Told in third person omniscient point of view, and set in modern day North Carolina, novelists, Connie Williams takes her pen to craft this heart wrenching and compelling story of genuine family, hope, life and Christian love. Jon and Lale's Dance is written in twenty-two chapters and begins when Jon Cam Smalls Sr. finds himself injured and hospitalized at the local Union Memorial Hospital because of a foolish and avoidable accident, following a Friday night anniversary celebration with all of the family. His twelve children, each one facing their own personal life storms, finds it so difficult to care for their parents: Jon Cam Sr., a stubborn, know-it-all, WWII ailing Veteran, and his once creative, and constantly fiery, but ailing wife, Lale. Williams' includes an Epilogue that describes the siblings lives following some stormy life changing events for which they must make decisions. Included, also are three Appendixes for further improved understanding of events for the reader in the narrative. Sixty plus years of marriage has gone by, and the couple, Jon and Lale, find themselves still totally devoted to each other, yet they cannot resist the daily temptations, from time to time, to slip back into their old habits of agitating each other at the most inopportune moments. Lale can't manage to leave the house to grocery shop for necessities with her daughter, Topia, for Jon's Doctor Pepper and jar of Jiffy peanut butter, without first "directing some insults" toward him about his need to "sit, do nothing and nap" at the kitchen table. And Jon cannot manage to resist using his quick-wit of accusations that stops Lale in her tracks each time she makes an attempt to prepare to leave the house, to get into the car with her daughter, Topia. So this is how their battles usually begin, that sometimes last all afternoon, until Jon wants to nap again. They each enjoy satirizing. Williams' threads this story with humor, suspense, tragedy and the true-to-life sensitive facts about health issues such as dementia, crippling rheumatoid arthritis and cancer that so many families and senior citizens face, that may lead to their sometimes early demise in today's society.
About the Author: Connie Williams is a local figure known for her distinguished career as a skillful writer of prose and poetry. Until her retirement in 2014 she was an instructor of English Composition and Rhetoric at UNC, at Charlotte; a high school English instructor at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Union County Schools. Her first book, Emily's Blues was first published in 1989 and republished again in 2016. Williams wrote Emily's Blues to show young readers how she became "unstoppable" in getting an education-going from poverty, to a professional educator, and was showcased in the "Dare to Dream Project", Z Smith Reynolds Foundation, 1990 for her book. She is the recipient of the Arts and Science Council Emerging Artist Award for her book. Her novel's stage play adaptation, entitled Emily's Dilemma, received the Honorable Terry Sanford Award for Creativity Honorable Mention, and was performed at Livingstone College at Salisbury by her students. She has presented readings and facilitated writing workshops at: Barnes and Noble, the Charlotte Public Library, Imagine On, Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Nile Theater, and UNC, Center City Campus at Charlotte; Spirit Square, Charlotte; Afro American Cultural Center, Charlotte. She is a Christa McAuliffe Fellow finalist. She is a contributing author to the following publications: "Mama Allie's Talking Dogs..." stories and recipes of Carolina cuisine, Hungry for Home, Rogers. Novello Festival Press: 2003. A short story excerpt, Emily's Blues, and a collection of poetry, The National Literary Circular: 1990. Original poetry, A Sun-filled Dream: 1989. Classroom consultant: A History of the World textbook: Houghton Mifflin: Boston. 1988. Williams is the recipient of the 1996 North Carolina Arts Council Award and The National Endowment for the Arts Award for a Fellowship at Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California, as an eight weeks artist- collaborator. She is a former Writing Fellow of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, 1992. A native of Monroe, North Carolina. Williams is a wife, mother, grand and great- grandmother. She graduated from Cal State University, Northridge (B.A. Degree), and the University of North Carolina, at Charlotte (M.Ed. Degree). She resides with her husband in North Carolina.