Blue Valentine: Smoke Signal Press Releases New Novel Van Diemen at 17 Offering Fresh Perspective on Star-Crossed Lovers

Phoenix, AZ, February 03, 2011 --(PR.com)-- "Star-crossed lovers" is a phrase used to describe a romantic pairing that is disapproved of and usually thwarted by events or others around it. The phrase originates in astrology, from a time where people believed the stars ruled over their fates, but also has other connotations such as lovers who come together by chance, passionately, but without knowing each other very well, and without being able to think about the other in a rational way.

There are many famous examples of star-crossed lovers in our culture, Romeo and Juliet being first among them. Their families feuded with each other. Catherine and Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights and Jack and Rose from the Titanic shared somewhat doomed relationships because of the disparity of their social standing. Lancelot betrayed a trust King Arthur placed in him to be with Queen Guinevere. Jake and Neytiri from Avatar were from different, warring worlds and Bella and Edward of Twilight were different beings, in fact, one the favored prey of the predator.

The debut novel by Jeania Kimbrough, Van Diemen at 17, published by Smoke Signal Press in December 2010, explores a less stereotypical, but perhaps more common than we think, kind of star-crossed love affair — that between an older man and a younger girl.

It’s funny how age doesn’t usually matter to an older couple. A difference of seven, even ten years between lovers past thirty would hardly make one think twice. But consider a girl seventeen and a guy twenty-four as Kimbrough does in Van Diemen at 17, and the story develops a star-crossed dynamic influencing how two basically well-intentioned, smart and decent people get caught up in a mess.

To be sure, there are other things going on in Van Diemen at 17 that add to the angst Kara, an American exchange student in mid-eighties Tasmania, is going through. She’s had a tough time settling in and keeps moving families, and this provokes an internal crisis of confidence that leads to the development of some very self-sabotaging behavior when 24 year old med student Ben, a former exchange student — now a volunteer with her program, comes into her life. Also, things only get more complicated for Kara when she’s involved in an accident that threatens her program status, as well as her budding relationship with Ben. Yet the pair find in each other something they desire at this moment in their lives, and the heart of this story is romance. It’s a romance between two people who wouldn’t normally be together, a romance those around Kara want to disrupt. Kimbrough leaves it up to the reader to decide how they feel about this essential conflict, as well as other coming-of-age, self-actualization themes the novel encompasses. All main characters are developed in such a way as the reader might understand why they act the way do. There are no one-dimensional villains, no easy answers, and no story-book happy endings. Like the color of its cover, Van Diemen at 17 offers the reader a romantic blue valentine, instead of red.

This novel won the 2010 Moonbeam Children’s Book Award for the Young Adult, Mature Issues category.

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