Mundie Moms

Monday, March 17, 2014

Catherine by April Lindner, Cover Buzz & Guest Post


I am thrilled to be able to help spread the word about the new cover for the paperback edition of CATHERINE by April Lindner which will be available this August.

Both covers are amazing but convey something very different with the image and colors. And I’m thrilled to be able to welcome April Lindner to the blog with a post discussing them both.

There is also a giveaway for an Amazon eGift Card. Just scroll to the bottom of this post for details and to enter.

While CATHERINE’s paperback release is still a few months away, if you purchase the eBook edition now, it comes with the new cover. And if you’re a fan of the first cover, the hardback copy is still available to purchase.

Both covers rock, but which one is your favorite?

About CATHERINE


Title: CATHERINE
Author: April Lindner
Publisher: Poppy
Release date: January 1, 2013 | August 19, 2014 (paperback)
Formats: Hardcover, paperback, eBook

Catherine is tired of struggling musicians befriending her just so they can get a gig at her Dad's famous Manhattan club, The Underground. Then she meets mysterious Hence, an unbelievably passionate and talented musician on the brink of success. As their relationship grows, both are swept away in a fiery romance. But when their love is tested by a cruel whim of fate, will pride keep them apart?

Chelsea has always believed that her mom died of a sudden illness, until she finds a letter her dad has kept from her for years -- a letter from her mom, Catherine, who didn't die: She disappeared. Driven by unanswered questions, Chelsea sets out to look for her -- starting with the return address on the letter: The Underground.

Told in two voices, twenty years apart, Catherine delivers a fresh retelling of the Emily Brontë classic Wuthering Heights, interweaving a timeless forbidden romance with a captivating modern mystery.


***

The Guest Post

Promises, Promises: Judging a Book by Its Cover

By April Lindner


We’ve all been told that you can’t judge a book by its cover. And yet some of us book lovers can’t help ourselves; there’s nothing like a gorgeous cover to lure us in. More often than not, an enticing cover is the main thing that moves me to pick up a book I've never heard of, to start paging through it, giving the first few paragraphs a chance to seal the deal—or not.

So for me the most exciting moment in the whole bookmaking occurs when a book’s future cover appears in my inbox. I click on the thumbnail, and wait breathlessly as the image blooms onto my computer screen. Only then can I imagine my manuscript as a book—on a shelf, or, better still, in the hands of a reader. I know the cover will set the book’s tone. And it will make promises—hopefully the right ones.

All of this explains why I’m so thrilled by the new cover of Catherine’s paperback edition, due out in August. Don’t get me wrong: I love the original Catherine cover. Lush and dramatic, it makes certain promises—ones I believe the book keeps. The elegant model in her kickass stance promises a strong female protagonist. (Actually, the book has two alternating strong female narrators—Catherine and her daughter Chelsea.) And the background, with the iconic Flatiron Building rising up through the mist, promises the book’s Lower Manhattan setting will be as important as its characters. The title typeface—bold and purple—promises a confident, free-spirited heroine—exactly how I see Catherine herself.

But the new paperback cover—already available to readers who download the Ebook-- makes a different set of promises. On it, a boy and a girl hold each other in the shadows of a graffiti-covered underpass. They gaze at each other in rapt wonder, their shoulders, neck and heads echoing the shape of a heart. Secret romance, this cover says. It promises love against the odds. The scene is gritty—less glamorous than the cityscape on the original—but this grittiness befits the book’s main setting, a post punk night club on the Bowery. The title’s typeface is still bold, but its peachy color underscores the sweet and optimistic innocence of this couple’s embrace.

Inspired by the classic romance Wuthering Heights, Catherine is a story of star-crossed love interwoven with mystery. Its soundtrack is the post-punk music played by Catherine’s boyfriend, Hence. And the new paperback cover captures that complex mood exactly, I think. In fact, when it popped up on my computer screen for the first time, I almost swooned. There it was, in front of me: almost exactly the picture I saw in my imagination as I wrote the book.

An author can hope for nothing more than that.

***

About April Lindner


April Lindner is the author of three novels: Catherine, a modernization of Wuthering Heights; Jane, an update of Jane Eyre; and Love, Lucy, due out in January, 2015. She also has published two poetry collections, Skin and This Bed Our Bodies Shaped. She plays acoustic guitar badly, sees more rock concerts than she’d care to admit, travels whenever she can, cooks Italian food, and lavishes attention on her pets—two Labrador retriever mixes and two excitable guinea pigs. A professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, April lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.


***

The Giveaway

The Cover Buzz Blast includes a blast-wide giveaway for a $15 Amazon eGift Card to one winner.
  • Must be 13 or older to enter
  • Giveaway is open to anyone who can accept eGift Cards from Amazon's US online store
  • Giveaway ends on March 25th at 11:59 p.m. Pacific
Enter in the Rafflecopter below...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy, What's On Your List Blog Tour


Hello & welcome to today's featured posted. I'm so thrilled to be apart of Julie Murphy's Side Effects May Vary post. To celebrate TOMORROW'S release of Julie's debut, through out the past week various bloggers have all shared their bucket lists. Today I'm excited to share a few items off my bucket list. 

