Beth Winokur's Blog, page 3

Hello All, Today I am happy to unveil the ...

Hello All, Today I am happy to unveil the cover of Nicole Dunlap's soon to be released Miss Perfect , the third book in the Shaw Family Saga.        
 
Miss Perfect: Shaw Family Saga, Book 3
 
BOOK BLURB:
Their desire for perfection will be… shattered
Charlene Shaw embodies perfection as a highly-acclaimed actress. Within her gilded walls of beauty, she is scrambling to save her daughter, Raven, from sins she can’t even fathom. This is her self-imposed curse for abandoning Raven as a child.
Raven Shaw is captivatingly gorgeous but burdened by a closet of skeletons. After a rough childhood, she is finally living life. Jon, her best friend and the only man she’s ever loved, has returned. Yet, a stalker looms just out of reach, blackmailing her for Jon’s fortune. She’d do anything to keep this man–even if it means turning to another… Mysterious, handsome Tyriq may have the key to erase her deepest, darkest secrets forever. Yet, this savior mightthreaten her mind’s rationale of “happily ever after” with Jon.
In this intense third installment of the Shaw Family Saga there will be blood, murder, and a beloved …will be shattered.
 
Join the Paperback book Giveaway
1.     Add Miss Perfect on your Goodreads listhttp://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6535805.Nicole_Dunlap   
2.     Like facebook.com/authornicoledunlap (if you have already, you’re in the clear)
3.     Wait till September 12, book launch day. Winner will be contacted through Goodreads within seven days. Good luck!   About the author  Nicole Dunlap holds a Bachelors Degree in Psychology and Child Development, and a Masters Degree in Educational Counseling from Azusa Pacific University–mantra Jesus first. She counsels in the inner city of San Bernardino; motivating teens dealing with depression, pregnancy, gang membership and abuse. She has been self dubbed the “gumbo genre” novelist, because books shouldn’t be lightly seasoned… Her stories revolve around family and relationships, women’s issues, drizzled with drama, peppered with suspense, and finished off with aromatic notes of romance. The Shaw Family Saga pays homage to dysfunctional mother-daughter relationships, with well developed characters that readers can root for; love them, hate them, cry for, and most of all, yearn to flip through the pages to the end of that character’s journey.  
  

She'll be Comming Around the Learning Curve in a Week or Two

Konnichiwa,
 
I haven’t had much time lately to update my blog. I have however found time for reading, writing, painting, quilting, and making stuff with cardboard…unfortunately my blogging and ukulele playing has been on the back burner for a while…boo-hoo-hoo! – Moving on….
 
I recently participated in Habitat for Humanity’s Artist Showcase.  I was given a dollhouse kit and told, “have fun…follow the deadlines and post pictures.”  Deadlines and I aren’t friends (see the updated release date for The Adventures of Abby and Sofia, for example), but I managed (miraculously) to meet their dates – although I could have used another month to fine-tune things.  This week, I thought I’d write about the experience.
 
In planning the design for the house, I decided to stick with Habitat for Humanities’ motto, “Home is where our story begins.”  The title comes in part from the name on the dollhouse box, “Imagination House” and together with Habitat’s motto, helped me to shape the concept and visual narrative of the story and the house itself.  I thought long and hard about what to do with it: build it into some MC Escher house (although I don’t know enough math to pull that off), use each piece as a separate canvas, make it extra fancy in an American Gothic style, or…the one I almost went with, a tribute to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (the idea of a Jabberwocky in the attic made me giddy with delight).
 
The one thing I knew I wanted was to keep the house practical (as a functional plaything).  (Who says art has to be hands off anyways?)  Since the people who like to touch stuff the most are children –my favorite people, by the way – it was a “no-brainer” to make it with them in mind.  So, I ended up combining most of my mediums – storytelling, painting, quilting, and cardboard sculpture – and made the house interactive.  The accompanying book, “Sam and Claire’s Imagination House” is a short story that takes brother and sister on an adventure to overcome summer boredom and find treasure and requires them to follow clues in and out of the house.  It was a lot of fun and a giant learning experience for me – especially the creation of the physical book itself, which uses photos of the finished house.
 
