Click here to enter a giveaway of my new novel on GOODREADS.

The Liberation of Norma Jean.

 

 

    Goodreads Book Giveaway

 

   

       

   

   

     

          The Liberation of Norma Jean

     

     

          by Anita  Lewis

     

     

         

            Giveaway ends October 05, 2014.

         

         

            See the giveaway details

            at Goodreads.

         

     

   

   

      Enter to win

Here is my Wordless Wednesday Entry.

 "Light at the end of the Tunnel"

Trailer for my book

Here is the Trailer for my Book.

somebody did it for my on Fivrr.  Anybody out there use Fivrr????

I just published my new Novel.  

 The Liberation of Norma Jean 

Available on Amazon and Kindle.

$5.99 for Paperback
$2.99 for Kindle.

I am looking for feedback from anyone who buys.

thanks,

Anita Lewis

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Its Wordless Wednesday and I'm Back.

 

This is my cat Asia.   It has been so cold this week that she has not left the bed except to eat.

Just added a store to our Facebook Page


Visit My Store
Sell digital downloads on Selz

Down on the Farm- Wordless Wednesday

Family Feud Audtion

The Five Sisters have just completed a audition tape for Family Feud. It was Vicki's idea. She was watching the show and saw they were doing auditions for the next seasons shows. We had so much fun doing the video.


Check it out at http://youtu.be/rrLsb2gZj3o

Tribute Books Reviews & Giveaways: Anita Lewis - Fluffy, Funny, and Fabulous: A Tale ...

Tribute Books Reviews & Giveaways: Anita Lewis - Fluffy, Funny, and Fabulous: A Tale ...: Guest Post The book Fluffy, Funny, and Fabulous: A Tale of Five Sisters came about because my sisters and I, like many other sisters remi...

Sorry, I haven't been very active.

Had to take a little time away from the blog because of Family duties. But now I am back.
Working on a guest interview schedule for the upcoming months.

Family reunion next weekend because its my Uncle John's 80th birthday. I will post pictures when its over.

The family is working hard on Chris Walk, our annual charity event to raise awareness about substance abuse.
Check it out at www.chriswalk.net.

Our book just became available on Festival Net.com also. They are a great site to find upcoming festivals and craft events.

Where I find my shows

Todays Guest Interview- Katie Fox

Interview with Katie McKinney Fox author of Educating Alex



Are you a writer by trade?

No. I am a grade school French teacher but I love words. I love everything about them- how they look on beautiful stationary, how they sound with the letter "r" in French, how certain words move me in music... Words are so powerful but no, until recently I haven't considered myself a professional writer.

What inspired you to write Educating Alex?

Honestly, about ten years ago, I woke up one morning with the entire novel in my head- characters, plot, setting, the whole thing. It blew me away! I didn't know what to do with it and to top it off I had three young children. So I carried it with me for three years and then seven years ago I began writing the story.

Seven years? That's quite a long time. Why so long?

Well, to tell you the truth, I wrote the first draft and got the story all down on paper. That took a year. Then I met up with my friend's aunt who is a writer and director in California and she liked my story a lot but suggested that I study the craft of writing some more to find "my" voice. She suggested that I study Sol Stein. So for two years I devoured his two books Stein on Writing and How to Grow a Novel. Then I began a series of re-writes that lasted about four years. I finished last summer.



What is Educating Alex about?

In Educating Alex, an 80,000 word novel, research analyst Alex True sets out to assess property value for a Chicago venture capital firm, but instead is catapulted into the lives and struggles of a sixth-grade teacher, his students, and the community surrounding a neglected but high-performing inner city school – an accidental meeting that launches Alex on a life changing journey of love, self and school revitalization that pleads for the reader to consider risking it all to have it all.

Educating Alex is a tale of modern romance, community, and hope, following protagonist Alex True on a journey to bring life back to a school in need. The students and staff captivate Alex’s interest, especially Mark Tandem, whose passion to educate and nurture his sixth graders tugs Alex’s heart in an unfamiliar direction. Alex convinces A.J. Hoyt, founder of the venture capital firm, to invest in the students, and A.J. takes the opportunity to make the company’s investment one that will benefit young hearts and minds as well as make dollars and cents. Alex, Mark and A.J. join forces to fight the odds of poverty, crime and neglect to revitalize the surrounding community, and in turn find that the reward for embarking on such a mission of good will leads them to ultimate happiness.

