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2012 Indie Excellence Book Awards

Be inspired!

June 22, 2012 by Patricia Sands Leave a Comment

If it’s Friday, it must be France …

Today I’m inviting you back to beautiful Aix-En-Provence, the home of blogger/book reviewer/writer and mon amie, Claire McAlpine. Claire recently tagged me to join the Be Inspired Blog Hop.  This clever idea is being hosted by Vicki Orions on her Page After Page blog, who suggested:

“All of our stories come from somewhere, whether it be a dream, another book, a life event … So, I thought why not give people the chance to talk about their inspirations as well as their stories?”

It’s such fun to hear our peers sharing details about their work, the labours of love that have consumed them while they were writing and taken them on amazing journeys, real and imagined. I loved hearing about Claire’s novel, A Piece Of The Mosaic and cannot wait for publication!

Now I will follow the rules (oh yes, I sometimes do … ) and answer 10 questions about my novel, The Bridge Club, before I tag at least five other authors. For you dear readers who have heard all of this info many times before, please bear with me!

I have to admit I would love to begin telling you about my next novel but I’ll have to be patient for a while longer until the editing process is complete. A good portion of that story takes place in France so you can imagine how much I’m dying to talk about it!

Never mind, I still LOVE talking about The Bridge Club and am thrilled that it recently was a Finalist in two more book competitions. On to the questions.

1. What is the name of your book?  

The Bridge Club  and on AKD the title is The Bridge Club, A Novel
2. Where did the idea for your book come from?

The story is based on my real life Bridge Club and the 40-year friendship we have shared. It is fiction based on fact and the women of my bridge club were happy to share their stories.

3. In what genre would you classify your book?

Contemporary Fiction
4. If you had to pick actors to play your characters in a movie rendition, who would you choose?

Oh this is great fun! Since there are 8 characters, I won’t attempt to cast all the roles but I definitely see women such as Susan Sarandon, Annette Benning, Kathy Bates, Meryl Streep, in the movie. It would be a blast! A screenwriter is actually reading the book as I write this.
5. Give us a one-sentence synopsis of your book and tell us about the setting.

Eight women, four decades of friendship, one unimaginable weekend: how far would you go to help a good friend?

Whistler/Blackcomb, BC

The story is basically set in and around our fabulous city of Toronto but the action does cross Canada from the Eastern Townships of Quebec to the spectacular mountains of Whistler, British Columbia.
6. Is your book already published/represented?

I self-published through iUniverse in September 2010 and had a great experience with this company winning … sorry, please excuse a little horn-blowing … their Editor’s Choice, Reader’s Choice, Rising Star and Star designations. I’m pleased I used this company for my first endeavour.
7. How long did it take you to write your book?

Four years. When I first began writing I was just doing it for fun and had no intention of publishing. Also there were times when I was travelling for a few months and didn’t  write during those breaks. My current MS has taken just over a year.
8. What other books within your genre would you compare it to and what do you hear from your readers?

It has been compared to The Friday Night Knitting Club and The Girls From Ames, among others; but like every book, it has its own unique qualities and a very unusual ending. The best reward of being published is hearing from readers who want to express their reactions and thoughts about your work. I love this part! I’ve heard from women as young as early twenties right through to mid-eighties and they love to give examples of their own great friendships. So good! Most of them comment on the ending and the discussions their book clubs had about it or their personal thoughts on the matter. It’s that kind of response that helps you feel all the agony and ecstasy of writing was worthwhile!
9. Which authors inspired you to write this book?

Coincidentally, like Claire, I was greatly influenced by Stephen King’s “On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft”. When I first began writing seriously I attended a few workshops and, without fail, his book would be highly recommended. I found it very inspiring and the most important lesson for me was his advice to simply sit down and write your story, if you feel you have one to tell. Get it on paper and don’t worry about whether it is good or bad until you have finished. Then have an editor look at it and you will soon have your answer.

10. Tell us anything that might pique our interest in your book.

The ending will certainly get your attention as it is controversial and thought- provoking. It’s not chick lit and I wouldn’t want anyone to be disappointed by thinking it is.

I really think the best thing about the story is the way it makes you think about your own BFFs! How lucky are we to have each other?

You may recognize yourself or a friend or two on the pages. The story celebrates friendship and reaffirms that no matter what age you are, there’s nothing like having some fabulous girlfriends whose trust is a given and whose laughter and compassion carry you through whatever life has in store.

