Book Title: Between These Walls by Michael Newman

Category: Adult Fiction 18 yrs +, 375 pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Friesen Press

Release date: March 26, 2020

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

A novel of historical fiction that turns on two key events: the discovery of a beautiful blonde woman’s body in the back seat of a burnt out SS staff car during the last days of World War II, by US Army Medical Corps Colonel Samuel Singer, and the unsealing more than four decades later of a security-taped package from Germany, bearing a secret that changes the life of New York art curator Daniel Singer, the adopted son of Colonel Singer.

As Daniel learns more about the package’s contents, he unlocks the history of three families — one American and two German – through tumultuous times, from the end of the First World War to the rise of Adolf Hitler, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and through to three Middle East wars. Along the way, he gets entangled in the web of the Mossad, Israel’s top secret spy agency and Naomi one of its beautiful operatives, and is ultimately faced with a life-altering choice – and the opportunity to right the most heinous of wrongs.

 

 

 

 

Interview with Michael Newman

 

How did you come up with the premise of the novel?

 

On a visit to Berlin, Germany, my wife and I were walking along a street named Meineke Strasse, which features prominently in the book, when I noticed some brass plaques embedded in the sidewalk. They had the names of Jews who had lived in the apartment building above the plaques in the 1930’s and 40’s who had been taken by the Nazis, shipped off to concentration camps, and had their apartments taken over by Aryan Germans. I wondered what had happened to the people who had been shipped to the camps, to the apartments they left behind, who was occupying them now, and how they came into possession of them. So I built the story around that.

 

What made you write a book about the Holocaust?

 

Primarily because my Father spent eight months in captivity in Mauthausen, a notorious Nazi concentration camp in Austria, in 1944/45. Also many people, especially the younger generation, don’t know anything about the Holocaust and there are many Holocaust deniers out there who trivialize what happened to people simply because of their religion in those terrible years. Six million people died between 1939 and 1945 at the hands of the Nazis.

 

Your book is set in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Israel. Have you visited those places?

 

I was born in Hungary, and yes I’ve been to all the places mentioned in the book. I’ve been to Berlin, Munich, Mauthausen, Budapest, Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. I’ve visited the key locations where events in the book take place and absorbed the atmosphere generated by these places, which helped me with the writing of the book.

 

What is your next project?

 

My next project is to write a sequel to “Between These Walls.” It would follow the career and adventures of Daniel Singer’s daughter (whom he never met), as she prepares and embarks on a mission to find and avenge her father’s killers in Lybia, after joining the CIA.

 

What genre do you write in and why?

 

I write historical fiction. History is something that truly interests me. What has happened, and why it happened in the past is very fascinating. The rise and fall of historical figures teaches us a great many lessons. It is very interesting to see how empires and countries evolve through conflict and peaceful times and how political systems succeed and fail.

 

What is the last great book you’ve read?

 

“Children of a Faraway War” by Wendy Gruner. It is the true life story of two Australian sisters whose father died as an RAF radio operator in a Lancaster bomber crash in the Second World War, while they were very young. The book describes the sisters’ journey back to England to visit all the places their father had served in England, following his diary. It is truly a historical memoir with detailed description of Bomber Command, with a very humanistic approach, as the girls discover things about their late father that they never knew.

 

 

About the Author

 

A Hungarian refugee (1956) and the son of Holocaust survivors. A retired lifetime entrepreneur living on Toronto’s waterfront with my wife and cocker spaniel. Enjoys reading, mainly books about WW2, boating and worldwide travel. Father of three kids and grandfather of eleven.

 

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Giveaway

 

Prizes: ​ Win 1 of 10 ebooks of BETWEEN THESE WALLS by Michael Newman (10 winners)

(ends June 5)

 

 

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Synopsis

 

From the bestselling author of Sweet Tea Tuesdays comes a story of true love that spans decades.

Lillian Alexander’s father is dying of cancer. When he rambles on in a morphine-delirium, Lillian can’t ignore the feeling he’s trying to tell her something. At his funeral days later, she encounters ghosts from her past who stir long-suppressed memories from the day her mother died twenty-seven years ago. Why, if her mother’s death was an accident, does Lillian harbor guilt, as though she were somehow to blame?

When Lillian and her twin sister, Layla, learn the Stoney family fortune is gone, Lillian fights to save her ancestral home on Charleston’s prestigious East Battery. Desperate to resolve her money problems and get answers to her questions about the past, she tears her father’s study apart in search of clues. She discovers a thumb drive in a hollowed-out hardback copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls. The thumb drive, marked For Lillian in his handwriting, contains her father’s memoir. Secluded in the family’s cottage on Wadmalaw Island, she immerses herself in her father’s account of his stormy relationship with her mother. What she learns sets her on a journey of self-discovery.