Underlying this story is the unanswered question of whether Alex is male or female -- challenging the reader's own assumptions of gender as they experience and imagine Alex's journey.

Now that's a unique concept. Have you always been intrigued by gender issues?

Not really gender issues, but as a teacher, every so often I have students who are just a little offbeat from the rest of my children- let's just say the unusual types. I always wonder how those children will fare in society. Alex is the grown up version of that student for me.

Wow! What a compelling story and what a writer's journey you have been on. I can't wait to get my hands on Educating Alex.
Where can I find it?

Educating Alex is available at my e-store in trade paperback and at Amazon for Kindle and paperback and also for Nook at Barnes & Noble.
Visit my blog http://positivelypressed.com/

Wordless Wednesday

This is Anita (left) and Vicki (right) at our book-signing at Barnes and Noble.  I think we look pretty
good because we remembered to keep our eyes open.

This weeks Guest Interview

This week’s guest author is Athena Brady.

Hope you enjoy,

Anita

I have wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl. However, life got in the way and there never seemed to be time. I picked my writing up and put it down throughout my life. When I was younger I didn’t have the confidence in myself. As I got older and had a family, I felt it was self-indulgent; I felt selfish for putting my own needs first and gradually I forgot about my writing.

It wasn’t till my family were grown and I moved in the countryside of West Wales UK; that I had the peace and tranquillity to write and think of myself and what I wanted from life. I decided to cut my job down to part-time and use the time to write. I ambled on like that for a couple of years, joining a writing site and submitting my articles. I got good feedback and earned a very small amount of money. This lifted me and made me think “Maybe I could be a writer after all” as I look back I think I was afraid of failure, of ruining my perfect dream. I wasn’t sure I could take the reality of not making it.

Then I thought I have always faced my fears, why not now? It was, I suppose, because there was so much attached to the outcome, for me emotionally. I decided that I didn’t want to be an old lady who regretted the chance she never took, in later life. One thing I have learnt from older people is that they do not regret the things they did but the things they did not do.

I find my inspiration from life, from what is important to me. This, my first book “Thoughts on Life” is a collection of short articles, about various issues we all face in life. The people who read my work inspired me saying I had helped them. Influenced them, helped them to understand things from a different perspective. Every time someone comments on something I have written, it lifts me and inspires me to reach deeper inside myself and share what I have found.

                               

I met a woman who opened her soul to me. She told me things she had never told another person. It was a precious gift, for her to give me her trust, as she had been hurt so much in the past. This lady wanted to make a difference, despite what had happened to her. She wanted to turn a negative experience into a positive one. She wanted to help others, who were on the same journey. Out of respect for her family she wants remain anonymous. Susan (the character) was healing and wanted them to heal also. This book will be out in early 2013 and is called “Broken”.

                            

We have put both our heart and souls into this book and have taken many years to write it. It is my gift to her and hers to other people on similar journeys. Here is a short synopsis of Susan’s story.

This is Susan’s story of her journey from despair to healing. Susan begins to experience a feeling that leads to childhood memories of sexual abuse in middle age. Memories she has no recollection of, that begin to haunt her in the present. She embarks on a journey of discovery, which challenges everything she thought about her life previously. There are times she thinks her dark night of the soul will destroy her and all her closest relationships. Once she has opened Pandora’s Box, it cannot be closed until she has come full circle. This book is a gripping, tense and sad narrative that you will not be able to put down, until you have finished it. A must read for those who dare to explore the grey and darker areas of life.

I have written these two books concurrently. My first one is “Thoughts on Life” is really a market tester and I plan to publish a series of three, alongside my third book. This series, are just articles from my blog put into an e book. I want to be able to reach as many readers as possible. I don’t want money to be a barrier to these “Thoughts on life” books. So I have told people they can see all these articles for free on my website. I have also added that I need funds to survive and those who can afford it to please buy the books. I believe in human nature and that people who do the right thing. Some people feel I am mad for doing this but I feel my readers will not let me down. Book three is the book I am writing now; it has a working title of “Prisoner of Love” it is about a woman who falls in love and her partner has an affair. It is about the emotions these three people go through and what they learn about themselves along the way. It is a book that will really stretch me as a writer as I tell the story from three different perspectives. It also will be released in 2013.

