BANK NOTES: THE TRUE STORY OF THE BOONIE HAT BANDIT BOOK SIGNING!

St. Louis Post Dispatch

http://www.stltoday.com/

BANK NOTES: THE TRUE STORY OF THE BOONIE HAT BANDIT BOOK SIGNING!

banknotes

Caroline will be appearing at Legacy Books and Café located at 5249 Delmar in St. Louis on December 2 from 4:00-8:00 p.m. for a book signing. It is open to the community, and all are welcome to meet Caroline and get a signed copy of this fascinating new book.

http://interact.stltoday.com/pr/arts-entertainment/PR112215115524008

Words from Pep — Thanksgiving

TS

April, and abnormally hot for this time of year. A flash and the ground shook. Thunder reverberated from across the river signaling the sky meant business. I stepped out from under the porch roof lifting my open mouth to gray sky as it collapsed. A riot of coolness fell onto my tongue bringing my senses alive. Convection, the mother of this storm, had raised a cloud equal to Everest. Millions of tons of moisture descended, the accumulation of drops beyond number. No two the same. Each condensed around a micro center of dust. Trillions of liquid galaxies. The alleluias of lilies, the worship of bending grass, the “ahh” of young leaves and sparkling eyes of feathered friends joined the crashing din of praise. Three Golden Eye, on their migration north, slid to a landing on the dimpled surface of the river and stretched their necks heavenward. With wild flapping wings they applauded the faithfulness of Creator. . . . . Thankfulness is a peculiar state of being. It rises and falls in inverse proportion to lack or abundance, pain and pleasure. I have wondered often about the reason, the point of life on this plane of existence, its amazing joys and seemingly profound excess of sadness. It is easy to turn one’s face to the sky in thankfulness when cool blessings descend and certainly too much to be expected when darkness, bewilderment and despair surround. Yet, through decades of musing, I have learned that a cultivation of gratitude can become the underpinning of life, an artesian well from which hope flows. . . . . I stood there in the downpour, a joyous fool lost in that moment of life, filled with a holy carelessness, happy in celebration with all my relations.
www.theteacherwithin.com

ONE WORLD – ONE FAMILY OF MAN – ONE CREATOR OF ALL

Nothing but 5 Star Reviews for Please Say Kaddish For Me by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

pleasesaykaddishforme

Art and cover by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Captivating! I couldn’t put this book down…

By Amazon Customer

Beautifully written! If you enjoy historical novels, this is a book you absolutely must read. Rochelle is a master story teller who has brought the horrific Russian pogroms between 1903-1905 against the Jews to life while also allowing us a glimpse at daily life during the period. Her characters also show the multi-dimensional facets of human nature from love, honor, forgiveness and redemption. Considering the trying times we are currently living in, this book shows us there is truly hope as long as we continue to learn the lessons she has shown us here. I’m looking forward to reading her sequel!

  • Jan Allen

***

If Laura Ingalls Wilder had been a Russian Jew … THIS would have been her story!

By K.D. Bonham

Please Say Kaddish For Me tells the story of a similar girl—except she’s the sole survivor of a mass homicide leveled against her own people in her village. PSK is a stunning, provocative narrative with characters that almost breathe on you as you read. The only drawback to the book is that, once you get to the end … you’ll be hungry for MORE!

***

 you’ll love “Please Say Kaddish For Me

By The Grand Sophy

If you’re a fan of history, romance, and action, you’ll love Please Say Kaddish For Me. Wisoff-Fields writes deftly about a part of history that’s unknown to most people. No sugar-coating here, just things that really happened, often terrible, in the lives of people it’s easy to believe are real. No easy answers or decisions here and you’ll agonize and maybe even cry with and over people you’ll come to care about. If you’re sad to see the story end, don’t be. The already-written sequel will be out soon!

***

www.rochellewordart.com

Published by W&B Publishers Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency 

The good thing is Please Say Kaddish For Me has a sequel coming out Dec. 1st – From Silt and Ashes!

pleasesaykaddishforme

I felt like I knew the characters intimately and was sorry when

By  Barbara Sherwin

I could not put this book down. The story is based on historical fact which made it even more enthralling. I felt like I knew the characters intimately and was sorry when the book ended. Rochelle is a talented and skilled storyteller and I can’t wait for the next book to come out!

www.rochellewordart.com

Published by Argus Publishing 

Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency

From Screenplay to Novel: The Evolution of The Lies That Bind

Ed Protzel EProtzel-184-ColorWeb

Nov 16, 2015 05:28 pm | Ed Protzel

From Screenplay to Novel: The Evolution of The Lies That Bind

I originally wrote The Lies That Bind not as a novel, but as a screenplay for feature film. At that time, I was writing spec scripts for Hollywood, everything from science fiction, to futuristic, to historical, as well as writing development treatments for film projects. I still believe the story, named DarkHorse in that incarnation, is the best script I ever wrote.

Fortunately, the late Bob Friedman, president of the Missouri Association of Performing Playwrights at the time, quite a writer of plays and operas for the stage himself, read the script and was wowed. Bob was kind enough to organize a filmed reading of the script to introduce me to the St. Louis playwright community, with professional actors and award-winning writers reading many of the parts and others in attendance, including George Hickenlooper, Jr., the father of the late writer/film director, George Hickenlooper III.

