Crash: How I Became A Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg Book Tour and Giveaway!

Crash: How I Became a Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg 

 Publisher:  She Writes Press, (April 27, 2021) 

Category: Memoir, Divorce, Parenting, Moral Conflict, Caring for Disabled, Caregiver 

Tour dates: April-May, 2021 

ISBN: 978-1647420321 

Available in Print and ebook, 224 pages

 

Description Crash: Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg

Rachel likes to think of herself as a nice Jewish girl, dedicated to doing what’s honorable, just as her parents raised her to do. But when her husband, David, survives a plane crash and is left with severe brain damage, she faces a choice: will she dedicate her life to caring for a man she no longer loves, or walk away?

 Their marriage had been rocky at the time of the accident, and though she wants to do the right thing, Rachel doesn’t know how she is supposed to care for two kids in addition to a now irrational, incontinent, and seizure-prone grown man. And how will she manage to see her lover? 

But then again, what kind of selfish monster would refuse to care for her disabled husband, no matter how unhappy her marriage had been? Rachel wants to believe that she can dedicate her life to David’s needs, but knows in her heart it is impossible. Crash tackles a pervasive dilemma in our culture: the moral conflicts individuals face when caregiving for a disabled or cognitively impaired family member. 

  Excerpt Crash: Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg 

 I grow to love the nurses who patiently answer my barrage of questions. How long will David be here? Where will he go after this? Will he remember us? Will he be able to dress and feed himself? The all-consuming question: If he doesn’t return to normal, what will he be like? The answer is always the same. We just don’t know.

 “Did you ever see Regarding Henry? With Harrison Ford?” one of my favorite nurses asks, re-hanging multiple IV drug bags, simultaneously checking and adjusting monitors. I’m sitting on a chair at the foot of the bed, reading email.

 “No, but I heard about it.” She wipes some drool from David’s chin. 

“Came out about ten years ago? So Harrison Ford is a real jerk, a lawyer I think. Super selfish and arrogant. Having an affair.” 

 I look down at the screen. Ouch. “Then he’s involved in this robbery and gets shot in the head. He becomes a different person—compassionate and loving. All of his relationships get better.”

 Who is Harrison Ford kidding? Hollywood, please. I’m not that naïve. I study David’s face and sigh. The swelling has gone down a little, the contours of his nose and cheeks emerge as if he’s fighting to dig himself out of a hole, to clear away the muck that’s buried him. Suddenly I feel a rush of tenderness. I remember how David’s pale grey-blue eyes grew moist as he looked down at me nursing Hannah for the first time. 

Running alongside Joshie’s wobbly attempt at riding without training wheels. Making love after a day of skiing in Sun Valley, then giggling as we ran across the snow in our bare feet to sink into the steamy outdoor hot tub, grinning at each other as if we had a secret. 

Who are you now, David? Who will you be? Will we ever share that secret grin again? Will I be able to love you again? Whoosh whoosh, beep beep. ****** When the cranial swelling goes down there will be a final surgery to close David’s skull before they take him off of the respirator, possibly early next week. David’s brother and sister urge me to go home for a night or two to see the children. I miss them. Some clean underwear and fresh clothes would be nice, too. 

My sister Lisa brings the kids home to meet me when I arrive late that Saturday afternoon. Hugging their little bodies close, I think about how drastically their young lives will be altered. Essentially fatherless. Or worse: a shell as a father. Joshie runs off to his room—video games await (I have no bandwidth to care about excessive screen time)—but Hannah fixes her wide brown eyes on me. 

“Is Daddy OK?” Lisa and I had agreed that she would tell the kids that it was David who had been in an accident, not “a friend.” But she was not to tell them just how serious it really is. That discussion will happen the next afternoon at Lisa’s house. Rabbi Dana has offered to facilitate.

The kids have a good relationship with him—Passover at his house, running around the sanctuary with Dana’s son Raya during services. But tomorrow is light years away. I pull Hannah onto my lap and bury my face in her sweet- smelling hair, inhale deeply.

“Oh honey, he’s very sick. But the doctors are taking really good care of him.” I’m not exactly lying. Practicing the first of many gentle deceptions. 

 “Can you take me to see him?” 

She frowns, as if knowing the answer already. 

 “I’m afraid not. Children aren’t allowed in that special area of the hospital.”

