Alison Atlee's Blog
August 24, 2014
By the blogs: Tour Wrap-Up and Last Chance for Giveaway
The blog tour for the audiobook version of The Typewriter Girl wraps up at the end of August. It’s been a whirlwind of reviews and posts from some really wonderful blogs–I’m really grateful for the readers and bloggers who have participated. And the fact that it went so smoothly while I’ve been sick and sticking to a schedule of sleep-medicate-work-repeat is all to the credit of the lovely Amy Bruno at Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.
Some of the tour links:
Explaining why I love grand hotels at Historical Tapestry. My dad told us kids all hotel rooms look alike with your eyes closed, but I still wondered about life beyond the Red Roof Inn…
Chatting about Betsey’s colorful language and a favorite author-reader moment at Closed the Cover.
At A Bookish Affair, revealing three “throwaway” details from The Typewriter Girl that ended up being pretty important. Like the typewriter part.
Still to post: interviews at Flashlight Commentary (love that name for a book blog!) and Jorie Loves a Story.
And let’s not forget the giveaway: the audiobook, earbuds in a typewriter-print pouch, and the happily-ever-after t-shirt I designed. Enter and see all the tour stops here at HFVBT. It’s a long page; keep scrolling and you’ll come to the entry form.
July 28, 2014
Giveaway: Kearsley & O’Keefe
The RWA Rita Awards were announced July 26, and two finalists I was particularly rooting for happened to win! So thrilled for Susanna and Molly, so I thought I’d give others a chance read their books. I had the honor of reading The Firebird pre-release and interviewing Susanna at an RT Convention event, and loved the book so much that I rather feel (entirely irrationally) I willed it into the Rita finals. It won the paranormal category–the two main characters are psychic–but it transcends that label. If you like historical fiction and folklore elements, you’ll enjoy it. The Shadowy Horses is an earlier novel, a companion to The Firebird, and it’s an autographed copy!
If your preferences lean to contemporary romance and haven’t read Molly O’Keefe, you’re missing out. I was, until I decided to read the first in her Crooked Creek Ranch series because she was presenting at a conference I planned to attend. Actually, I did the audiobook, and at one point, I was crying so hard there in my car, I missed the fact I was sitting at a green light. (Fellow drivers did NOT miss it, to judge by the horn-honking). Her books are sharp and funny, and some magic she does with her characters gives them–and her readers–true, moving journeys of the spirit. Can’t Buy Me Love is the first in the series; Crazy Thing Called Love is the third (and the Rita winner). I’m pretty sure you’ll want to fill in the gap after CBML.
Giveaway will be open for a week. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment with your preference and make sure you’ve left a valid email so I can contact you if you win. Email addresses will remain private and unshared.
June 12, 2014
June’s Modern Belles Post
What I learned this week: the original Mr. Potato Head did not come with a potato head. Because you were supposed to use a real potato! Or just about any fruit and vegetable. I think it would have held a lot more interest for me that way–never really saw the point of the plastic version. How did I come across this tidbit? For a post at Modern Belles of History, I wanted to discuss the fictional possibilities of the infamous Wall Street tycoon and miser Hetty Green, and at some point, my brain said, “historical potato heads!”
Here’s a peek at the post, and you can find the rest here.
Read more at www.ModernBellesOfHistory.com
December 17, 2013
HEA T-Shirt Giveaway
Celebrating a happy end to 2013 with a giveaway:
Publishers Weekly included The Typewriter Girl on their Best of the Year list. Here’s what they said:
Here’s how I felt:
And here’s what you can win:
It’s my Happily Ever After t-shirt, featuring closing lines from favorite stories and authors (starting with Alcott and ending with Wilder). I wanted to design something I’d love even if I weren’t the author of The Typewriter Girl, and I think I came up with just the thing to wear as you pursue your literary pursuits.
The giveaway starts Wednesday, December 18, so if you’re here early, come back before it closes on Friday. You can get an extra entry at my Facebook page, too. Just use the Rafflecopter form below to enter. Your information will not be shared. You will be added to my (very occasional) mailing list and may opt out at any time, of course.
