When the World was Flat (and we were in love)
Author: Ingrid Jonach
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Release Date: September 3rd, 2013
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15767908-when-the-world-was-flat
About the book: Looking back, I wonder if I had an inkling that my life was about to go from ordinary to extraordinary.
When sixteen-year-old Lillie Hart meets the gorgeous and mysterious Tom Windsor-Smith for the first time, it’s like fireworks — for her, anyway. Tom looks as if he would be more interested in watching paint dry; as if he is bored by her and by her small Nebraskan town in general.
But as Lillie begins to break down the walls of his seemingly impenetrable exterior, she starts to suspect that he holds the answers to her reoccurring nightmares and to the impossible memories which keep bubbling to the surface of her mind — memories of the two of them, together and in love.
When she at last learns the truth about their connection, Lillie discovers that Tom has been hiding an earth-shattering secret; a secret that is bigger — and much more terrifying and beautiful — than the both of them. She also discovers that once you finally understand that the world is round, there is no way to make it flat again.
An epic and deeply original sci-fi romance, taking inspiration from Albert Einstein’s theories and the world-bending wonder of true love itself.
Guest Post by Ingrid Jonach
I was top of the class in year six. They even gave me a trophy. I played the saxophone in a concert band and liked listening to classical music. I also played the recorder. I represented the school in debating. I loved books and went to the library every other day. Needless to say — I was a nerd.
As an adult, I wear my nerdiness like a badge of honor. As a kid, it made me a social outcast.
I went to three different schools in three different towns when I was in year three, which highlighted my social awkwardness. I was so badly bullied that the teachers had to get involved at two of the schools. This bullying continued on and off until year eight, which was when I changed schools for the seventh time.
If you had asked me what I liked about being a nerd I think I would have swallowed my own tongue. I hated being called a nerd, along with a square, goody-goody, loser, dork, etc. But, if I look back now as a well-adjusted adult, I can list a thousand things that were great about being a nerd.
I got to play jump rope and elastics and knuckles years after everyone else decided they were too old. I got selected to go on a camp for the gifted and talented in year four. I got to hang out with the most interesting people in the school, instead of the prettiest or most popular. And then there were those couple of weeks in year six where I pretended to be a monkey and walked around on my haunches (yes, I really did).
Between years eight and twelve I tried to hide my nerdiness under brand name clothes and bleached blond hair, but once a nerd, always a nerd. Even during those years when I was surfing and flunking math, I went and got myself a perm and started an obsession with Elvis Presley.
It was not until I went to university that I actually embraced my inner-nerd. You can see in the picture that the walls of my dorm room were covered in posters of Elvis. I just wish I was nerdy enough to be able to build a time machine and go back to tell myself that it is okay to be delegated to the back row of your school dance extravaganza. That it is completely fine that you would rather read that book instead of go to a party. And to go ahead and walk around like a monkey for a month if you want to, because us nerds grow up to be… well, nerds, which is actually really cool.
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