Gathering of Waters Book Blogger Contest (Extended through to March 31st, 2012)
Hello All!
I'm gearing up for the simultaneous release of my new novel: Gathering of Waters and the reissue of the 2001 classic: The Warmest December.
I figure the best way to get the word out is to hold a book blogger contest. But first, let me give you a little background on Gathering of Waters and The Warmest December.
GATHERING OF WATERS is a deeply engrossing tale narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi--a site both significant and infamous in our collective story as a nation. Money is personified in this haunting story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of the Hilson and Bryant families.
TASS HILSON AND EMMETT TILL were young and in love when Emmett was brutally murdered in 1955. Anxious to escape the town, Tass marries Maximillian May and relocates to Detroit.FORTY YEARS LATER, AFTER THE DEATH OF HER HUSBAND, Tass returns to Money and fantasy takes flesh when Emmett Till's spirit is finally released from the dank, dark waters of the Tallahatchie River.
The two lovers are reunited, bringing the story to an enchanting and profound conclusion. GATHERING OF WATERS mines the truth about Money, Mississippi, as well as the town's families, and threads their history over decades. The bare-bones realism--both disturbing and riveting--combined with a magical realm in which ghosts have the final say, is reminiscent of Toni Morrison's Beloved.
"In her new novel, Gathering of Waters, Bernice McFadden brings her own special vision to the unfortunate story of Emmett Till and his murder in Money, Mississippi. This moving and magical novel, which traces the generations leading up to and away from that horrible night in 1955, drew me in immediately and swept me along through its richly imagined world. I couldn't stop reading, caught up as I was in that enticing place between truth and fantasy, the here-and-now and the what-was, the living and the dead, the ugliness and the beauty, the hatred and the love. What a rich chorus of voices Bernice McFadden has fashioned from this place called Money."--Lee Martin, author of Break the Skin and The Bright Forever
You may be aware that recently Emmett Till has been brought back to the forefront of the American consciousness with the passage of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. In addition, a marker was placed on the Mississippi Freedom Trail in memory of Emmett Till and Emmett Till's casket was put on public display at the Smithsonian.
The Warmest December (with forward by James Frey of A Million Little Pieces)
"Now and then I forget things.... One day last week I forgot that I hated my father... " McFadden's graphic, poignant second novel charts the resonating legacy that alcoholic parents pass on to their children through the cycle of addiction and domestic violence. Narrator Kenzie Lowe, an African-American woman in her 30s on welfare, has used alcohol to repress the memories of abuse she suffered growing up in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, caught in the physical and emotional grip of her whiskey-swilling father, Hyman Lowe. Seamless transitions between Kenzie's past and her present life anchored by AA sessions imbue this difficult tale with dramatic suspense. Its cathartic message of forgiveness and recovery will elicit tears.
"Riveting. . . . So nicely avoids the sentimentality that swirls around the subject matter. I am as impressed by its structural strength as by the searing and expertly imagined scenes."— Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate author of Beloved
Gathering of Waters and The Warmest December will be released in USA, Canada and the UK on January 31st, 2012.
The Give-A-Way:
4 Lucky Bloggers will each receive one $25 Visa Gift Card & 3 Autographed Books from Authors published with Akashic Books.
The Rules:
• - The first seventy-five (75) Book Bloggers with fifty (50) or more followers to send an email to:
gatheringofwaters12@gmail.com
with your name/addresss/blog url - will receive a copy of Gathering of Waters
• - The Book Blogger must read Gathering of Waters and post his/her review on their blog no later 11PM on
• - In order to be considered for the prize Bloggers must leave the "Link" to their review in the comment section of this post.
• - You will receive a *bonus* entry if you hold a give-a-way for Gathering of Waters on your blog.
• – You must be 18 years or older (Under 18, get your parents to enter.)
• – US/Canada/UK residents only.
• – Winners will be notified by email on
GOOD LUCK!
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