE NOW at Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, and all major retailers.

ABOUT WHEN THINGS GO MISSING
When Fran Albright turns fifty, she heads to the grocery store and keeps going until she reached the tip of South America, leaving behind an empty hole in the lives of her bewildered family. Her daughter Kay scrambles to finish her master’s degree while trying to glue the family back together. Her son Cal is torn between grief and rage as he fights his own addictions and demons without her there to help. And Walter tracks his wife’s journey southward with her credit card purchases, continuing to care for her as he always has, before heading north to Alaska. Adding to the mystery of the mother’s disappearance are the elated messages she leaves on Kay’s phone and the strange photos she sends Cal, who studies them like hieroglyphs he must decipher to save her and save himself.

When Things Go Missing is a masterful exploration of loss, loyalty, and self-renewal. Told through the viewpoints of Kay, Cal, and Walter, this emotionally rich, mystery-driven family drama is wrapped up in a propulsive page-turner you cannot help getting swept up in.

GENRES: Book Club Fiction, Literary Fiction, Family Saga, Women’s Fiction, Sibling
Fiction, Addiction Fiction, Introspective Family Drama, Healing and Self-Renewal

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After sailing around the world with her husband and children, teaching literature to college students, and fighting for affordable housing as the leader of a nonprofit, Deborah J Brasket finally settled down among the golden hills and vineyards of California’s central coast to write the kinds of novels she loves to read.
http://www.deborahjbrasket.com
seastonepress@gmail.com

WEBSITES AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Author website and blog, Deborah J. Brasket, Author ~ Writing on the Edge of the Wild –

Novels

Substack Newsletter, https://deborahbrasket.substack.com/

Facebook, Deborah J. Brasket, Writer –  https://www.facebook.com/DeborahJBrasket/

Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/55448191.Deborah_J_Brasket

Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/dbrasket/

LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-brasket-39384370/

 

BOOK BLOG PARTICIPANTS

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by | September 15, 2025 · 12:10 pm

Kitty No-News News and Other Updates

I know I haven’t written about my kitties for a long time, so I thought I would update about them. We have four, all seniors.

Perry, my true love and favorite fur person (only rivaled by dearly departed Pear Blossom). I won’t say much as I don’t like to “jinx” anything. Gray and white, medium-long-haired.

Sloopy Anne, my best little girl who sleeps with the gardener and me. One of our other cats (Lily) hates Sloopy Anne with a passion, so we have a gate dividing our house in half. Sloops lives in the bedroom half. Tortico–tortoisehell from the top and calico from the bottom.

Lily, one of my son’s cats who I took in. She is so mean to Sloopy so Lily is confined to the front half of the house. The reason this is fair is because Lily is a dominant cat in great need of human touch and companionship. Sloopy is more reticent and happy in back. If the gardener sits down, Lily climbs on his chest up to his neck and sticks there like velcro. She can’t get through the gate because she’s fat. Orange and white long-haired who knows she’s beautiful.

Meesker, the other one of my son’s cats. He’s shy and was bullied by Lily for years, so for the last couple of years he’s lived in the back of the house with Sloopy Anne. However, just recently, he decided he likes it out front with Perry. Lily doesn’t dare bully Meesker out here because Perry keeps her in line. Perry is the benevolent king. Meesker is so skinny (GI issues) that he slides between the bars of the gate we put up so he can come and go as he pleases. (Actually so can Perry when he really really wants to do it). All black with black whiskers and toe beans.

The boys, Perry and Meesker:

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The wonderful journal Gone Lawn has published two of my micros: “Nature’s Ways” and “The New Girl.” The first one is fanciful. The second is kind of heart-breaking. It’s in honor of all the new girls who didn’t come into a school with the best clothes or nurturing.

https://gonelawn.net/journal/issue61/Castle.php

“Nature’s Ways” begins this way:

Ethel hoisted herself off the old, webbed chair with one hand and a sigh, grabbed her muddy gloves, and slipped on wet grass toward the garden at the back wall. Her dear Buttercup had passed in her arms the day before, and her enthusiasm for her garden, even life itself, had seemed to die with the little marmalade cat.

“The New Girl” begins this way:

The school secretary handed you off to Miss Dixon, as if you were a slippery, prickery, stinky fish, and you sat in that front row seat where nobody else wanted to sit and didn’t look around so everybody could stare at you until lunch, and I admit I was no different, noting your limp faded dress,

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Two of my micros were finalists in a contest by The Ekphrastic Review. 

You can find them at:

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/perfect-ten-marathon-flash-fiction-finalists-and-winner

If you go to that link you will find all the finalist stories as well as the winning story.

Here are the two inspiring art pieces that I wrote from with beginnings of the stories.

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Rogue Agent published two of my collages at https://www.rogueagentjournal.com/lcastle  along with a written description of each collage and some comments I make about them.

These collages were inspired by Sylvia Plath poems. The first, “Feverish,” is based on the poem “Fever 103.” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/29479/fever-103

This is one of my favorite poems ever. I hope you give it a read! Plath wrote it after she had been plagued by with a high fever for quite some time.

The other collage, “What a Thrill,” was inspired by the Plath poem, “Cut.”

https://allpoetry.com/poem/8498445-Cut-by-Sylvia-Plath

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