Tangled in Ivy is a tale of tortured souls and southern family dysfunction.

 

 

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Review

 

I simply love everything I ready by Ashley Farley and this story is no exception.  There is something about her southern stories of women that are strong yet vulnerable and the families that surround them that draw in the reader and perhaps even have them relating to the various characters.

In this story we meet Lillian and Layla, twin sisters that don’t seem to have that close bond most twins, even sisters, might have together.  They are as different as can be and the truth about their mother’s life and her death can either tear them apart even more or bring them together.

I enjoyed the story told from several viewpoints and different time periods.  Learning more about Graham and Ivy’s life together was intriguing and explained so much of the family dysfunction.  Sadly, Lillian and Layla learn all of this after his death, and had they known some of it before he died, perhaps they could have cleared the air of so much.  The sisters might have even come to a better understanding of who they were and why there was such animosity between them that didn’t need to be there.  It takes time to heal the rift, but even with that journey, there were many bumps in the road that added more drama to the story.

I think I stayed up way too late finishing this book but it was so worth it and while this book isn’t due to be published until June, grab it as soon as you can or go ahead and pre-order the book, you will be glad you did.

We give this book 5 paws up!

 

 

About the Author

 

Ashley Farley writes books about women for women. Her characters are mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives facing real-life issues. Her bestselling Sweeney Sisters series has touched the lives of many.

Ashley is a wife and mother of two young adult children. While she’s lived in Richmond, Virginia for the past 21 years, a piece of her heart remains in the salty marshes of the South Carolina Lowcountry, where she still calls home. Through the eyes of her characters, she captures the moss-draped trees, delectable cuisine, and kindhearted folk with lazy drawls that make the area so unique.

 

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Synopsis

 

The meddling moms of Forest River live for a good scandal. Speculation surrounding Claire Conroy’s sex life has fueled the rumor mill for years. Now, when Claire returns home from a trip to Italy separated from her husband of thirteen years, the imaginations of the Lululemon-clad ladies who lunch spins into overdrive. As the gossipmongers create their own scandalous backstory for the separation, blaming Claire’s infidelity, she learns the hard way just how mean mommies can be.

Eager to begin her new life as a single mom of three Claire puts her trust in Jackie Martin, the president of the PTA, to help tell her truth and free her of the false accusations and scandal. But the plan backfires, and Claire is put further into the spotlight when an embarrassed mom declares war.

As Claire dusts off her resume, fights the daily urge not to strangle her ex-husband and his new girlfriend, and dips her toes into the dating world one dud at a time will she find the happiness she craves or succumb to the pressure of the mean girls?

 

 

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You can pre-order book 3, Mom Boss for just $1.99

 

Review

 

The Forest River PTA moms are at it again!

When I first started reading this book I was confused because it felt like I had already read this book.  What I didn’t realize is that this series covers the same time period but from a different perspective compared to Go On, Girl.  Once I had that in my mind, I was off to the races.

Claire is the focus of this book and she takes such a beating on her personal life.  Her husband has left her, the moms think she is having an affair, and then let’s not even talk about those blind dates!  But that is ok because she got them back with almost no effort in a situation or two.  She keeps her cool and sense of humor throughout the book, even when dealing with her soon to be ex-husband, Kevin.  He is worthless and a slimeball and deserves nothing for his actions.

While most of the moms ban together, there is one that is out to sabotage everyone.  That is Donna.  I’m not sure what her issue is but she slanders everyone and slings so much mud.  Let’s just say she gets her comeuppance several times in the book.  Jackie can be a tough nut to crack, but if she is on your side then you shouldn’t want for much.  I can’t wait to read her story in Mom Boss.

This is a fun read and it will leave you shaking your head wondering how people can act this way and get away with it most of the time.

We give this book 4 paws up and if you pick this book up, make sure to read the first book to see the various situations from another angle.

 

 

 

 

About the Author

By day, Hilary Grossman works in the booze biz. By night she hangs out with her “characters.” She has an unhealthy addiction to denim and high heel shoes. She’s been known to walk into walls and fall up stairs. She only eats spicy foods and is obsessed with her cat, Lucy. She loves to find humor in everyday life. She likens life to a game of dodge ball – she tries to keep many balls in the air before they smack her in the face. She lives on Long Island.

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OUT OF THE EMBERS

 

Mesquite Springs, Book One

 

by

 

Amanda Cabot

 

 

Historical Fiction / Christian Romance

Publisher: Revell

Date of Publication: March 3, 2020

Number of Pages: 336

 

Scroll down for the giveaway!

