Things Hoped For by Emily Gray Clawson

Ms. Clawson has a new book coming out and I'm always up for helping a fellow writer give a shout out when they announce a new book! Best wishes Emily! Many YW and their families will be grateful!

http://www.emilygrayclawson.com/2012/10/22/things-hoped-for-cover-revealed-and-a-giveaway/#comment-249

Here is the back cover copy:

16 year old Fran Jensen has been a member of the LDS Church all her life. But her faith is deeply shaken when she loses her best friend, her sister Anna, to a horrible accident. Suddenly everything that she has always believed isn’t so easy anymore. Her faith is rocky, at best, and her relationship with her family starts to crumble. Only her friendship with Seth, a handsome young sculptor, offers her refuge from the pain that surrounds her. But Seth has his own tragedy to deal with. He has his own secrets and his own questions. As he begins his quest for answers, Fran wonders if their friendship will survive through their changing attitudes toward faith. When Seth’s awful secret is revealed, Fran suddenly finds herself without an anchor. She has to decide to find out once and for all what she believes or risk losing everything . . . and everyone that matters to her.
 

Anyone else need a shout out?

North & South BBC Miniseries

I was looking for something Austenesque on Netflix one night and came across this brilliant miniseries by the BBC called North and South. I read the teaser and proceeded to watch over the next few nights as it is a four hour film broken into one hour segments. It is based on a book by Elizabeth Gaskell. I haven't grabbed a copy of the book yet, but look forward to picking up a copy and enjoy it. Because even after four hours, I'm sure there is still stuff that got left out. There always is, when you convert book to film.

This is the blurb from Amazon about the book.
And the link:
http://www.amazon.com/North-Penguin-Classics-Elizabeth-Gaskell/dp/0140434240/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345821109&sr=1-1&keywords=gaskill+north+and+south

"How am I to dress up in my finery, and go off and away to smart parties, after the sorrow I have seen today?"

When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction. In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fused individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale created one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.

In this story we learn about industrial England, specifically about the life of cotton mill workers and their relationships to the owners. It is very eye opening about what life was like for these working men, women and children. Yes, children. I think that is what is the saddest part for me. The love story is definitley one of hate at first sight that turns to love over time and unexpected circumstances. As in any good love story, there is plenty of miscommunication and misunderstanding of one another and an inevitable happy ending. If you like Austen type films and book, you'll enjoy this one too even with it set in a different era.

I did notice in looking up the book, that there is a 1996 print and a 2010, plus  a Kindle. It looks as if this book may have been originally printed before 1923. Guess it's time to do some research on Ms. Gaskell

Here's the link for the BBC 2004 miniseries.
http://www.amazon.com/North-South-Daniela-Denby-ashe/dp/B000AYEL6U/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1345822695&sr=1-1&keywords=gaskell+north+and+south

Do you have a Victorian romance you recommend?

You Got My Vote Winners!

I want to thank all of you who supported me by voting for Fallen Angel during the So You Think You Can Write Contest by Harlequin. Tomorrow is the last day for them to notify the top 25 and the additional 3 wild card spots. So, fingers crossed, but if not, then don't despair. I noticed that once the entire contest ends in Nov/Dec they will be contacting contestants who's manuscripts looked promising but didn't progress in the contest, so there is always that hope, and many more agents and publishers in the world.

But what you want to know is WHO WON? And WHAT did they win?

I had three finalists:

Danyelle Ferguson
Alison Love
Jenny Wirt

Each of their first names will be making appearances as characters in my third novel: Ring on Her Finger and will get credit in the acknowledgements.

How cool is that?

(Personally I think it's cool to be written as a character in a book, but...if you think it's lame, please give me ideas of what you think would be better for my next contest and leave them in the comments below. Thanks.)

THANKS!!! No writer does this alone and I appreciate all of your support!

Toby Gold & the Secret Fortune by Craig Everett

"Money is the most dangerous magic."

New Fantasy Novel Teaches Kids about Money

It is widely recognized that the lack of basic financial skills among adults and teens is a serious problem in America and around the world.  A new middle-grade novel by Craig Everett hopes to improve the financial literacy situation for children ages 9 to 15.

Toby Gold and the Secret Fortune is an urban fantasy, where a secret magical world of money and intrigue co-exists with the same everyday world we all know.  Toby grows up in Wallingford, Connecticut, not knowing about this secret society until one day when he discovers secret messages encrypted into the stock ticker “crawl” that moves along the bottom of the screen on the financial news channel.

Toby’s shock only grows worse when he realizes that the secret messages are directed to him!

His unique abilities with math and money have been noticed by the wrong people, and Toby is quickly sucked into a high-stakes life and death financial conspiracy, that he is only able to resolve by using his amazing skills with money.

At 260 pages, the book is fast-paced and entertaining.  It incorporates such financial literacy topics as: saving, banking, entrepreneurship, time value of money, return on investment, and simple financial statements.

“My whole purpose in writing this book is to introduce finance principles to people in an entertaining way using characters with which they can identify,” says author Craig R. Everett, a finance professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.  “Financial literacy is a huge issue now, particularly due to the financial crisis,” Dr. Everett continues.  “There is no silver bullet that instantly endows people with financial literacy, so the best approach is to expose kids to these concepts in as many ways and at as many times as possible…eventually, it will stick.”

Toby Gold and the Secret Fortune will be available in bookstores and online on October 18, 2012.

Author Bio for Craig Everett

 Craig R. Everett was born and raised in Maine, spending his childhood summers digging along the shores of Bar Harbor for buried pirate treasure.  Fortunately, he was able to remain blissfully unaware that pirates seldom, if ever, ventured that far north.  He received his B.A. in Economics from Tufts University, an MBA from George Mason University, and a Ph.D. in Finance from Purdue University.

Dr. Everett is currently a finance professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, where he teaches corporate and entrepreneurial finance. Dr. Everett also volunteers in public schools teaching financial literacy principles. 

To check out more about the book go to:
http://tobygold.com/

You can learn more about him at his website:
http://craigeverett.com/index.html

You can check out his blog tour at:
http://rachellewrites.blogspot.com/p/blog-tours.html

Best Wishes on the book launch Craig!

Vote for Fallen Angel and we can all win!

I did something brave this week (and arguably possibly on the insane side). I entered the So You Think You Can Write contest by Harlequin.

Please go vote for my book Fallen Angel by Lisa Swinton in the new Heartwarming Line section. This is a clean romance line they wish to introduce next summer.

Public voting is Oct. 2- 11. Please vote everyday. The votes are anonymous. The top 25 from the public vote move on to be seen by the editors. Help me get there and thanks for your support!

http://www.soyouthinkyoucanwrite.com/manuscripts/series/harlequin-heartwarming/page/2/

I will offer up a to be determined prize to the person who votes for me the most times. This will be by honor system. Everyday you vote, make a comment below and next week, I'll announce the winner. If you voted the past two days include that in your comment. If there is a tie, I'll draw a name from a hat.

GO VOTE! THANKS!!