When a creative idea hits me I have to follow through on it…maybe it’s a superstition thing or just a compulsion, I don’t know.  Either way I find a way to do it.  This can be difficult when I have no clue on how to execute a particular project…like using computer graphics or organizing an illustrated book.  Having never made an illustrated book before, I thought, “why not take it a step further and make it a comic book?” yet another foreign medium.  But thanks to my friend and mentor (and comic book genius) Phil Yeh’s honesty and brilliant words of wisdom (“What? You don’t have enough time…think about it.”), I decided to go another route, and settled on a blend of photographs and cardboard cutouts for my characters.  Then, I decided to set the text and put the pictures and cut-outs together using graphics software (another first) which would hopefully result in a book someone would want to read (and enjoy).
 
Easier said than done.  Gimp (an open source Graphics program, and the first one I started with) seems to be designed for people with psychic computer abilities – which I don’t possess.  So again I banged my head against the wall until I recalled one of the few skills I acquired in college: PowerPoint.  It felt odd and somewhat cheesy to construct a book in PowerPoint, but a month isn’t that long and there was a lot of work to be done, so I forced myself through the multiple learning curves.  Besides, feeling inadequate tends to be a norm for me (I know, “boo-hoo-hoo” again!) and helps keep me motivated – go figure.
 
I’ve loaded “Sam and Claire’s Imagination House” so you can see it.  Also, if you have some time and are in the area between August 4th through 30th, please stop by the Riverside Library, “Sam and Claire’s Imagination House,” along with dollhouses by other artists will be on display.  And if you are feeling generous, the houses and plaques will be auctioned off with all proceeds benefitting Habitat for Humanity.   
The link to Sam and Claire's Imagination House:  http://issuu.com/bethwinokur/docs/sacih_test_print_03
 
Lastly, I thought I’d share some wonderful books that I recently read.  I didn’t have time to review them (yet?  Maybe I still will…we’ll see), but these four books both humbled and inspired me – I hope they do the same for you.
 
 Add“Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston caption “The Giver” by Lois Lowry 
 
 
            “Moloka’i” by Alan Brenner t “Caddie Woodlawn” by Carol Ryrie Brink
 
           Thanks for reading my blog!
 
*Thought for the day…we need an adult “Reading Rainbow”…don’t you think?
 
Sayonara!
 
 

Review of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The blurb:

It takes a graveyard to raise a child.

Nobody Owens, known as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead. There are adventures in the graveyard for a boy—an ancient Indigo Man, a gateway to the abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, he will be in danger from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family.
   My ReviewSome writers have flawless technique, while others a bright imagination through a blessed connection with the ether.  But few – only the really great – have both.  Gaiman is one of those rare people; he has both a mastery over his craft and a radiant imagination.  The Graveyard Book has adventure, plot, beautiful prose, likeable characters and a humble, yet positive message.
For most of the book, I would have been happy to stay and explore the graveyard and continue to meet interesting and eccentric ghosts.  I cared little about plot, mostly because I enjoyed following the main character, Bod, as he explored every dark and mysterious corner of his graveyard home.  But as Bod grew and became more curious about the world outside, so did I. This is a perfect example of Gaiman’s mastery over his craft.  He makes the reader completely sympathetic to Bod’s development into a young man, while at the same time slowly revealing the world outside the graveyard gates.  The plot picks up when Bod pushes onward into adulthood. The death of his family and the man who wants to kill him were always in the background.  But I didn’t care about the guy that killed Bod’s family at the beginning of the story; I was too busy enjoying his boyhood adventures.  That’s the magic that so few writers have – to engulf you in a story so completely, that your own awareness mirrors the character’s.
The last couple of paragraphs of the book are beautiful.  I reread them multiple times before finally shutting off my Kindle– drunk with the inspiration to begin a new journey. 
Thank you, Neil – if I may call you that – for another grand adventure.
*Quick note about my reviews* I am no longer rating books with stars – it just feels silly ;)

"S" is for Sunshine in Darkness!

C.M Brown's Paranormal Fantasy Romance Writer Blog is doing an A-Z Challenge and today is "S" day.  I am very proud to announce that Sunshine in Darkness was featured and reviewed!