I live in a log cabin and I love to when I can, weather permitting, write on the porch. At other times I write in the lounge on the dining room table. When I need to think, I go a beach not far from me. I find it centres and grounds me.

I have a strong faith in God the universe whatever you prefer to call it. It has helped me through the rough times in my life. I can emphasise with a lot of things people struggle with as I have been through some of them myself.

I would like my readers to know that they are not alone; and that there are others going through what they are going through. If they find something new to think about or something that assists them in their journey through life, I will have done my job well. There is nothing better for a writer, than for their readers to enjoy their books.

As I mentioned previously my next book will be out in the very near future. “Broken” is being edited as we speak. This will be followed shortly after by book three the title is “Prisoner of Love” but that may change. I plan to follow my first book with “Thoughts on Life” two and three. This series is a gift to my readers as I mentioned previously I don’t want money to be a barrier for people. Everything can be viewed on my website for free. However, I am hoping that those who can afford to will pay for “Thoughts on Life” which is priced at £2.99 on Amazon. I also want to write a book on near death experiences and angelic assistance. So anyone out there who would like to be in the book please contact me. People can be quoted directly or remain anonymous it is their choice entirely. 

Wordless Wednesday- May 15th

                                                           For Mothers Day.


My two daughters sell cookies that are customizable with any JPEG image.  The did this one for me.
Their website is http://www.customfundraisingcookies.com if anyone is interested.  

Thursday--- Guest Interview with upcoming author Hannah Andronic

Today's interview is with  Hannah Andronic

 I just met this sweet young lady about a month ago through GoodReads.  She has impressed me because she is smart, beautiful and ambitious.  I wanted to include her BIO for you to read before you read the excerpt from her soon to be released book.

About this author

I graduated High School as Valedictorian and President of the National Honor Society. I am majoring in Biology and English. My dream along with being a successful writer is to be a scientist and write for the Scientific Journal. I hope to win a Nobel Prize someday. I live with my younger brother and my parents with my two adorable pets, my British Short-haired Cat and my rescue Chihuahua.

This is an excerpt from my upcoming book “ Finding You” , which is about a guy named Noel, who is a Sith part Summer and part Shadows; and his adventures at falling in love and transforming into a guy worth loving. It is written from  Noel's point of view, which is first person limited narration.

From page 29-31

“I promise to tell you the truth about who I am Allie, even though you may not like it.”

I pause to regard her kind open face once more, before announcing in the most delicate way possible my deepest secret that I kept from her all this time.

“Allie, the honest to goodness truth is I am not a man. Well, I am a man persay, but I am no human. I am something entirely different. I am from Otherworld. I am one of the Aes Síth.”

Allie looks taken aback for a minute, before she recollects herself and turns to me with pouty lips.

“What are you trying to say, Noel?”

It is exactly moments like these that I would like a giant black hole to just open up in the ground beneath my feet and swallow me whole, even though it is unrealistic and unnatural for random black holes to open up at very unlikely places at the most opportune moments. No, they have to come at inconvenient times, when all you want is for them to stay the hell away. And yes, contrary to popular scientific belief from the ages (Hobby Cock!), there is no such thing as black holes, unless they are in outer space, but gifted scientists know otherwise. They know that there are different kinds of black holes. These so called black holes on earth are actually a break in the veil that separates the earth plane from my own dimension called Otherworld. 

Just do not get it confused with the still popular Netherland reference, for I am no Peter Pan. 

“I am trying to tell you Als that I am not human. I am one of the Aes Síth or what most people call a faerie. However disdainful it is for me to utter such a blasphemous word, it is true. I am not from your world nor am I from your time. I am much older than I appear with manners quite befitting of the nineteenth century than the thirty-seventh.”

Allie exhales a breath through her nose and glances around as if making sure that no one was eavesdropping on our private and dangerous conversation.

