Jencey's Writer's Corner

When you spend enough time with Karen White and Beatriz Williams you learn to enjoy their sense of humor.   I very much enjoyed their discussions on what would be the next title of this novel that they worked on with Lauren Willig .   I was bummed when the Memory of Air was not chosen as the title.   The title chosen was The Glass Ocean and it tells quite the tale, of the Lusitania. “ May 2013 Her finances are in dire straits and bestselling author Sarah Blake is struggling to find a big idea for her next book. Desperate, she breaks the one promise she made to her Alzheimer’s-stricken mother and opens an old chest that belonged to her great-grandfather, who died when the RMS  Lusitania was sunk by a German U-Boat in 1915. What she discovers there could change history. Sarah embarks on an ambitious journey to England to enlist the help of John Langford, a recently disgraced Member of Parliament whose family archives might contain the only key to the long-ago...

Thank you to St. Martins Griffin for a copy of Katrina Van Tassel’s Spellbook by Alyssa Palombo.  I was given this novel in exchange for an honest review. How many of you have seen the Disney cartoon about Ichabob Crane?  Did you any of you ever read the novel written by Washington Irving?   If you have read the original book The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ; did you agree with Washington Irving’s creation of his characters?  Alyssa Palombo chose to share the story from Katrina Van Tassel's an original  character point of view.   Twitter     Instagram “When Ichabod Crane arrives in the s pooky little village of Sleepy Hollow as the new schoolmaster, Katrina Van Tassel is instantly drawn to him. Through their shared love of books and music, they form a friendship that quickly develops into romance. Ichabod knows that as an itinerant schoolteacher of little social standing, he has nothing to offer the wealthy Katrina – unlike her chi...

Almost Sisters is the most recent novel by Joshilyn Jackson.   She is a local author in the Atlanta area.   I often go and visit the local authors.   I saw Joshilyn Jackson with Patti Callahan Henry at a local library.   She discussed her work with prisoners in one of the local prisons where she teaches creative writing.   Facebook    Twitter      “Superheroes have always been Leia Birch Briggs’ weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a comics convention, the usually level-headed graphic novelist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman. It turns out the caped crusader has left her with more than just a nice, fuzzy memory. She’s having a baby boy—an unexpected but not unhappy development in the thirty-eight year-old’s life. But before Leia can break the news of her impending single-motherhood (including the fact that her baby is biracial) to her conventional, Southern family, her step-sister Rachel’s marr...

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable Christmas holiday!   Today we are once again turning to the beach.   It is time to get your tool belt out and help the ladies of Ten Beach road renovate another house.   This time the location is South Beach, Florida in Wendy Wax’s Ocean Beach .   Anyone say road trip? Facebook   Twitter   Instagram “When unlikely friends Madeline, Avery, and Nicole arrive in Miami’s South Beach neighborhood, they’re hoping for a do-over. Literally. They’ve been hired to bring a historic house back to its former glory on a new television show called  Do Over . If they can just get this show off the ground, Nikki could fix her finances, Avery could restart her career, and Maddie would have a shot at keeping her family together.   The women quickly realize that having their work broadcast is one thing, but having their personal lives play out on TV is another. Soon they’re struggling to hold themselves, and t...

I think it is time for a little summer in December.   As I write this review there is a winter weather watch just northeast from here.   Everyone is out getting their groceries to prepare for hazardous conditions in Georgia.    So one item that should be included in with those groceries is Here’s To Us by Elin Hilderbrand.   Facebook     Twitter    Instagram “Laurel Thorpe, Belinda Rowe, and Scarlett Oliver share only two things; a love for the man they all married, Deacon Thorpe--a celebrity chef with an insatiable appetite for life--and a passionate dislike of one another. All three are remarkable, spirited women, but they couldn't be more different. Laurel: Deacon's high school sweetheart and an effortlessly beautiful social worker; Belinda: a high-maintenance Hollywood diva; and Scarlett: a sexy southern belle floating by on her family money and her fabulous looks. But their fragile detente threatens to come crashing down a...

Let’s take a trip to the beach!   Today I want to take a step back to one of Elin’s first novel Summer People .   Pull up a chair for some rich relationships and great beach scenery.   What would a town like Nantucket have to offer a grieving family? Facebook    Twitter    Instagram “Every summer the Newton family retreats to their beloved home on Nantucket for three months of sunshine, cookouts, and bonfires on the beach. But this summer will not be like any other. When Arch Newton, a prominent New York attorney, dies in a plane crash on his way home from a business trip, his beautiful widow, Beth, can barely keep things together. Above all, though, she decides that she must continue the family tradition of going to Nantucket, and at the same time fulfill a promise that Arch made before he died. Beth invites Marcus, the son of Arch's final and most challenging client, to spend the summer with her and her teenage twins, Winnie and Garrett...

Thank you to Sally Kilpatrick and Kensington Press for a copy of Oh My Stars .   I was given this copy in exchange for an honest review. We are back in the town of Ellery Tennessee for one of their traditional festivities their live nativity located in the Dollar General’s parking lot.   It is not your typical nativity.   Mary is a chain smoker.   Joseph is a reluctant doctor.   Oh and did I mention that Joseph also does farm work with one of the wise men.   Facebook         Twitter     Instagram “Like most things in Ellery, Tennessee, this year’s Drive Thru Nativity is a little unconventional. The Dollar General parking lot doubles as a Bethlehem stable, and widowed writer Ivy Long, who’s been roped into playing Mary, sure as heck isn’t a virgin. But then comes an unexpected development: a genuine, real-life baby left in the manger, with only a brief note. And somehow, in the kerfuffle that follows, Ivy find...