A darkly humorous coming of age adventure set in today's turbulent world, yet comfortably rooted in the lineage of Mark Twain, The Littlest Martyr reminds us that sometimes friendship can be a lifesaver and other times it can literally blow up in your face. Red is blue. Left is right. Up is down. Death is rebirth. When Olivia's dad gets fired, he clenches his teeth and complains about the government and lazy people and immigrants and anyone that's different. Next, he drinks too much with his buddies and starts scheming aloud about bombing the factory or mailing some powdered chemical to his former boss. Then his friends realize he's not joking. At that point, he packs up Olivia and his depressed, distant wife, and takes them somewhere new. From the age of 1 up until 13, she moves 25 times. Nearly twice a year if you want to think about it that way. But things are different in Urbandale, Iowa. Olivia's dad finds a group of nutjob allies and starts the Freedom and Liberty Party. And Olivia meets Cecilia, making a best friend for the first time, by stealing Cecilia's bike. Cecilia's dad is a nutjob, too. And her mother isn't just metaphorically dead like Olivia's; she's actually dead. Together, Olivia and Cecilia start a band, skip school, commit grand theft, fight over a boy, take on the world - and their demons.
B. Billy Curtis was born and raised in Iowa. His first memory involves pounding on his grandfather's artificial arm with a toy hammer after his grandpa lost the arm in a corn picker accident. He currently lives in a junky little shack on a busy urban street in Seattle with his wife and two daughters, a big garden and a yard full of chickens.