 

 

 

Ten years after her parents were killed, Evelyn Radcliffe is once more homeless. The orphanage that was her refuge and later her workplace has burned to the ground, and only she and a young orphan girl have escaped. Convinced this must be related to her parents’ murders, Evelyn flees with the girl to Mesquite Springs in the Texas Hill Country and finds refuge in the home of Wyatt Clark, a talented horse rancher whose plans don’t include a family of his own.

At first, Evelyn is a distraction. But when it becomes clear that trouble has followed her to Mesquite Springs, she becomes a full-blown disruption. Can Wyatt keep her safe from the man who wants her dead? And will his own plans become collateral damage?

 

Suspenseful and sweetly romantic, Out of the Embers is the first in a new series that invites you to the Texas Hill Country in the 1850s, when the West was wild, the men were noble, and the women were strong.

 

Praise

“Out of the Embers is part prairie romance, part romantic suspense. I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed a book more. Amanda Cabot has written an intriguing, chilling mystery and she winds it through the pages of a sweet romance in a way that made me keep turning the pages fast to see what was going to happen next. An absolutely excellent read. And now I’m hungry for oatmeal pecan pie!”  — Mary Connealy, author of Aiming for Love, book #1 in the Brides of Hope Mountain series

 

 

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When I started this book, I was quickly immersed in the characters, scenery, and even the mystery that is dangled in front of the reader with only tidbits revealed here and there to keep the reader engaged and on the edge of their seats.

There was so much to like about this book I don’t know where to start!  The setting is the Texas Hill Country which is beautiful today, I can only imagine what it was like when this book was set.  Rolling hills painted with bluebonnets in the spring….sigh, a place I want to visit.  The characters are diverse and complex and while we know some of the histories of the main characters, we don’t know everything yet and it leaves much more to be discovered in future books in this series.  But we do learn about their strengths, weaknesses, desires, and hopes for the future.  There are even a few antagonists in this book that while they might have some redeeming qualities, are not portrayed in a positive light and it adds to the complexity of the story.  Sam would be the biggest one in the book and I can only hope that a future book will focus on him and he is able to redeem himself.

I love the town of Mesquite Springs and especially the diner that Evelyn opens in town.  The description reminds me so much of the restaurant in When Calls the Heart.  I loved that they would sit single people wherever there was an open seat.  What a great way to get to know someone new in town, whether just passing through or a resident.  And that Oatmeal Pecan Pie?  I don’t like pecan pie but now I am intrigued.

Wyatt has so much going on in his life and I can feel his struggles with running the ranch and supporting his mom and sister.  I don’t think he gives them enough credit, but in his defense sometimes you can only go by past actions of people.  I think a huge boost to his mom’s wellbeing was bringing Evelyn and Polly to their ranch to dry out and stay for a few days.  It gave her a purpose which is something she needed.

There are actually three different storylines and the author weaves a suspenseful tale that kept me wondering who these characters were, what they wanted, and what the end result would be with the culmination of the book.  Part of the story I was able to figure out, but part of it was quite a surprise to me.  I really liked the suspenseful part of wondering who these other characters were since their story didn’t flow with Evelyn or Polly’s story.

There are many faith-based parts in this book which include a character surviving a potentially fatal injury.  I think that each verse or faith section only strengthens my belief that people are inherently good and will prove that in various situations.  Or if they are evil that they will receive their just rewards.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

Evelyn took a deep breath, trying to calm nerves that were as jittery as if she’d just drunk a full pot of coffee.

“That’s what marriage is, Wyatt. Not all couples work together like the Fosters or my parents, but if they truly love each other, they both have a part in decision making. They consider the other person’s needs and their dreams.”

“Until I met you, I felt like a flower seed planted deep in the earth, waiting for rain before it began to sprout. You’ve been that rain. You’ve given me what I needed to grow.”

“You’ve shown me that lvoing someone doesn’t mean being burdened.  It’s a gift that opens our hearts to new possibilities.”

Overall this was a fantastic book and there is probably so much more I could say but then you wouldn’t have anything left to read.  We give this 5 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amanda Cabot is the bestselling author of A Stolen Heart, the first book of the Cimarron Creek trilogy, as well as the Texas Crossroads series, the Texas Dreams series, the Westward Winds series, and Christmas Roses. Her books have been finalists for the ACFW Carol Awards and the Booksellers’ Best. She lives in Wyoming.

