Alla Breve Books

Official Book Launch

2012-02-12T20:50:00.000-06:00

K. Lynette Erwin, author of So Faithful a Heart and When Love Won't Die, appeared at the Stillwater Hasting's Books & Music to sign copies of the two-volume edition of her novel. The event was so successful, the manager told her it was the best local author book signing they'd hosted in the history of the store. A private reception followed at the home of the author. In her toast, Ms. Erwin offered her thanks to Deborah Butler, who donated the cost of the books in memory of her mother, Joye Ramsel, who had been working in earnest to promote the novel with the Bartlesville OK Mozart Festival when she passed in October. Artistic promotion was provided by Michael Broyles, photography by Lauren Weaver, cake by Frosted: The Bakery, and catering by The Vicar of Nibbly.

Mark Your Calendar!

2011-10-25T20:11:00.001-05:00

Author K. Lynette Erwin, the author of So Faithful a Heart: The Love Story of Nancy Storace and Wolfgang Mozart and So Faithful a Heart: When Love Won't Die, will be at Hastings Books Music & Videos in Stillwater, OK, on Saturday, February 11, 2012. She will be signing copies of her Special Edition, which includes both books.

For more information, please click the Events tab, above.

Introducing Author F. Bailey Norwood

2011-10-21T12:28:00.000-05:00

Alla Breve Books is proud to introduce our newest author, Dr. F. Bailey Norwood.

Dr. Norwood is an associate professor of agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University, where his career began in 2003. He received his Ph.D. in economics from North Carolina State University in 2001.

Dr. Norwood has published over thirty-four journal articles, many in the top agricultural economics and environmental economics journals. With colleague and friend Jayson Lusk, he has published an undergraduate textbook titled, Agricultural Marketing and Price Analysis, and a book on farm animal welfare titled, Compassion by the Pound.

His latest, forthcoming book, Matrona's Four Children, is an epic set in Russia during the reign of Catherine the Great and is set for publication in 2012 through Alla Breve Books. It is an exciting, meticulously researched novel with a riveting plot replete with suspense, powerful emotions, ambitious sociological and philosophical themes, and surprising, pleasant economic content. Intellectually challenging, Dr. Norwood's book contains artistic elements that include powerful poetry and periodic use of expressionist writing. It conjures powerful emotions and is friendly but challenging to all political and religious flavors.

So Faithful a Heart: When Love Won't Die, Special Edition

2011-10-03T18:21:00.003-05:00

Available at Amazon.com in both print and Kindle formats and Smashwords.com in Epub and Nook.

Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-02T17:23:00.000-05:00

As independent authors as well as an independent author support agency, Alla Breve Books is a proud supporter of the Occupy Wall Street Movement that has broken out all over the United States. The primary reason we exist as independents is because we support the hard work and industry of entrepreneurs, small private businesses, laborers, artists, and ordinary working people who are the backbone of this nation's economy. We are the 99%.

National Banned Books Week, 2011

2011-09-26T18:42:00.001-05:00

In honor of National Banned Books Week, here is a list of 100 classic books and novels that have been banned and/or challenged at one time or another for various reasons. We highly recommend that you read any one or all of them.

New Release by K. Lynette Erwin

2011-09-22T18:22:00.001-05:00

So Faithful a Heart, Special Edition: The Love Story of Nancy Storace & Wolfgang Mozart and When Love Won't Die
By K. Lynette Erwin

List Price: $23.50
6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
Black & White on cream paper
530 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1466326309
ISBN-10: 1466326301
BISAC: Fiction / Historical

What do you do when you wake up one morning to find love’s fondest hopes and dreams have been shattered in a single night? Where do you run, and to whom?

So Faithful A Heart: When Love Won’t Die is the continuing saga of the woman who Mozart vowed would own his heart forever, and the story of the man who tries to steal her heart from him. Set against the background of one of the most turbulent times in Western Europe, When Love Won’t Die gives you a window into the lives of some of the greatest and most colorful men and women in history!

So Faithful A Heart: When Love Won’t Die, the exciting and passionate sequel to So Faithful A Heart: The Love Story of Nancy Storace & Wolfgang Mozart, by author, K. Lynette Erwin.

Available in a Special Combined Edition, including a specially rewritten and re-edited version of So Faithful A Heart: The Love Story of Nancy Storace & Wolfgang Mozart.

* Print copy edition available OCTOBER 1, 2011 at Amazon.com (check back for link)
* Kindle edition available NOW at Amazon.com

Summer 2011 Update

2011-08-15T03:58:00.003-05:00

Everywhere I look, someone is writing. This is especially true here at Alla Breve Books, where two new books are nearing their completion and publishing.

First, K. Lynette Erwin has finished her sequel to So Faithful A Heart: The Love Story of Nancy Storace and Wolfgang Mozart. It is aptly titled, So Faithful A Heart: When Love Won't Die. Ms. Erwin has her hands full, not only with it, but also with rewrites of the first book. When both are ready, they will be published together in one volume.

