I’ve attended many book and author events over the years, but nothing compares to Book ‘Em. I’ve participated in events in Virginia and S. Carolina and this year I’m thrilled to attend the first ever Book ‘Em in N. Carolina. I’m also honored to be on the Book ‘Em committee and will participate in two panel discussions during the event.
If you are a reader, writer, or author, you don’t want to miss Book ‘Em NC!!
Book 'Em North Carolina Saturday, February 25, 2012 Robeson Community College Lumberton, North Carolina
Attendance is FREE and open to the public.
Book 'Em North Carolina Writers Conference and Book Fair brings together more than 75 authors, including two New York Times bestselling authors, Carla Neggers and Michael Palmer, more than 24 award-winning authors, and authors of almost every genre for all ages under one roof to sell and sign their books, participate in panel discussions and talks, network and interact with fans one-on-one.
It is open to readers of all ages. There are book readings and events scheduled for children from pre-school to teens. There are panel discussions and talks for writers trying to break into the field or working to increase their sales or exposure. There are talks and events for readers of various genres, including mysteries, romance, true adventure, historical, biographical, and many others.
The purpose of The Book 'Em Foundation and this event is to raise public awareness of the link between high crime rates and high illiteracy rates. Proceeds from the Book 'Em North Carolina book fair will go directly to increasing literacy in Robeson County, North Carolina and to reducing crime in the area.
The Book 'Em Foundation was founded by suspense author p.m.terrell and Waynesboro, Virginia Police Officer Mark Kearney as a partnership between authors and law enforcement. The mission of The Book 'Em Foundation is to raise public awareness of the correlation between high illiteracy rates and high crime rates.
I think I found a new author to check out: Shalom Auslander. LibraryThing posted an interview with him this month, and just the introduction alone got my attention. As stated in the LibraryThing "State of the Thing":
Shalom Auslander is the author of the short story collection Beware of God and the memoir Foreskin's Lament. His first novel, Hope: A Tragedy is out this month from Riverhead Books.
Irreverent, crass, fearless and caustic, his character revealed through his interview and the titles of his books grabbed me. I've now added all of his books to my "Wish List"!
Check out his interview with LibraryThing, and if irreverent tales of a love/hate relationship with God interest you, you may want to check out his books as well.
And I had to add this photo from last month. We attempted to make a Gingerbread House (it was a gift from someone) but there was no frosting-glue in the kit. So we purchased some tube frosting, hoping that would suffice. As you can see, it didn't work and our Gingerbread House had to be condemned...
After six blog tours of my own, there are a few things I have learned. This is a continuation fromSetting up a Blog Tour.
Dates are set, you have your topics.
What happens leading up to, during, and after your tour?
Before tour:
List your upcoming tour on your blog and website.
Make sure you know exactly what each host expects and wants.
Prepare all guest posts and complete interview questions. This should not be something you rush through - it will take time. Go over these several times, looking for errors. You don’t want mistakes or poorly written guest posts.
A week or more before your tour begins, send your hosts all information, including:
Guest post/interview
Short bio
Short book blurb
Links to your site and where to purchase book
Jpg images of your book cover and a promo photo if you have one
Your book’s information - price, ISBN, genre, etc.
Html code or link to book trailer
Confirm dates, information received, and time of post with all hosts.
During tour:
Post link to tour stop on your blog and all social sites. Entice your followers, readers, and fans to visit your host’s site.
Check your guest post several times a day and respond to comments. The key to a successful tour is your interaction with the host’s followers. And remember, no matter what is said, remain positive. Even if your stop that day is a review and it’s not the most flattering.
Check back on earlier stops, as some people will comment late.
Be sure you have made it easy for people to follow your blog and other sites. (Because you should gain during a tour.)
After tour:
Thank each host!
For sites featuring giveaways, be sure to get winner’s contact information for sending books or passing along to your publisher.
Thank your followers and fans for keeping up with your tour.
Continue visiting your host sites. If you never visit again, you are sending the message that you were just using them.
Problems can arise at every stage of your tour, so be prepared:
Hosts that forget to post on time. (Or at all.)
Hosts that are indifferent or don’t interact with those who comment.
Incomplete posts or links that don’t work.
Hosts that continue to make demands or complain even after your guest spot.
(Sometimes things happen. All you can do is learn from the experience and avoid problematic hosts in the future.)
Your tour is successful if any one or more the following happens:
Your book sales increase during or after a tour.