My Travel Bucket List
(In no order)

Truth, I have more than one bucket list. I know, I really need to combine them. Years ago I created a bucket list of places I'd like to visit. Some places I've marked off, and other places I'm itching to go visit, and mark off. Here are a few places I've had on my list.

1) Visit Ireland & Scotland

Image found via Google

Among the various places I've always wanted to travel to, Ireland and Scotland have always been at the top of list, like since I was a kid. ONE DAY I will make it there. At least I hope I do. I figure if I keep telling myself I'll make it there, it will happen. After reading things like this, it's so tempting to just book my trip and go. 

2) Take A Cross Country Road-Trip - Checked off the list

I took this picture at one of the entrances to the park. If you ever get the chance to, go & visit! 

This past summer my kids and I took a 13 state / 14 day road trip and created a lot of fabulous memories. Aside from the awesome family reunion I had up in northern Idaho, taking my kids to places like 4 Corners, climbing Wilson's Arch (Arch's National Park), driving through Montana, going to Yellowstone National Park, Jackson Hole WY, the Grand Teton National Park, Mt Rushmore, Devil's Tower, and seeing a lot of amazing sites, and that part of the beautiful country is something I'll never forget. I had been to some these places before, but it was that much more memorable taking my kids to them.  

3) Visit NYC - Checked off the list

I took this picture as we flew over Central Park when leaving NYC. What a cool place.

I have always been intrigued with NYC. My fascination with the city started with I was young, like back in the day young, and watched Seaseme Street young. Last year for BEA I finally went to NYC! Not only that, while there I marked off 3 things that were on my bucket list of things to do before I die. Don't laugh, that list is huge. 
1) Go to a Yankees/Red Sox's game. I've had this on my to-do list since I was elementary school. No joke!
2) Attend a Broadway show. Holy awesomeness, Newsies was AMAZING! We even met the cast afterwards.
3) Walk around Central Park - that is one amazing park. Note to self, next time don't get lost and wandering around the park trying to find the way out you came in.  

4) Visit England

Image found on Google

English country side and book shopping. Enough said right? I've always wanted to go and find some old book stores to go book shopping in, and drive through the English country side. I hear you can spend a few days in the English country side, and never get bored with it. As if I'd get bored in the country. I love the countryside. And of course I can't pass up the chance to go check out all the landmarks around London that are featured in The Infernal Devices. Most likely whenever I make to Ireland, I'll spend a few days here as well.

5) Visit Germany

Picture from Google

Though I've never been, this is a country I've wanted to visit since I was young. My grandmother is from there, though after WWII the town she was born in became part of Poland, and no long exists. Even though I know her family history, I've always wanted to go there myself. Plus, apparently there's a castle there that at one time was in the family generations ago, that I want to go see. And no, it's the one pictured. That would be totally awesome if it was. haha



These are just a few of the places I've got listed on my list to go visit. I'd love to know, what's on your bucket list. Leave me a comment and let me know what you've listed on your listed.

About the Book


By: Julie Murphy
Published by: Harper Teen
To Be Released on: March 18th, 2014
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Add it to Goodreads

What if you’d been living your life as if you were dying—only to find out that you had your whole future ahead of you? 

When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, her prognosis is grim. To maximize the time she does have, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs—however she sees fit. She convinces her friend Harvey, whom she knows has always had feelings for her, to help her with a crazy bucket list that’s as much about revenge (humiliating her ex-boyfriend and getting back at her arch nemesis) as it is about hope (doing something unexpectedly kind for a stranger and reliving some childhood memories). But just when Alice’s scores are settled, she goes into remission.

Now Alice is forced to face the consequences of all that she’s said and done, as well as her true feelings for Harvey. But has she done irreparable damage to the people around her, and to the one person who matters most? 

Julie Murphy’s SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY is a fearless and moving tour de force about love, life, and facing your own mortality.


About Julie



Julie lives in North Texas with her husband who loves her, her dog who adores her, and her cat who tolerates her. When she's not writing or trying to catch stray cats, she works at an academic library. Side Effects May Vary is Julie's debut novel. Julie can best be found on her website (www.juliemurphywrites.com), tumblr (www.andimjulie.tumblr.com), or twitter (www.twitter.com/andimjulie).

Mundane Monday #206 - Parabatai- Jace & Alec

Happy Mundane Monday! 

Today's feature is Parabatai. I don't think I've featured a lot of the relationships the guys of the Shadowhunter world have. Here's to Jace and Alec.

"Parabatai," said Jace. "It means a pair of warriors who fight together—who are closer than brothers. Alec is more than just my best friend. My father and his father were parabatai when they were young. His father was my godfather—that’s why I live with them. They’re my adopted family."

*Artwork done by Cassandra Jean

Happy St. Patrick's Day


Wishing each of you a Happy St. Patrick's Day! 
Here's a day full of luck & cheer. 

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