Julia Ibbotson is the award-winning author of The Old Rectory: Escape to a Country Kitchen, first published to acclaim in the USA and now re-launched with a brand-new cover by her new English publisher in the UK. Julia has been writing creatively all her life (unpublished!) but her day jobs to pay the mortgage have been as a school teacher and latterly a university academic, gaining her PhD at the age of 57. She delights in being a wife and mother to four, with four little grandchildren. She loves reading, gardening, growing food, cooking for family and friends and country life. Having published many academic texts and papers, she came late to actually publishing her creative writing, at the age of 60 plus, when she was persuaded to write the story of the renovation of her Victorian rectory in The Old Rectory. She has combined memoir, history, research, story and recipes in this first published book, which has won a number of international book festivals in the biography category, gained 5 star reviews on Amazon, and has been widely featured (along with her house) in the media. She has begun to delve into the world of blogging, facebook and now has her own website at www.juliaibbotson.com at which she also posts blogs regularly, about writing, life and her passions. Her new project is a trilogy of novels following the life story of a new character, Jess, through from fleeing to West Africa as a volunteer teacher/nurse in the 1960s to the millennium. The first of the series, Drumbeats, is due to be published later this year. You can find out more on her website and on her author page on Amazon. Her global internet book tours start soon! Continue reading “Featured Author: Julia Ibbotson”
Month: May 2013
Stand Alone Or Not
We hear it pronounced with solemn certitude and serious mien. “Every book must stand alone.” It’s like a natural law, immutable, never to be questioned, whether you have twenty books in a series or just two. Continue reading “Stand Alone Or Not”
Sneak Peek: The Farewell Season
Today we have a sneak peek from the young adult coming of age book by Ann Herrick: The Farewell Season.
Eric used to think he’d live forever, but not any more. As football season starts, he hopes he can live normally again after the death of his father, but his refusal to face his grief results in anger at his coach, fights with his sister, resenting added responsibilities, and disillusionment with football. It takes a special relationship with Glynnie, who is dealing with the divorce of her parents, to open his heart to love again, see he is angry with his father for dying and the way to get through grief is by grieving.
This book is available from Amazon, Amazon UK, and Barnes & Noble.
Here is an excerpt from The Farewell Season…
Video Trailer: Quintspinner
In the year 1717, Tess Willoughby’s privileged life is shattered when she is forced to accept a mysterious Spinner ring from a dying stranger. Worse yet, she finds herself forced onto a merchant ship bound for the pirate-infested West Indies and betrothed to the stranger’s murderer – a man who desperately covets the ring’s supposed power. When her fiancé double-crosses her during a pirate attack, Tess must learn to use the strange Spinner ring, but will she also learn to play the game of double-cross in time enough to save herself? For if she fails at either, the stakes are unbearably high.
Quintspinner: A Pirate’s Quest, the award-winning historical fiction book by Dianne Greenlay, is available through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon UK.
Don’t forget, you can cast your vote for trailer of the month on May 25, 2013 at 5 p.m. Pacific time.