Later, Murray Silverman, president of 20th Century-Fox MTI, gave the script to Sherry Lansing, who called it a “great script.” We both thought my future in Hollywood was made. However, just at that time, Fox was bought by Ruppert Murdock, and Sherry Lansing left Fox to take over Paramount. Being a newer screenwriter, naturally, my career fell through the cracks. Another producer offered an option on the script. His idea was to submit the script to Oprah to produce, but we never agreed to contract terms. Life happens.

The Incubation Period
DarkHorse the script sat for some years, but the power of this unique story ate at me. Once I decided to turn to writing novels, I knew exactly where to start. Suddenly, it was like Alice in Wonderland when she ate the mushroom or drank from the bottle: the story and characters outgrew the restraints of the two-hour script medium and bloomed into a deep, multi-layered work of fiction.

Screenplays for feature film are a very limited medium. Scripts are typically 120-minute pages of dialogue and action, and the director and actors must bring the characters to life as their talent allow. But in the novel format, which can be hundreds of pages, the writer can reveal what the characters are thinking and feeling, which allows the writer to go into great depth and to take the story over great stretches of time and space. For example, when a character’s thoughts are at odds with his/her actions, that can lead to irony and reveal internal conflict. You can do a lot more with a novel than a screenplay.

In The Lies That Bind, the main character is Durksen (Durk) Hurst, whom I describe as a “visionary charlatan.” That in itself is almost contradictory, and only by exploring Durk’s thoughts and perceptions can the reader fully grasp how complex the man really is. How and why does he invent such a foolhardy scheme as a partnership with slaves to build their own egalitarian plantation? Along the way, why does he take the risks he does, which jeopardize all their lives? What is it in his past  that drives him to take such risks? In attempting the seemingly impossible, is Durk terrified, doubtful? How do he and his partners really feel about each other? How does their relationship change?

Each of the main characters becomes a three-dimensional, flesh and blood human being, with fears, hopes, dreams, resentments, and secrets from the past—oh, their pasts! That’s the beauty of writing a novel: the writer can reveal a character’s secrets at a time when they’ll have the most dramatic and thematic effect.

The first version of The Lies That Bind was well over 650 pages, but I knew I had to trim it down to make it tighter. Then I rewrote it and it got longer again, so I cut it back again. I endured this process several times before being satisfied with the result.

Also, as I rewrote the novel, my writing got better and sharper, leaner and meaner. Sometimes, for example, I cut standard descriptions and replaced them with impressionistic ones, which made for a faster read, sure, but also made for a more emotional, more aesthetic experience for the reader.

I hope you will agree.

Watch for the release of The Lies That Bind from TouchPoint Press later this month!

Two Five Star Reviews for Please Say Kaddish For Me by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

pleasesaykaddishforme

The worst part of the book is when it ended

By  Andrea Robinson

It seemed as if I actually knew these people and that they were not characters at all. I so appreciated the fact that Wisoff-Fields did not sugar coat things. Instead she told it how it really was. Very well done. The worst part of the book is when it ended. I wanted it to continue!

Amazing story, can’t wait for the 2nd book

By Richard Pollak

Amazing story, can’t wait for the 2nd book!

www.rochellewordart.com

Published by Argus Publishing 

Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency

Bank Notes Review – Where is justice? By Joyce Faulkner

Bank Notes Reviews

Where is justice?

By Joyce Faulkner

banknotes

This book is a heartbreaking study of how perspective defines fairness. Let’s face it, justice—by definition—is what’s fair to you. But Keith Giammanco’s journey from divorced father to day trader to bank robber to prison inmate turns point of view upside down. If you keep your money in a bank—and who doesn’t—it’s not fair that someone should enter your financial institution and take some of it for himself. If you work in that bank, it’s not fair that someone in a “boonie” hat should destroy your sense of security. If you are the children of a boonie hat bandit, it’s hardly right that you should have to deal with the fallout of your father’s crime spree. If you are a cop, you see the mistakes and cruelties and injustices of poverty and lack of education all day every day, knowing that you can only save a few of them. If you work in the criminal justice system, it must be frustrating to deal with criminals day after day—all who believe their issues should be your top priority—and you are inexperienced and overworked and everyone needs more than you have to give. If you are a judge, they can’t pay you enough for the aggravation and the endless struggle to balance the law with compassion and morality and security. If you are a politician, you are torn by competing interests, ideas, supporters, and resources. If you work in corrections, you must deal with fear and ignorance and anger, and juggle the interests of inmates and employees and the public. If you are an inmate, it must be horrible to lose your present, and a huge part of your future, for something you did a long time ago, when you were another person. If you fall in love with an inmate, how can it be fair that you can never see or touch the object of your love? And for society, how do we coexist painlessly?

Caroline Giammanco’s book asks a simple question: Where is justice?  Unfortunately, societies, since the beginning of civilization, have searched for ways to define it, believe in it, and achieve it. We argue over it; each believing in our own version of a wiggly concept. No one gets out of this life without screwing up. It’s how we deal with our own mistakes and those of other humans that has confounded us for thousands of years. Because, in the end, what’s fair to us is what’s fair.

A good read that will leave you pondering.

www.booniehatbandit.com

Published by Argus Publishing www.a-argusbooks.com

Represented by Jeanie Loiacono, Loiacono Literary Agency www.llallc.net