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Copy of Out of the Embers + Special Hill Country Sweets Cookbook

+$25 Barnes and Noble Gift Card 

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Check out the other blogs on this tour

3/10/20	Notable Quotable	Forgotten Winds
3/10/20	Review	Librariel Book Adventures
3/11/20	Review	Jennifer Silverwood
3/11/20	BONUS Post	Hall Ways Blog
3/12/20	Excerpt, Part 1	Story Schmoozing Book Reviews
3/12/20	Author Interview	All the Ups and Downs
3/13/20	Character Spotlight	The Clueless Gent
3/13/20	Review	Reading by Moonlight
3/14/20	Guest Post	Chapter Break Book Blog
3/15/20	Author Interview	Carpe Diem Chronicles
3/16/20	Excerpt, Part 2	That’s What She’s Reading
3/16/20	Review	StoreyBook Reviews
3/17/20	Review	Missus Gonzo
3/18/20	Excerpt, Part 3	Max Knight
3/19/20	Review	Momma on the Rocks
3/19/20	Review	Book Fidelity

 

 

 

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Clearing in the Woods
Women’s Psychological/Crime Fiction
Publisher: Independently published (October 31, 2019)
Paperback: 321 pages

 

Synopsis

 

Roberta escapes her humdrum middle-class existence and the persistent ache of her dead mother’s secrets by fleeing to Alaska. Having abandoned everything she’d spent her life building, Roberta remakes herself in another place, doing anything other than responding to the demands of her self-absorbed husband, her entitled kids, and her Pottery Barn home. Taking her first job since college, and a small room above a tourists’ shop, she contemplates new vistas. She never expected, however, to find romance in the form of a handsome federal agent involved in murder and mayhem.And it is murder and mayhem, and the discovery of other’s secrets, that causes Roberta to run for her life into the Alaskan wilderness…

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Phyllis M. Newman is a native southerner. Born in New Orleans, she spent formative years in Florida, Iowa, Mississippi, and on a dairy farm in Ross County, Ohio. After a long career in finance and human resources at The Ohio State University, she turned her attention to writing fiction. She published a noir mystery, “Kat’s Eye” in 2015, a Gothic mystery, “The Vanished Bride of Northfield House” in 2018, and the suspense thriller “Clearing in the Woods” in 2019. Today she lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband and three perpetually unimpressed cats, none of whom venture far from home.

 

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In An Instant
Thriller/Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (March 1, 2020)
Paperback: 331 pages

Synopsis

 

A deeply moving story of carrying on even when it seems impossible.

Life is over in an instant for sixteen-year-old Finn Miller when a devastating car accident tumbles her and ten others over the side of a mountain. Suspended between worlds, she watches helplessly as those she loves struggle to survive.

Impossible choices are made, decisions that leave the survivors tormented with grief and regret. Unable to let go, Finn keeps vigil as they struggle to reclaim their shattered lives. Jack, her father, who seeks vengeance against the one person he can blame other than himself; her best friend, Mo, who bravely searches for the truth as the story of their survival is rewritten; her sister Chloe, who knows Finn lingers and yearns to join her; and her mother, Ann, who saved them all but is haunted by her decisions. Finn needs to move on, but how can she with her family still in pieces?

Heartrending yet ultimately redemptive, In an Instant is a story about the power of love, the meaning of family, and carrying on…even when it seems impossible.

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Suzanne Redfearn is the award-winning author of three novels: Hush Little Baby, No Ordinary Life, and In an Instant. In addition to being an author, she’s also an architect specializing in residential and commercial design. She lives in Laguna Beach, California, where she and her husband own two restaurants: Lumberyard and Slice Pizza and Beer.

 

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Synopsis

It’s 1905, and the Japanese victory over the Russians has shocked the British and their imperial subjects. Sixteen-year-old Leela and her younger sister, Maya, are spurred on to wear homespun to show the British that the Indians won’t be oppressed for much longer, either, but when Leela’s betrothed, Nash, asks her to circulate a petition amongst her classmates to desegregate the girls’ school in Chandrapur, she’s wary. She needs to remind Maya that the old ways are not all bad, for soon Maya will have to join her own betrothed and his family in their quiet village. When she discovers that Maya has embarked on a forbidden romance, Leela’s response shocks her family, her town, and her country firmly into the new century.

 

 

 

 

Excerpt

 

The next day my cheeks, my eyes, and my hair are as good as they’re going to be when Nash arrives just after breakfast. Instead of inviting us to his family’s for lunch, he is taking Maya and me to Gol Ghar. Everybody, from children to grandparents, loves Gol Ghar, but I wonder if he’s chosen the grain silo so that we will have an excuse to walk hip to hip, shoulder to shoulder up the narrow staircase. As Maya tells him about the good luck we’ve had with the training college’s opening, I study him.

