{"id":2,"date":"2015-07-06T17:11:58","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T17:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/josalas.com\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2026-09-20T13:10:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T17:10:21","slug":"sample-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/josalas.com\/index.php\/sample-page\/","title":{"rendered":"DANCING WITH DIANA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JS_DWD_Cover_1300x2000<\/a>Visiting a school for disabled boys, 15-year-old Diana singles out wheelchair-bound Alex to dance with\u2014a five-minute encounter that colors the rest of his life, though quickly forgotten by her. Alex, a survivor of severe school bullying, thinks constantly of the tall girl with blue eyes\u2014until one day he sees her on television, the new fianc\u00e9e of Prince Charles. Telling no one of his meeting with her, Alex follows her life with secret pride, which turns to concern as her private anguish comes to light. Their paths cross once more when Diana visits Alex\u2019s small town.<\/p>\n

Alex\u2019s story interweaves with Diana\u2019s final day before her fatal accident in the late summer of 1997. In the unsatisfying company of her billionaire boyfriend she careens from one luxurious, alien Paris location to another. Paparazzi pursue and torment her. All day she tries to reach a friend in London hoping to hear news that will bring a new direction to her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cDancing with Diana is a beautifully-wrought story that takes us deep into two hard-to-imagine worlds. Alex, a bright young man with cerebral palsy, has his destiny intertwined, in double-helix fashion, with Princess Diana. The latter we meet in her last few hours, and Alex we accompany from childhood through manhood. His ungainly yet triumphant progress towards self-acceptance and independence has an extraordinary echo in Diana\u2019s own brave, doomed search for an authentic life. This is a very fine book that side-steps clich\u00e9s about celebrity to create a new awareness of Diana, and also gives us a startling sense of life lived strongly and meaningfully with cerebral palsy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Dan Yashinsky, author of Tales for An Unknown City<\/em> and The Storyteller at Fault<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Codhill Press, 2015<\/a><\/p>\n

From a reader:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cGratitude for this exceptional read. I started it last night and woke at 6 this am to finish it. Engaging from the start, I love the writing style\u2026beautiful short sentences, the lilt of your voice gently pervades and the emotion simple and real. Alex\u2019s return to his school with Jane still has me in tears. You simply allowed the story to tell itself, a powerful story deeply resonant with me. Absolutely superb.\u201d<\/p>\n

More reader comments here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Read excerpt here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Available at Bookshop.org<\/a>,\u00a0 Amazon<\/a> (print and e-book) and wherever books are sold<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visiting a school for disabled boys, 15-year-old Diana singles out wheelchair-bound Alex to dance with\u2014a five-minute encounter that colors the rest of his life, though quickly forgotten by her. Alex, a survivor of severe school bullying, thinks constantly of the tall girl with blue eyes\u2014until one day he sees her on television, the new fianc\u00e9e […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/josalas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/josalas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/josalas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josalas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josalas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/josalas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":734,"href":"https:\/\/josalas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/josalas.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}