August 13, 2013
Today’s Unforgettable Adventure: The Firebird, by Susanna Kearsley
Unforgettable Adventure 10: THE FIREBIRD by Susanna Kearsley
Susanna Kearsley and The Firebird bring us to the conclusion of the Unforgettable Adventure Giveaway. Tomorrow, we’ll announce winners–till then, it’s not too late to enter! Go to Susanna’s blog and leave a comment to enter, and check out the links at the end of the post for even more ways to enter.
Here’s Susanna:
Nicola’s not looking for adventure. But when a client brings a family heirloom—called “the Firebird”—to her gallery to be appraised for sale, she has to help, despite the fact that helping means she’ll have to use the psychic “gifts” she’d rather hide, and call a favor in from an old boyfriend, Rob, whose gifts are even greater than her own.
Using Rob’s abilities to “see” the distant past, they start their search in Scotland for the client’s long-dead ancestor, a little girl they know will one day own that family heirloom. When they find her, she’s in danger.
Anna sat up fully, straightening her back as her own gaze slipped to the colonel and she asked him, ‘Is the devil really on his way here?’
Colonel Graeme, as he often did, delayed his answer with a question of his own. ‘And do ye fear the devil, Anna?’
Anna heard again the wicked wailing of the wind, and was not sure. She looked to where her mother and her father stood, and then towards the door that was still blocked by Captain Jamieson and guarded by the colonel, and it seemed to her that nothing could so easily get past those two men and their swords, and suddenly she knew that she was not afraid. Not really.
So she said as much. And when she asked the colonel, ‘Can your ship outrun him?’ she felt something stir within her, like the thrill at the beginning of a great adventure.
Nicola knows there are risks in following a firebird. In Russian folklore, when a firebird drops a feather, any fool who picks it up and tries to chase the bird itself is in for trouble. But…
A single white feather had snagged on a low clump of blowing grass and withered wildflowers, fighting the wind that was trying to tear it away.
It was only a gull’s feather, ragged and plain, not a feather of flame from a firebird, but I felt Rob’s amusement before I looked up at him.
There were those eyes again, daring me, waiting.
‘That’s how it begins,’ he said, ‘isn’t it?’
Hands in his pockets, he patiently watched while I looked down again at the feather. The wind caught its end and it started to lift and on impulse I bent down and reached for it.
So two women in two different times set out on separate quests, connected by a simple carving that—just like the Firebird in the fairy tales—may lead them to a treasure nothing like the one they each set out to find.
Leaving a comment on Susanna’s blog gets you entered to win The Firebird and the other nine stories. Increase your odds of winning by subscribing to my blog as well (see the form in the right sidebar) and by following the links below:
Alison Atlee , The Typewriter Girl Facebook
Jessica Brockmole , Letters from Skye Facebook
T.J. Brown , Summerset Abbey: Spring Awakening Facebook
Sarah Jio , The Last Camellia Facebook
Susanna Kearsley , The Firebird Facebook
Katherine Keenum , Where the Light Falls
Stephanie Lehmann , Astor Place Vintage Facebook
Kate Noble , Let It Be Me Facebook
Deanna Raybourn , A Spear of Summer Grass Facebook
Lauren Willig , The Ashford Affair Facebook
August 12, 2013
Today’s Unforgettable Adventure: Astor Place Vintage, by Stephanie Lehmann
Unforgettable Adventure 9: Astor Place Vintage, by Stephanie Lehmann
10 Great Authors, 10 Unforgettable Adventures. With our ninth feature, you know time to enter dwindles. Read about Olive’s adventurous move to 1907 New York City, and get your chance to win Stephanie Lehmann’s Astor Place Vintage plus the other nine books at the Astor Place Vintage Facebook page and liking it. There are plenty of ways to rack up more entries for yourself, so check the links at the end of the post.
Here’s Stephanie:
Adventure? What do I know about Adventure? I’m not an adventurous person. I’d rather stay home than travel. And if I do go anywhere, the natives will speak English, wifi will be available, and the restaurants will ideally offer hamburgers and apple pie. If I’m feeling particularly daring, I’ll get cheese on my pie. Activities that will never appear on my to-do list are sky diving, mountain climbing or African safaris. I like my routines. Give me the same streets in my boring old neighborhood any day.
I suppose Olive, the heroine in my novel ASTOR PLACE VINTAGE, does something pretty adventurous, especially for a woman in 1907. Soon after moving from a small town to New York City, she experiences a catastrophe that will impact the rest of her life. Instead of moving back to the protective circle of her childhood home, she decides to remain in the city, where she’ll have to forge for herself with no emotional or financial support.
