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Please welcome Barbara Lieberman!
Book Cover, Blurb, & More
Message on the Wind:
Would you follow your heart, if it meant leaving behind everything and everyone you've ever known? Board a train with Ellen Price and travel to a new life. Even as she begins a new life, she'll change the lives of all she meets. Message on the Wind is the first book in the McEwen series.
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EXCERPT
The stranger looked Ellie up and down rather deliberately, his black eyes returning to stare into hers once more. Having found herself in similar situations before, Ellie simply endured his frank appraisal. He seemed surprised she challenged him, her hands now on her hips defiantly, but then bullies usually were surprised when anyone stood up to them. This one seemed no exception. His expression relaxed only a little.
"I am usually the one protecting The People around here."
"The People? I'm not familiar...with…?" Ellie asked, noticing he was still staring at her. She continued to stare right back at him and tried not to notice just how handsome he was.
"Indians." The man's eyes narrowed further as he said this, as if expecting some reaction from her.
"Oh, well," Ellie stammered, suddenly embarrassed at her own behavior. "I didn't realize that you meant... or that she was... well, it doesn't really matter that she is one of the People, does it? What a lovely way of putting that, much better than Indian. Anyway, he shouldn't have treated her that way. I only saw someone being taken advantage of. I do tend to stick my nose in when I see that. A terrible habit of mine but there you have it." Thinking the incident resolved, Ellie again moved to retrieve her things from the ground. "Now, if you will excuse me, sir, I really must find my friends..." The man moved to block her yet again, apparently not quite finished with her yet.
"Have we met?" Ellie looked again at his face, still finding him intriguing. His anger seemed to have vanished and was replaced by a warm searching look. There was something about the way he was looking at her just then that did seem oddly familiar. His handsome face captivated her, in spite of her resolve to the contrary, and his eyes held her gaze like a magnet. Ellie suddenly felt as if they were the only two people in the world standing there in the middle of the street.
About the Author
The Treasure of Ravenwood: A Fairy Tale was my first published book and has been voted to the top 40 Best Chapter Books for Young Girls List on Goodreads. It is also a RIF book (Reading is Fundamental) and is available through RifSoCal for children who would not otherwise know the joy of owning their own book.
To Miss the Stars was my second published book, the story of how a misdirected letter changes a very well-ordered life.
Message on the Wind is my third published book, is my first novel and the first book in my McEwen series. It is an historical romance.
All purchases of my books and swag support Project Semicolon (www.projectsemicolon.org)
STALK Barbara Lieberman:
GUEST POST
A Stack of Writing (originally published on www.keyboardmusings.com on 9/2/15)
I wrote about “overnight success” in June and I’ve been thinking a lot about that phrase since. People often point to JK Rowling as an “overnight success” and, yet, I can’t help but feel she would be the first to object to that characterization about her publishing journey.
To call someone an overnight success is to ignore the blood, sweat and tears involved in writing and publishing. It implies luck and a force beyond talent. Now, I’ve heard all of the stories about how manuscripts get tossed out without ever being read and that it really is the luck of the draw to being noticed by a big publishing house. But, it’s not that to which I’m referring.
I hope that passionate writers who aspire to publishing their work will look to someone like JK Rowling, not because they think there is a short path to financial success in writing, but because she represents the long, hard, lonely, yet passionate road of the writer. Rather than looking at the success of the Harry Potter books, look to her Harvard Commencement speech. Measure your journey by her failures first. Better yet, don’t measure your own journey by someone else’s at all.
There is a reference in the Gilmore Girls television series to a first boyfriend being a “first pancake”. This is describing that first one you toss on the pan, that often comes out as an undercooked, pale test case and not the golden, perfectly-round flapjack to which you aspire. JK Rowling wrote just as many first pancakes as the rest of us. I’m sure she crumpled up some of those napkins and growled in frustration when the words didn’t flow as sweetly, thick and fragrant as maple syrup.
We all have first pancakes. We all have to start somewhere. We don’t usually serve someone just one pancake, either. We serve a stack. Start with that as your image. Don’t publish one book and sit back waiting to be an overnight success. Write it, publish it, market it, and then get to writing the next one. And the next. And the next.
Focus on your recipe, your skill, your process and improve it each and every time. Serve up a stack of great writing. Keep going and keep writing. Try other genres. Push your boundaries and stretch your comfort zone. Let the passion for writing be your muse and she will eventually take you where you want to go.
Focus on the writing. Always on the writing. Write for you, as you did in the beginning and the tell stories or pen the poems that only you can tell. Let the sales be a surprise and the accolades be a bonus. Let the writing be the goal and you will keep discouragement at bay.
Interview with Barbara
1. What is your favorite color socks to wear?
I don't wear socks
2. What is your favorite daily wear attire?
Keen sandals, comfy shirt, shorts
3. Do you like dogs or cats?
Both but my heart will always choose a dog first
4. If I came to your home and looked inside the refrigerator, what would I find?
Fruit, milk, raw veg, Babybels, cottage cheese, and leftover Chinese Food
5. Tell me how many hats you have in your house?
I don't do hats
6. What's your bad quality?
Too much patience with people
7. If you were a tree, which kind would you be?
Apple tree or oak tree
8. Do you speak with your dog?
Of course! Doesn't everyone?
9. Why isn't the number 11 pronounced as onety-one?
Because English is awesome that way
10. Which book is your most favorite ever?
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon!
11. Who is the one television character that you simply adore? Jarrod Barclay from The Big Valley
12. What kind of music do you like?
It's more what musicians do I like... Dan Fogelberg, Mary Fahl, David Lanz... a very long list
13. What is your favorite genre of movies?
Really good movies, genre is secondary
14. What makes you angry?
Injustice and negativity
15. Are you short-tempered?
No
16. How do you overcome your anger?
I use it for good, like a superpower
17. What is your most cherished childhood memory?
I am so lucky to have had such a blessed childhood that there is no single most cherished memory.
18. If given complete freedom to start afresh, what profession would you choose and why?
Writer. It's not just a passion. I have to breathe, I have to write.
I don't wear socks
2. What is your favorite daily wear attire?
Keen sandals, comfy shirt, shorts
3. Do you like dogs or cats?
Both but my heart will always choose a dog first
4. If I came to your home and looked inside the refrigerator, what would I find?
Fruit, milk, raw veg, Babybels, cottage cheese, and leftover Chinese Food
5. Tell me how many hats you have in your house?
I don't do hats
6. What's your bad quality?
Too much patience with people
7. If you were a tree, which kind would you be?
Apple tree or oak tree
8. Do you speak with your dog?
Of course! Doesn't everyone?
9. Why isn't the number 11 pronounced as onety-one?
Because English is awesome that way
10. Which book is your most favorite ever?
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon!
11. Who is the one television character that you simply adore? Jarrod Barclay from The Big Valley
12. What kind of music do you like?
It's more what musicians do I like... Dan Fogelberg, Mary Fahl, David Lanz... a very long list
13. What is your favorite genre of movies?
Really good movies, genre is secondary
14. What makes you angry?
Injustice and negativity
15. Are you short-tempered?
No
16. How do you overcome your anger?
I use it for good, like a superpower
17. What is your most cherished childhood memory?
I am so lucky to have had such a blessed childhood that there is no single most cherished memory.
18. If given complete freedom to start afresh, what profession would you choose and why?
Writer. It's not just a passion. I have to breathe, I have to write.
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