Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Waiting for a Song, Naomi's Story - An Excerpt

In less than two weeks we will be releasing Waiting for a Song, Naomi's Story, a prequel to Mariam Kobras's award-winning Stone Trilogy. Today, we'd like to share an excerpt from the book just to whet your appetite and leave you wanting more. . . 




It was as if she’d opened an entrance to a secret realm, as if she’d found a small, hidden door somewhere in a dark corner of her closet and, like Alice in Wonderland, had slipped through it before she knew what was happening. 


There she was, a confused, overwhelmed child, while all around her the words danced, spilling down mossy hills, tumbling over stones like a frothy brook, coiled around the wind and dancing among the flowers in a meadow.


As soon as her pen touched the paper the sentences and phrases flowed out of her as if she’d never done anything else in her whole life.


Songs, there were songs, so many of them, as if every moment had one of its own, each one held secretly and she alone possessed the key to set them free. Everything was a song: the tinkling of the ice cream van, the spill of the great fountain in the lake, the drone of the planes swooping in to land at the airport. The birds in the trees, the voice of a child, her mother calling her for dinner—everything went into the red journal.


They were stories: she could see them everywhere. Open-mouthed, astonished, she watched life pass by below her window, and it seemed to her that everyone carried their own bubble of stories on their shoulders, visible only to her.


Some were bright and shiny, some colorful as a rainbow, and some gray and heavy, bowing their wearers down with their load.

Lucia caught her staring at a woman in an expensive convertible driving past as they left the house one day and asked Naomi if she was all right. Was she running a fever, or had she eaten something that hadn’t agreed with her?


No, Naomi said, shaking her head. She was still staring at that woman, at the way she had coiled her golden hair at the back of her head to look like an intricate knot of braids, and how her neck seemed so fragile and elegant under that mass of hair. There’d been a big, white poodle on the seat beside her, a well-groomed and exalted dog staring back at the people on the sidewalk, his tongue lolling in laughter, his collar sparkling with what seemed suspiciously like real diamonds.


“I’m fine,” Naomi said, “really, fine.”


She could hardly wait to get back to her book and pen, and to share her thoughts and impressions with the creamy paper.

© 2014 Mariam Kobras
Can't wait to read more? You still have time to Preorder the book CLICK HERE!
You won't want to miss Mariam as she tweets the whole first chapter on Launch Day, June 3rd; or as she sets out on her Virtual Book Tour & Giveaway the same day. HINT: The prize that one lucky reader will win is mentioned in the excerpt above!
Until then, this small glimpse of what the book holds within will have to do . . . 




Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Message From a Blue Jay Book Launch and Virtual Tour

And the winner of the giveaway is:  SUSAN GRIER

The Tour Starts Here!



Join us as we celebrate the launch of Faye Rapoport DesPres's debut book--one writer's story of love, loss and her journey home.

From an astonishing blue jay to a lone humpback whale, from the back roads of her home town to the streets of Jerusalem and the Tower of London, debut author Faye Rapoport DesPres examines a modern life marked by a passion for the natural world, unexpected love, and shocking loss, and her search for a place she can finally call home in this beautifully-crafted memoir-in-essays.

Three weeks before she turns forty, nothing about her life fit the usual mold. She is single, living in a rented house in Boulder, Colorado, fitting dance classes and nature hikes between workdays at a software start-up that soon won't exist. While contemplating a sky still hazy from summer wildfires, she decides to take stock of her nomadic life and to find the real reasons she never settled down. The choices she makes from that moment on lead her to re-trace her steps both in the States and abroad as she attempts to understand her life. But instead of going back, she finds herself moving forward to new love, shocking loss, and finally, in a way that she never expects, to a place that she can almost call home.

Readers who love the memoirs and personal essays of such rising contemporary writers as Cheryl Strayed, Joy Castro, and Kim Dana Kupperman, will appreciate Faye's observational eye, her passion for the natural world and the creatures that inhabit it, and her search for the surprising truths behind the events of our daily lives.

