ON DISPLAY
a novel of natural history
Thank you for stopping by! I hope you'll order On Display at your local bookstore or online retailer. And make a difference knowing that a portion of the proceeds from sales goes to Atlanta Urban Ecologists, an education program for youth in grades 8 through 12.
On Display featured as Book of the Month for Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy...
"It's the perfect time to settle down with a good book. On Display chronicles the misadventures of a young naturalist as she starts her career at a natural history museum. As the story evolves into an unexpected mystery, Knight’s background as an exhibit designer for a museum of natural history and environmental educator at a nature preserve shines through in her detailed nature descriptions and character development, making for intriguing storytelling. A portion of the proceeds from sales will go to Atlanta Urban Ecologists, an education program for youth in grades 8 through 12."
~ Martha Seabrook, Events & Outreach Coordinator. Learn more about this wonderful organization that nurtures our beloved river:
https://www.chattahoocheeparks.org/
Invite Christy to speak with your book club in person or on zoom:
now booking events for 2022, contact us to get Christy on your calendar.
An excerpt:
Every creature on display at the museum of natural history once had a body, and bodies leave clues. Paleontologists piece together the murder scene of a sauropod, its massive bones scattered in a place that used to be brackish swamp but now stings of sage on a dry western plane. A fossil announces to the world—this is when I lived and this is when I died. And something that happened in the same season can leave a whole world of evidence, before time marks it as a year past, a decade, or the thirty trips around the sun that earth has taken since one pivotal night in the swamp. I still keep our secrets buried deep down where no one can excavate.
What devilish things would you do to keep your job? On Display chronicles the misadventures of young naturalist, Becca North, as she begins a promising career at a museum of natural history in 1991. This Darwinian hub is an answer to her prayers, but on a disastrous collecting trip, Becca loses something in the swamp that can’t be replaced, setting her on a coiled path with a dark secret that someone called the Creationist knows about.
When protestors block the entrance, a venomous snake goes missing in the museum, and artifacts steeped in scripture surface, it’ll take more than office humor to keep the faith. With the help of four accomplished mentors nicknamed the Girls, Becca must evolve from fearful neophyte to fierce protector, putting her very soul on display.
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A lifelong writer, Christy Baker Knight has been crafting and reading her stories aloud to unsuspecting groups of people since the third grade. She is a featured author in the Wattpad Community with two prize-winning e-books: a water-time mystery novel, Hot Pressed, and an environmental fantasy novella, The Grove. Christy has worked as an exhibit designer for a museum of natural history, as an award-winning botanical illustrator and library muralist perched on scaffolding above voracious readers, and as an art and environmental educator at a nature preserve. She lives with her family in the Piedmont region of Georgia where she persists while running on the river trails and avoiding calls from someone named Spam Risk.
Congratulations, Atlanta Braves! Read a hidden excerpt from the 1991 World Series here on my blog, MOAN: musings on art & nature.
