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ESCAPE by Barbara Delinsky

In her luminous new novel, Barbara Delinsky explores every woman’s desire to abandon the endless obligations of work and marriage — and the idea that the most passionate romance can be found with the person you know best.

Emily Aulenbach is 30, a lawyer married to a lawyer, working in Manhattan. An idealist, she had once dreamed of representing victims of corporate abuse, but she spends her days in a cubicle talking on the phone with vic tims of tainted bottled water — and she is on the bottler’s side.

And it isn’t only work. It’s her sister, her friends, even her husband, Tim, with whom she doesn’t connect the way she used to. She doesn’t connect to much in her life, period, with the exception of three things — her computer, her BlackBerry, and her watch.

Acting on impulse, Emily leaves work early one day, goes home, packs her bag, and takes off. Groping toward the future, uncharacteristically following her gut rather than her mind, she heads north toward a New Hampshire town tucked between mountains. She knows this town. During her college years, she spent a watershed summer here. Painful as it is to return, she knows that if she is to right her life, she has to start here.

ON-SALE DATE: JULY 5, 2011

 

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Bestselling novelist Barbara Delinsky --- author of WHILE MY SISTER SLEEPS, THE SECRET BETWEEN US, and our latest Women's Fiction Author Spotlight title, NOT MY DAUGHTER --- revisits a past Christmas during which she'd offered one of her own books to a friend in need.


Some authors give their own books as holiday gifts. I wish I could do this, but the thought of it makes me squirm. I mean, my book can’t be compared with a bona fide gift --- or so my thinking goes. I did make an exception one year, though, and remember the details to this day.

THREE WISHES was never a holiday release. An oldie first published in 1997, it made its hardcover debut in September and its paperback one the following July. The setting is a small Vermont town, the protagonist a very special young woman, and yes, the plot does encompass Christmas. But it isn’t a Christmas Christmas book, if you know what I mean.

That said, it could be. The holidays are emotional times, and THREE WISHES is a tear-jerker, with a spiritual twist so wrenching that some of my readers have never forgiven me for it. At the same time, others have written me the most heart-warming letters in praise of this book.

Then came my friend Rebecca. I never actually met her in person --- we were introduced by a mutual friend, and our relationship was a long-distance one carried out by email. She was fighting a tough battle with breast cancer, of which I am a survivor, and though our correspondence began with how best to stare down this disease, it quickly moved on to things like family, knitting, and food. We also discussed books, though our tastes were different; she preferred mystery and intrigue, while I liked family drama. To my knowledge, she had never read any of my books.

As the holidays approached, her illness worsened, and our hopes dwindled. I wanted to send her something to engross her for a time, even lift her spirits, but I didn’t want her to think I was rushing a Christmas that she might not make. Sending her one of my books seemed like the perfect thing to do, and, of all of my books, THREE WISHES felt like a match.

She read it. I know this for fact, because she phoned me in tears to thank me for sending it, and we discussed it at length. More to the point, we discussed the theme of life as a gift that is more about quality than quantity. We talked of Bree Miller and her newborn son, then of Rebecca’s children, who, like Bree’s Wyatt, would keep her spirit alive.

That was the first and last time I ever heard Rebecca’s voice. Her emails grew truncated, then stopped, and shortly before the holidays, she passed away. Her family told me it was a peaceful death. I like to think a tiny part of that had to do with THREE WISHES and our talk.

I haven’t given another of my novels as a gift since, but sense that

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We get a lot of questions regarding blogs. Should you have one? Do you need one? What kind of information should be provided on your blog? Will it diminish your professionalism? How do you get traffic to your blog? Will it detract from your published writing?

For authors there are two things you want to focus on with regards to a blog, getting traffic and showing your expertise. A blog is great way to highlight your writing, bring attention to your talent in a public forum and learn new skills. Write about anything and everything that interests you. Create a Facebook page, a Myspace page and link to your blog there. Create a Twitter account and follow other writers. Provide a link to your blog on your Twitter page and consistently update it letting your followers know when you have posted new content.

