Bell Bridge Books

Summertime, and the reading is easy!

I vacation every summer in a beautiful beach town on the New Jersey shore, not too far from where my husband grew up. I start each day with a leisurely jog up and down the town’s boardwalk bordering the beach, which offers the best views of the sun rising up out of the Atlantic Ocean. The beach is always empty then—except for an occasional gathering of sea gulls—and the breezes lift off the water and keep me and the few other early joggers from getting too hot. It is the most peaceful time of day. While my sneakered feet stay on the boardwalk, my mind wanders in all directions. I get some of my best writing ideas during these tranquil morning jogs.

After I return to the inn where my husband and I stay, I wash up, change into a swimsuit and coverup, and grab some breakfast, after which we head back down to the beach, armed with chairs, an umbrella, and books, books, books! My husband loves biographies, narrative history, and thrillers, many of which he buys in hardcover (which makes our beach tote bag weigh a ton.) I prefer women’s fiction, romances, and mysteries—the same genres I write—and I read them on my Kindle. Of course, this means I can bring hundreds of books down to the beach with me, all stored on my lightweight reading device.

Much as I love my morning jogs (and my evening ice-cream pig-outs; our inn is a short walk from a fabulous ice-cream parlor), my favorite part of vacation is sitting on the beach and reading. I slide my chair into the umbrella’s shade, dig my toes into the sand, and gorge on books. My definition of bliss!

If you’re like me, and looking for some delicious new books to read while you’re on vacation, I hope you’ll give The April Tree a try, especially while it’s specially priced at only $1.99. Much as I love all the books I’ve written (one hundred so far!), The April Tree is the book closest to my heart. It contains drama, romance, sorrow, and laughter. It’s about life and loss, fate and faith. And it’s about the enduring bonds of friendship.

Some of you may be beach readers like me. Some may be hammock readers. Some of you may be hopping on planes and traveling long distances this summer—but hey, you’ll need a good book or two to keep you company on the flight. So stock up on your summertime reading—and take advantage of any discounts you can find. I hope you’ll include The April Tree on your summer reading list.

Judith Arnold

THE APRIL TREE is on sale for just 1.99! Grab it today!

Look Away, Away

by Kimberly Brock

I think writers of any ilk can benefit from a healthy appreciation of setting, but regional – particularly southern writers – are haunted by our connection to, love of, loss of, and clawing crawling, desperate journey back to – the land. Oh, I wish I was in Dixie…away, away. Every song is a lullaby of going home. We close our eyes and dream of the old house in the valley. We contemplate a city skyline, thinking only of the ancient ridges that surrounded freshly turned lowlands where we walked a row as a child. That old scene where Scarlet O’Hara’s father warns her that land is the only thing that matters? We took that old man seriously and so, when we write our stories, do our characters. Their whole world, how our characters view their circumstances, why they struggle, why they rejoice – it’s all reflected in the setting. Pick up any piece of southern fiction and you will understand what Lee Smith meant when she said of regional literature, “There is an intimate identification with landscape. Setting is so important that it often defines the lives and possibilities of its characters…Place is the central defining factor of southern writing. There’s just simply more there, there.”

In writing THE RIVER WITCH, I knew Roslyn’s story would end up on the island – I knew she would go into a kind of exile. I imagined Roslyn’s need for isolation, and her need for great beauty, which led me to the Georgia Coast. I wanted it to be a place that would keep her off balance so she’d have to struggle to understand it and meet its demands. I needed a place that Roslyn believed was a complete departure. My character’s story is also the story of this environment and if you look at one, you will inevitably discover something about the other.

I’d written a good part of the first draft before Roslyn’s past and her childhood memories of Glenmary, Tennessee, began to surface. There, I found a people rooted for centuries in hard ground. Ancient mountains that would not be moved. Do you see these places? Then you see the people who inhabit them. I came to understand these were the characteristics at the core of Roslyn, this place defined all the ways she was at odds with herself, and as with everything else in the novel, these seemingly contradictory environments and cultures of Appalachia and Coastal Georgia would serve as mirrors for one another – just as the characters tend to hold up mirrors to one another. Some of this was written intentionally, but a great deal of it evolved with the story.

I’d always been fascinated by the idea that the Sea Islands shift and change, the idea of the alligators roaring season, the romance of the great live oaks, and then there was the element of superstition that lent itself to Roslyn’s haunting. The island was like going back to the mire from which we all emerge. I chose the island setting so she could fight her way back from her loss, physically and psychologically. That’s what Roslyn’s character ultimately faced – what each of us, ANY character ANY place, faces – a transformation that leads to resolution. She had to learn to shift and change to survive, just like the land beneath her feet. Her connection to place informs the reader of Roslyn’s internal journey through metaphor, but it also grounds the reader firmly in a compelling reality, one that every reader will envision for themselves. We are called to whatever away, away means home. To me, the true power of setting is that it gets to the heart of our human search for belonging.