You are exposed to a lot of potential readers.
Your own sites gain followers. (Hits are good, visits are better, followers best.)
Jem Perkins has it all – money, a fine house, a handsome husband, and a new baby boy. But when her family fortunes turn, Jem’s husband Seth leads her to a new home: a sod house on a Nebraska homestead.
It is a season of growth for Jem as she reluctantly confronts her new realities: back-breaking labor, dangerous illness, and mind-numbing isolation. She learns to embrace her new role as a capable woman and marriage partner and discovers an awareness of God’s hand in her life.
Then, on January 12, 1888, the history-making Children’s Blizzard sweeps across the land, ushering in a season of hardship she never expected. Can Jem’s confidence, marriage, and new-found faith weather the storm?
How do you fit writing into your life? Do you have a regular routine?
I would love to have a routine! Life is pretty complicated right now. In addition to all the activities that come with a teen and a ‘tween, I’m the full-time caretaker for my husband, who is totally blind and chronically ill. He had a kidney-pancreas transplant in 1994, so his immune system is suppressed. Still, we both worked full time until 2005, when his health declined. He was in the hospital 9 times in 2010 with various infections and problems. This year he was in twice before the third time on April 13, when he went into the hospital and is still there now.
Three of my four books were written at my husband’s bedside, as well as many commission writing projects and editing jobs. I once wrote 10,000 words on a novel in a single night at the Emergency Room. I know, because I added them up. I have no idea whether I ended up keeping any of those words, but I wrote them.
What are you passionate about?
My passion is making the moments of my life count. I’m deliberately idealistic in the face of reality: The world is broken and it’s going to stay that way until Jesus comes, but I believe we have to pour ourselves into making it better anyway. Second to that, launching my children well. I pray that they’re prepared, that they’ve learned to rely on Jesus, and that they will find God’s path for their lives. If I do nothing else well, I want to do this. And if I do everything else well but this . . . it just doesn’t count.
It’s also really important to me to help people; it’s my drug. If I think someone is in distress, I get all twitchy and strain to find a way to help. God had a fight on His hands when He decided it was time for me to learn to accept help instead of give it, but I’m getting there.
What is your writing process?
I usually begin with some core idea – character, concept or conflict. And sometimes I write out a scene if it plays in my head. But before I begin officially working on a book, I plan it out from beginning to end, down to the individual scenes. Sometimes I even plan next books for a potential series. The plan is flexible; things will change as I go along. But it’s a lifesaver when I haven’t written in weeks, I’m mind-numb with exhaustion and surrounded by beeping IV’s and rattling hospital machinery. I can check the map to see where I’ve been and where I’m going. I just plow through. When I can’t write well, I write badly. Then later I fix it.
How would you define your unique writing style? What sets you apart from other authors?
I’m a Christian author, but I struggle with the guidelines of the Christian Bookseller Association standards. It feels so unrealistic. Modern Christian readers connect with characters who make mistakes, lie, have blunt conversations with their girlfriends, and enjoy sex with their husbands. This is my standard: my characters make their mistakes, but I won’t write a yummy scene about them doing something dumb with a man they’re not married to.
Married sex, on the other hand . . . Our culture delights in glorifying perversions. Why not give the good stuff – trusting, genuinely loving married sex – a little airtime too? Young readers today are only exposed to images of sex outside of marriage. Romance novels, for example, have lots of explicit scenes, but if the characters are married, the story no longer constitutes a romance (trust me – I’ve grappled with this one for years).
I have been told – adamantly – that I’m leading people into sin by writing this way. That may be so – I’ll ask God when I see Him. Meantime, in my life, He has dealt with me where I am and how I am. That’s the only story I know how to tell.
What else would you like to tell us about yourself?
I believe the Bible is the word of God, and that my job as a Christian is to serve and love. I’m in no hurry to leave this earth, but when I do go to heaven, I’m going to learn to play a musical instrument. Ten thousand years ought to do it. I’m going to sing, write, paint, keep a garden without worrying about the water bill, and I’m going to savor the fact that geographical distances no longer separate me from my loved ones.
At midnight, Charley woke shivering in his trundle bed. "Ma?"
Town/Location:
The story begins in St. Paul, Minnesota, moves into Kansas, and ends in Nebraska.
This story offers a glimpse into how hard life was (and still is to a great degree) in the west, and brings to light the story of the Children's Blizzard, which took place in January 1888.
