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This author appeared at the 2009 festival. Please view the list of authors appearing at this year's festival or see our suggestions for similar authors below.
 Jill S. Alexander
In Alexander's The Sweetheart of Prosper County, frustrated high school freshman Austin Gray decides it's time to take her turn at the top: as a "hood ornament," as Austin puts it, in her small East Texas town's "no-Jesus Christmas parade." Earning this position is no simple task; Austin must raise an animal to earn top marks at the fair, learn how to hunt or fish, and win the FFA Club's vote to become their Sweetheart in the annual parade. Combating her all the way is Dean Ottmer, a bully who selects her as his personal verbal punching bag, and is always on the look-out for an opportunity to mock her flat chest. Through it all, Austin must help her widowed mother move past her repressed grief at her husband's death so that they can once again feel like a normal family. Luckily, Austin receives help from her fiery best friend, a "marshmallow girl" and former Sweetheart, a tuba-playing Elvis impersonator, and a rooster with an attitude named Charles Dickens. The Sweetheart of Prosper County is a tribute to the feel and culture of small towns in Texas; Alexander seamlessly blends quick wit with compassion and heart. Her experience waiting tables at 12 years old in tiny Winfield, Texas introduced her to a host of colorful characters that would come to inspire her writing. She lives and blogs in Tyler.
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