Julia Brantley

A Score of Intervals: Sharps & Flats on Brusca Julia Brantley

Amelia Brantley and Jenny Scofield shared Thanksgiving dinner together every year for nearly 20 years. Their daddies (best friends Cameron and Jerry) could have never been prepared for their third-born precocious girls. Sisters by proxy, friends by grace, partners-in-crime from the time they could walk, the fair-haired pixies share a series of madcap adventures and. a few sorrows. They sustain their own uniquely fierce friendship long after Cameron and Jerry exit their lives. In the early 70's, amidst vast Southern California orange groves, the little girls squared off against their elders, forging through elementary school while Jenny and her family endure the aftermath of losing Jerry. As their "See-Spot-Run" childhood morphs into their disco-beat-life-in-the-fast-lane teen scene, it becomes Amelia's season to grieve over her father's departure, dealing with the ongoing fallout of his mid-life crisis. To make matters worse, Amelia's staunch Christian upbringing seriously compounds her teenage angst - while providing fuel for the fire between Amelia and her holy-roller grandmother on more than one occasion. Jenny endures endless rounds of family therapy which have no effect on her family's dysfunctional methodology. Nonetheless, the determined duo never loses their spunk, doggedly pressing on through teen romance, high school graduation, junior college, and weddings. Every Thanksgiving (and often in-between) the girls compare notes, alternately giggling, sniffling, pondering, and reminiscing . . . until Cameron makes a choice that alters Amelia's life forever.