“Are you trying to tell me that you’re a freaking faerie on Wayward grounds, the very place that exalts itself as having the greatest minds and mystical powers that built that very forest to entice your brethren into crossing over into Wayward to enslave your kind?”

Her question was more of a statement and even if it was asked as a question, it was a rhetorical one, because she already knew the answer. She knows what I am now and it helps me breathe a little easier knowing that she does. 

However short lived, I want to be truthful with her, but I know that there will come a time where I will not be able to tell her another secret, until I make the ultimate decision of deciding whether we would remain friends or if I could trust her enough with my broken heart to actually touch it in ways only one woman has ever done before.

“I just have one last question for you Noel.”

I lift my eyes from the ground to meet hers.

“If you’re Síth Noel, then why are you here?”

I look deeper into her eyes trying to find the answer in her questioning amber ones, but finding no deeper, philosophical meaning, I smile slightly.

“You’re my reason.”

Hannah can be found at

http://www.hannahandronic.wordpress.com.  Watch for her upcoming book release.

Guest Post

Special Treat this week.   I have two guest interviews.

  

           Alayna-Renee Vilmont on Tuesday and now I have Stacy Bender today.   

Please take the time to ready both.  

Why did I write ‘Emerald Tears’? In all honesty, I can’t answer that question because I don’t really know myself. You see, when I moved to Cincinnati I wanted to start fresh and so I got rid of several things including my writing, what little I had on paper anyway, thinking that I would never write again. However, my mind is not equipped with an off switch. So the next year I found myself once again sitting down with a pen in my hand, a notebook in my lap, and overwhelming desire to put a story on paper. It a story that I wasn’t even sure where it was going.

I was on a Mickey Spillane reading kick trying to complete my Mike Hammer collection at the time and decided that I wanted the story that I was writing to be in the 1930’s in some unnamed city, with two good friends on different sides of the law. I had always loved the old black and white mobster movies so it seemed a good place to start. Then in walks the Sav’ine my science fiction element, that has everyone including the Sav’ine themselves trying to put together the pieces of a mystery perpetuated by someone know only as the Old Man. After I had a couple of notebooks filled with my chicken scratch, I tossed it on the bookshelf and forgot about the story for the next year when I was doing some cleaning. I debated on tossing the notebooks but then decided to enter the story into my computer fortunately and for the next few years, I fiddled with the story adding or adjusting things. I even split the chapters into different files with odd labels to help me remember what was in them. These later became the chapter headings when I forgot to remove them and are now a reoccurring theme in the series.

I had never attempted to publish the book or any other book before and neither did anyone else I knew at the time, so when I came across a book in the library on ‘how to’, I decided to try it and let me tell you that the first rejection letter is a killer. If you can get past the first one, you’re doing ok but the first one hurts to no end. Still I had no luck but resigned myself to keep poking at it. I figured that I had time. Then as luck would have it, a friend of mine asked someone she knew if they had any advice to give me. Cathy was starting her own publishing company at the time and asked to have a copy of the story. The rest, you can say was history, as for turning ‘Emerald Tears’ into a series I never meant to but then I started thinking of my Sav’ine Guard and wondering why they were the way they were and questions like ‘what if?’ kept coming to mind along with how they relate to one another and those around them. Therefore, I wrote ‘Hands of Onyx’ to explain the clans and where the Sav’ine fit into the scheme of things. My reasoning was that the Sav’in needed each other but then I thought what if one was separated? How would they survive? Consequently, I wrote ‘Diamond Mind’. (Due out fall 2013)

I’m still asking what if questions in regards to the Sav’ine but I’m also working on other stories as the ideas catch me. ‘Ursa Kane’ I found gathering dust on my hard drive the only story to escape the purge. ‘Real Men Don’t Wax’ was written for a friend after a conversation about romance novels. She was also the one who introduced me to my publisher so it was agreed to release it on her birthday. Like I said my brain doesn’t have a off switch so there are other stories I have running around in my head that I hope to eventually have on paper. The biggest kick for me is to have someone enjoy them.

http://stacybender.wordpress.com/

Guest Author- Alayna-Renee Vilmont

Last Week I got confused and didn't get my Guest Author Posted.  So here you go.   Better late than never because  its a good one.   