 “That’s not fair!” 

She hops off my lap and glares at me accusingly. 

“Why not?” 

“Because the people in that place are very, very sick. They need to stay quiet.”

 She wasn’t convinced. I searched for another reason. 

“Also, kids have germs they might give to the sick people and make them worse.” 

 “Adults have germs, too.”

 “I know.” 

I sighed. 

“It’s not fair. I’ll tell Daddy you said hi and that you hope he feels better soon.” I push away the memory of feeling ridiculous trying to talk to David in a coma. I don’t really believe he hears anything. But if it helps Hannah to think David is getting the message— no brainer. Hmmm. No brainer. Time to reconsider that phrase. 

“OK. Tell him he has to get better so he can come see my gymnastics show.”

 My God, I love this little girl. Her daddy won’t make it to her show. 

 Copyright © 2021, Rachel Michelberg

  Guest Review Crash: Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg 

Guest Review by Laura Lee 

'Crash: How I Became a Reluctant Caregiver,' by Rachel Michelberg is a tale about endurance, grief and acceptance. Rachel Michelberg was on the verge of asking her husband, David for a divorce when he was involved in a plane crash that left him with both brain and spinal damage. Now in need of 24-hour care, David had mentally regressed back to the state of a seven-year-old child. Michelberg was faced with the decision to either take on the care of her husband herself, or divorce him so that his care would be transferred to his family. Even if she had not been considering divorcing her husband, his at home care would have been a huge undertaking that created a mountain of emotional and physical stress. The couple also had two young children to consider and Rachel would still need to work. But, of course, this is the type of question that countless people are faced with everyday. Part of what makes this book so impactful is the light that it sheds on one of America's most under represented groups: at home caregivers. Reading this memoir, where Michelberg details the stress and routines for taking care of her husband after his accident really makes you understand just how taxing such a task would be. Michelberg explains what she and her family went through during this time in such heartbreaking detail and while holding absolutely nothing back. This book changed the way that I think about caregiving and the way that I think about illness in general. Of course, we all hope never to have a family member go through an accident like this, but Michelberg handled every awful decision that was handed to her in the best way that she could. I enjoyed both her candidness and her writing ability. I'd recommend this book to caregivers everywhere, as well as anyone who wants to know what it is like to be in a similar situation. This is definitely a powerful read and one that is worth picking up! 

  About Rachel Michelberg 

] 

Rachel Michelberg grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and still enjoys living there with her husband, Richard, and their two dogs, Nala and Beenie. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from San Jose State University and has performed leading roles in musicals and opera from Carmen to My Fair Lady as well as the part of the Mother Abbess (three times!) in The Sound of Music. When Rachel isn’t working with one of her twenty voice and piano students, she loves gardening, hiking, and making her own bone broth. 

CRASH: How I Became a Reluctant Caregiver is her first book. 

 Website: https://www.rachelmauthor.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachelMAuthor/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RMichelberg 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachelmichelbergauthor/

Pre-Order Crash: Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg

Amazon BarnesandNoble Indiebound

Givaway Crash: Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg

This giveaway is open to the U.S. only for the choice of print or eBook for each winner. It ends on May 18, 2021,midnight pacific time. Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

  a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Follow Crash: Reluctant Caregiver by Rachel Michelberg

 Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus Apr 19 Kickoff & Interview 

 Bee BookPleasures Apr21 Review 

 Bee BookPleasures Apr21 Guest Post 

 Gud Reader Goodreads Apr 23 Review 

 Gracie Goodreads Apr 26 Review 

 Sage Nor Bound 4 Escape Apr 27 Review 

 Lu Ann Rockin' Book Reviews Apr 29 Review & Guest Post 

 Becky Life As Rog Apr 30 Review 

 Amber M. Amazon May 3 Review 

 Bookgirl Goodreads May 4 Review 

 Laura Lee Celtic Lady’s Reviews May 5 Review & Excerpt 

 Miller Amazon May 7 Review 

 Linda Lu Goodreads May 10 Review 

 Andy Amazon May 11 Review 

 Cinthia R Amazon May 12 Review 

  Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus May 13 Review 

 Betty Toots Book Reviews May 14 Review & Excerpt 

 Voni Amazon May 17 Review

 

Rabbit in the Moon By Heather Diamond Tour and Interview!

