Up and Coming - August 2019 was sent to 751 subscribers of the Up and Coming list on MailChimp!

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*

Up and Coming July 2019   The New Wounded Angels   Book Cover Is Here! On Sale January 14, 2020   As promised in last month's announcement, here is the new, final cover design for Wounded Angels. Once again, many thanks to Darrin Horbal (DPHstudioz.com) for his excellent concept cover. While I originally suggested depicting two angels on the cover, the image I proposed struck reviewers as too somber. My impression is that the Elm Hill team has done a fantastic job in creating a cover that is both dramatic and uplifting!  I welcome your reactions and comments.  Themes and Snippets of Wounded Angels What matters more than anything else in a novel is the compelling nature of the story itself and the quality of the writing. Wounded Angels touches upon a wide number of themes, so here are a few of these themes along with a snippet of the writing that supports them. I welcome your reactions and comments.  Writing from the first-person perspective of a woman – I originally wrote Wounded Angels from the third-person “omnificent” perspective, but the story lacked the emotional impact I was trying to achieve, so I re-wrote the entire novel from Maureen’s first-person viewpoint. In that way, I was able to “get into her skin” and express how she felt as the story unfolded. Occasionally someone asked, “And how is the lovely Miss Maureen this morning?” I was painfully shy. Father looked down at me, smiled, and replied for me, “Lovely as always.” He ended by waving his hand or even better, by tipping his hat just slightly. “Daddy,” I said, “it’s like you are the mayor or something,” but he quickly corrected me. “Not at all, my Lady. You are my princess and I am your humble servant. Suicide and abandonment - When she is still a teenager, the suicide of Maureen’s father leaves her with a lifelong fear of abandonment. "The windows were open on that sweltering Fourth of July in 1937: the day my father walked out of my life forever. Mother, my brother, Ralph, and I waited all morning for Father to come home from the shop so we could go to Coney Island. When he finally stumbled through the door in mid-afternoon, he reeked of alcohol and smoke. I was fourteen and while my father was often sad and angry by then, I had never seen him drunk before." Growing up in Brooklyn – Maureen’s story begins as a child growing up in Brooklyn, New York in the 1930s. I grew up in that same neighborhood twenty years later. "Stores like the A&P, the bakery, and my favorite, the ice cream parlor, lined both sides of Atlantic Avenue, which we always had to cross quickly. Four lanes of cars sprang forward like racehorses coming out of the gate as soon as the lights turned green. They rushed to pass as many of the streetlights as possible before they turned red again. Meanwhile, women coming out of the A&P wheeled their shopping baskets past the butcher shop and the men smoking out front in their white, bloodstained aprons." More Advanced Impressions of Wounded Angels As I mentioned in my last announcement, I sent advanced copies Wounded Angels to several respected authors and other professionals asking each of them, if they deemed the book worthwhile, to write a brief review for me. Here are the next two of those I have received.    "Chuck Miceli is a gifted storyteller with a refreshing and positive writing style. He has a talent for creating compelling situations with familiar characters, many of whom you will quickly care about. In his new novel, Wounded Angels, we meet Maureen Russo, a woman who has always been there for friends and loved ones, only to find herself feeling emotionally empty and frantic about what lies ahead. Miceli peppers his tale with an intriguing cast of support players who, along with Maureen, face devastating challenges and discover new meanings for their lives. It is a well told, compelling story."   Martin Herman, author of THE JEFFERSON FILES and six other books "Wounded Angels is a moving account of one Maureen Russo who, at times, appears as fragile as the fraying doily on her faded Davenport, but musters the tenacity to take on life’s adversities when confronted head on. Wounded Angels will grip your heart and hang onto it to the last page. Powerful. Thought-provoking. Uplifting."    Penny Goetjen - Award-winning author of THE EMPTY CHAIR – MURDER IN THE CARIBBEAN and other novels The Redesigned Website And More to Come My website, AuthorChuckMiceli.com, currently references most of my present and former projects. A complete redesign of the site will soon be under way to focus more on Wounded Angels. In addition to information about me and the book, the site will feature the new Wounded Angels book trailer, a listing of book-related events, special offers, and the ability to order copies directly from the site. If you haven't already but would like to keep abreast of these and other future developments, you can click on these site names to subscribe to my mailing list at AuthorChuckMiceli.com and/or "like" my Facebook author's page at facebook.com/authorchuckmiceli. If clicking on the site names doesn't work, just copy and paste them into your browser.   IF YOU'D LIKE, YOU CAN HELP There are a few tasks that, if you have the time and interest, you can help with: Like most authors, I have learned through experience that no matter how well the novel is written, it does little good if people don't know it exists. Getting the word out is essential and you can help by sharing these announcements and doing any of the following: Interviews: Do you or someone you know conduct interviews for radio, television, blogs or podcasts? If so, and you are interested in Wounded Angels, I would be happy to send you or the person you recommend information about the book, and participate in an interview. I am well accustomed to public speaking and can promise an interview that will capture and hold the audience's attention. Reviews: If you read Wounded Angels once it is available, I will very much appreciate your rating and reviewing it on the various on-line sites such as Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Nobel and others. In the meantime, do you or someone you know operate a book review website or write professional book reviews for social media? If so, and you are interested in reviewing Wounded Angels, please let me know and I will be happy to send you a PDF manuscript or, when they become available, an advanced reader's copy, for the review.   The Book Tour: One of my most important and favorite tasks associated with writing is the book tour. This is my opportunity to interact face-to-face with you. Typically, a book-tour event involves my providing background on me and the book, reading specific segments of the story, holding a discussion of the scenes and themes involved, inviting your comments, answering your questions, and signing copies of the book that you purchase or have with you. I also often augment my presentation with slides. I am now setting up dates and locations for my upcoming tour and booking stops from February through the end of 2020. If you live within a two-hour drive of central Connecticut and have a group such as a library, book club, bookstore, professional/social/civic organization, conference, fair or other gathering that you would like me to present at, I would be delighted to discuss adding your group to my tour. To arrange for a book-tour stop, please supply me with the name and/or type of the group or organization, the location, the contact person's name, email address and phone number, the anticipated group size, and the date/time or period that works best for you.  The Book Launch: After spending years creating a book, it is traditional to celebrate the publication with a book-launch event. The book launch for Wounded Angels will take place mid-to-late January, 2020 somewhere in the greater Bristol / Southington CT area. The specific site will depend upon the anticipated number of attendees. I plan to set up an invitation on my social media sites to ask about interest in attending. In the meantime, if you have any ideas on how I can make the event as interesting and exciting as possible, I welcome your comments and suggestions. If you would like to participate by helping to get the word out and/or assisting with the event itself, please let me know and I will follow-up with you directly.  That does it for this update. Thank you for spending this time with me. If you have friends or relatives that might be interested in these announcements, please invite them to sign up on my website at AuthorChuckMiceli.com  My goal is to provide you with information that you find interesting and enjoyable. Feel free to jot me a note telling me what you think of these updates and what you would most like me to cover in them.  Until the next time, warmest regards, Chuck Miceli

This email was sent to *|EMAIL|* why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences *|LIST:ADDRESSLINE|* *|REWARDS|*

View on MailChimp