Barbara Kingsolver said it best when she spoke of setting. “I have places from which I tell my stories. So do you, I expect. We sign the song of our home because we are animals…Among the greatest of all gifts is to know our place.”

MAKE SURE YOU GRAB THE RIVER WITCH TODAY FOR JUST $1.99! ONLY FOR A LIMITED TIME!

3,500 Posts

by Melissa Ford

This summer will mark 10 years of writing my blog, Stirrup Queens. I publish a post at least 5 times per week, though I write more posts than I publish. What this means is that for the last 10 years, I’ve sat down in front of my computer almost every single day and written down a record of a thought or event, polished it, and hit publish.

I write on my birthday and holidays and weekends. I write when I’m sick and when I’m in a terrible mood and when I only have 15 minutes before school pickup. Blog posts are the warm up for my regular 6 hour book writing day.

They’re not always good. I don’t always enjoy it.

But I like having 3,500 posts. They are 3,500 pieces of evidence that I showed up, even when I didn’t feel like it, even when I didn’t know what I was going to say when I turned on the computer.

They’re proof that showing up matters. That showing up is how work gets done. That showing up moves things forward. If I didn’t show up, I wouldn’t have 3,500 posts. I might only have 2,000 posts. Or 1,000 posts. Or be writing about how I’m hitting my 500th post, and isn’t that a terrific milestone?

And yes, it would be. But 3,500 is better, no? 3,500 over almost 10 years means that I have written every day. Slow and steady, bit by bit. Always showing up, and then continuing on to write six books, too.

That is the number one piece of advice I can give to new writers. Show up. Even when there are holidays, even when you’re sick, even when you’re in a terrible mood. Sit down with your book or your blog and put words on the screen. It’s okay if it isn’t what you feel like doing in the moment. Do it anyway.

Because maybe all of that work will mean that something good happens, like having your book chosen by Amazon to be one of their December deals.

Pick up APART AT THE SEAMS for just $1.99 through December!

A LIBRARY TROLLOP’S READING RECOMMENDATIONS

by Danielle Childers

Has anyone else been watching Sister Wives on TLC? I’m fascinated, and Janelle is my favorite (because I think she’s the hardest worker with the most common sense)! Now, leaving polygamy aside, because we’re really just talking about entertainment here, there’s something fascinating about a group of women who come together and manage relationships and support relationships and, well, feed so many people while running such large households. This brings me to the reading recommendations.

The 19^th wife by David Ebershoff combines a past tale Brigham Young’s 19^th wife, who tried to revolutionize the world to ban polygamy, and a modern day man who most go back into a polygamist sect to solve his father’s disappearance. A really fantastic and historic read with a modern day mystery. Fascinating and a little academic . . .

Then there’s THE GLASS WIVES by Amy Sue Nathan  about 2 wives in plural marriage who lose their husband and must redefine relationships and keep their kids in mind.  It’s really a fresh twist on women’s fiction, and we all know I love some women’s fiction! I also really love a debut author gone right!  It’s dramatic and touching, and you’ll find yourself quickly invested in the Glass family.  You just have to decide what makes a family.

Now . . . what food do you pair with these books? It’s a little bit of stretch, but reach with me!

The Duggar’s Tater Tot Casserole.  With 20 kids (21?) the Duggars sure know how to feed some kids! I’ve cut the recipe in half (and it still feeds an army).

Duggar’s TTC

2 lb ground turkey browned, salt and pepper to taste, drained

3 lbs tater tots

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can evaporated milk

1 can cream of chicken

In a 9×13 pan, cover the meat with tater tors. Mix soups and milk and pour over the top. 350 degrees for 60 minutes.

My personal suggestion, if you want to get fancy, is to throw some onions in when you brown the turkey and sprinkle cheese on top of the whole thing!

“She rose from the ashes of her childhood to light a path for others.”

That tag line from Dolores Durando’s debut novel, BEYOND THE BOUGAINVILLEA (March 2011) echoes, in some small ways, the author’s own early 1900’s childhood on the plains of North Dakota.

Mrs. Durando didn’t live the cruel life to which Bougainvillea’s MARGE GARRITY was subjected as a girl—indeed, Mrs. Durando had a happy childhood being raised by her blacksmithing grandpa–but she does know whereof she speaks when describing the isolated and rough-hewn conditions of Dakotas life.

BEYOND THE BOUGAINVILLEA

She found her place in a turbulent era of deep passions, heartbreaking sacrifices, and grand dreams.

