25 May Mark Mustian Boy With Wings #LiteraryFiction #HistoricalFiction #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @markmustian @cathiedunn

FEATURED AUTHOR: MARK MUSTIAN

It’s my pleasure to welcome Mark Mustian as the featured author in The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour being held between May 19th – 30th,  2025. Mark Mustian  is the author of the Literary Fiction / Historical Fiction, Boy With Wings, published by Koehler Books on March 15th, 2025 (322 pages).

Below are highlights of Boy With Wings, Mark Mustian’s author bio, and a guest post providing the historical background of the novel. 

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/04/blog-tour-boy-with-wings-by-mark-mustian.html

HIGHLIGHTS: BOY WITH WINGS

Boy With Wings
by Mark Mustian

Blurb:

 “A brilliant fever dream of a novel, a haunting coming of age story reminiscent of both Franz Kafka and Charles Dickens.”

~ Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Jackal’s Mistress

*Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2025 First Place Winner*

What does it mean to be different?

When Johnny Cruel is born with strange appendages on his back in the 1930s South, the locals think he’s a devil. Determined to protect him, his mother fakes his death, and they flee. Thus begins Johnny’s yearslong struggle to find a place he belongs.

From a turpentine camp of former slaves to a freak show run by a dwarf who calls herself Tiny Tot and on to the Florida capitol building, Johnny finds himself working alongside other outcasts, struggling to answer the question of his existence. Is he a horror, a wonder, or an angel? Should he hide himself to live his life?

Following Johnny’s journey through love, betrayal, heartbreak, and several murders, Boy With Wings is a story of the sacrifices and freedom inherent in making one’s own special way-and of love and the miracles that give our lives meaning.

Buy Link:

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/mdxEoR

AUTHOR BIO: MARK MUSTIAN

Mark Mustian is the author of the novels “The Return” and “The Gendarme,” the latter a finalist for the Dayton International Literary Peace Prize and shortlisted for the Saroyan International Award for Writing. It won the Florida Gold Book Award for Fiction and has been published in ten languages.

The founder of the Word of South Festival of Literature and Music in Tallahassee, Florida, his new novel, “Boy With Wings,” is out in 2025.

Author Links:

Website:  https://markmustian.com/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/@markmustian

Facebook: https://facebook.com/markmustianauthor

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mark-mustian

Bluesky: https://markmustian.bsky.social

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Mark-T.-Mustian/author/B0CSF8JY2Y 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3463600.Mark_Mustian

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: BOY WITH WINGS

Boy With Wings is set in the 1920s and 1930s in the southern United States, mostly in northern Florida. This is a part of Florida many are not familiar with, given its rolling hills and live oaks and a topography closer to southern Georgia and Alabama than to the beaches of south Florida. During the 1930s this area was mostly rural, with farming and timber (including turpentine camps like the one described in the book) forming the basis for much of the economy. North Florida is also the location of Tallahassee, the state capital.

The 1930s was the period of the Great Depression in the U.S., and I was deliberate in setting the story in that time frame, as this was a period of great change in the country: a time of hardship and a sense of things falling apart. Segregation and discrimination remained a huge facet of life in the South, and as the book is in large part about what it means to be different, I wanted to play on that, too. The main character, Johnny, is taken up when his mother dies by a Negro community, and the book explores similarities and differences in their experiences in being on the outside looking in. Turpentine camps were in large part indentured servitude, with the workers paid in “script” redeemable only at the company store, and debts incurred to the company that the workers could never hope to repay.

The early twentieth century also signaled the beginning of the end of sideshows in the United States. The boy Johnny is born with strange appendages on his back, and ends up in a “freak show” traveling the South. This displaying of human oddities probably peaked at the end of the 19^th century with the P.T. Barnum displays in New York, and continued on as circuses began to travel the country. Many such exhibitions contained a “sideshow” that was a part of the main circus acts. In Boy With Wings Johhny becomes part of a standalone show that travels by truck instead of by train, enabling the group to get further into the U.S. hinterlands. As the Depression drags on, changes occur, including the promoter’s decision to invite Blacks to attend the shows to raise flagging revenue.

The history of the display of human oddities dates back much longer in time, and has varied in different cultures and times. The Greeks revered some oddities and scorned others; the Spartans left theirs to die; the Romans delighted in and exploited all manner of different people. In the Middle Ages, the Christians persecuted strangeness. The history of “shows” and exhibitions gathered steam in the 18^th and 19^th centuries in Europe, and it made some “freaks” stars, as to some extent being exhibited was a better life compared to being with families who were ashamed of their oddness and hid them away at home. I explored this dichotomy some in Boy With Wings, as Johnny at first becomes the star of “Alexander’s Traveling Oddities,” then grows tired of it, then is somewhat eclipsed by another star. Regular performers grow jealous of the “freaks,” and vice-versa. Being different has never been easy. That hasn’t changed much even today.

Twitter: @cathiedunn
Instagram & Threads: @thecoffeepotbookclub
Bluesky: @cathiedunn.bsky.social