Ute Carbone's Blog, page 16

#8Sunday Patty meets Will, The Tender Bonds #NewRelease

Click image for more #8Sunday Snips I've got another short snip from The Tender Bonds this week. Patty and Will have been communicating anonymously for a while, but she's about to meet him face to face.


Here's my Snippet-- 



I touched the empty glider, wishing I’d brought some offering. The metal was cool against my hand. When I let go, the swing groaned with motion. The lake glowed through the trees—shades of ochre, tangerine, a sanguine red, a calm translucent blue. I walked toward it transfixed. A shadowy figure sitting on the upturned dock, his hands caught around his knees, stopped me.
I held my breath, wondered if I could walk away without his noticing. If I could escape from this picture, back to the road. I took a backward step and then a second, stopped ready to turn, when he stood up and brushed the debris from his pants.
“I was wondering when you’d be back,” Will Pearson said.




For some more  Snippets from some great authors, please visit  We WriWa




You can download a copy from
Amazon
ARe
Turquoise Morning Press

Read more about the book here

#8Sunday: The Tender Bonds #NewRelease--Patty and Charlie

It's release week for me, which makes for a very busy and exciting time. The Tender Bonds came out last Thursday as an e-book, with print soon to follow.
I'm adding another snippet from the book this week.  In the scene, Patty is getting to know her brother over a few drinks. Their father is an alchoholic-


“You hate me. There’s no sense in my staying.”
“Thing is, Patty, I don’t hate you. I don’t know you well enough to hate you.”
He picked up the box of wine. “Have another drink. We’ll talk, get to know each other, then I can hate you.”
I handed him my empty glass. I wasn’t sure how I’d get back to the motel anyway, feeling as buzzed as I was. I could imagine getting stopped for DWI.
Like father, like daughter. For some great Snippets, please visit We WriWa





You can download a copy from
Amazon
ARe
Turquoise Morning Press

Read more about the book here

The Tender Bonds is here! #NewRelease

I've been blogging  a lot about my new book and now it's available  as an e-book  and you can download a copy. The book is literary women's fiction, a story of love, loss, and homecoming.  I'm really pleased that some of my more literary work is making it's way to readers. I hope you'll give it a read. And let me know how you like it, too! 


Download at Smashwords More on the Tender BondsRead an excerpt

#np-- The Tender Bonds Playlist #NewRelease

I like to listen to music while I write and for each book, I develop a playlist of songs that suit the mood of the book. Listening helps me to find the write emotional tenor to sit and write  I'm a sucker for a great lyric and often these songs have a line or two that really strike me. 
The Tender Bonds, coming out tomorrow, is a book about reconciling the past to move into the future. The songs on the playlist reflect the ideas of love and loss and maybe a touch of pathos, which  were  so vital to the writing
Here's a sample of some of the songs on my Tender Bonds playlist, along with a youtube link so you can give a listen if you'd like.


Back Home to You  
 Jon Robert

Sirens
Pearl Jam

Willy
Joni Mitchell

Drunk Lullabye
Redbird Please Just Take These Photos 
Snow Patrol

Hold On
Redbird There comes a moment when the past we’ve left behind draws attention to itself and demands that we come to terms with it.  For Patty Dykstra, a woman who has long led an unassuming life, that moment comes after her aunt dies. Among a life’s worth of things,  Patty finds unopened cards from her father, a man that she hasn’t seen since she was six years old.
Patty is compelled to return to a small town in upstate New York to find the man who used to call her Star Shine, a man she barely remembers.  The Tender Bonds is the story of Patty’s life- altering journey, of the faith and hope that grow in the meanest of places, and of what it means to be truly home.

#8Sunday--The Tender Bonds #newrelease

Click image for more WeWriWa snippets The e-book release of The Tender Bonds is less than a week away! It's got a beautiful new cover and will go on sale Thursday, May 21. 
In this excerpt, from the beginning of the book, Patty's boyfriend, Noah has asked her to marry him and she finds, much to her surprise, that marrying him is not what she wants.
Here's the snippet--

My reaction surprised me. There was so much about myself I didn’t know. How could I commit my life to someone else—how could I begin a new future—before figuring out my past? 
“Well, say something,” Noah said. 
I was going to say I couldn’t possibly accept it, when Noah smiled at me in the candlelight. His face was so full of expectation that I reached out and squeezed his hand. “Thank you,” I said. “It’s beautiful.” Read More about The Tender Bonds More Snippets at WeWriWa

