Soda Springs: Love, Sex, and Civil Rights

Soda Springs: Love, Sex, and Civil Rights -- a 1960s civil rights novel . . . and a story of headstrong teens in love. Mix both into a crucible of bitter rivalries, poverty, prejudice, protest, violence, steamy sex and zany antics, and you get a rollicking coming of age tale set in a gritty Mexican-American crusade for justice in small-town America.

So how did Rick and Ginny shock the town and mortify their families? It's midnight, July 3, 1963 . . .

            At last, Ginny's high school crew finished their "Hand-in-Hand" float and filed out, exhausted but zinging. The float's theme - blacks and whites together - would make Protect Teach the talk of Soda Springs at tomorrow's parade. But Suze hadn't printed the flyers for next week's big rally - no one would come; the days spent laboring on their float would go for naught.
               And Rick? No help from him. That's OK, kiddo, he'd told Suze. Now, he had the nerve to turn right, not left, at Ten Mile Road; he wasn't taking her home at all. "We're not parking. Not tonight!" She crossed her arms and stared out into the dark.
               But Rick drove on. He skirted town, flipped off his lights, pulled into the alley behind Masonic Hall. "You think if we prayed, we could get these flyers printed tonight," he asked.
               Her anger softened. United Methodist loomed across the street. "Church mimeograph?"
               "Bingo," he said.
               Racing low like spies, they darted across Broadway, dug the key out of the drain pipe, and let themselves in. Rick strutted up to Reverend's pulpit and boomed, "We have come to solicit your aid."
               "You need flyers you say? My mimeograph is yours," she called, mimicking Reverend's voice.
               They tiptoed upstairs to Reverend's office and set to work. Ginny wished she hadn't been so crotchety; Rick deserved better. Moreover, Karen's warning rung in her head: With guys, you have to keep cooking up new desserts. Otherwise they'll chow down at every greasy spoon in town. Ginny understood now: no way would she let Connie Montoya lure her man into that perfumed lair of hers.
               Twenty minutes later, flyers printed, they laughed uproariously at their coup, at their cleverness, at their daring. If only they had stopped there . . . What they did next would not only shock the town and mortify their families, it would destroy their project, and change their lives forever.

An early draft of Soda Springs won the mainstream fiction category of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Colorado Gold contest. The ebook edition of the published novel won the 2011 Global eBook Award for best "Illustrations in a Fiction Book." It was a finalist in both "Adult Multicultural Literature" and "Teen Literature."

The plot twists are many, the characters complex. One reviewer said, "A toot to enjoy; a treasure to ponder; a useful springboard for serious discussion of topics ranging from the language of hate, strategies for community change, expectations about love, sex, and marriage; inherent complexities in immigration reform; and the economic realities of poverty and their costs for the poor. A must read!"

Terry Marshall grew up in rural Colorado and spent 16 years of his adult life working on Mexican-American and small-town activist causes.

His novel, Soda Springs: Love, Sex, and Civil Rights, won the 2011 Global eBook Award for Illustrations in a Fiction Book; and was finalist in both Adult Multicultural Literature, and Teen Literature. An earlier version won the General Fiction category in the 2006 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Colorado Gold writing contest.

Marshall's short stories have been published in two anthologies and five literary journals, and he has put together an unpublished collection of short stories tentatively called American Model and Other South Pacific Stories. He has begun work on a cross-cultural novel set in the Gilbert Islands as that nation sheds British rule and gains its independence in the late 1970s.

He has written three non-fiction books: The Whole World Guide to Language Learning (Intercultural Press), a book that shows how to learn unwritten languages; 101 Ways to Find an Overseas Job; and Carlsbad, a book of essays and photographs on Carlsbad, NM.

He has an extensive portfolio of newspaper and magazine articles which includes two national awards, and numerous New Mexico state awards.

In addition to his years as a community activist, Marshall worked as a Head Start director, journalist, researcher, teacher, trainer, printer and linotype operator. He also spent seven years with the U.S. Peace Corps in the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and the agency's Washington, D.C. office. He has a Ph.D. in rural development from Cornell University. These days he lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, and writes full time.