It’s not a coincidence that I moved to New York City at almost the same age as Olive. I came to attend NYU, and though I did have emotional and financial support, the city scared me in a big way. I was timid, quiet, and easily intimidated. Moving to Manhattan seemed like the last thing I would do – even to me. And then, as it turned out, I never left. Coming to New York wasn’t on the order of trekking to the North Pole, but it may have been the most adventurous thing I’ve ever done.
I suppose “adventure” is a relative concept. Some people won’t fly in planes. Some people are afraid to go outside. Some people are even afraid to write fiction. And writers must have the dullest, safest routines of anyone as we sit at our keyboards all day, perhaps venturing out to the library or a coffee shop.
But I have been told by more than a few aspiring authors that a novel is inside, clamoring to get out. They just can’t seem to sit down and write it.
Could it be that writing a novel counts as an adventure? The endeavor does involve undergoing a huge challenge while facing the unknown with totally uncertain results hanging in the balance. The threat of danger just happens to be mental, not physical.
Of all my novels, ASTOR PLACE VINTAGE would certainly have to be my most adventurous. I actually dared to travel back in time. When I began, how did I have the audacity to think I’d be able to re-create the social customs, food, clothes, and language particular to New York City in 1907? I didn’t even know if people back then used toothpaste.
But, I suppose, like an adventurerer, my audacity also involved some bravery – the kind that involves faith that you will rise to the occasion… even as you stay seated at your desk. I have to say, I do feel proud of having traveled to the past and returned unscathed. I’ve definitely become a more well-rounded person, and not just because of the weight I gained from all those hours in front of my computer. I have to say, Olive handled herself pretty well, too. She’s just lucky I didn’t make her take a ship bound for Malaysia to hunt wild boar.
Remember to like the Astor Place Vintage Facebook page, and you’ll be entered to win it and the other nine stories. Enter right here as well by subscribing to my blog (use the form in the right sidebar). Keep up with the latest adventures and get more chances to win through any of the authors:
Alison Atlee , The Typewriter Girl Facebook
Jessica Brockmole , Letters from Skye Facebook
T.J. Brown , Summerset Abbey: Spring Awakening Facebook
Sarah Jio , The Last Camellia Facebook
Susanna Kearsley , The Firebird Facebook
Katherine Keenum , Where the Light Falls
Stephanie Lehmann , Astor Place Vintage Facebook
Kate Noble , Let It Be Me Facebook
Deanna Raybourn , A Spear of Summer Grass Facebook
Lauren Willig , The Ashford Affair Facebook
August 11, 2013
Today’s Unforgettable Adventure: A Spear of Summer Grass, by Deanna Raybourn
Unforgettable Adventure 8: A SPEAR OF SUMMER GRASS, by Deanna Raybourn
10 Great Authors, 10 Unforgettable Adventures. With every “Today’s Adventure” post between August 1 and August 13, you can register to win the featured book and the grand prize of all 10 books. We’ll announce winners on August 14. You may enter today’s contest leaving a comment at Deanna Raybourn’s blog.
Check the end of the post for more ways to enter.
Here’s Deanna:
The very last thing Delilah Drummond expects when she goes to Africa is a proper adventure. Most travelers journey there on safari, but Delilah is banished abroad by a family that has weathered one too many of her scandals. She’s a flapper with a sharp black bob and a slash of scarlet lipstick, a party girl with a penchant for gin and men other women have left lying around unattended. She is a woman who has seen it all and done most of it.
But nothing prepares her for Africa. Exiled to her father’s savanna manor house, Delilah finds to her dismay that Fairlight is the crumbling, sun-bleached skeleton of a faded African dream, a world where dissolute expats are bolstered by gin and jazz, cigarettes and safaris.