When scholarly, smart Mary Margaret is sixteen her father marries her off to a drunken neighbor in return for a tract of land. The year is 1929, and Mary Margaret’s childhood has already been hard as a farm girl on the desolate prairies of North Dakota. Abused and helpless, the new Mrs. “Marge” Garrity seems destined for a tragic fate.
But Marge is determined to make her life count, no matter what. Her escape from her brutal marriage takes her to California, where she struggles to survive the Great Depression and soon answers the lure of the state’s untamed northern half. There, embraced by the rough-and-ready people who built the great Ruckachucky Dam on the American River, she begins to find her true mission in life and the possibility for love and happiness with an Army Corp engineer of Cherokee Indian descent.

This vivid saga of one woman’s life in the early decades of a turbulent century is told from the heart of a true storyteller in the grand tradition of women’s sagas.

Look for BEYOND THE BOUGAINVILLEA at Amazon.com and elsewhere in trade paperback and ebook. PDF review copies now available. Email Editor Deb Smith at editor@bellebooks.com

From Alicia Rasley, award-winning author of Bell Bridge Book’s new Kindle bestseller THE YEAR SHE FELL:

Taking it easy in the Big Easy!
The husband and I decided to escape the depths of the winter in New

Alicia's current bestseller!

Orleans. Great choice. There’s music everywhere here, and I don’t mean some kid singing along to Lady Gaga on his IPod. Our apartment is halfway between Bourbon St. (the tourist music center) and Frenchmen St. (the local music center), and every night, all we have to do is walk up and down and we hear great music. It’s not just Dixieland. There’s a lot of blues, and something they call “Swamp Rock,” and traditional jazz too. Last night, we passed one of those magical houses with the iron balcony (don’t get me started on the amazing architecture) and from the courtyard came the sound of a parade band practicing. Yep, tuba and all, they were getting ready for the Mardi Gras season. More than crawdads, more than beignets, more even than to-go plastic cocktail cups, New Orleans is the music, and I’m thankful so many musicians came back after Katrina.

Alicia is a RITA winner for her historicals

It’s a different pace down here. Now I grew up in the South (well, Virginia– we thought it was the South :), and I know all about slow-talking Southern men. Still, the guy at the tourist booth in Jackson Square won a prize for molasses mouth. I went in there to ask where I might find (I can’t help it!) a supermarket, one with wide aisles and seven kinds of root beer (just like back home). No such place, not in the French Quarter. But there is a fine little grocery… well, I was on tenterhooks, waiting for him to look down at my map and direct me there. No, first he had to tell me all about the store’s origins (as an A&P) and its purchase by a local family, and a couple (admittedly interesting) stories about this family, and a bit of history of the building (once a speakeasy/bordello, but you know, I get the idea ALL the buildings in the French Quarter used to be one or the other), and finally my yankee impatience won out– “And the address of the store is?” He heaved a sigh (a long, slow one), and pointed down to the map. “Walk here along Jackson Square. Sit down for a spell and listen to the music. You hear me? Sit down and listen to the music.” I meekly assented, and only then did he trace his pen the half-block on my map to the corner where the grocery store was.

And I did what he said. I sat down in Jackson Square and listened to the (free!) street musicians, including one who sounded like a cross between Otis Redding and BB King (divine, that is), and sang standing alongside a dummy in a wheelchair (“$1 for a photo with Ralph and his chair!”– New Orleans humor sometimes baffles). And when he was done flirting musically with every passing ladyI got up and followed the path to the grocery store.

So anyway, when I’m not comparing the relative potency of the Hurricane vs. the Swamp Daquiri, I’m plotting a book where an uptight northerner is assigned here for a few months, and she meets (of course) a laidback musician, and while she’s trying to teach him public relations and how to brand yourself on social media, he’s trying to teach her how to do the Zydeco Cha-cha, to find pleasure in something other than “a job well-done,” and to eat a beignet without getting powdered sugar all over her business suit.

It’s been an eventful few months at my house. My Bell Bridge book, The Year She Fell, came out just a few weeks after my husband’s first book (a memoir about his philanthropy and mountain climbing in Nepal). For such a literary couple, we’re pretty un-temperamental, though he keeps threatening to get us matching berets (to be worn, I deem, only in Paris). He gave me a Kindle for Christmas, just in time to see my own book beat Jane Austen on the interestingly named “free Kindle bestseller list” during a week when the Kindle version was offered for free. (But mine wasn’t the “bestselling” free novel– curse you, Sherlock Holmes!) I should take up smoking, for surely that’s a compulsion easier to give up than checking the Amazon rank 25 times a day.

If you want to abet my compulsion, here’s the info about my book:
The Year She Fell, by Alicia Rasley Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/2aygep7
Bell Bridge Books, November 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SLxXIhch00
If you click on that youtube URL, you’ll see the book video, with original mandolin music by my genius nephew, Lucas Hamelman. I wonder if any of the Dixieland bands here need a mandolin player?

