MOON, MOON, TELL ME TRUE

A Novel by Ellen Tifft

Painting, "Balancing Act," by Mavin Ambrose of Elmira, New York

The included summary of the novel tells us that...

Set in the Finger Lakes region of New York, just after World War II, Moon, Moon, Tell Me True presents an unusual cast of characters: the personnel of an amusement park running downhill. Its heroine is Zelma Prokova, a young dancer in the Girly Show, poorly educated, full of hope, irrepressible in her desire to succeed. Her father is the carnival thin man, her mother - the fat lady, her friends - a hermaphrodite, a snake-charmer and other curious folk. Her nemesis is Dwain Slocum, manager of the floorshow at the restaurant, who is reputedly connected to big-city crime. When he asks her to dance for him, she knows that she must accept in order to advance her career. But what's the catch? Zelma hates Dwain and longs for the day that will give the answer to her stage song, "Moon, Moon, tell me true, when will I ever say I do?" At the same time she is haunted by the legend of Newamee, the Indian princess who lives under the nearby lake and draws her lover to his doom. As Zelma's story unfolds, we begin to care about this heroine the way we used to do back in the good old days, when books were still books.

Ellen Tifft loves the sounds of things, and that is the one aspect that she states as unique about her novel. She wanted to portray her love of sound into the story by creating dialogue that she believes is comparable to the everyday use of language. She wants the novel to have a true sense of "realism" even though the story is not about actual events. According to the author: This book is purely fiction but the characters seem very real to the reader. The emotions are strong and the readers sense it with them. Readers feel sad or happy, a few have said it made them feel younger, and some say it makes them feel like dancing.

You can read more about Ellen Tifft's novel at the Xenos Books web site

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