From the author:  "'I'm sitting on the back deck of the Boston-area home I share with my husband, Jean-Paul. The trees near the back fence are bursting with birds. The squirrels, as usual, are stealing seeds from the bird feeder. I spent many mornings, and evenings, on this deck while I was writing Message From a Blue Jay. It's hard to believe that the moment of publication has finally arrived! Maybe that's why a blue jay flew onto the deck a little while ago and stole some cat food. They always want to have the last word . . .  "

From the publisher: We're thrilled to be publishing this book. It's a book to savor, one essay at a time, as Faye chronicles her difficult "middle decade". It's one of those books that make you nod in agreement as you read, experiencing the passages we have in common and gleaning new insights to their meaning. What makes it different is the way the author's love of nature wraps itself in and around each essay, each new vignette. 

It's truly a book to cherish, a book to share, a book to give as a gift.

And one winner will share that journey!

Follow Faye as she visits blogs on her Virtual Tour. Leave a comment on the posts on each blog and earn entries in our giveaway. Return to this blog, the book's Fan page on Facebook, or the Buddhapuss Ink Facebook page and click on the giveaway link for more ways to earn entries.

The WINNER will receive a personalized, signed copy of Message From a Blue Jay along with swag from us.

Here's the Virtual Tour Schedule:

5/14  Buddhapuss Ink
5/15  The Early Draft 
5/19  My Machberet

MORE CHANCES TO WIN


The fine print: Giveaway prize can only be shipped to addresses in the US or Canada.
Giveaway ends at midnight on May 29th.

Buy the book - Paperback or Kindle 


Friday, May 2, 2014

Mariam Kobras Wins Third Independent Publisher’s Book Award



Song of the Storm Takes the 2014 IPPY Silver Medal



Buddhapuss Ink LLC announced today that Mariam Kobras, of Hamburg, Germany, has won the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Awards’ Silver Medal in Romance for her book: Song of the Storm: Book III of the Stone Trilogy. Kobras said she was “stunned and crazy happy” with the news. Song of the Storm released in July 2013. This is Kobras’ third book, and third IPPY. Her first book, The Distant Shore: Book I in the trilogy took the Bronze in 2012, and her second book, Under the Same Sun, Book II took the Silver last year. “Winning three years in a row…even I'm speechless!” said Buddhapuss Ink Publisher, MaryChris Bradley. “Her writing is lyrical, lush, and gorgeous. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Mariam for this third well-deserved award! ”


Song of the Storm continues the story of Jon Stone, rock superstar, and Naomi Carlsson, the girl he loved, lost, and found again. The story focuses on Jon and Naomi as they deal with her high risk pregnancy, and Jon's desire to leave his life on the road to settle down and write a Broadway musical. The real story though, is what happens on September 11, 2001, to Jon, Naomi, their families, and friends as they are thrown into the storm that enveloped New York City, the country, and the world on that day. "9/11 was, and always will be, a defining day for those who lived through it," said Bradley, "whether they were in NYC or were watching it unfold outside their window or sitting halfway around the world in front of their television or computer screens."


For Kobras, "This novel was a piece of my heart, a gift of love to my friends who had to walk through those dark hours in New York City and who bear the scars even today. I tried to tell their stories the way they told them to me. Driving through Manhattan with them, walking down the streets, visiting the spots where they were on September 11, 2001, brought home the depth of that tragic day in a way that no documentary, no image can. These are the stories of real people, my friends, people I care for a lot, people I love. I incorporated them into Song of the Storm and let the characters tell them in their own voices. By sharing their stories I hope to help them let go of at least some of their grief."


Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Mariam and her family lived in Brazil and Saudi Arabia before they decided to settle in Germany. She attended school there and studied American Literature and Psychology at Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen. Today she writes and lives in Hamburg, Germany, with her husband, two sons, and two cats.

Join us as we celebrate this morning on Twitter at #WritersCoffeeBar!