Rabbit in the Moon

By Heather Diamond

Genre: Memoir

 

Brief description:

         Blame it on Hawaii’s rainbows, sparkling beaches, fruity cocktails, and sensuous breezes. For Heather Diamond, there for a summer course on China, a sea change began when romance bloomed with Fred, an ethnomusicologist from Hong Kong.

         Returning to her teaching job in Texas, Heather wonders if the whirlwind affair was a moment of madness. She is, after all, forty-five years old, married, a mother and grandmother.

         Rabbit in the Moon  follows Heather and Fred’s relationship as well as Heather’s challenges with multiple mid-life reinventions. When Fred goes on sabbatical, Heather finds herself on the Hong Kong island of Cheung Chau with his large, boisterous family. For an independent, reserved American, adjusting to his extended family isn’t easy.

         Life on Cheung Chau is overwhelming but also wondrous. Heather chronicles family celebrations, ancestor rituals, and a rich cycle of festivals like the Hungry Ghosts Festival, Chinese New Year, and the Bun Festival. Her descriptions of daily life and traditions are exquisite, seamlessly combining the insights of an ethnographer with the fascination of a curious newcomer who gradually transitions to part of the family.

         Moving between Hawaii, Hong Kong, and the continental US, Rabbit in the Moon is an honest, finely crafted meditation on intercultural marriage, the importance of family, and finding the courage to follow your dreams.

 

Author Bio:

Heather Diamond is an American writer in Hong Kong. She has a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Hawaii and has worked as a bookseller, university lecturer, and museum curator. She is the author of American Aloha: Cultural Tourism and the Negotiation of Tradition. Her essays have appeared in Memoir Magazine, Sky Island Journal, (Her)oics: Women’s Lived Experiences of the Pandemic, Rappahannock Review, Waterwheel Review, Hong Kong Review, and New South Journal.

 

Links:

Website landing page: https://heatherdiamondwiter.com/rabbit-in-the-moon/

 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57164283-rabbit-in-the-moon

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeatherDiamondWriter

 

Twitter: http://twitter.com/heatheradiamond

 

Barnes & Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rabbit-in-the-moon-heather-diamond/1139095555;jsessionid=1EBDCB36C00AA0EDBED04F31F2CED634.prodny_store01-atgap15?ean=9781788692342

 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Rabbit-Moon-Heather-Diamond-ebook/dp/B08VNSB71D/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

 

Indiebound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781788692342

 

Brief Excerpt from book:

                  Our gourmet eating tour includes visiting a series of tourist centers devoted to Chinese specialty foods. Our stops include a pork floss factory, a tea farm, and an eel farm where I refuse to get out of the bus. I’ll eat eels cooked and on rice, but I have no desire to discover how they’re raised, skinned, and smoked. In the bus, Amah passes around a package of sweet, dried, and shredded pork she bought to share along with all the snacks she purchased as gifts for friends. Americans give chocolates; Chinese give pork floss. I have to admit that it’s good. I gave up eating vegetarian somewhere between the last trip and this one, partly because of my desire to be a good traveler who can fit easily into a new culture and partly because I tired of being told that there was only a little pork or chicken in Chinese dishes “for flavor.” On the last trip, my special vegetarian soup was garnished with a chicken foot, which Fred quickly snatched from my bowl. Being too much trouble is an issue I’m working on.

         Because there are so many of us, meals require two large round tables. I have always had a weak stomach when it comes to cleanliness in restaurants. My father liked to tease me about going to his favorite hamburger joint, Mel’s Diner, where I once found a crispy fly in my French fries. This trip poses challenges that go beyond my issues with Chinese table etiquette.

         In a Teochew restaurant in Shantou, we’re squeezed into a tiny upstairs room that holds only four tables. We’re seated on stools like the ones at Number 10, and I’m sitting near the wall when I spot a good-sized cockroach lazily ascending. Not wanting to make a scene, I nudge Fred and tip my head toward the roach. Fred calls the waitress and points. She pulls the wet towel out of her apron pocket, smacks it against the wall and the roach, and tucks the rag back into her apron. She then calmly goes back to taking orders from the next table. I tamp down my gag reflex just in time to see a winking chicken head arriving on the next platter.

