These Days

Fueled by a passion for 1940s movies and her jazz musician father's nostalgia for a time when "every hole-in-the-wall bar had a band," 14-year old Becky Shelling dreams of a career in show biz. When her beloved dad disappears, Becky takes up with Lenny Moss, a smooth-talking married strip-joint owner whose nostalgia is limited to a time when men ruled and women knew their place. Taking her to work for him on Baltimore's "World-Famous Block," Lenny inadvertently leads Becky down a path of self-discovery on a once-stylish, now-decrepit adult-entertainment strip, where everyone has a tale about the good old days but nothing is quite as it seems. As Becky struggles to reconcile her life as Lenny's mistress/star performer with the realization that her father's disappearance was no accident, THESE DAYS juxtaposes past and present, myth and reality in ways that shine a light on the pitfalls of nostalgia and challenge the tenacity with which we cling to the past. " These Days] gives credence to the saying, 'You should write what you know.' It's obvious this writer knows her territory." - Amazon Vine Review "As original as it is addictive. A truly compelling read that is worthy of high praise." - Publisher's Weekly Independent Review.

A self-described ＂refugee from a broken home in which nostalgia played a major role,＂ Margo Christie landed on the adult-entertainment strip known as the ＂World-Famous Block＂ in the late ’70s, as the teenage girlfriend of a charismatic older man. There she soaked up the storied old timers’ tales of the good old days of burlesque while dancing her way to a BA in English from the University of Maryland. THESE DAYS is her first novel. It won a second prize in Amazon’s 2012 Breakthrough Novel Award and was stamped ＂as original as it is addictive＂ by Publisher’s Weekly Independent Review. She currently resides in Denver and is working on a second novel.