Nash has always been beautiful: his dark skin smooth, his broad lips projecting softness, his lashes longer than mine with three coats of petroleum jelly. Beautiful, and somehow therefore gentle: the Chowdhurys have always been successful, and lucky, and generous. They have nothing to prove, and Nash, a diamond in this fine setting, even less so. And so though he’s always been tall, and always looked at each person as though they were the only one left in the city, he’s always struck me as laughing, comforting, with kindness to spare. In childhood, we hardly saw anything of him, but once we were formally engaged, he withstood the taunts of his classmates and often swung by with ices or samosas or the choruses of songs from the latest films. It was easy for him to love, and as all I’d ever dreamed of was loving someone back, he was perfect.

He’s changed: his lanky frame has tightened, straightened, and as he listens to Maya, I can see in the stiffness of his hands in his lap and of his toes, curled around the edge of his sandals, that he’s kept the tiniest portion of his attention for himself. He is still beautiful, but also… threatening? Is that the right word for the way he makes my body, still seated and composed, feel called to attention against any inclination of its own? His hair is longer, I see—his barber must only have shaved him this morning, rather than give him the accompanying trim—and this imperfection lets me catch my breath.

The carriage is pulling up to the Gol Ghar— our very own Round House, our silly English silo that once held grain and now serves as a pleasure ground for those of us too brown to make use of the club—as Nash responds to Maya’s exclamation that she’s more than ready for us to go back to school next week. “But surely…” he says.

When Nargis and Mawiyya do that to me in school—trail off in the middle of a thought there’s no chance I could finish on my own—it’s to mock me, but Nash doesn’t mock. I realize that while Maya and I have had numerous conversations about my post-marriage life and how to keep it as seamless a transition as possible, Nash and I haven’t had any. “Why don’t you run slightly ahead and check on the crowd?” I ask Maya with our shared look. We trail her, slowly, and I want to throw my arms around him again, but instead I say, “You know I won’t attend the training college from August if you or your parents don’t approve.” I start with what Maya would call a barefaced lie because I suppose that, all said and done, it’s the truth. November, really, is wedding season, but ours is to be held as soon as the weather settles. Some families need time to negotiate; ours will be efficiently put together as Papa has ceded complete control to the Chowdhurys since, as even Koyal Chachi would agree, there’s no chance of their taste being anything less than impeccable.

“Oh, no, of course I wouldn’t dream of stopping you!” he says. He actually stops, and turns to me, and reaches for my hands before he realizes, and stops himself. “Leela, I didn’t realize you wanted to become a teacher, but I should have guessed. You’ve read all of the great histories of Chandrapur, and your Sanskrit is far better than mine. I’ve no right or desire to stop you making the most of yourself.” “Well, that’s good, then,” I say. “Though if I’m being honest, I mostly just want to attend the school to make sure I’m able to see Maya every day. I’m not used to a joint household and I’m not sure I’ll be able to play a dutiful daughter-in-law without her as a sounding board.” I pause, but Nash smiles, and laughs. “And after suffering through a mixed education, I think it will be nice to have the chance to teach in the Hindu school whenever it opens.”

We have only taken a few steps, but already Nash stops, causing the mother and daughter behind us to bump into our calves and mumble apologies. “Leela,” he murmurs, so softly I have to lean in to hear, and the proximity is causing my heart to do a furious dance. But then he keeps walking.

“Leela,” he says again after a few steps. “When I was in Japan, at first it was terribly lonely. We tried to integrate, but without eating fish, we Hindu students found ourselves isolated in the canteen; without much money, additionally, I found myself unwilling to hole up and play cards with boys from Lucknow or Kanpur. I know you didn’t have it easy at Bankipore, either, with your father in trade.”

I nod.

“But after the triumph against the West, it was as though divisions had melted away. Even when we were sent home, I knew I was coming back to something important, and the sight of you in that swadeshi sari running towards me solidified every commitment I’d hardly understood, before Tokyo, that I’d had. I’ve dreamt about you in red for years,” he says, and though I want to faint I press my hands to the wall and keep myself barely upright, “but for the past year, I’ve dreamt about you in white. I’m so lucky that my life partner shares my dreams, not only for us, but for the country.” Nash sees me faltering, and risks censure from the auntie behind us by steadying me, a hand to the small of my back. I am dizzy for so many reasons.

“I just cannot understand why there is no hesitation towards a communal training college that will only lead towards a communalization of the school system itself, when we’re fighting, desperately, against communalism!”

