Things Kate Milford Remembers from Middle School: The Left Handed Fate Blog Tour

Today, in honor of her August 23 release of The Left Handed Fate, Kate Milford joins us to share some of her own remembrances from Middle School:

Things that I remember from middle school, in no particular order: I always seemed to wear the wrong clothes; I discovered Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising series; I had a crush on a guy for the entire three years and then he went to a different high school before I could figure out what to do about it; I made friends with a girl named Alli who also had a crush on that guy the whole time. I somehow made it onto the dance team, even though I wasn’t particularly good at dancing; I wrote terrible poetry I thought was epic; I didn’t die from any of the incidences of extreme embarrassment that happened to me. (There were many, a disproportionate number of which seemed to have to do with the aforementioned clothes and boy problems.) The last song of the Eighth Grade Dance was “Can You Stand The Rain” by New Edition. Alli danced with our crush. I was happy for her.

Middle school is so weird. I’m honestly not sure which, of the things that I remember about it, are important—except for Alli (who’s still my best friend), The Dark is Rising (which I still reread every year or so) and the fact that I was marginally better at some things, like dance, than I thought I was and not as good at some things, like writing, at which at the time I thought I was some kind of genius. I wasn’t exactly who I thought I was, and I certainly wasn’t exactly who I wanted to be, but I was at least someone who could be happy for a friend who got something I badly wanted, too. There was at least one moment in those otherwise nothing-but-confusing years where I got something right. I suppose it’s even possible there were more moments like that. That’s a nice thought. Kinda wish I remembered them.

If you’re interested in knowing more about The Left Handed Fate, read on…

Return to Nagspeake for a new fantasy adventure from the bestselling author of National Book Award nominee Greenglass House.

Lucy Bluecrowne and Maxwell Ault are on a mission: find the three pieces of a strange and arcane engine they believe can stop the endless war raging between their home country of England and Napoleon Bonaparte’s France. During the search, however, their ship, the famous privateer the Left-Handed Fate, is taken by the Americans, who have just declared war on England, too. The Fate (and with it, Lucy and Max) is put under the command of new midshipman Oliver Dexter . . . who’s only just turned twelve.

But Lucy and Max aren’t the only ones trying to assemble the engine; the French are after it, as well as the crew of a mysterious vessel that seems able to appear out of thin air. When Oliver discovers what his prisoners are really up to—and how dangerous the device could be if it falls into the wrong hands—he is faced with a choice: Help Lucy and Max even if it makes him a traitor to his own country? Or follow orders and risk endangering countless lives, including those of the enemies who have somehow become his friends?

And be looking for my review of this enchanting novel in the near future.

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