Hot, scorching summers and brutal and unpredictable winters, the land is unforgiving and only the most stalwart individuals can survive. What chance do a couple of city folk stand?
Seth is a good man, brave and strong. Fair and ethical. He’s been a good provider for his family, a good father to his son, if a bit estranged from his wife.
Jemima has been raised a spoiled daughter and is now a somewhat indulged wife.
Jem and Seth married "liking" one another, "lusting" after one another, and perhaps even "loving" one another, but they didn't really know one another and weren't friends. Seth is with the military and has been gone traveling much of their marriage. Jem has been coddled and indulged by her father, who lives nearby and gave Seth and Jem the house that they live in with their infant son Charley.
Life takes a turn, and Seth chooses to move the family out West to become homesteaders in Nebraska. They know that life will be tough, but Seth seems to underestimate just how hard things can get.
In the beginning, Jem is spoiled, selfish and annoying. She isn't very likable by any means, often using tears to get her way with the men in her life. But the more that life throws at the family, the more Jem rises to the occasion.
My greatest disappointment with this story and the characters was Seth. I was disappointed that he only saw Jem for who she had been, and did not acknowledge the amazing woman that she had become. She showed herself in many circumstances to perhaps be even stronger and tougher than Seth.
This was my first e-book, and I've gotta say, I came to love being able to just pick up my phone and read a little here and there. It was a comfortable way to settle down at night, turn out the lights, and read one more chapter before giving way to sleep. This was the perfect introduction to the world of e-books!
My final word: This was a lovely story, and it really held me throughout. I kept wondering what was going to happen next? Would they survive the West? Would they find their way back to each other? Would life cast them a lifeline? I've been interested in the past with the Children's Blizzard, and this was a nice introduction to it. Tragic and stirring, leading you through the story with little drops of hope like Gretel's trail of breadcrumbs, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a moving story that can touch your soul.
My Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Disclosure: I received a copy of this book to review through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers, in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are my own and based on my observations while reading this novel.
This beautiful hawk has claimed our area as his turf and sits on our fence or deck railing every day. This drives Rocko and Spunky crazy.. What Rocko doesn't realize is that this hawk could probably carry one tiny black kitty away.
A lot goes into setting up a blog tour. I’ve done six tours now, on blogs as well as other social platforms, and hosted many, many authors. For those of you about to embark on a blog tour (or plan to one day soon) below is a list of tips and suggestions.
There are two types of tours - the short burst and the marathon. A concentrated book tour should be ten stops in two weeks maximum. (You will burn out yourself and your followers otherwise.) A more relaxed tour consists of a couple days a week spread over a month or so.
Start contacting potential hosts at least two months in advance. Large blog sites tend to fill up quickly.
Select a variety of venues. Don’t just visit the blogs of other writers. Consider your target audience - what sites are they most likely to visit? Mix it up to get the most bang for your buck.
A relationship with the host site is very important. (This is why paid blog tours tend to be a waste of money - you don’t have a relationship with the host.) Follow and comment on the blog long before you ask the site owner to host you.
Look for large sites with lots of traffic and visitors. 500 followers and 20+ unique comments is best. If it doesn’t have a wide following, you won’t get the exposure you need, and interaction is important.
Many sites post guest guidelines - read these carefully before contacting the host. (And hosts, when contacted, please state up front your guidelines and if you require a review copy!)
Contact the host, providing them with your full book information.
Don’t be upset if they say no. Sometimes your book isn’t a good fit for the site or the blogger is already booked.
Be prepared to suggest post topics and send a review copy if requested. Book bloggers will almost always request a review copy and should be contacted many months in advance. (Book bloggers are a special consideration, because even though they may be doing it for fun, it’s still ‘business.’)
Schedule a variety of stops - guest posts, interviews, reviews, giveaways, and possibly podcasts. Don’t offer the same thing at every stop.
You do not have to do a giveaway at every stop. For some hosts, that is their trademark - they always feature a giveaway - and you might steal their thunder. It also takes away the novelty. The Big Six can afford it, but smaller publishers and self-publishers can’t afford to give books at every stop. And while ebooks might be free, don’t devalue the effort you put into your book by giving it out as if it were nothing.
Coordinate with your publisher.
Consider an announcement day for your book or the beginning of your tour if you have many host offers.
If there are issues with the host, graciously withdraw and find another. The success of your tour does not hinge on just one stop.