We have almost climbed to the top; I see Maya awaiting us, and when she catches my eye, she winks, but I can’t reciprocate. “It wasn’t a British initiative,” I tell him. “The Director of Schools wanted to keep us girls together, in fact, and then both the Nawab and the Maharani joined together to oppose him. There are surely more than twelve Hindu girls in Chandrapur who may have wanted to get educated alongside us, and soon there will be places, and teachers for them. Education can only help us.”

I am out of breath, but we’ve climbed Gol Ghar, and the view is rewarding enough to let me tear my eyes away from Nash for a minute. And thank heavens, because looking at this new Nash while he is deliberating is… no, not threatening. Unsettling, I decide on. I wink at Maya, and we play our usual game of identifying all of the best places: the fields, in the distance, past the river, where on the way to Gaya we always stop, much too soon, for the best roasted corn; the Rama temple with the most rambunctious monkeys; the Sikh gurudwara that is unquestionably our most beautiful building; the Khudabaksh library where the real scholars spend their days with microscopes, studying the beautifully illuminated manuscripts; the market, where one day soon we must go and see what Indian-made lingerie I will wear to start my married life.

Nash speaks up again, finally. “I’ve missed this place so much.”

There are the beginnings of tears at the corners of his eyes, and I don’t know what to say.

Maya never has this problem. “And didn’t you miss us, then? I didn’t get even one letter from you, Mister.”

She has cracked the gloomy spell, and Nash rifles through his bag until he hits upon a small wrapped package. “I thought you’d prefer the paper,” he says, handing it to her.

“You didn’t have to get her a gift,” I say, knowing what it has cost his family to send him away, and all for a trip with no degree certificate.

“But he did,” Maya says, as though he’d take it back, ripping it open willy-nilly instead of properly, neatly. I lean over to get a better look, and am glad I did: he’s brought her stationary more beautiful than I have ever seen. The British have their formal, heavy paper to announce their galas, and I’ve coveted that often enough, but this is its opposite: thin, almost translucent, and sparkling, oyster pink with sea-green filigree adorning its edges. Maya is staring at it, and I squeeze her shoulders. “Oh, yes,” she says. “Thank you.”

She walks ahead of us on the way down, staring at it; it is a good thing, after all, that we’ve been here countless times before. Nash and I pretend to watch her, to stop her from falling off the edge, but really we are stealing glances at one another. “Thank you,” I tell him, and just for a moment, before our feet reach the solid ground, he takes my hand.

Reprinted from Where the Sun Will Rise Tomorrow with the permission of Galaxy Galloper Press. Copyright © 2020 by Rashi Rohatgi.

 

 

About the Author

 

Rashi Rohatgi is the author of Where the Sun Will Rise Tomorrow. An Indian-American Pennsylvania native who lives in Arctic Norway, her short fiction and poetry have appeared in A-Minor Magazine, The Misty Review, Anima, Allegro Poetry, Lunar Poetry, and Boston Accent Lit. Her non-fiction and reviews have appeared in The Review Review, Wasafiri, World Literature Today, Africa in Words, The Aerogram, and The Toast. She is a graduate of Bread Loaf Sicily and an associate professor of English at Nord University.

 

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Her Quiet Revolution: A Novel of Martha Hughes Cannon

by Marianne Monson

Publication Date: 2/18/19 Hardcover

Fiction / Historical

Book Design: © Shadow Mountain

Cover Art: Magdalena Zyzniewska/Trevillion Images;

City and County Building, Salt Lake City, used by permission, Utah Historical Society;

CSA Images/Getty Images

Art Direction: Richard Erickson Design: Heather G. Ward

 

Synopsis

 

A novel based on the life of Martha Hughes Cannon, a pioneer woman who overcame tremendous odds.

When her baby sister and her father die on the pioneer trail to Salt Lake City, Mattie is determined to become a healer. But her chosen road isn’t an easy one as she faces roadblocks common to Victorian women. Fighting gender bias, geographic location, and mountains of self-doubt, Mattie pushed herself to become more than the world would have her be, only to have everything she’s accomplished called into question when she meets the love of her life: Angus Cannon, a prominent Mormon leader and polygamist.

From the American Frontier to European coasts, Martha’s path takes her on a life journey that is almost stranger than fiction as she learns to navigate a world run by men. But heartache isn’t far behind, and she learns that knowing who you are and being willing to stand up for what you believe in is what truly defines a person.

Her Quiet Revolution is the story of one woman’s determination to change her world, and the path she forged for others to follow.