         I have never seen a naked, boiled chicken head, and I do not understand how anyone could think it attractive as a culinary garnish. Yet there it sits, propped up in the middle of its own chopped, steamed, and sauced flesh, one eye closed and its comb flopping left. Fred turns to me with an exaggerated wink, his fingers crooked over his head like the chicken’s comb. Stifling a giggle, I nearly choke on my tea. Mimi sees him and says she heard that if you go out with your boss and the chicken head points to you, you’ll know you’re about to be fired. This strikes me as hilarious, and as Fred plops steamed chicken into my rice bowl, I’m shaking with the effort to contain my laughter.

         Back in our hotel room, I put a shower cap on my head and prance around singing a made-up chicken head song in my beginner Mandarin to the tune of “Fish Heads,” by Dr. Demento: “Ji tou, Ji tou, heng pang ji tou.” We roll on the bed, whooping and wiping our eyes. Humor, it occurs to me, might be my secret weapon for surviving Lau family travel. I already adore this man for making me laugh, for the way he laughs with his entire body — shoulders shaking, head thrown back, snorting and gasping for air. For his playfulness, his silliness, his willingness to be the epicenter of a joke by laughing at his own mistakes and foibles. The first man in my life who makes me laugh out loud and thinks my jokes are as good as his own. Serious people like me are pressure cookers with stuck safety valves. Left to ourselves, we can ferment or implode. Levity lifts the lid, lets out the steam, and connects us to the world.

Interview with author!

1. What do you find most challenging about the writing process, and how do you deal with it? 

In my writing, I struggle with being both a perfectionist and impatient. On the front end of the writing process, that means I’ve had to learn to not expect my writing to be pretty when I start. Instead, I have to let my ideas be their messy selves for however long it takes to shape them into something coherent. When I start a project, I make a lot of lists, and sometimes I write in disconnected fragments. With shorter essays, I often use a collage-like process until I find a structure that fits. With a book-length project, I create scaffolds. They help with mapping, but are more organic and flexible than outlines. I’m working on a second memoir right now that is still in the early stages, and although I am using a scaffold to set the parameters, I am also waiting for the writing itself to tell me what shape the book will finally take. 

On the the revising end of my writing process, I’ve learned to temper my impatience and not assume I know when a piece of writing is ready to go out. All of my published writing has benefited from honest critique partners and hair-splitting editors. I was fortunate to have two wonderful editors at Camphor Press who are expats in Taiwan and Chinese speakers. They asked me hard questions and caught minor details I had missed. Writing is often solitary, but I now I know that creating a book requires a team!

2. When and where do you do your writing? 

. I’m a binge-writer rather than a disciplined, daily writer. When I am rolling with an idea, I can write for hours. When an idea is percolating, I’m scrubbing grout with a toothbrush instead of writing. As for where I write, I wish I could say I retreat to a cabin in the woods or a lovely sound-proofed study with a view of a garden, but mostly I’ve been writing wherever I can. A year ago, I was writing on a card table in my mother’s messy guestroom full of stuffed animals. Parts of my memoir were written in the corner of a loft bedroom in a Hawaii condo inundated with construction noise. Some chapters were written in a Honolulu coffee shop. Most of the revision was done in a study (finally, a room of my own!) in our Hong Kong flat where construction noise often includes concrete drills directly overhead and the upstairs neighbor playing piano. Now that I think of it, I wrote my dissertation in a shared study in Hawaii with kids playing outside and someone practicing piano across the way. Noise blocking headphones are way up there on my list of sanity-saving modern inventions, and I’m most focused when there is a cat snoozing on my desk.

3. What have you learned about promoting your books? 

Book promotion might be the ultimate irony for an introverted memoirist. I spent four years writing and revising a book about being an shy introvert plunged into an extroverted culture and noisy Cantonese family. When I was living that, books were my escape, but to promote my book I have had to get out of that comfort zone and make some noise myself. That doesn’t come naturally, but through my connections on social media and elsewhere, I’ve discovered that this part of the process is a lot like teaching, which I did for many years. The only reason I could get up in front of a class full of college students was because the books and ideas I was teaching were bigger than me. I was just a conduit, the messenger. The same goes for promoting my writing. I wrote Rabbit in the Moon because I wanted to pass on what I had learned about Chinese culture, about families, and about reinvention and acceptance of others and myself. 