Hello to all! My name is Alayna-Renee Vilmont, and I’m the author of “Ophelia’s Wayward Muse”, a poetic anthology published in November of 2012. In addition, I’ve been a fairly well-known blogger since 2000, and am the voice behind Jaded Elegance: The Uninhibited Adventures Of A Chic Web Geek.

I grew up as a creative child obsessed with self-expression. Despite the fact that I had a hopelessly introverted nature until about the age of 4--- I wouldn’t make eye contact with strangers and preferred playing in my own little world of imagination to being interrupted by anyone else—I always had a natural sense of curiosity. I learned to read at the age of two. I remember my mother telling me she thought I might be gifted with a photographic memory, because she’d read me a story, and one day, I’d decide to read it back to her. Much to my dismay, my parents switched out all my Little Golden Books and replaced them with others I didn’t know and love. When I started reading the new books to my mother, it became apparent that my gift wasn’t one of a photographic memory, but for language.

By the time I was five, I went through a major personality change, one that involved me needing to share everything in my head with another person. I ended up at a pre-school called Montessori, which specialized in working with kids who might succeed in a more “outside-the-box” environment. I’d been kicked out of two pre-schools prior to that, because I asked a lot of questions and wasn’t a big rule follower. I got bored easily. Today, I’d probably just have been given some Ritalin and never learned that self-expression was meant to be a huge part of my life.

At 5, I started piano lessons, and because I had a habit of singing along with anything, my teachers discovered I had perfect pitch. By 6, I had done my first professional show in the world of musical theatre, and I never looked back. I spent my lifetime singing, dancing, acting, performing for anyone who would let me.

I always maintained a passion for writing, though. When I was 7, I decided to enter a local poetry contest for kids, which I won. I thought it was the coolest thing ever to see my name in print, so I started researching how to become a writer. Later that year, I started mailing copies of my poems off to small literary journals, and I had my first poem published. It was called “Victorian Garden”, and nobody had any idea it was written by a child. In fact, I signed a release saying I was 13 so I wouldn’t have to get adult permission. I don’t know why. I always felt as if performing was something I did for everyone else, but writing was a secret hobby just for me.

By the time I was actually an adolescent, I participated in this program called Center For Talented Youth (CTY). It was a summer camp where you spent three weeks (or six, if you attended two sessions) taking a freshman or sophomore college level course. In order to qualify, you had to get a certain score on your SAT. My math score didn’t qualify me to take any of those classes, but my verbal score certainly did, so I spent part of every summer learning to write. Some of the best memories of my childhood are from that program (someone I met and with whom I later reconnected in a totally different city would later become a fiancé of mine.), and it also gave me the advantage of earning enough college credits that I completed a five-year program in four. By the time I made it to college, I was able to complete a double major and earn a minor in Creative Writing, while still continuing to perform professionally.

I really never meant to become a writer. Over the years, I’ve had a lifetime full of adventures and opportunities, and I traveled in many different directions. There have been a lot of ups and downs. Sometimes, I reflect and realize I have the life experience of someone twice my age, and that’s a little overwhelming---but it also occurred to me that it means I have plenty of stories to be told.

By the time I’d gotten around to publishing “Ophelia’s Wayward Muse”, I’d already been a successful blogger for nearly a decade and was working as a professional freelance writer. I think I did it for no other reason than to cross something off of my to-do list, and to also make a statement to all those who didn’t much like me or believe in me. If people don’t know me or understand me, it’s easy to mistake me for being a bit more frivolous than I am, and a little less intellectual. I run a social group for 1800+ people in my free time, I work from home, I’m involved in the Atlanta literary scene, I love all facets of the performing arts, I’m a bit addicted to fashion, and I love my reality television. It might appear that my only concern in life is being me, and all my stories and anecdotes and past travels and relationship dramas are something I portray rather lightly. In reality, those experiences all affect me a great deal, and have gone a long way into shaping who I am today, positively and negatively.