 

 

IndieBound * Amazon * B&N * BAM * Deseret Books

 

About the Author

MARIANNE MONSON received her MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and primarily writes on topics related to women’s history. She has taught English and Creative Writing at the community college and university levels and is the author of eleven books for children and adults. She is the founder of The Writer’s Guild, a literary nonprofit, and writes from a 100-year-old house in Astoria, Oregon.

 

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Synopsis

A hilarious new novel full of Hollywood glitz, glamour, and scandal.

When he changes the locks, she changes the rules.

Agnes Murphy Nash is the perfect Hollywood wife – she has the right friends, the right clothes, and even a side career of her own as a writer. Her husband Trevor is a bigshot producer, and from the outside it looks like they’re living a picture-perfect celebrity life, complete with tennis tournaments and lavish parties.

But the job description of a Hollywood wife doesn’t cover divorce, which is the way Agnes’ life is headed after she comes home one day to find her credit cards cancelled and the security passwords to get into her enormous LA home changed. Oh, and there’s a guy there whose job it is to tase her if she tries to enter…which she does. Needless to say, Agnes’ husband is dead set on making sure she loses big time, but Agnes isn’t the type to just lie down and take it. In a world of fremenies and hot nannies, personal psychics and “skinny” jello shots, Agnes may be losing her husband, but could that mean getting her own life back?

Been There, Married That is a drop-dead hilarious battle of wills that will make you laugh out loud, cringe, and keep turning the pages to see what crazy disaster will happen to Agnes next…and how she’ll rise from the ashes.

 

 

Amazon * B&N * BAM * IndieBound * Audible

 

 

Q & A with Gigi

 

You wrote the screenplay for Stepmom in addition to seven novels.  How does writing for the screen differ from novels?

 

Writing for the screen is like knitting or sewing or even cooking – you write to a pattern, you write to a recipe. There are rules that (mostly) must be followed for your movie to make sense visually and viscerally and to fit into a certain time constraint.

I always felt writing a book felt more free. You can let your imagination and keyboard run wild – you don’t have to time the scene. You can allow pauses and internal segues. You can write a novella and clock it at 120 pages or a freakin’ tome at 500.

However – and this is a big “however” – both must entertain the reader or viewer. With a movie, it’s usually the first part of the third act where I’ll check my watch – (I’m hungry, I’m thirsty, I have work to do, When’s this thing going to end?) – and with a book, it’s after the first 50 pages. If you’re not grabbed by the first 50, the author hasn’t done his/her job.

And that’s a lot to ask in this day and age, when there’s so much to watch, to play, to distract us. Just ask me to read a book that’s turned dull when “The Great British Baking Show” is streaming. Ain’t gonna happen.

 

You were married to producer Brian Grazer, and you paint a hilarious but wild picture of the life of a Hollywood wife in Been There, Married That.  Is any of that based on your own experience?

 

Yes, I was married for a long time (especially by Hollywood standards). Of course, there are seeds of personal truths sprinkled in here and there. But it’s not based on my experience – my experiences would be more mundane – many, many people have been through divorce, many more have children, etc.

The writer is an observer, before being a recorder. However, everything I write in terms of Hollywood and marriage is heightened and exaggerated. There’s an amalgamation of scenes I’ve imagined with a pinch of the “truth” – things that I’ve seen or heard about. In my dreams, my autobiography would be in a separate book section – under Mysteries and Scandals. Wink.

 

For those who are unfamiliar with Agnes Nash (heroine of Been There, Married That), how would you introduce her?

 

Agnes is as normal as she can be in a world that’s abnormal, who finds herself in the maelstrom of a big, nasty divorce. She’s a writer trying to raise a pre-pubescent daughter not to be an Instagram model (and sometimes losing)- while she herself is going through peri-menopause. She’s a woman who was never supposed to be leading a life of luxury; she’s not even comfortable with it – she doesn’t like shopping, she’s not overly social (which is expected in these circles), she has tried but can’t “care” about fashion. She’s a writer but a mother, first. She’s not ruthless, but she becomes ruthless when her bond with her daughter is challenged.

 

 

About the Author

Gigi Levangie is the author of six prior novels, including The After Wife and the New York Times bestseller The Starter Wife, which was adapted as a miniseries for USA Network.

She is the original writer of the screenplay for Stepmom and has written for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, and other publications. Levangie lives in Los Angeles.

 

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Synopsis

Frank Baltimore is a bit of a loser, struggling by as a carpenter and handyman in rural New England when he gets his big break, building a mansion in the executive suburbs of Hartford. One of his workers is a charismatic eighteen-year-old kid from Liverpool, Dmitry, spending his summer before university in the US. Dmitry is a charming sociopath, who develops a fascination with his autodidactic philosopher boss, perhaps thinking that, if he could figure out what made Frank tick, he could be less of a pig. Dmitry heads to Asia and makes a neo-imperialist fortune as an investment banker, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. When Dmitry’s office building in Taipei explodes in an enormous fireball, Frank heads to Asia, meets Dmitry’s wife, and things go from bad to worse.