One of the most heart-warming rewards an author can receive is hearing that something one wrote resonates or opened a door for a reader. So far, I’ve heard from advance readers in cross-cultural marriages, expats remembering their acculturation process, women who’ve upended their lives midstream, and Chinese Americans who’ve lost touch with traditions. That kind of connection reminds me that writing has a life of its own once we launch it into the world and makes the efforts to get my book out there worthwhile.  

4. What are you most proud of as a writer?

I’m a late bloomer, and I’m most proud of myself for finally giving myself permission to write and for persisting once I started. I wrote poetry in my teens and studied art in my twenties, but I abandoned both to trying to survive as a single parent. I had a bookstore in my thirties, taught college composition and literature for decades, and became a museum curator on the cusp of sixty. In each of those jobs, I spent my creativity in the service of others. It wasn’t until I was sixty-five that I took an online writing class and realized that I had things I wanted to say and that creative non-fiction writing was something I could master if I was willing to be a beginner. Coming to writing so late has also lent it an air of urgency. I quit everything else to do this, so I can’t give up even though I considered quitting a few times along the way. Another factor is that I have no idea how long I have to write the books and essays I want, so I can't let life disruptions stop me.

5. If you could have dinner with any writer, living or dead, who would it be and what would you talk about?

 I’d love to have a long dinner with Pearl Buck, but we’d need more than an evening to cover all the topics I’d want to hear about. She was a remarkable woman who was ahead of her time in many ways. She was a child of progressive American missionaries who raised her in pre-re revolutionary China. She learned to speak, read, and write Chinese and became bicultural in ways many people in the missionary community did not. She witnessed the Boxer Rebellion, survived the Nanking Incident, and was denounced by Maoists as a cultural imperialist for championing the cause of peasants in Anhui Province. She became an advocate for adoption of mixed race children and against racism. She was a feminist and a human rights champion who was brave enough to speak out against western cultural imperialism in China. 

Once I stopped asking what it was like to be in China back then, I’d want to know what it  was like to always be going against the grain of your own country’s arrogance and ignorance? I’d want to hear what she thought would solve the impasses in American race relations today, especially the current wave of anti-Asian racism. What would help Americans better understand Asia and Asians? I’d be curious about her views on how Chinese society has evolved since Mao. And how on earth did she balance writing with motherhood and all the turmoil in her life? How might her life have been different if she had been raised in the West? We might never get to dessert. 

 

Out Front the Following Sea: A Novel of King William’s War in 17th-Century New England by Leah Angstman Book Tour and Giveaway! @hfvbt @leahangstman @RegalHouse1 #FollowingSea #LeahAngstmann #CoverReveal #HFVBTBlogTours

Out Front the Following Sea: A Novel of King William’s War in 17th-Century New England
by Leah Angstman

Publication Date: January 11, 2022
Regal House Publishing
Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, Audiobook; 334 pages

Genre: Historical / Literary / Epic

**Shortlisted for the Chaucer Book Award**

OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA is a historical epic of one woman’s survival in a time when the wilderness is still wild, heresy is publicly punishable, and being independent is worse than scorned—it is a death sentence.

At the onset of King William’s War between French and English settlers in 1689 New England, Ruth Miner is accused of witchcraft for the murder of her parents and must flee the brutality of her town. She stows away on the ship of the only other person who knows her innocence: an audacious sailor—Owen—bound to her by years of attraction, friendship, and shared secrets. But when Owen’s French ancestry finds him at odds with a violent English commander, the turmoil becomes life-or-death for the sailor, the headstrong Ruth, and the cast of Quakers, Pequot Indians, soldiers, highwaymen, and townsfolk dragged into the fray. Now Ruth must choose between sending Owen to the gallows or keeping her own neck from the noose.

Steeped in historical events and culminating in a little-known war on pre-American soil, OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA is a story of early feminism, misogyny, arbitrary rulings, persecution, and the treatment of outcasts, with parallels still mirrored and echoed in today’s society. The debut novel will appeal to readers of Paulette Jiles, Alexander Chee, Hilary Mantel, James Clavell, Bernard Cornwell, TaraShea Nesbit, Geraldine Brooks, Stephanie Dray, Patrick O’Brian, and E. L. Doctorow.