Sometimes you need a newsworthy hook to gain attention and followers to your blog. Write about something current, whether it be a trend or a news topic that you are familiar with, can provide an opinion on, or somehow relates to your writing. Write about books you are reading and link to the authors. Write about being a writer, provide tips, instruction, guidance and inspiration. If your content is consistently changing, then your audience will grow. If they like your writing, then you may be building a fan base. Blogs are great way to show off your writing skills! They also have the added bonus of helping improve your writing, develop your voice, increase the speed with which you can produce quality material, and fine tune the ability to write with an audience in mind. You are your own best advocate, so use this blog as a way to stand out from the crowd and let your voice be heard.

Writers who worry that blogging will distract from their primary job, being an author, have an understandable worry. Blogging does take time. However, the blog is a wonderful way to combine both the artistic and the business side of being an author. Write about what you know, but also treat your blog like a business card. You want people looking at it! You want them bookmarking it and you want them recognizing your name on a consistent basis.

Here are a few author blogs that shine!

Brenda Janowitz

Joshilyn Jackson

Stephanie Klein

Allison Winn Scotch

Claire Cook

Ann Leary

Kristin Hannah

Barbara Delinsky

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This is what being a writer is all about...getting fan mail! And I got my very first piece of fan mail last week. It's from my boss' daughter who is nine years old. I gave him a copy of SORORITY 101: ZETA OR OMEGA? to give to her. According to him, she breezed through it in a couple of days and then sat down and wrote me this note.

See??? I told you!!! I can't tell you how many times I've read this letter. Or how many people I've shown it to. Or how many times I've teared up looking at it. I carry it around with me and will eventually frame it for my writing room...so that when Caitlin Brooks is a famous author, I can say I knew her when.

I used to write fan mail when I was little...mostly to professional athletes. However, I did write a fan mail back in 1999 to a favorite author, Barbara Delinksy, asking her for advice about being a writer. She told me if I wanted to be a writer, I needed to just do it. Simple advice...but most appreciated. And two years later, I did "just do it," completing my first novel. I even thanked Ms. Delinsky in SORORITY 101.

Have you ever written fan mail? If so, to whom? Did you get a response?

For those of you who leave a comment on this thread, I'll enter you in a contest to win a copy of BOTH of the SORORITY 101 books.



Feel free to enter as many times as you'd like. Each comment will count as an entry.

Hugs,
Marley = )

SORORITY 101: Zeta or Omega? (Available Now! Puffin Books)
SORORITY 101: The New Sisters (Available Now! Puffin Books)
GHOST HUNTRESS SERIES (Coming May 2009, Houghton Mifflin)

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Confession: I never was a Boy Scout (though I do have a vague memory of being a Cub Scout - or maybe that's confused with tagging along with my sisters' Brownie Troop to go to the Wonder Bread factory that made your whole soul smell like hot, sweet dough!) I am thrilled to announce I have been asked by BOY'S LIFE magazine to write a short story for them.

The significance is two-fold: A) They asked me out of the blue (which is way better than sending hundreds of SASE submissions and keeping your fingers crossed) and B) it gives me a great mid-winter push to jump into the creative water with a "small" idea, something I can have a blast writing without the heavy baggage of hundreds of pages and plot details*!

(*this is not to diminish the difficulties of writing short fiction - which I know is no picnic and I have nothing but praise for anyone who can master telling a great story in mere pages)

So now I get to let my mind wander into strange and funny territory and then pitch a few ideas to the editor...I'm thinking something with Giant Bugs.....

I'll keep ya posted.

And in a totally unrelated burp: I just LOVE this animated video of the They Might Be Giants song "The Mesopotamians" - ya gotta love these guys!!! And a major shout-out to DRAWN for giving me the link to the animated genius of David Cowles.

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