I’d been writing poems and hiding them under my bed for most of my life, so when the idea for “Ophelia’s Wayward Muse” came into my head, it was this pervasive thought that couldn’t let go. I’d been speaking with a few people in my life about the idea of the “manic pixie dream girl”, a stereotypical character in film that’s often portrayed as a free-spirit who exists to inspire others, but in herself lacks meaning or substance. It is, of course, an idea and not a type of person one can be in real life, but it became painfully obvious that in many facets of my life and many relationships, I’d been this kind of person for many people. I had always wondered why I had such an easy time meeting people, dating, and even finding people to fall in love with me, but couldn’t ever seem to hold a long-term relationship together. I felt sad realizing I’d effectively been a part of so many lives in order to help others become who they were meant to be, only to be abandoned. I’m not an ingénue, and I didn’t want to be a “manic pixie dream girl”. I always considered myself much stronger and more independent than that. When someone I cared for a great deal pointed out that in many ways, I wasn’t, and that’s why he didn’t consider me that monogamous, long-term relationship material despite mutual attraction and respect, I started to form the thread of the storyline that would become “Ophelia’s Wayward Muse”.

In so many ways, Shakespeare’s Ophelia is written as the feminine ideal---she is young, she is virtuous, she is obedient, she is pretty, she is not yet sophisticated enough to know how to scheme or manipulate. The only power she has is her passivity. The fact that so many artists, writers, poets, musicians, and theatrical folks have paid homage to Ophelia over the years as an icon of femininity seems a little sad. It is almost an anti-feminist statement. Ophelia was the original manic pixie dream girl, but when she started to have thoughts and ideas and feelings of her own, when she started to grow into a woman and embrace sexual maturity, the scorn and derision of men literally drove her crazy. I think she killed herself not because the boy she loved went insane and she didn’t care to get herself to that nunnery, but she didn’t know how or why she was meant to exist without being a muse to someone, that untouchable object of adoration.

Although feminism has come a long way, we still live in a world that sends out mixed messages to women about gender roles, sexuality, relationships, and what type of person is a “good” person to become. “Ophelia’s Wayward Muse” explores the different ways that human connections, even if most of them are impermanent, form who we are as we go through the various stages of life. If Ophelia had been a teenage girl today, she might have chosen to dye her hair black and get tattoos and have an affair with a completely inappropriate man (or woman) instead of losing herself in insanity and committing suicide. She would not necessarily feel the pressure to exist in order to obey and inspire, but to look at the world and relationships as something capable of inspiring her.

People often ask me “Why Ophelia?” There are numerous literary and cultural references to young damsels in distress who met a tragic end rather than fight to find a voice. I think it’s because the character has been so immortalized through art as “This is what innocence looks like, and innocence is beautiful, and women are beautiful as long as they remain this.” Natalie Merchant actually wrote an album entitled “Ophelia”, and the title song puts Ophelia in all these rebellious roles throughout the history of society. She’s commenting on the “virgin-prostitute” and “inspirer-creator” dichotomy women have always faced. Innocence and unsophistication doesn’t have to be the essence of femininity, and passivity and compliance isn’t something to which today’s young women should aspire.

More than a statement about modern-day feminism, “Ophelia’s Wayward Muse” is a story of connection and how each person who touches our lives is mean to change us in some way. It’s a coming-of-age story that’s neither overly romanticized nor bitter and jaded. It is just reality expressed via emotion, two things people seem remarkably afraid of these days. I’m very passionate about the idea of understanding connection, how people relate to one another, and how that is changing---and not always for the better---in the face of what is becoming a more emotionally detached world.

I hope some of you will take the time to read “Ophelia’s Wayward Muse”, available on Amazon and through Lulu.com in simple .pdf version. Also, if you’d like to follow the adventures of a modern day muse, visit my blog at www.jadedelegance.net

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY,,, MAY 1ST.

I know some people are afraid of clowns but I just think he is really funny looking and his name is 

COOL BEANZ

Wordless Wednesday, April 24 (but I'm a day late)

                     Sunset in Arkansas.   This was taken a few weeks ago.  I just love the colors.

Sister-Dipity: Wordless Wednesday

Sister-Dipity: Wordless Wednesday

Just saw our email on my book Fluffy, Funny and Fabulous.  Hope you love it.   I am so happy to meet other sisters and look forward to following your blog too.