There is a give and take - you are gaining access to the host’s followers in exchange for bringing your own followers the day of your post. That is the tradeoff. You can also reciprocate by featuring your host on your site either before or after the tour. In general, most of the online community is generous, unselfish, and willing to spread the word about your new book.
Remember, treat your author status as a business. It takes a lot of effort to put together a blog tour. Make yours count by selecting good hosts and smart post topics that will appeal to your target audience. And don’t forget to have fun in the process!
Remember to come back February 23rd for the second part.
For this hop, I decided to give two (2) winners their choice of book from my list of available books. The first winner will get first choice, and the second winner will get second choice. To enter, just complete the Rafflecopter form below.
NOTE: A few people have said that the form is not working properly, but it is working just fine for me, and some who reported it not working are shown as having entered through it. I did note that the code mentions that Java must be enabled, so you'll want to check under your browser Tools > Options and make sure that you have Java enabled!
Also please be aware that Rafflecopter often logs you in, and if it does it won't give you the opportunity to put in your name and email-- it already knows who you are! When it does this, you should see a little "Hi, Your Name!" in the upper right panel of the form.
NOTE 2: I don't know what could be going on with Rafflecopter, but the same people who are saying down in the comments that it isn't working are showing up in the Rafflecopter database. So it is actually working for them! I don't know what is happening on their end to make them think that it isn't working! If you think it isn't working for you, go ahead and leave a comment, and I will check the database to make sure you were actually added. a Rafflecopter giveaway Go check out Kathy's blog to see the other 200+ blogs joining in this giveaway hop! Good luck, and thanks for stopping by!
Do looks matter? Even asking such a question seems superficial. Still, in today’s society, though I hate to admit it, looks do play an important role. If you want to look normal, you need to look and dress the part. If you’re going for an interview, you’d wear clothes appropriate to the position to make a good impression, and not what you’d wear shopping at the local grocery store. (Unless you’re more fastidious than I am when you buy food.)
In the everyday world, if you see an unshaven dude with greasy hair and dirty clothes walking down the street, would you steer clear of him, thinking the worse, though you know many criminals look like perfectly groomed citizens?
Would you roll your eyes if you saw a chick with overdone, painted on makeup, scant or skintight clothes? She sure seems an easy mark, doesn’t she?
What if, the guy you’d normally steer clear of on the street turns out to be a decent, hard working man, who works two jobs just to get by and barely has enough time or energy to get from one of them to the other?
What if the chick who looked so easy actually has no idea of the image she projects and is merely copying her favorite rock star’s style, or, perhaps is overcompensating due to an inferiority complex because of some horrible happening or person that shaped her life?
The advantage of books is that authors can sprinkle in clues which peel off the facades of their characters, affording glimpses at what hides beneath. Once readers see past the obvious, the marvelous miracle of character bonding can take place.
In Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, Dorrie, the main character, reverts from 55 to 24, and gets a taste of what it’s like to be admired for her looks. When something happens to threaten them, she’s depressed, realizing her values have changed and not for the better. Another character, which I’ve dubbed the Angel Man because of his flowing blond hair and angelic blue eyes, values his appearance over everything in life, so much so that he feels superior to others less fortunate.
Looks are certainly important to both of them, too much so. To learn more about Dorrie, Roman, and what events led to their views on looks, this book is available at Amazon or Smashwords, also on Nook this week, or next. Can you share an instance where a person’s looks have fooled you? Or, maybe something from a book where the author uses looks to portray a character’s flaws or good points? Or any other instance where looks seem important?
BIO: Along with writing mysteries, thrillers, and romances, Morgan Mandel loves to blog and network. You’ll often find her on Facebook,Twitter, and other social sites, as well as at various e-groups. Her previous books, still available, are Killer Career,Girl of My Dreams, and Two Wrongs, all on Kindle and Smashwords. She’s a past president of Chicago-North RWA, past library liaison for Midwest MWA, belongs to Sisters in Crime and EPIC. Her next project is a sequel to Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, called Blessing or Curse: A Forever Young Anthology. This book will describe what happens to other subjects who take the Forever Young pill.
BLURB: Fresh beginnings turn tragic when Dorrie Donato’s husband, Larry, is killed in a hit and run accident a few months after starting a new job at the Life is for Living Institute. Discouraged and desperate after suffering countless setbacks, Dorie accepts an offer by Larry’s boss, the famous Angel Man, to be the first to test an experimental pill designed to spin its user back to a desired age and hold there, yet still retain all previous memories. The pill seems too good to be true. Maybe it is.
