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Marlan Warren is a journalist, novelist, editor, playwright, screenwriter, blogger, website designer, and publicist. She is the author of the fictionalized memoir, Roadmaps for the Sexually Challenged: All’s Not Fair in Love or War and the AIDS memoir, Rowing on a Corner. She reviews for Midwest Book Review. Marlan is also a filmmaker.
Showing posts with label Green Darner Press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Green Darner Press. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Green Darner Press Announces Plan for October Release of WWI Nurse’s Trauma Memoir: “The Lavender House in Meuse” by Gail Noble-Sanderson


Title: The Lavender House in Meuse
Author: Gail Noble-Sanderson
Publisher: Green Darner Press
Genre: Historical Fiction
Release Date: October 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9864390-2-5

Author Website | http://gailnoblesanderson.com
Contact | Publicist | Marlan Warren | memoircity@gmail.com
Author Facebook | gailnoblesandersonauthor
Goodreads Author Page | Gail Noble Sanderson

Seattle, WA—Kari Hock, Managing Editor of Seattle’s Green Darner Press, has announced plans to release Gail Noble-Sanderson’s “The Lavender House in Meuse” in October of this year. The novel charts the post-war course of healing taken by a young nurse traumatized by her tragic experiences at the Front during World War I.

“This book will fill an important niche often overlooked in fiction and non-fiction: how Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder affected nurses in our First World War,” said Hock. “Military nurses still suffer this syndrome, making the topic more relevant than ever.”

“Freedom seldom takes us where we thought we were going.”
—The Lavender House in Meuse

Set in France, “The Lavender House in Meuse” traces the journey of Marie Durant Chagall from girlhood to adulthood; from her comfortable home in Marseille with her father and sister to the Front where she pursues her need for independence and service as a young woman; and finally to an inherited, rather isolated, country home by the Meuse River (surrounded by soothing lavender fields) where she seeks to heal, through solitude and nature, from trauma suffered in a bomb attack on her medical facility at The Front. She is not alone for long and soon finds herself caring for recovering soldiers in her new home while trying to process their pain and her own in this post-war setting.

Although the novel will be categorized as “Historical Fiction,” Noble-Sanderson has reason to believe the events actually happened, and the characters portrayed once lived. During a recent interview with book news blogger Marlan Warren (Roadmap Girl’s Book Buzz), Noble-Sanderson stated: “I believe all the characters, settings, dialogue and details are memories.”

Noble-Sanderson went on to explain that she can be in the middle of traffic, watering her garden, doing laundry or fishing on a lake, and “I will remember events, clearly ‘hear’ dialogue, and see the setting vividly in my mind.”

The Seattle-based author added: “I take advantage of those times when the flow of the story—the memories—are most vivid. Then I edit and hone the writing.”

When asked if she intended the story to be “anti-war,” Noble-Sanderson replied that acts of wartime atrocities always result in “wounds and deaths of many sorts, and scars that continue to fester and alter the character of our lives in countless ways.”

“Ultimately I hope readers will come away with an expanded understanding of what life was like for nurses in World War I,” said Noble-Sanderson. “And what the trauma of war can do to an individual, and to a nation, both culturally and emotionally.”


For more info and the full interview:
http://roadmapgirlsbookbuzz.blogspot.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sanderson-Noble will present and sign “The Lavender House in Meuse” at Village Books in Bellingham, Wash. in early November. An October launch event is also being planned at a location to be announced.

Author Event Info:
Village Books
1200 11th Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
Tel: 360.671.2626
800.392.BOOK
www.villagebooks.com

Green Darner Press
9600 Stone Avenue North
Seattle, Washington 98103
www.greendarnerpress.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 
In this lifetime, Gail Noble-Sanderson has had a diverse and interesting professional career as a speech-language pathologist, educator and administrator. She was an adjunct faculty instructor and clinical supervisor at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash. and still occasionally lectures there.  For 14 years, she was the Director of Rehabilitation Services at Skagit Valley Hospital; and has worked with students in public schools as well as private practice. Noble-Sanderson has published educational programs for children with special needs, and now focuses on writing historical fiction. Having lived all over the U.S., she has called the Pacific Northwest home for almost 30 years.

“The Lavender House in Meuse” is her first book of historical fiction. And yes, a sequel is on the way!

Author Website:  http://gailnoblesanderson.com

 


Thursday, June 4, 2015

Stacey R. Campbell's Pirate Adventure "Arrgh!" Selected for Gold Medal Mom's Choice Award (MG Book): Author Interview




Title: Arrgh!
Author: Stacey R. Campbell
Illustrator: M.S. Corley
Publisher: Green Darner Press
Date of Release: Nov. 1, 2014
Genre: Middle Grade / Adventure 
ISBN-13: 978-0988478442      Hard Cover and Paperback (282 pages)   
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Arrgh-Stacey-R-Campbell/dp/0988478447
ASIN: B00MX7ATRM           Kindle (284 pages)  
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/ARRGH-Stacey-R-Campbell-ebook/dp/B00MX7ATRM
Website: http://www.staceyrcampbell.com

For immediate release:

Seattle, WA, June 4, 2015—Green Darner Press has announced that Stacey R. Campbell's Middle Grade pirate adventure tale, Arrgh!, has received the Gold Medal Mom's Choice Award (MCA) for "excellence in family-friendly media."

"Arrgh! certainly deserves this accolade," said Kari Hock of Green Darner Press. "Kids just love this book and Stacey Campbell is one of the hardest-working writers we've had the pleasure of knowing."