And against the frivolity of the expat community, Ryder White stands in sharp contrast. He is her guide to Africa and all its dangers and thrills—and he is more than a match for the complex beauty of this new land she comes to love. For Delilah, letting down her guard just might be the greatest adventure of them all…
Leaving a comment at Deanna’s blog gets you entered to win A Spear of Summer Grass and the other nine stories. While you’re here, subscribe to my blog and get another chance to win! The subscription form is in the right sidebar. Keep up with the latest adventures and get more chances to win through any of the authors:
Alison Atlee , The Typewriter Girl Facebook
Jessica Brockmole , Letters from Skye Facebook
T.J. Brown , Summerset Abbey: Spring Awakening Facebook
Sarah Jio , The Last Camellia Facebook
Susanna Kearsley , The Firebird Facebook
Katherine Keenum , Where the Light Falls
Stephanie Lehmann , Astor Place Vintage Facebook
Kate Noble , Let It Be Me Facebook
Deanna Raybourn , A Spear of Summer Grass Facebook
Lauren Willig , The Ashford Affair Facebook
August 9, 2013
Today’s Unforgettable Adventure: The Last Camellia, by Sarah Jio
Unforgettable Adventure #7: THE LAST CAMELLIA, by Sarah Jio
Sarah Jio is up today! With every “Today’s Adventure” post between August 1 and August 13, you can register to win the featured book and the grand prize of all 10 books. We’ll announce winners on August 14. You may enter today’s contest at Sarah’s Facebook page . Find links to all the authors below–follow any of them to keep up with the latest adventures.
Here’s Sarah:
The year is 1940. The world is on the brink of war. Can you imagine being barely twenty years old and leaving your home on the quiet, safe Atlantic Coast and traveling to an unknown country to an unknown manor house, where you will be required to go beyond your comfort zone in ways you’ve never even imagined?
My character, Flora, in my fourth novel, The Last Camellia, does just that. She’s brave, she’s bold, and for those she loves, she’s willing to do the unthinkable.
I thought a lot about adventure while writing Flora’s character, namely because I still regret not spending a year in Europe during my college years (I stayed home for the reason many of us do: a relationship that ultimately didn’t end up working out).
But I got to be adventurous and travel alongside Flora in writing this novel—at least, in spirit. I followed her on her voyage to England, roam the great halls of the Livingston Manor, explore the gardens, and ultimately make life-changing discoveries. It was the adventure of a lifetime—for both of us.
To enter the giveaway, please like Sarah Jio’s Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/sarahjioauthor. Keep up with the latest adventures and chances to win through any of the authors:
Alison Atlee , The Typewriter Girl Facebook
Jessica Brockmole , Letters from Skye Facebook
T.J. Brown , Summerset Abbey: Spring Awakening Facebook
Sarah Jio , The Last Camellia Facebook
Susanna Kearsley , The Firebird Facebook
Katherine Keenum , Where the Light Falls
Stephanie Lehmann , Astor Place Vintage Facebook
Kate Noble , Let It Be Me Facebook
Deanna Raybourn , A Spear of Summer Grass Facebook
Lauren Willig , The Ashford Affair Facebook
August 8, 2013
Today’s Unforgettable Adventure: Where the Light Falls, by Katherine Keenum
Unforgettable Adventure #6: WHERE THE LIGHT FALLS, by Katherine Keenum
10 Great Authors, 10 Unforgettable Adventures. With every “Today’s Adventure” post between August 1 and August 13, you can register to win the featured book and the grand prize of all 10 books. We’ll announce winners on August 14. You may enter today’s contest at Katherine’s website . Find links to all the authors below–follow any of them to keep up with the latest adventures.
Here’s Katherine:
When I joined the Unforgettable Adventure giveaway, I thought I remembered my main character, Jeanette Palmer, actually using the word “adventure.” Yes! On p. 278 she has been forced to borrow money from an older relative and asks anxiously, “Has the adventure worked out for you, Cousin Effie? The whole thing, I mean—coming to Paris?”
Change the question: “Will the adventure work out for you, reader? The whole thing, I mean—going to Paris with Jeanette and Effie?”
Adventure means finding yourself somewhere new, facing unexpected challenges. It means not always knowing what you are doing or what comes next. If those are the criteria, then writing a novel is an adventure—and so is reading one from a new author. You can’t judge by past experience; you just have to take a chance. How might the chance pay off if you head to Paris with Jeanette?
From the company she keeps on this group blog tour, you can guess that romance will be part of Jeanette’s story, yet it is not what she sets out to find. Jeanette is a naive but determined young woman who crosses the Atlantic in 1878 to study painting. The last thing she expects is to meet an older man haunted by a war and fall in love with him. My hope is that you will fall in love with both of them—that you will be swept up in Jeanette’s talent and ambition, immerse yourself in her friendships with other women artists, experience Paris with all your senses, then feel achingly Edward’s attractions and sorrows. If you remember the characters long after you finish, I’d call the adventure a success.
