What’s on my iPod: The Reeling” by Passion Pit 

What I’m reading: Fifty Shades Darker by E L James 

The last person I followed on Twitter: @SirKenRobinson 

1.  Tune in to ‘Anatomy of a Rip Roaring Read’ featuring Kathleen Shoop 

A.R. Silverberry, author of the award-winning fantasy novel Wyndano’s Cloak, is set to host four energetic writers conversing about what constructs a RIP-ROARING READ!  Collaborating with Silverberry is a distinguished team of bestselling and award-winning authors comprised of Melissa Foster, Karen Bergreen, Bonnie Trachtenberg and our very own Kathie Shoop.  The online, live-video event will be held on June 4th, at 12 p.m. EST and it’s FREE to tune in.  Avid readers and inspiring writers are encouraged to RSVP to the event.  We are excited to hear what these dynamic authors have to say as they examine what tickles, scares, inspires and moves them.  We encourage all of you writers and book lovers to join us!

MORE ABOUT KATHLEEN:

Kathleen Shoop, PhD, is a language arts coach in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her debut novel, The Last Letter, won the 2011 IPPY Gold Medal Award for Best Regional Fiction, Midwest. Her newly released novel,  After the Fog, is already receiving critical acclaim. She is published in four Chicken Soup for the Soul books, and regularly places articles and essays in local magazines and newspapers. Visit her website.

 

2.  Girl Unmoored Anchored with 8 Awards

The National Indie Excellence Book Awards were announced this week and Girl Unmoored received yet another award—Winner, Cross Genre. This is Jennifer’s 4th award for Girl Unmoored and she has been awarded 4 finalist awards as well. Jennifer will attend the Next Generation Indie Book Awards reception June 4, at the Plaza Hotel, New York, during BookExpo America. There, she’ll accept the award for 2012 Winner, YA Fiction. Congratulations, Jennifer (and Apron)!

MORE ABOUT JENNIFER:

Jennifer Gooch Hummer has worked as a script analyst for various agencies and major film studios. Her short stories have been published in Miranda Magazine, Our Stories, Glimmertrain and Fish. She has continued graduate studies in the Writer’s Program at UCLA, where her work was nominated for the 2006 Kirkwood Prize in fiction. Currently, Jennifer lives in Southern California and Maine with her husband and three young daughters.


3.  What Would You Tell Your Teen Self?

If only you knew then what you know now.  Meg Mitchell Moore recently sat down with Chick Lit is Not Dead to discuss 5 things she would have told her teenage self.  “Appreciate your parents. I guess this is one of the great paradoxes of the world, but truly you do not understand just how much your parents do for you until you are trying to keep little people happy and fed and turn them into productive members of society. Those things you got in trouble for in high school? You deserved it. At the same time, try hard to remember what all of this feels like so that when your own kids go through it you can empathize,” said Meg.  Take a look at the 4 other things she would have told herself.

MORE ABOUT MEG:

Meg Mitchell Moore is the author of The Arrivals and the forthcoming So Far Away. She worked for several years as a journalist. Her work has been published in YankeeContinentalWomen’s HealthAdvertising Ageand many other business and consumer magazines. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and their three children.

4.  Have You Taken a Look at GoodReads Recently? 

GoodReadsis is an online community that allows readers to share their ratings and reviews on books they’ve read. We want to share a review we came across from a passionate reader of Girl UnmooredMike and Chad are proof that love has no defining factors. It’s 1985 and many are afraid of gay men, particularly the ones who are sick. They are subjected to homophobia, violence, discrimination. The love exhibited between them, the kindness, the devotion in the face of the toughest obstacle of all, is inspiring. I dare anyone to read this book and say that a love like Mike and Chad’s is wrong.”  Click for more on this review.

MORE ABOUT GIRL UNMOORED:

Set in Maine, Girl Unmoored is about a young girl adrift in a sea of chaos. Her mother has died, her father is about to marry a wicked witch and her best friend has dumped her for a newer model. Then she meets Jesus—the actor who plays him in Jesus Christ Superstar—and his boyfriend. These three unlikely friends form an unbreakable bond not even death can separate.

5.  After the Fog Wins a National Indie Excellence Book Award

Kathleen Shoop also received an award from the National Indie Excellence Book Awards. Kathie was awarded Winner for Literary Fiction. Congratulations, Kathleen (and Rose)!

Looking for a good, cheap read?  After the Fog is featured on The Frugal eReader for $2.99 or you can borrow it for free with Prime.  With all of the buzz about After the Fog lately this is the perfect opportunity to discover what all the noise is about.  Happy reading!

MORE ABOUT AFTER THE FOG:

For every woman who thinks she left her past behind…  In the steel mill town of Donora, Pennsylvania, site of the infamous 1948 “killing smog,” headstrong nurse Rose Pavlesic tends to her family and neighbors. Controlling and demanding, she’s created a life that reflects everything she missed growing up as an orphan. She’s managed to keep her painful secrets hidden from her loving husband, dutiful children, and their extended, complicated family.

When astagnant weather pattern traps poisonous mill gasses in the valley, neighbors grow sicker and Rose’s nursing obligations thrust her into conflict she nevercould have fathomed. Consequences from her past collide with her present life,making her once clear decisions as gray as the suffocating smog. As the pressure mounts, Rose finds she’s not the only one harboring lies. When the deadly fog finally clears, the loss of trust and faith leaves the Pavlesic family—and the whole town—splintered and shocked. With her new perspective, can Rose finally forgive herself and let her family’s healing begin?