Cover Reveal! The Tender Bonds #newreleases

Mama always said good things are worth the wait. I've been waiting for the cover of my new book, which feels kind of like waiting on a blind date, I don't have control over covers, and I hoped as I waited that I'd like whatever it was the cover artist came up with and worried that I wouldn't like it. . I needn't have worried. I fell in love with this beautiful cover, designed by Kim Jacobs, the moment I saw it. 
Beautiful and simple, it is perfect for this literary women's fiction about love and loss and finding your way home. The image comes from an Emily Dickinson poem used in the book, which starts "Hope is that thing with feathers"  
My hope for the book has feathers now, and I'm hoping you'll love the characters as much as I do. The book releases next week.
So here, without further ado, I give you the brand new cover of The Tender Bonds: More about The Tender Bonds HERE

#8Sunday The Tender Bonds--

Visit WeWriWa for more great snippets Hi and happy Mother's Day! I'm working on the final galleys for The Tender Bonds, which should be ready to release very soon. In the story, Patty goes back to the town where she was born to find her estranged father. She finds a man she doesn't know, and in coming to terms with him must come to terms with her anger.

The Tender Bonds In the end, he went without me. I watched him drive off and I felt it grow, this great wave of hate, a tidal wave of built-up resentment against my father. My father, to whom all trouble could be traced. My father and the booze he couldn’t leave alone. 
I understood how my mother must have felt, how that fatal flaw had soaked up her life.  How she was afraid we would both drown, she and I, in two fingers of amber liquid at the bottom of a glass. How she wanted to save us from that. And here I was, despite her best effort, drowning anyway Find out more about this book HERE

Vistit Weekend Writing Warriors for more snippets!


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Confessions of the Sausage Queen RONE nomination

Every once in a while, I get something to celebrate. This week, I'm happy to announce that Confessions of the Sausage Queen has been nominated for an InDTale magazine RONE award. InDTale features and reviews books that are self and small press published, Each year, they honor the best books reviewed with an award. 
Confessions of the Sausage Queen, my crazy comedy, has been nominated in the chick lit category. The next part of the process is a vote by readers like you. 
So, I'm also asking--If you've read Confessions and enjoyed it, would you give your vote? The polls are open all this week, you can find them here:
http://indtale.com/2015-rone-awards-w...

#8Sunday--The Tender Bonds, Will. #newreleases

Click image for more WeWriWa Sunday Snippets I'm so looking forward to the release of Tender Bonds so I can share this story with readers. Things have been moving forward, and I hope it will arrive soon--I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, here's another peek at Will Pearson, who has lost his family in an accident.  The light from the living room shadowed his face. “After…at the service--the teachers from the school and some of the kids and their parents, they came. They brought these balloons. A whole bunch of balloons. Judy, Lenore’s mother, said later that she didn’t like them, that they felt too celebratory and we’d just lost…but I thought they were beautiful. I remember when they released them, all these bright colors heading for the clouds. I remember hoping Lenore and the kids were like those balloons, that floating up to heaven was like that. I wished I could float away, just be unanchored. Just head out, unanchored.”

More about The Tender Bonds Visit WeWriWa for more great snippets

#8Sunday--The Tender Bonds. It's almost time!

It's getting very close to the launch day for my literary women's fiction book, The Tender Bonds. I'm finishing up the copy edits and I should have a cover to show you soon.  I'm pretty excited about the release of this novel, one of the most literary of my books.
In the story, the main character, Patty, meets Will, who has lost his family in an accident. Here's a piece of a scene with the two of them--

“Don’t.” He took my hand and held it tight. “I got my wish; I’ve been alone for so long, I’ve been alone for so damned long.”

There was this emptiness, this great lapping emptiness that filled the room, as though the color had drained from the walls. Only shadows were left and the rain beating the window and the distant thunder grumbling from somewhere beyond the lake.

Will sat for a long time gripping my hand and I stood next to him frozen by the impossibility of his grief. When he finally looked up, I looked away, afraid to meet his eyes. I looked away, toward the window, and studied the drops that wove their way along the pane.






The Tender Bonds will be available later in May. There's more about the book HERE


Be sure to visit WEEKEND WRITING WARRIORS for more eight sentence snippets.