I am a certified bookaholic and am embracing my addiction. Here you will find my short book reviews and other wonderful information all about books. I will also share my love for animals and show you some of my knitting projects.
Thanks to Valerie Russo of Hachette Books, I am giving away on copy of 'Sundays at Tiffany's.
Note: Sundays at Tiffany’s is now a Lifetime original move from Sony Pictures Television, which will be airing on Monday, December 6 at 9:00 PM ET/PT, 8:00 PM CT.
Book Description:
AN IMAGINARY FRIEND
Jane Margaux is a lonely little girl. Her mother, the powerful head of a New York theater company, makes time for her only once a week, for their Sunday trip to admire jewelry at Tiffany's. Jane has only one friend: a handsome, comforting, funny man named Michael. He's perfect. But only she can see him. Michael can't stay forever, though. On Jane's eighth birthday he leaves, promising that she'll forget him soon. He was there to help her until she was old enough to manage on her own, and now there are other children who need his help.
AN UNEXPECTED LOVE
Years later, in her thirties, Jane is just as alone as she was as a child. And despite her own success as a playwright, she is even more trapped by her overbearing mother. Then she meets Michael again--as handsome, smart and perfect as she remembers him to be. But not even Michael knows the reason they've really been reunited.
AND AN UNFORGETTABLE TWIST Sundays at Tiffany's is a heart-wrenching love story that surpasses all expectations of why these people have been brought together. With the breathtaking momentum and gripping emotional twists that have made James Patterson a bestseller all over the world, Sundays at Tiffany's takes an altogether fresh look at the timeless and transforming power of love.
To Enter:
Leave a comment with your email address, so I can contact you if you win.
Extra Entries: Earn one extra entry for each of the following (please leave a separate comment for each).
+1 for clicking to give free books at The Literacy Site (tell me you did it).
That's 8 or more possible entries!
Sorry, the giveaway is only open US and Canadian residents only.The winner’s mailing address: NO P.O.Boxes.Only one entry per household/IP address
Winners will be subject to the one copy per household rule, which means that if you win the same title in two or more contests, you will receive only one copy of the book.
This giveaway will end on Friday, December 10th,11:59 P.M. E.S.T. The winners will be notified by email.Winners must respond within TWO days or will be disqualified.
I host a lot of Hachette book and audiobooks here and I thought you, my readers would be interested in giving back to Hachette for all the amazing books that they giveaway. To give back to Hachette, all you need to do is fill out a quick survey, under 10 minutes. Here is the link:
This book the second book in Jeff Lemire's Essex County trilogy of graphic novels which, is a fictionalized book of Jeff Lemire’s hometown of Essex County, Ontario. I reviewed the first one, 'Tales From the Farm', here.
This book has a very loose connection to the first book, as it had two characters that were in the first. One of the characters, the main character from the first book, Lester, appeared so briefly that it was like a cameo apperance. The second character was Jimmy.
In this second book Jimmy and his eldest brother, Lou played professional hockey together. The book goes back and forth from present day with Lou as an old man with regrets, looking back to the days that him and Jimmy were close.
Jeff Lemire captures the feelings of lonliness, desolation, and regret incredibly well. I didn't think it was possible to get compleatly lost in a graphic novel like you can with a regular novel. This book proved me wrong.
I recommended 'Tales From the Farm' for both young adults and adults. I feel this book is gear more toward adults. Not that there is anything in it the teens shouldn't read, it just deals with a subject that I don't think would interest them as much.
I LOVED this graphic novel. Don't miss out on this winning goal of a book!
I would like to welcome Shelley Munro, author of the ebook,The Spurned Viscountess. She is going to tell us about how she got her ebook published from start to finish.
An EBook: From Inception to Finished Product by Shelley Munro
Hi, my name is Shelley Munro and I write romance for Carina Press, Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing and Liquid Silver Books. I’d like to thank Teddy for having me to visit So Many Precious Books, So Little Time today to talk about writing and my latest release, The Spurned Viscountess.
The Spark of an Idea:
I originally wrote the very first scene of The Spurned Viscountess as a writing exercise for the Auckland Chapter of Romance Writers of New Zealand. I can’t remember what the topic for the exercise was now, but I wrote about a man who had lost his memory. His family told him he was Viscount Hastings, but the man didn’t believe them. He recalled nothing of his childhood years or any of the time before he met his wife in Italy. His “newly found family” expect him to go through with an arranged marriage. Lucien doesn’t wish to marry again, but he wants a reason to stay at the castle while he investigates the murder of his first wife.