Here is the link to this wonderful blog!
http://cmbrown-books.blogspot.com/2013/04/s-to-z-challenge.html

Miss Scandalous Giveaway!

Fellow writer and friend Nicole Dunlap is giving away two autographed paperback books of her most recent release Miss Scandalous . Check it out!

Here is the  link to enter: http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/50597-miss-scandalous





 

Short and Sweet

Hi again,

I've been busy writing and painting and haven’t had much time for blogging. This is good. Things are coming along!

So, this will be a short post.

The talented Dawna Raver at Raver's Rants & Raves recently interviewed me. Please have a look at her blog and check out the interview. She asked some good questions.

Thanks again Dawna Raver. It was a lot of fun :)

Here is the link: http://dawnaraver.com/?p=1174

Coming soon: A review of The Graveyard Book by one of the best authors of our time Neil Gaiman. Please note: that it is only by sheer will, and the fact that I live in a house full of musicians (which limits my ability to read for long periods of time) that I was able to put the book down long enough to write this posting.

Cheers!

 
 

Hi

Today author and blogger Rhiann Wynn Nolet featured an article I wrote on Truth in Fiction.  Here is the link to that article and to her awesome blog!

 http://rhiannwynnnolet.com/guest-author-beth-winokur/


Bye!

Free Stuff!

The weekend is finally here!  And Sunshine in Darkness is Free!!

Click on the button to the right and get your copy.

  

Free March 29th through April 1st   
I hope you enjoy the story and share.

Cheers!

C.M. Brown: NEW RELEASES Christine's Oddyssey and Sunshine in ...

C.M. Brown: NEW RELEASES Christine's Oddyssey and Sunshine in ...: Howdy. I’m glad you’ve stopped in. My name is Christine and although I’m only eleven, I’m what some adults might call precocious....

Shhhh....Thoughts in Progress

Hi Friends,
There are times when I’m producing none stop and other times where I’m absorbing information and find myself lost in thought. Those latter times are usually when I’m the most quiet and the least productive.  This past week I was lucky enough to be exposed to the top three best things in the world… music, art, and books, but I have little to say about the experience (let alone a review) – not that the paintings, books, and music weren’t great (because they were), but because my voice is quiet.  Since this blog is titled In Search of Truth and Beauty, I have to be truthful and admit that I have nothing worthwhile  to say this week – other then I’m always amazed at what humans can do when they pair imagination with ability. 
My lack of a voice could also be because my subconscious is working through some things (with my current projects).  A quote just found its way to my desk (literally, as I was typing a paper was dropped on my desk) which explains what I’m getting at, and how I feel right now about what my brain is doing (funny how that happens).
“…The diligent effort of my brain, working ‘behind my back,’ without seeking my approval”              –Arnold Schoenberg.
This is the shower theory (I’ve heard the theory called by other names too)... it’s where problems are solved while we’re doing mundane things. Chores occupy our conscious while our subconscious is busy at work finding the elegant solution to whatever creative obstacle we have encountered.  With that said, I have a door to paint, some cucumbers and lilies to plant as well as some tomatoes to water.  With any hope, my voice will surface next week and I’ll feel up to sharing all the beauty I stumbled upon.  Meanwhile, here is a picture I took at the Getty a couple months back.  Looking at art can have the same effect on your brain as love :)  Lilies by Van Gogh
Since I don’t have anything to write about, I thought I’d leave the floor open to whoever would like to promote their own projects (or someone else’s, that always nice too) or discuss their current works in progress. So please bark away…pretend you’re a carnie trying to get people to come to your booth… hook us?
I’ll go first…Sunshine in Darkness will be FREE next weekend (03/29 through 04/01) So please get yourself a copy!! And if you have time, please write a review.  If I could, I would sing a song to every reviewer that has taken the time to write about their take on Sunshine ;0)
One last thing, I have been consistently blogging on Friday’s but that has become difficult to maintain.  So I’m changing my blog day, please look for new post on Sundays J 
Lots of love to everyone (especially reviewers :) and here’s to a new week!