Thank you, Morgan, and good luck with your new book!
Please feel free to leave questions here for Morgan.
Mailbox Monday is now hosted monthly by a different blog. Here is the official blog of Mailbox Monday.I've had my mailbox on hiatus for the holidays, but here are some of the books I've received in the last couple of months:
Wings: A Novel of WWII Flygirls by Karl Friedrich Won from A Bookish Libraria
Based on the true World War II stories of America’s first female military pilots, this historic novel follows the story of a young woman from a dirt-poor farm family. Sally Ketchum has little chance of bettering her life until a mysterious barnstormer named Tex teaches her to fly and to dare to love. But when Tex dies in a freak accident, Sally must make her own way in the world. She enrolls in the U.S. military’s Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program at a special school known as Avenger, where she learns to fly the biggest, fastest, meanest planes. She also reluctantly becomes involved with Beau Bayard, a flight instructor and aspiring writer who seems to offer her everything she could want. Despite her obvious mastery of flying, many members of the military are unable to accept that a “skirt” has any place in a cockpit. Soon Sally finds herself struggling against a high-powered Washington lawyer that wants to close down Avenger once and for all.
Intense, powerful, and compelling, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and James Jones's The Thin Red Line.
It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them forever.
Written over the course of thirty years by a highly decorated Marine veteran, Matterhorn is a visceral and spellbinding novel about what it is like to be a young man at war.
It is an unforgettable novel that transforms the tragedy of Vietnam into a powerful and universal story of courage, camaraderie, and sacrifice: a parable not only of the war in Vietnam but of all war, and a testament to the redemptive power of literature.
(Matterhorn has been on my Wish List for so long, that I'm excited to finally have it on my TBR shelf!)
In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a ‘pacification unit’ go haywire – but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.
When the Robot War ignites -- at a moment known later as Zero Hour -- humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us…and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.
Cinema of Shadows by Michael West Won from Wag the Fox
Welcome to the Woodfield Movie Palace.
The night the Titanic sank, it opened for business...and its builder died in his chair. In the 1950s, there was a fire; a balcony full of people burned to death. And years later, when it became the scene of one of Harmony, Indiana's most notorious murders, it closed for good. Abandoned, sealed, locked up tight...until now.
Tonight, Professor Geoffrey Burke and his Parapsychology students have come to the Woodfield in search of evidence, hoping to find irrefutable proof of a haunting. Instead, they will discover that, in this theater, the terrors are not confined to the screen.
Children of Paranoia by Trevor Shane Won from Bibliojunkies
ALL WARS HAVE RULES
Rule Number One: No killing innocent bystanders. Rule Number Two: No killing anyone under the age of eighteen.
BREAK THE RULES, BECOME THE TARGET
Since the age of eighteen, Joseph has been assassinating people on behalf of a cause that he believes in but doesn't fully understand. The War is ageless, hidden in the shadows, governed by a rigid set of rules, and fought by two distinct sides-one good, one evil. The only unknown is which side is which. Soldiers in the War hide in plain sight, their deeds disguised as accidents or random acts of violence amidst an unsuspecting population ignorant of the brutality that is always inches away.
Killing people is the only life Joseph has ever known, and he's one of the best at it. But when a job goes wrong and he's sent away to complete a punishingly dangerous assignment, Joseph meets a girl named Maria, and for the first time in his life his singleminded, bloody purpose fades away.
Before Maria, Joseph's only responsibility was dealing death to the anonymous targets fingered by his superiors. Now he must run from the people who have fought by his side to save what he loves most in this world. As Children of Paranoia reaches its heart-in-throat climax, Joseph will learn that only one rule remains immutable: the only thing more dangerous than fighting the War...is leaving it.
Whither Thou Goest, I Will Go by Naomi Dathan Won through LibraryThing Early Reviewers
Jem Perkins has it all – money, a fine house, a handsome husband, and a new baby boy. But when her family fortunes turn, Jem’s husband Seth leads her to a new home: a sod house on a Nebraska homestead.
It is a season of growth for Jem as she reluctantly confronts her new realities: back-breaking labor, dangerous illness, and mind-numbing isolation. She learns to embrace her new role as a capable woman and marriage partner and discovers an awareness of God’s hand in her life.