Now I’m tagging some writers who are all part of my incredibly supportive and talented WANA community. This time I’m breaking the rules though and tagging more than I’m supposed to because I want you to know about them! They may or may not have time to participate but at least they will be on your radar.

As I began this list, I realized I have so many other incredible names to share with you I’m going to give you another list next week. After all, we can never have too many good books in our TBR pile.

Steena Holmes

Tracey Garvis Graves

Elena Aitken

Diana Murdock

Amy Shojai

Angela Wallace

Jillian Dodd

Diane Capri

CJ West

Naomi Bulger

That list will keep you going for a while and there will be more coming! Who inspires you? If you have a name to add, please share it with us. Bon weekend, tout le monde!

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Filed Under: Author Promotion, Blog Tagged With: 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist, 2012 Indie Excellence Book Awards, Be Inspired Blog Hop, ForeWord 2010 Book Of The Year Finalist, Indie Reader Discovery Awards Finalist 2012, Patricia Sands, The Bridge Club

Channeling Mr. Rogers …

June 12, 2012 by Patricia Sands Leave a Comment

Photo credit – Wikipedia

It’s a beautiful day in the neighbourhood, a beautiful day for a neighbour, would you be mine, could you be mine … *channeling Mr. Rogers* … and there’s a lot of blog-hopping going on today, which always guarantees a great time!

For some reason, I’ve been humming the theme song from  the Mr. Rogers show all day. But … hey … his show was all about friendship and that’s what I’m talking about with my friend Jess today.  I must be having some sort of psychic connection with Fred … goodness knows I watched at least a zillion of his shows when our children were small!

I’m hanging out at the Happiness Project with the fabulous Jess Witkins, a young woman with the most brilliant smile and a sunny attitude to match. How could you not want to rush over to a blog with that handle?

As well as spreading happiness, Jess is working on her first novel and we are all following her progress with great anticipation. Write on, Jess!

She’s been telling me recently about her fabulous book club and we got talking about friendship and  … well … click right here and hop on over to join our chat. You know I’m all about friendship! We would love to hear from you AND THERE’S A GIVEAWAY INVOLVED. See you there!

To make the day even better, best-selling author and dear friend, Steena Holmes … (um, she’s a bit on the shy side … could her photo be any smaller? Steena, we have to talk!)

Anyway, the awesome and talented Steena is here to share her exciting news! Her latest novel, “Finding Emma” has just won the 2012 Indie Excellence Award in the Fiction category. It’s a gripping, emotional story which I was privileged to read and review just as it was published and it is most worthy of all the kudos being received.

Along with that, Steena is contributing a portion of the proceeds from sales to the Missing Children Society of Canada.

If you haven’t read it yet, here’s the Amazon link. BUT WE ARE ALSO GIVING AWAY AN E-COPY HERE! Woohoo!

Steena has an amazing blog tour in progress, hosted by Women On Writing, and you can find a list of all of her stops on her website as well as details about a Scavenger Hunt … seriously!  Honestly, this woman is creative!  She has written some terrific posts that truly hit home about parenting … and the subject of chocolate does come up from time to time as well!

Just leave a comment below this post and then click here to go to Steena’s blog to leave a comment after you read her excellent post about her thoughts on winning an award. We will employ our highly scientific method of putting all the names in a hat and having my DH pick out the winner!

Ahem, pardon me for nudging Steena just a little to the side of the spotlight for a second to share the news that The Bridge Club was a Finalist in the Women’s Issues category for the 2012 Indie Excellence Awards. It was fun to find both of us there when they sent out the list of Winners and Finalists. Yay, us!

I know you are going to enjoy getting to know these two fine friends of mine. In the author/blogger community we often pop around to each other’s sites. It’s the cyber equivalent of meeting up at the local coffee emporium, martini bar, or chocolateria. Where do you like to hang out with your friends? 

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Filed Under: Author Promotion, Blog Tagged With: 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist, 2012 Indie Excellence Book Awards, Finding Emma, ForeWord 2010 Book Of The Year Finalist, Fred Rogers, friendship, Happiness Project, honesty between friends, Jess Witkins, lifelong friendship, Missing Children Society of Canada, Mr. Rogers, Patricia Sands, scavenger hunt, Steena Holmes, The Bridge Club, the power of friendship, the value of laughter, Toronto, Women, Women On Writing, writing

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