Available for Pre-Order

Regal House Print | Amazon Kindle

Praise

“With OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA, Leah Angstman reveals herself as a brave new voice in historical fiction. With staggering authenticity, Angstman gives us a story of America before it was America—an era rife with witch hunts and colonial intrigue and New World battles all but forgotten in our history books and popular culture. This is historical fiction that speaks to the present, recalling the bold spirits and cultural upheavals of a nation yet to be born.” —Taylor Brown, author of PRIDE OF EDEN, GODS OF HOWL MOUNTAIN, and THE RIVER OF KINGS

“Steeped in lush prose, authentic period detail, and edge-of-your-seat action, OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA is a rollicking good read. Leah Angstman keeps the story moving at a breathtaking pace, and she knows more 17th-century seafaring language and items of everyday use than you can shake a stick at. The result is a compelling work of romance, adventure, and historical illumination that pulls the reader straight in.” —Rilla Askew, author of FIRE IN BEULAH, THE MERCY SEAT, and KIND OF KIN

“Lapidary in its research and lively in its voice, OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA by Leah Angstman is a rollicking story, racing along with wind in its sails. Though her tale unfolds hundreds of years in America’s past, Ruth Miner is the kind of high-spirited heroine whose high adventures haul you in and hold you fast.” —Kathleen Rooney, author of LILLIAN BOXFISH TAKES A WALK and CHER AMI AND MAJOR WHITTLESEY

“Leah Angstman has written the historical novel that I didn’t know I needed to read. OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA is set in an oft-forgotten time in the brutal wilds of pre-America that is so vividly and authentically drawn, with characters that are so alive and relevant, and a narrative so masterfully paced and plotted, that Angstman has performed the miracle of layering the tumultuous past over our troubled present to gift us a sparkling new reality.” —Kevin Catalano, author of WHERE THE SUN SHINES OUT and DELETED SCENES AND OTHER STORIES

“OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA is a fascinating book, the kind of historical novel that evokes its time and place so vividly that the effect is just shy of hallucinogenic. I enjoyed it immensely.” —Scott Phillips, author of THE ICE HARVEST, THE WALKAWAY, COTTONWOOD, and HOP ALLEY

“OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA is a meticulously researched novel that mixes history, love story, and suspense. Watching Angstman’s willful protagonist, Ruth Miner, openly challenge the brutal world of 17th-century New England, with its limiting ideas about gender, race, and science, was a delight.” —Aline Ohanesian, author of ORHAN’S INHERITANCE

“Leah Angstman is a gifted storyteller with a poet’s sense of both beauty and darkness, and her stunning historical novel, OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA, establishes her as one of the most exciting young novelists in the country. Angstman plunges the reader into a brilliantly realized historical milieu peopled by characters real enough to touch. And in Ruth Miner, we are introduced to one of the most compelling protagonists in contemporary literature, a penetratingly intelligent, headstrong woman who is trying to survive on her wits alone in a Colonial America that you won’t find in the history books. A compulsive, vivid read that will change the way you look at the origins of our country, Leah Angstman’s OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA announces the arrival of a preternatural talent.” —Ashley Shelby, author of MURI and SOUTH POLE STATION

“Rich, lyrical, and atmospheric, with a poet’s hand and a historian’s attention to detail. In OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA, Leah Angstman creates an immersive world for readers to get lost in and a fascinating story to propel them through it. A thoroughly engaging and compelling tale.” —Steph Post, author of HOLDING SMOKE, MIRACULUM, and WALK IN THE FIRE

“It’s a rare story that makes you thankful for having read and experienced it. It’s rarer still for a story to evoke so wholly, so powerfully, another place and time as to make you thankful for the gifts that exist around you, which you take for granted. OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA is a book rich with misery, yet its characters are indefatigable; they yearn, despite their troubles, for victories personal and societal. Leah Angstman’s eye is keen, and her ability to transport you into America’s beginnings is powerful. With the raw ingredients of history, she creates a story both dashing and pensive, robust yet believable. From an unforgiving time, Angstman draws out a tale of all things inhuman, but one that reminds us of that which is best in all of us.”
—Eric Shonkwiler, author of ABOVE ALL MEN and 8TH STREET POWER AND LIGHT