Then, on January 12, 1888, the history-making Children’s Blizzard sweeps across the land, ushering in a season of hardship she never expected. Can Jem’s confidence, marriage, and new-found faith weather the storm?
(This is my first e-book. I was very hesitant to do an e-book, as I am a very tactile person who loves the look and feel of a bound book and loves the look of it on a shelf and having it as a constant visual reminder of the anticipated story held in its pages. However I must say, I am enjoying having this book on my phone, and being able to pull it out and just read it for a few minutes anywhere, anytime.)
Books that I've purchased from Barnes and Noble:
The Birth House by Ami McKay
An arresting portrait of the struggles that women faced for control of their own bodies, The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare—the first daughter in five generations of Rares.
As apprentice to the outspoken Acadian midwife Miss Babineau, Dora learns to assist the women of an isolated Nova Scotian village through infertility, difficult labors, breech births, unwanted pregnancies, and unfulfilling sex lives.
During the turbulent World War I era, uncertainty and upheaval accompany the arrival of a brash new medical doctor and his promises of progress and fast, painless childbirth. In a clash between tradition and science, Dora finds herself fighting to protect the rights of women as well as the wisdom that has been put into her care.
The Alchemist by Paula Coelho
PAULO COELHO'S enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom points Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But what starts out as a journey to find wordly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transformation power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.
The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips
The Tragedy of Arthur is an emotional and elaborately constructed tour de force from bestselling and critically acclaimed novelist Arthur Phillips, “one of the best writers in America” (The Washington Post).
Its doomed hero is Arthur Phillips, a young man struggling with a larger-than-life father, a con artist who works wonders of deception but is a most unreliable parent. Arthur is raised in an enchanted world of smoke and mirrors where the only unshifting truth is his father’s and his beloved twin sister’s deep and abiding love for the works of William Shakespeare—a love so pervasive that Arthur becomes a writer in a misguided bid for their approval and affection.
Years later, Arthur’s father, imprisoned for decades and nearing the end of his life, shares with Arthur a treasure he’s kept secret for half a century: a previously unknown play by Shakespeare, titled The Tragedy of Arthur. But Arthur and his sister also inherit their father’s mission: to see the play published and acknowledged as the Bard’s last great gift to humanity. . . .
Unless it’s their father’s last great con.
By turns hilarious and haunting, this virtuosic novel—which includes Shakespeare’s (?) lost King Arthur play in its five-act entirety—captures the very essence of romantic and familial love and betrayal. The Tragedy of Arthur explores the tension between storytelling and truth-telling, the thirst for originality in all our lives, and the act of literary mythmaking, both now and four centuries ago, as the two Arthurs—Arthur the novelist and Arthur the ancient king—play out their individual but strangely intertwined fates.
The Intention Experiment by Lynne McTaggert
The book you hold in your hands is revolutionary, a groundbreaking exploration of the science of intention.Drawing on the findings of leading scientists from around the world, The Intention Experiment demonstrates that thought is a thing that affects other things. It is also the first book to invite you, the reader, to take an active part in its original research.
Using cutting-edge research conducted at Princeton,MIT, Stanford, and many other prestigious universities and laboratories, The Intention Experiment reveals that the universe is connected by a vast quantum energy field.Thought generates its own palpable energy, which you can use to improve your life and, when harnessed together with an interconnected group, to change the world.
In The Intention Experiment, internationally bestselling author Lynne McTaggart takes you on a gripping, mind-blowing journey to the furthest reaches of consciousness.As she narrates the exciting developments in the science of intention, she also profiles the colorful scientists and renowned pioneers who study the effects of focused group intention on scientifically quantifiable targets -- animal, plant, and human.
McTaggart offers a practical program to get in touch with your own thoughts, to increase the activity and strength of your intentions, and to begin achieving real change in your life. You are then invited to participate in an unprecedented experiment: Using The Intention Experiment website to coordinate your involvement and track results, you and other participants around the world will focus your power of intention on specific targets, giving you the opportunity to become a part of scientifichistory. A new Afterword by the author recounts the successes of the several Intention Experiments so far.
The Intention Experiment forces you to rethink what it is to be human. It proves that we're connected to everyone and everything -- and that discovery demands that we pay better attention to our thoughts, intentions, and actions. Here's how you can.
(I've been wanting to read this one. It reminds me of a book that I read and loved a couple of decades ago by the name of The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Thompkins and Christopher Bird.)
Thanks to everyone! For 2012, my goal is to spend less time on the computer and more time reading!
