NEW SALE: Dark Angel goes to Entangled Publishing!

I have an exciting announcement. My gothic fairy tale, Dark Angel, has sold to e-publisher Entangled Publishing. It is slated for release as part of their Edge line in October 2013. For those of you who have expressed interest in when I'm coming out with another book, this is for YOU!

I hope you will be as excited to read this book as I was writing it. I loved this story, and I'm so glad it has finally found a home.

Best,
TJB

June 8 Book Launch for AT THE END OF THE DAY

Just wanted to share the press release for the launch of the memoir I helped co-author last year. The launch date is coming soon and I'm way excited about it. The authors Lewis Senior and Laura Senior Garcia, whose story it is based on, are hosting an elegant party for the launch. Here are a few details about the book below:

Press Release
At the End of the Day: How One Man Learned to Live Like He Was Dying

FATHER AND DAUGHTER LAUNCH “AT THE END OF THE DAY” AT HOTEL SORELLA ON JUNE 8th

Houston, TX, May 28, 2012: “At the end of the day” is a phrase we have all heard over and over again, the emphasis being that whatever happens at that point is what is most important. Sometimes, there are moments in people’s lives that intervene to force them to stop, think and change how they are living to reprioritize what really matters.

Such was the case with oil and gas leader Lewis Senior ten short years ago when he had a near-death experience while traveling for work, inspiring a new career for him and eventually the moving book he and his daughter Laura Senior Garcia have written and are debuting in Houston this June.

Both Lewis and Laura are excited to host this book launch celebration with over 150 of their friends and supporters in Houston, including students and members of the Southwest Schools who participated in the design of the book’s cover art. The Southwest students had a competition to draw it. The official At the End of the Day cover art will be unveiled on the night.

"We wanted to launch the book in Houston because it is our second home and we have really enjoyed developing our relationships with the students at Southwest School. Houston’s generosity paired with the oil and gas industry’s obvious presence has allowed us to build an unbelievable network here. We are excited for the book to launch so we can share it with our friends and future readers throughout the world,” says Lewis.

Please visit the website – http://www.readourbooktoday.com/ – to subscribe to the official launch of the book within the Amazon & Apple eBook stores. Lewis and Laura have coordinated with these global companies to carry At the End of the Day in e-book form in hopes of reaching a broader audience and changing even more lives worldwide.

Benefit from being part of the At the End of the Day experience. Please do not hesitate to forward this info to family and friends. They, too, will be positively impacted by the experience.

Thank you for your continuous support in this wonderful project.

Subscribe to Launch: http://www.readourbooktoday.com/
Like Us: www.facebook.com/readourbooktoday
Tweet @: www.twitter.com/tweet_the_book

Get The Legacy FREE in e-book format from 4/1-4/15

[Updated 4/3/2012] Got an e-reader? Want to try a free read of my historical romance, The Legacy? Well, this is your lucky day!

Get The Legacy FREE in e-book format from 4/1-4/15. The book will be available at the following locations (sorry, not currently available as an e-book on Kindle):

Barnes and Noble - http://bit.ly/H6Cc3H

iTunes store - http://bit.ly/HBggQD

Sony e-books - http://bit.ly/Hbo1Hl


Enjoy!

TJB

What I've been up to...

The nonfiction inspirational memoir about transformational change that I was asked to co-author will soon be available for purchase. Here is a press release by my friends/clients whose story this is. I hope you will take a moment to check out their website and support the book.

Take care,
TJB

At the End of the Day
Contact: Laura Senior Garcia

laura@readourbooktoday.com

Press Release

At the End of the Day: How One Man Learned to Live Like He Was Dying

Lewis Senior & Laura Senior Garcia announce today the immediate availability of the highly anticipated website to pre-launch their book.

Houston, TX, March 05, 2012: After two years in the making, Lewis Senior and Laura Senior Garcia announce the immediate availability of their website – http://www.readourbooktoday.com/ – as a pre-launch to the official publication of At the End of the Day on June 8th, 2012. At the End of the Day is an inspirational memoir about transformational change. The book was a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association's non-fiction/memoir category.


This website marks a very special milestone in the lives of Laura & Lewis:


"I am so pleased that we have reached a point where we are ready to share our story. I hope that At the End of the Day gives people an opportunity to have a candid look at themselves and consider their choices in life. A few years ago I finished off laying on the floor thinking it was all over before I made my choice - I don't want others to get to that point." – Lewis Senior.


"To think everyone who reads At the End of the Day will be a part of the journey is tremendously exciting. I wish that children, teenagers and adults alike enjoy the At the End of the Day experience and feel a little more comfortable in their own skin through reading this book." – Laura Senior Garcia.

Please visit the website – http://www.readourbooktoday.com/ – to subscribe to the official launch of the book. The website contains various media for your enjoyment including a video interview between Laura & Lewis describing a moving portrait of a father coming of age and a daughter coming into her own.


Also included are sample chapters for your media device which have been formatted for iBook, Kindle, Nook & PC/Mac.


Benefit from being part of the At the End of the Day experience. Please do not hesitate to forward this information to family and friends. They too will be positively impacted by the experience.


Thank you for your continuous support in this wonderful project. We will be in touch via email, Facebook & Twitter over the coming weeks prior to launch.

Subscribe to Launch: http://www.readourbooktoday.com/

Want THE PROMISE on Kindle?

THE PROMISE is finally on Kindle! Here's the link. Enjoy!