About the Author

Leah Angstman is a historian and transplanted Michigander living in Boulder. OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA, her debut novel of King William’s War in 17th-century New England, is forthcoming from Regal House in January 2022. Her writing has been a finalist for the Saluda River Prize, Cowles Book Prize, Able Muse Book Award, Bevel Summers Fiction Prize, and Chaucer Book Award, and has appeared in Publishers Weekly, L.A. Review of Books, Nashville Review, Slice, and elsewhere. She serves as editor-in-chief for Alternating Current and The Coil magazine and copyeditor for Underscore News, which has included editing partnerships with ProPublica. She is an appointed vice chair of a Colorado historical commission and liaison to a Colorado historic preservation committee.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Medium | Ello | Mailing List

Cover Reveal Hosts

A Darn Good Read
Books, Cooks, Looks
Bookworlder
CelticLady's Reviews
Chicks, Rogues and Scandals
Coffee and Ink
Donna's Book Blog
Jessica Belmont
Little But Fierce Book Diary
Novels Alive
Passages to the Past
Pursuing Stacie
Reading is My Remedy
The Caffeinated Bibliophile
The Enchanted Shelf
Two Bookish Babes

ARC Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Isabelle and Alexander By Rebecca Anderson Book Tour!

Isabelle and Alexander

By Rebecca Anderson

Publication Date 5/4/21

Paperback

ISBN: 9781629728476

Retail Price:$15.99

Page Count:368

Proper Romance Victorian

Cover Art: Mark Owen/Arc Angel

Book Design:© Shadow Mountain

Art Direction: Richard Erickson

Design: Heather G.Ward

Synopsis: 

Manchester, 1850 

Isabelle Rackham knows she will not marry for love. Though arranged marriages have fallen out of  fashion, hers has been settled for some time. Alexander Osgood is handsome, well-known, and  wealthy, but he is distant and aloof, spending much of his time at his textile mill. 

Moreover, Northern England is nothing like Isabelle's home in the Lake Country, and her marriage is  far from the fairy tale she expected. Conversations with Alexander are awkward, when they happen at  all, and Isabelle struggles with loneliness. 

Sensing his wife's unhappiness, Alexander brings Isabelle to his country estate. During their time  together, the couple begins to build a friendship, opening up to each other about the details of their  lives. But when a tragic accident leaves Alexander unable to walk, their fledgling relationship is tested. 

Isabelle is determined to see to her husband's recovery, and in caring for him, she discovers within  herself an untapped well of strength and courage. In learning to rely on each other, the couple has an  opportunity to forge a love connection that they both have longed for but never dreamed could be.

www.shadowmountain.com 

About the Author: 

By night, Rebecca Anderson writes historical romances. By day, she  

sets aside her pseudonym and resumes her life as Becca Wilhite:  

teacher, happy wife, and a mom to four above-average kids. She loves  

hiking, Broadway shows, food, books, and movies. 

You can find her online at beccawilhite.com 

For author interview requests, please contact Callie Hansen at  

chansen@shadowmountain.com 

Advanced Praise: 

“Anderson’s first foray into historical romance is an atypical, yet satisfying story set in Victorian  Manchester’s upper middle class. Hand this to readers looking for a book that navigates the peaks and  valleys of two strangers attempting to make a life together despite the hardships life throws at them.” -Library Journal 

“Isabelle transitions from an unaware, leisure-class woman to a more enlightened spouse and supporter  of the working class. Intimacy and romance develop between Isabelle and Alexander because of simple  gestures, like a long look or a thoughtful gift, and their conversations. Their slow, stately courting is  reader appropriate for any age or audience. Manchester also gets its due as a place of grit and incredible  production. Descriptions of bustling mills reveal their impact on the couple’s family and its fortunes.  Isabelle and Alexander is an intimate and touching romance novel that focuses on women’s lives in the  business class of industrial England.” 

-Foreword Reviews 

“Isabelle must use her quiet spunk, busy mind, and compassionate spirit to woo her husband in a  wholly new way. Anderson's debut is a lovely northern England Victorian romance about confronting  the seemingly impossible and the power of empathy. Anderson also addresses the time period’s  treatment of physical and intellectual disabilities. Most of all, she beautifully depicts love in its many  forms beyond romance, such as compassion, patience, and vulnerability; and her characters illustrate  the ways that these expressions of love carry us through even the darkest hours. Isabelle’s loving and  persevering fervor and devotion will resonate with any caregiver’s heart.” 

-Booklist 

Purchase Links:

www.shadowmountain.com