Back to normal (teaching, snow, parkas, all-weather tires) in two weeks, but until then, laissez les bon temps roulez!

Alicia Rasley

A big blog welcome to Kat Magendie, bestselling author of TENDER GRACES, SECRET GRACES and now SWEETIE.  Her books are lyrical, evocative Southern lit-fiction.  The Kindle edition of  SWEETIE is currently perched high on the literary fiction bestseller list at Amazon.com.  And now, here’s Kat:

She held out her hope like rose.

Teen Bullies, Outcasts, Prejudice and SWEETIE

 Whenever Bellebooks/Bell Bridge Books sends my novels out to the world (bless you BBs!), something hidden is always revealed—because of my readers. You’d think I’d know all the inside and outside and in the nooks and crannies of my work, but this is not the case. Readers will see what has not occurred to me or has not been revealed to me, and then they will open my eyes wider and brighter.

 I knew SWEETIE’s themes of belonging, place/displacement, home, friendship, loyalty, and family—topics I return to time and again. But what I never thought was that Sweetie would help readers with their own painful memories of childhood/adolescent angst, loneliness, being bullied, and those awful feelings that one is a misfit in a world of Those Who Fit. As sophisticated as we think we have become, we still have problems with compartmentalizing on the “playground,” in schools, in social networking, in neighborhoods, at work, and sometimes even within families.

Narrator Melissa remembers torment by the Circle Girls (Beatrice and Deidra were the head Circle Girls. They picked the girls to be The Circle, and the ones to be inside of it. It was never good to have their attention until you knew which one . . .) as she says, “What society of children could resist tormenting the walking cliché from daytime movies?—I was always the awkward new girl in town. One would hope I brought that cliché to the limit, somehow growing to be beautiful and showing them all, but I was at best unremarkable, average . . . .” And Sweetie says, “Not nothing average about you, Miss-Lissa,” because she sees deep into the full burning heart of Melissa.

The bestselling first book in The Graces series

Kathryn

There is a troubled boy who, along with his Posse, bullies Sweetie and Melissa. But it is again Sweetie, with her wonderful insight, who understands T.J.’s bullying behavior, “Nobody deserves to be treated like a dirty worm under a dirty foot by they’s own kin. T. J.’s mean but his daddy’s a long-sight meaner. Guess his daddy teaches him how to be.” Sweetie, who is scarred and strange and mis-fitting sees the world with wonder and generosity—we could all use a Sweetie in our lives.

A humbling but incredibly cool thing is mail I receive from teachers and from parents. Teachers have said how through the years children like Melissa and Sweetie have come to their classroom, and the Sweetie novel not only resonates with their experiences, but with the teacher’s own memories of childhood awkwardness, friendship, with their own mothers and fathers, with fitting in and filling out, and even first crushes.

And mothers pass my book(s) on to their daughters to read to inspire discussion about just how hard it is to be a kid, an adolescent/pre-teen/teenager, no matter if it is the 1960s, 70s, or 2011—we all have been 11, 12, 13, and we all have searched to find Identity without being Different—oh to celebrate our differences!

What more could an author hope for than to have teachers, mothers, fathers, and other readers relay to her how her books promote discussion—to those who remember a time when they felt as if they’d never fit in, or never rise above a bully’s harsh words and taunting, or felt ugly or weird or fat or scared or skinny or . . . just different. (Melissa: “I think it would be great never to feel pain.” Sweetie: “I reckon that’s what most would think.”) We do rise above it, things do become better, we grow up and out and beyond—we learn empathy, a great gift. As Melissa says, we are beautiful biological wonders; scientific anomalies. No one can take away our joy if we only believe in the magic of our own beautiful Selves.

When I write a book, I never set out to teach a lesson, or write something that will promote discussion. I just write what the character experiences, digging deep into the core, the heart of the character, peeling away layers (except those that must remain). I listen and I relay. It is you all, you readers, who take my work to the highest level, opening up my world and their world to even greater possibilities.

Thank you for reading with such care. Thank you for telling me your stories. Thank you for your trust. And in return, I promise to do the best I can—to write my stories with a full and burning heart. As Sweetie says, “All a person can do is give it all they’s got. Right?” Right, Sweetie . . . that’s right.

—–

Kat lives in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, in a little cove at Killian Knob with two dogs, a ghost dog, a GMR (Good Man Roger, her husband,) a mysterious shadowman, and many wild critters. She is co-editor/publisher of the Rose & Thorn. Visit her at kathyrnmagendie.com, follow her on twitter @katmagendie, on Facebook, or  her blog www.tendergraces.blogspot.com.