A literary thriller about misogyny, unembarrassed rapacity, and unrestrained capitalism, Born Slippy will appeal to fans of Elmore Leonard, Patricia Highsmith, and Edward St. Aubyn.

 

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * IndieBound * Powell’s

 

Excerpt

2013

 

The blast was felt for blocks. The concussion, the shattering glass, the rip of steel, the roar of falling concrete. The thick, evil odor lasted for days, as crews dug through the rubble and gathered debris-encrusted body parts. Passersby choked on the dust. Frank, when he first saw the images online, felt like he had been there, like the explosion was memory, not a photograph.

He had seen the building, the Credit Lyonnais branch in Taipei, only once, months before, during a brief, very distracted visit to see Dmitry, who was the head of their office there, or head of the region. It had been his first time in Asia. They had stopped in front of the building on Frank’s way out of town, that was all.
But when the Taipei Times website came up on his normal breakfast internet rounds, he immediately recognized the “before” picture. He felt shredded, felt the guilt of all survivors, obsessed with the cruel idea that he could have prevented it.

Which was ridiculous, he knew. Only Dmitry could have.

Something had caught up with him, Frank thought later that day — Dmitry’s voracious rapacity had finally met its match. He didn’t know how, or who, but he knew its karmic inevitability. Al Jazeera turned up some shaky video the next day, accompanied by the idea that separatist Xinjiang Muslims were responsible, which Frank thought unlikely — Dmitry had, by his own account, made many enemies, lots of them much closer to home. The video showed smoke blowing out of what had once been ten or twelve gleaming stories, now not much more than a maw, spewing black and noxious billows.

Did he see it coming? Like sharks and chum, like the Three Stooges with a ladder, like falling in love where you shouldn’t — Frank knew as well as anyone how stories start and how they end. This fiery mess, or something like it, was bound to happen. He had been expecting it for years.

He blamed himself, if not for everything, for not doing better. After all, he was the one who pretended to be Dmitry’s conscience. He was the one not paying attention, the one who had forsaken his duty, the one who had reneged on the implicit bargain he had made those many years earlier, without telling anyone, without telling Dmitry — without even telling himself. He was supposed to fix Dmitry. But he didn’t. He was inconstant.

He was, after all, the one who fell in love with Dmitry’s wife. He’d set some kind of bomb, too.

Frank Baltimore had first met Dmitry Heald on a building site in the Connecticut hills a dozen years earlier, when the eighteen-year-old Dmitry had come to America — in his Liverpudlian accent it sounded like Ameriker — trailing whatever dusty innocence he might still have had, looking for a little work, wanting to earn some quick money and then wander around for the rest of the summer doing a low- rent grand tour, reeling through the Big Lonesome West, as he always called it. Then he’d fly back to England for university: Leeds or Reading, Frank could never remember which, and didn’t know what the names meant, where they were on the status hierarchy — Ivy League-ish? Loserville? Frank had never gone to college. He had tried once, failed, quit. He had a chip on his shoulder about it, he knew.

He was a kid himself back then, having just turned twenty-eight. Like many people approaching thirty he was haunted by a sense that time was short, that he might remain an irredeemable failure into the flaky, moldy decrepitude that lurked around the bend. This house he was building was his big break, his move up from what he had always called a remodeling business, even though he had been nothing but a glorified handyman. This new house, nestled in the woods at the advancing edge of Hartford’s northwestern insurance-executive suburbs, had been his move into actual contractorland. He never made billions, like Dmitry did, but in the end he did all right. And, he said to himself, looking at the mayhem on his computer screen, he did it without killing or maiming anyone, either.

 

About the Author

Tom Lutz is a writer of books, articles, and screenplays, the founder of the Los Angeles Review of Books, and is now Distinguished Professor at UC Riverside. His books include American Book Award winner Doing Nothing, New York Times notable books Crying and American Nervousness, 1903, the travel books And the Monkey Learned Nothing and Drinking Mare’s Milk on the Roof of the World, and coming on January 14, 2020, Born Slippy: A Novel.

He has written for television and film, and appeared in scores of national and international newspapers, magazines, academic journals, and edited collections. He is working with a Los Angeles-based production company on a television show set in the 1920s, is finishing a third collection of travel pieces, a book on the 1920s (The Modern Surface), and is in the early stages of a book on global conflict along the aridity line.

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