I really liked my finished scene and started to think about where the story would go. I added all my favorite elements from historicals including smugglers, a gothic element, a scarred hero and a heroine in peril plus a creepy castle. The Spurned Viscountess is the end result.
The Writing:
For me this is the most enjoyable part—day after day of putting my butt on a chair and just writing. I’m not a plotter. I start my stories with a germ of an idea, let it percolate and work out my character conflicts. The rest of the plot unfolds as I write. There might be the odd time that I flounder, but mostly it all turns out in the end.
Once the manuscript is complete, I try to let it sit for a while, although this isn’t always possible. I polish the manuscript, sometimes working with critique partners and at other times alone.
The Submission Process:
I choose the publisher I think will suit my story best after studying their guidelines, their blogs and taking note of any particular genres a publisher is interested in acquiring. When I was looking for a publisher for The Spurned Viscountess, Carina Press put out a call for historicals. Perfect timing for me. I checked the guidelines and formatted my manuscript accordingly then emailed it plus a synopsis and query letter to Carina Press. Then begins the waiting…
There’s a lot of waiting in the publishing business. We writers wait months and sometimes years to receive a yes or a no answer to our submissions.
The Decision:
In my case with The Spurned Viscountess, I waited five weeks for a decision. The good news came in the form of an email from Angela James, telling me Carina Press wanted to offer for The Spurned Viscountess. Color me excited. I was thrilled to accept the offer and become a Carina Press author.
The Edits:
I hooked up with my wonderful editor Deborah Nemeth and started working on edits almost straight away. With Carina Press we go through three rounds of edits, two with our editor and one with the eagle eye of a copy editor.
I’ve heard people say e-published books are poorly edited. Let me say this couldn’t be farther from the truth. I worked long and hard on my edits and I’m thrilled with the final result.
The Cover:
We complete cover sheets, specifying our likes, dislikes, suggestions and character details. The talented cover artists take this sheet and transform it into an appropriate cover. I fell in love with the cover for The Spurned Countess the moment I saw it. I think it portrays my story and characters perfectly.
[Insert cover here]
Publication Day:
I received my offer to publish in May and my book came out at Carina Press on 20 September. That’s a pretty quick turnaround, especially with edits and all the other work in between. Things work quickly in the e-world.
For the two months before release date and since, I’ve been working on promo, updating my website, writing blog posts and organizing tour dates at blogs.
I love e-publishing. I like the freedom of writing wherever my muse takes me and the speed at which things happen.With the increasing availability of e-readers, e-books are big business and definitely a growth industry. While other parts of the publishing industry are floundering, readers are embracing technology and taking their books with them wherever they go during the day. I’m certainly proud to be part of the e-world.
If you have any questions about the writing journey with an e-publisher please ask and I’ll do my best to answer.
Thanks to Lisa Munley of TLC Book Tours. I will be a stop on the book tour this month. Watch for my review on November24, 2010.
Better late than never, this book got lost but has now found it's way to me. Thanks to Jessica Scott of Random House Canadafor helping it find it's way.
Nwamgba was born and raised in a small village in Nigeria. They had very primitive ways. She fell in love with Obierika, to the dismay of her family, who thought she could do better. However, her father finally agreed that they could marry. They were very successful and wealthy by the village standards and Obierika helped out his four cousins by giving them seeding sweet potatoes and other things. After several miscarriages, they had a healthy son, Anikwenwa however, shortly after, Obierika died. Nwamgba thinks that his death was mysterious and thought that perhaps, his cousins might have had a hand in his death. Soon after Obierika died, his four cousins started to harass Nwamgba. They took things from her, like all of the seeding potatoes. They also claimed that her property was theirs. She feared that they would take that away, eventually. When the white man came and told her about the new school, she decided to enroll Anikwenwa in the mission school, where he would learn English. Her hope was that her son would be able to read the legal documents she had, including the deed to their house and thereby, get free and clear from the four cousins, once and for all. Nwamgba was very proud of Anikwenwa for how well he did in school but was not happy that he would not participate in the family and village traditions.
This is a powerful story of how one culture can go to another culture and quickly change traditions and values to their own beliefs, thereby "civilizing" natives. In this story, Englishmen came from a Christian mission and assimilated the village children to their beliefs and reject their own. Highly recommended. You can read it here.
If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story review. Come join in the fun!
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