More on Rolfe Author, Ruth Agle and Hazel Twigg & The Hollyhock Hideaway

As promised, here is Ruth's bio.  She announced on her blog yesterday that there will be a very special price for her books ordered on Amazon on Black Friday!  Think Christmas gifts! 

Hazel Twigg & the Hollyhock Hideaway is basically about three things.

The first is Iowa: Ruth Agle is the middle child in a family of seven kids whose dad had a healthy dose of wanderlust. She’s lived in many places from Hawaii to England. Nine years ago, she moved to a small, dusty town in Iowa with a population of less than 600 because it beckoned her with its flashing stoplight and cold but welcoming people.

The second is dolls: For the past 25 years Ruth has been collecting composition (sawdust and glue) dolls from the 1920s and 30s. These dolls are often found abandoned in attics or forgotten in closets or tucked away in barns. She gently restores these O.L.D.s (Once-Loved Dolls) and makes new clothing for them so that they can go back out into the world and be loved once again.

And third: All her life, Ruth has believed in magic. She read all the Oz books she could get her hands on and dreamed of one day visiting that place.
Which brings us to her book.
Hazel Twigg is a little girl with no known relatives other than her overprotective mother, who never lets Hazel out of her sight. One ordinary day, two things happen to Hazel that have never happened before: her mother not only lets her out of her sight, but she puts her on a train to an unknown destination to meet a relative. A relative! From the moment Hazel meets Aunt Ruth, strange things start to happen. Hazel finds herself pulled into a world of magic, where old dolls come to life and sinister forces use every means in their power to remove Hazel from the Hollyhock Hideaway and to stop Hazel from achieving her destiny as the last Holder in the Hollyhock line. And it all happens in a tiny town in the Midwest. Land of Scotcharoos, ham balls, and tenderloin sandwiches the size of platters.

Hazel Twigg & the Hollyhock Hideaway is a very homegrown book in its very early stages of life. It’s the first in a series. The entire book is 81,000 words and 410 pages long. Even though it is novel length, it has been beautifully illustrated done by artist Nina Khalova, who lives in the Ukraine. It’s available on Amazon, or if you happen to catch a “Hazel Twigg” presentation at your local library, books will be available for purchase there. For more information or to contact Ruth, go to hazeltwigg.com/blog. 

another of the amazing illustrations in the book

Exciting Day at the Library

This past Wed. was an exciting day for our little library.  For about four years, we've been hearing about and learning more about my fellow transplant, Ruth Agle's, repair and resale of O.L.D.s (Once-Loved Dolls).  She's so talented and creative with being able to repair broken arms and repaint lips and eyebrows of these composite dolls.  Not only that but she sews 2-3 outfits and makes accessories for each doll using old jewelry, lace, wool and leather from her stash. You can read about each O.L.D. that she has restored and sold on eBay at her blog hazeltwigg.com.

In her spare time, Ruth has been writing her first book, Hazel Twigg & The Hollyhock Hideaway.  Its finish has been much awaited by many of us here in Rolfe so we were thrilled to be able to be at her library program and first book signing this past Wed.!!  We actually got to buy the books which she personally signed for us! 

Bill's mom has already finished hers!  I'm on page 111 and loving it already.  There is so much to tell you - this might be another one of my posts that has to be done in multiple posts!  The really FUN thing is that this book is actually based on our town which Ruth calls Reliance in the book.  One of the main characters is Aunt Ruth which is really our Ruth! 

Throughout the book she mentions many of the things I've talked about here on my blog like when you're driving here, people wave at you even if they don't know you.  One of my LOL! parts was on page 55 when Hazel saw "the thinnest phone book she had ever seen.  It had both the yellow and white pages and was still less than a half-inch thick."  I thought the same thing when I saw it after moving here from the Indianapolis area where the white pages alone were at least three inches thick!  Glenn and his girlfriend were here recently, and I had even showed our phone book to Lori and she couldn't believe it either!  It's going to be fun to see how she works all the things us transplants notice when we first arrive here into the story!

Ruth had her latest O.L.D. with her Wed., Cora, the Town Crier.  I see that she sold for over $400, and she was a small doll!

There are lots of beautiful color illustrations in the book.  Ruth's illustrator is a woman in her early 20's from the Ukraine.  Ruth had all of these large, original illustrations with her for us to see. 

I'll post Ruth's bio in my next post.  In the meantime, you can order her book on Amazon!  Or, let me know if you want a book signed especially for someone, and I can get it for you.  It would make a great Christmas gift!