But that leads to a last question: “What are you looking for in an adventure? What makes a book worthwhile to you?”
GIVEAWAY: To win a free copy of Where the Light Falls, leave a comment on my blog ( http://www.katherinekeenum.com/blog.htm ) any time before August 13. If you choose to comment on an archived post, be sure to include the phrase “Unforgettable Adventure Giveaway.” The winner will be selected randomly and contacted by e-mail (your e-mail address is automatically recorded by the website but it will never appear publicly).
Keep up with the latest adventures and chances to win through any of the authors:
Alison Atlee, The Typewriter Girl Facebook
Jessica Brockmole , Letters from Skye Facebook
T.J. Brown , Summerset Abbey: Spring Awakening Facebook
Sarah Jio , The Last Camellia Facebook
Susanna Kearsley , The Firebird Facebook
Katherine Keenum , Where the Light Falls
Stephanie Lehmann , Astor Place Vintage Facebook
Kate Noble , Let It Be Me Facebook
Deanna Raybourn , A Spear of Summer Grass Facebook
Lauren Willig , The Ashford Affair Facebook
August 7, 2013
Today’s Unforgettable Adventure: Letters from Skye, by Jessica Brockmole
Unforgettable Adventure #5: LETTERS FROM SKYE, by Jessica Brockmole
This marks the halfway point of the Unforgettable Adventure giveaway! With every post between August 1-August 13, you can register to win the featured book and the grand prize of all 10 books. Enter every day and get more chances to win! We’ll announce winners on August 14. Enter today’s contest at Jessica Brockmole’s Facebook page . Find links to all the authors below–follow any of them to keep up with the latest adventures.
Here’s Jessica:
Opportunity doesn’t always knock. Sometimes it slips quietly into the mailbox, folded, stamped, addressed. This was especially true in ages past, before the immediacy of email. College acceptances, job offers, invitations, declarations of love—once upon a time, they all began with a letter. An envelope that, when opened, led to adventure.
For Elspeth Dunn, a Scottish poet with more dreams than adventures, opportunity arrives one day in the form of a fan letter. The letter, from a college student in far-off Urbana, Illinois is more than a glimpse of life beyond the shores of her native Isle of Skye; it’s a line to reach it. Her correspondent, David, is a daredevil. He fills pages with his escapades, going places and doing things she’d only imagined. For David, that first fan letter is just one more adventure; for Elspeth, it’s only the first.
Elspeth wasn’t looking for adventure. She was doing the things women on Skye did in the early twentieth century—spinning, gardening, cutting peat, braiding rope from heather. She wandered the hills with a notebook and wrote poetry, published to small acclaim in London. She was content. But then that letter arrived, with its Illinois postmark and teasing praise, and she began to wonder. To wonder what else was out there, to wonder who else the world held, to wonder how far she could go.
The opportunity for adventure, no matter how small, isn’t always sought. It can arrive, unannounced and unexpected, making you wonder what more your life could be. That was true for me, when I was given the chance to move to Scotland. Like Elspeth, I was content. But opportunity quietly slipped in and I began wondering. That wondering took me across the ocean to the biggest adventure of my life.
Elspeth didn’t expect adventure, but when it arrived, she recognized it. When opportunity sends you a letter, all you have to do is reply.
To win, leave a comment on my Facebook page ( www.facebook.com/jessicabrockmoleauthor ) telling me about a time you found adventure in your mailbox!
Keep up with the latest adventures and chances to win through any of the authors:
Alison Atlee , The Typewriter Girl Facebook
Jessica Brockmole , Letters from Skye Facebook
T.J. Brown , Summerset Abbey: Spring Awakening Facebook
Sarah Jio , The Last Camellia Facebook
Susanna Kearsley , The Firebird Facebook
Katherine Keenum , Where the Light Falls
Stephanie Lehmann , Astor Place Vintage Facebook
Kate Noble , Let It Be Me Facebook
Deanna Raybourn , A Spear of Summer Grass Facebook
Lauren Willig , The Ashford Affair Facebook