The MCA website states that its judges score each book entry on a number of elements including books that "help families grow emotionally, physically and spiritually...and are inspirational and uplifting."

Arrgh! follows the adventures of a runaway orphan boy named Christopher who gets captured by pirates posing as seamen, and forced aboard a merchant galleon that the villains plan to plunder.
Forced to pretend that he cannot speak, Christopher finds he can communicate in private with a highly skilled mouse who offers to teach him "Five Life Lessons." The Captain's daughter soon learns his secret and together they hatch a counter-plot against the pirates.

We had the opportunity to interview Campbell--who writes and lives with her husband and three daughters in the Seattle area--about Arrgh! and the Mother's Choice Award.

Monday, June 1, 2015

BOOK REVIEW: "SILENCE": Poignant, Lively Tale with Glamorous Fun (Sequel 1, Lakeview Novel Series by Stacey R. Campbell)



Title: Silence (Novella 1, Lakeview Novel Series)
Author: Stacey R. Campbell
Publisher: Green Darner Press (May 28, 2015)
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ASIN: B00YGCAR1K
Amazon Kindle Only   55 pages       $.99

     Like all the Lakeview novels, Silence emphasizes the vital importance of family and "extended family" connections. This quick, lively and poignant read explores that special longing felt by many adopted children: to know their biological parents. In this novelette sequel to Hush, Blakely Henry is now a graduate of Lakeview Academy who juggles her new life as queen of a fictional Mediterranean country with college and her hunky fiancé. Her adoptive American parents are on hand to help out, and it's touching how supportive they are of Blakely's deep need to meet her biological father.

     Author Stacey R. Campbell has meticulously crafted characters who come to life on the page so well that you feel you know them. She keeps the tone light, and is unafraid of tackling painful memories or events that come up as Blakely's search intensifies. Details such as the excellent pasta dishes the castle cook can whip up for her pleasure enhance the pleasures of this story which has one foot in "fairy tale" and the other in "reality." 

     What makes this journey so much fun is how much everyone involved cares. Blakely's whole family plus her fiancé accompany her on this tough journey which leads them through some beautiful parts of France. As always, Campbell gives us multiple points of view, tipping us off to the Truth before the heroine discovers it--building suspense about what will happen after all the cards are on the table. 

     Silence is glamorous fun (how much easier our lives would be if we all had our own "royal stylist"), and at the same time, it is down to earth about skeletons in family closets and how families choose to deal with them. This is one of those sequels you can read without reading the novel that it follows (Hush); although it will make you want to go back and read the full story of how the adopted Blakely Henry came to find out she is the only surviving blood relative of an assassinated monarchy of a country that now needs her help. 


Friday, May 15, 2015

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW: "ARRGH!" - 5 NOT-EASY LESSONS ON THE HIGH SEAS



Title: Arrgh!
Author: Stacey R. Campbell
Illustrator: M.S. Corley
Publisher: Green Darner Press
Date of Release: Nov. 1, 2014)
Genre: Middle Grade / Adventure
Publisher: Green Darner Press (November 1, 2014)
ISBN-13: 978-0988478442
Hard Cover and Paperback (282 pages)
Kindle (284 pages)
ASIN: B00MX7ATRM

By Marlan Warren for Midwest Book Review

Arrgh! is a true treasure: Five not-easy lessons on the high seas. Stacey R. Campbell's Kidnapped-by-Pirates tale is greater than the sum of its title.

This Coming of Age Voyage takes off like a cannon blast when a runaway orphan finds himself forced onto a cargo ship by pirates posing as merchant seamen, and gathers momentum with inventive action until its gratifying conclusion.

Thirteen-year-old Christopher has escaped from an orphanage to search for family members. Ironically, he is nabbed off the street by two pirate thugs who pass him off to the ship's captain as a relative. Threatened with death if he does not pretend to be mute, Christopher enters a world of repressed silence—broken only during moments when he can communicate with Leo the Attack-for-Hire Mouse who comes to his assistance as a kind of life coach. The trained and certified Leo sets about teaching the timid youth Five Life Lessons.
Campbell deftly melds fantasy with reality; excitement with education; and classical storytelling with contemporary sensibility that honors Friendship, Family and Literacy.

As in Peter Pan, there is a line between non-adult and adult perceptions and abilities. When Christopher is befriended by the Captain's twelve-year-old daughter Lucy, it turns out that she can also understand the talking animals who come their way because she is not an adult. And when the duo find themselves stranded on an island, they revel in it as a paradise where they can do whatever they want without adult interference.

In a world where many are illiterate, Lucy begins to crack the mystery of Christopher when she sees him reading books from her father’s library.

Herein lie the expected dark moments and violence of the genre. However, Christopher and Lucy achieve their victories through The Power of the Plan—hopping from plan to plan as their fates shift.


The biggest lesson comes to Christopher when he must stay on the island without Lucy, and subdue the pirates with only the assistance of animal helpers. He comes out of it with this newfound truth: "I was never alone."

Young readers will be enthralled by the vivid imagery that makes up the swashbuckling action sequences, as well as the evocative sights and smells of this time period. A Glossary of Nautical Terms opens the book. Lessons include such vintage practical gems as how to manage a galleon in a storm. M.S. Corley's beautiful vintage-style illustrations would be at home in the earliest editions of any classic pirate tale.

How does it end? Here's a hint:
Lesson Number Five brought tears to my eyes.