CLIFTON Just in time for the hot summer days, Clifton author Lisa Wingate is celebrating the release of a new book, appropriately titled, A Month of Summer.

She’ll be signing books at the Bosque Emporium in downtown Clifton on Sunday, July 20, from 1 to 3 p.m., and at the Waco Books-a-Million store on Saturday, Aug. 9, at 4 p.m. She’ll also be speaking at the Clifton First Methodist Ladies’ Summer Celebration on Saturday, July 19.

The book, Wingate’s 10th novel, and her second release this year, is the first in a new series. Wingate has employed a Texas setting for the story, staging the book in a struggling neighborhood in the shadow of downtown Dallas.

“The story is one of those you might see on the news,” said Wingate. “Dallas is filled with neighborhoods grappling with the question of revitalization and whether or not there is a place for both the old and the new. As neighborhoods revitalize, older residents and the working poor are often priced out of their own neighborhoods and taken advantage of by unscrupulous developers.”

Set among these difficult questions, Wingate’s latest is the tale of two generations of an estranged family, an unusual garden, and an unexpected friendship. Friendship is the last thing on Rebecca Macklin’s mind when she receives a long-distance call from the Dallas police. Her aging father has repeatedly been found wandering the streets of Dallas, and his wife, Hanna Beth, has suffered a stroke and landed in a nursing home.

Faced with the demands of the busy LA legal practice she shares with her husband, and the crumbling state of her own marriage, Rebecca must make a choice. Should she ignore the plight of the father she hasn’t seen in years, and the sudden illness of the woman who destroyed her family, or should she put aside old resentments and return to her childhood home? Both choices seem equally impossible to face.

Lying in a nursing home, unable to communicate, Hanna Beth Parker fears that the situation may be growing desperate in the house on Blue Sky Hill. She can only hope that her housekeeper, Kay-kay, is properly caring for her husband, but taking care of things at home is difficult with Edward’s Alzheimer’s symptoms growing worse. When Hanna Beth hears about the arrival of her stepdaughter, Rebecca, she knows something is terribly wrong.

Back on Blue Sky Hill, the housekeeper has vanished, Edward’s situation is desperate, and the utility bills have gone unpaid. Suddenly, Hanna Beth’s fate, and the fate of all she loves, lie in the hands of the stepdaughter who has stayed away for years. The last person Hanna Beth ever thought she could count on to for help is now the only one she can turn to.

A Month of Summer is a story of finding hope in the most unexpected of places, of looking beyond the surface and into the heart.

“I love the cover art on this book,” Wingate commented. “People often ask me if I get to choose the covers, and the answer is usually no, even though they do ask me for suggestions. For this book, I suggested a garden theme, perhaps with some cut flowers, and when the cover proof came back, it was beautiful. That garden looks like a place I’d like to be!”

Wingate’s books are available locally at The Bosque Conservatory Gift shop and The Bosque Emporium.