TJB

It's ON!

Just wanted to let everyone who is interested know that the talk I had to postpone from April is ON again. I'll be speaking to the wonderful group of writers over at West Houston RWA on my MBTI-based topic, "When Your Princess Isn't Perfect: Understanding the Dark Side of Your Romantic Heroine," on August 14, 2010. Please feel free to visit the website for more details. This is a follow-up to last year's popular workshop, "Finding the Dark Side of Your Knight in Shining Armor."

Join the PROMISE ME/FOR MY SISTER campaign

Anyone who has read the work of Joni Rodgers, a terrific novelist and memoir guru (Bald in the Land of Big Hair) may want to know she's co-authored a wonderful memoir by Nancy G. Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Komen foundation for breast cancer research and Susan's sister.


Right now the publisher is sponsoring a special campaign wherein if you pre-order the book, they will also send a signed, free copy to your sister (or anyone you designate) when the book is released. Cover price is $25, but I pre-ordered at Amazon for $14.

Joni is one of my amazing critique partners, for which I am eternally grateful. I can tell you without reservation that this will be one of the most moving, beautiful, and heartfelt books you have ever read. The early pages I saw knocked my socks off. Joni is a terrific writer, and Nancy Brinker is an amazing woman.

If you or someone you love has ever been affected by breast cancer, you need to read this book.

Take care,

TJB

Winners of Amazon.com Gift Certificates!

Thanks for discussing LOST with me, folks. I've picked the winners of the two Amazon.com $10 gift certificates. Please contact me via my e-mail at tjb(at)tjbennett(dot)com and let me know if you would like yours sent electronically or via the mail (and I'll need your appropriate contact info either way). The winners are:

Candace
Margay

Congratulations!

For those of you who didn't win, stay tuned. I just received a box of six beautiful new romance releases from Hatchette Books, and who knows, I might be tempted to share them with you. Loverly, eh?

TJB

Last thoughts on LOST and storytelling

Okay, so if you haven't seen the finale of LOST yet, do not read any further. There WILL BE SPOILERS ahead.

>>>>SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT<<<<

Don't say I didn't warn ya.

So, why not add my thoughts to the gazillions already trending on Twitter and the webverse? Everybody with a blog has an opinion, so here is mine.

I don't know what I think. Yet. And that is the beauty of LOST, both in its final episode, "The End," and in the series itself. LOST has given us the kind of storytelling that is the ultimate of interactive TV: it made us think. How many series can you say that about? Not many.

It made us talk. It made us gather in groups and debate philosophy, and time travel, and physics, and good vs. evil, and and... It drove us to the Internet in search of others who had to know. It divided and conquered and united and rose above. Sometimes it soared, and sometimes it stumbled mightily, reaching out its hand to stretch for the brass ring, and having fallen, still arose with that ring clutched in its fingers.

It was epic. And now it is over, and I must admit it: I feel a little bit LOST myself.

I'm a storyteller at heart, and this was storytelling at its best. When it all comes down to it, isn't that what being part of the community of humans is all about? From the days of the caveman sitting around a flickering fire, relating the hunting tales of the day to the hushed and gathering crowd, to the present day, we all still enjoy a great story, well-told, with plenty of action, food for thought, and memorable characters, and that's what LOST gave us.

So my thoughts on exactly what happened in the finale? I'm still digesting, as I said. I haven't figured out if I liked the end, because I haven't figured out if I understand the end. I can honestly say, however, I've never watched a television show that made me toss and turn at night and wonder, "What does it all mean?" I've read books that have done that, sure, but the idiot "boob tube"? Never.

And of course, those who said the island was a kind of purgatory were sort of right, but I think the purgatory was the place they had all created to find each other, not the island itself. Until they did, they couldn't find each other--so they were, in fact, waiting, which is what purgatory is all about: it's not Hell, but a place to wait while one, as Ben Linus put it, "works some things out."

Which is why, I suppose, Ben didn't move on with the rest. He had a lot of things to work out still, to put it mildly, and even though he was the island's villain, he was so well-motivated most of the time that we still rooted for him to have his happy ending. Or at least the possibility of one.

I was a bit bewildered that Sayid's sideways character's true love was not his wife, Nadia, but Shannon. Frankly, the fact that Sayid sold his soul to the MIB to be with his wife again would have made me think otherwise. 

And I think some mixed messages were sent as a nod to political correctness with "Christian Shepard" ("Seriously?" Kate asked about the name) standing in a church in front of a stained glass window which ecumenically touted the religions of the world behind him while telling Jack he was dead. I know the producers probably didn't want to offend by trying to say any particular version of what happens after people go into "the light" is the only one, but it seemed a bit pat, a jarring note that reminded me of the end of BOOK OF ELI, another story that made me think and which I loved.

Still, nothing was so moving to me as seeing Sawyer and Juliet together again. The moment when he held her and said, "I got you, baby," made sitting through an entire season without her worth it. I loved Juliet, and felt her absence keenly throughout the season, both hers and Desmond's Penny. I wish we had gotten to spend more time with them.

So, anyway, those are some of my thoughts. If you have any, feel free to comment below. I'd like to hear your take. Did you like the finale? Hate it? Feeling ambivalent? Or, just feeling LOST, like me? And if you made it this far, I'll give away two $10 gift certificates to Amazon.com to two people who comment on this post by 5/27/10.

TJB

Just to let you know I'm still here...and laughing...

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