Also slated for publishing is With A Bullet, the second book in SK Waller's rock and roll trilogy, Beyond The Bridge. Book One, With A Dream was published last February. Book Two will be published sometime this autumn. Book Three will follow in 2012.

Other projects are in the works, including the introduction of a new author, so check this site, or "Like" us on Facebook to keep in step with all that's new!

Radio Interview with SK Waller

2011-03-18T12:05:00.000-05:00

Tune into to WBKM's Paradigms next Sunday evening as host Baruch Zeichner and author SK Waller discuss the Beyond The Bridge trilogy and play some of the great music that inspired Book One, With A Dream!

Date: Sunday, March 20, 2011
Time: 8pm EST, 7pm CST, 6pm MST, 5pm PST
Place: http://paradigms.bz

Lynette Erwin Featured in the News Press

2011-03-13T23:32:00.002-05:00

Lynette has been featured in the Stillwater News Press, a story that will be lengthened for publication in Stillwater's Lifestyle Magazine's next issue.

Please click image.

Publishing Your Book Isn't About You

2011-03-04T00:38:00.001-06:00

There is a lot of discussion and about the book vs. ebook revolution. I'm older. I've spent my entire life building my personal library and I hate to see books go the way of vinyl records or even CDs. The smell of a leather bound edition, the feel of the paper and the gilt edging are things I love. I love reading a book, of holding it, and sometimes writing notes in the margins. I love bookmarks and bookplates, damn it.

I held fast to this sentimentality until someone showed me the actual numbers and I realized that how I prefer to read has absolutely nothing to do with how I publish my own books. Ebooks comprise 30 percent of all book sales and those numbers are quickly rising. Did I say quickly? It's a tsunami, folks. Get to higher ground or be washed out to sea with all of those other writers who refuse to adapt. We're not still writing on scrolls, are we?

Back when I assiduously shopped my manuscript to publishers and agents, I often spent $75 in postage to overseas addresses just to have my manuscript end up in the slush pile. I liked having that manuscript in my hand, of putting it lovingly into the cardboard box made exclusively for it and taking it to the post office, where proudly put it on the counter. I liked that the address said The Bloomsbury Group, Simon & Schuster, or Alfred Knopf. And I paid for that feeling. Some people eat; I mailed manuscripts.

Ten years later I got serious. I quit the writer klatches (online and off), of sitting in bookstore cafes "looking" and "feeling" like a writer, and I wrote. Did I ever write! I realized that readers want to read, and they want to read now. They don't care about how you like to read, they care about what you write. They don't care if you like to curl up with a book, a crisp, juicy apple, and a cup of tea. Most of them don't read there. Most of them read on the train to and from work, in waiting rooms, or at the gym. Most don't sit at home with all the time in the world. They're commuting. They're going to after-school ball games they're not interested in. They're busy. Trust me, when they go to bed at night, they're too tired to sit and read; there aren't enough hours in the day.

If you're strictly a reader and not a writer, then it's your call. Stick to what you enjoy. We write for you, after all, but if you're a writer who wants to be read, your reading preference doesn't matter. And if you are a writer and you're lucky enough to get signed by a publisher, your work is going to go digital anyway. That's a given. So again, sentimentality doesn't matter here.

The thing is, writing the book is about you. That's where the art is. Publishing is about the public. Once you publish your book, it belongs to them.

"Ebooks and indie publishing are going to rescue the art of writing. Why do you think you're being told to limit your wordcount by cutting adverbs and adjectives? It's not to make you a better writer, it's to cut the costs of ink and paper. Publishing an ebook costs nothing. It's a computer file. Don't tell me all this about better writing; most of the publishers out there have degrees in business and marketing, not English Lit. And the agents aren't going to care about your art, they have to bend to the publishers so that they can make their cut. Do we consider Virginia Woolf or Mark Twain bad writers? Bullshit. It's about the publishers' bottom line, not about your art." Lynette Erwin

I especially like what Lynette said about the indie revolution rescuing the art of writing because I can see that happening already, not only in the written word, but in music as well. My youngest son, Micah Atwell, belongs to a huge, global network of indie composers and musicians who compose, record, produce, and market their own work, and it's so much better than what's on the radio these days. It's not cookie cutter music dressed up in crotch-grabbing, pouty-lipped sexuality, it's art.

I'd be a liar if I told you I'm not interested in selling copy, but the reason I write is simply to be read. To achieve this I have to give up the ghost where the reading public is concerned and give them what they want. Privately, I'll curl up with my favorite books, my apple, and my cup of tea.

With A Dream by SK Waller Now Available for Purchase

2011-01-23T02:09:00.006-06:00

Spanning the musically innovative years between 1966 and 1991, the Beyond The Bridge trilogy follows the lives of a group of colorful, diverse characters who are inextricably linked through music and fame, most notably, brilliant British guitar icon, Gordon Hammond.

Weaving her characters’ lives amongst those of actual legendary personalities, SK Waller takes the reader on a magic carpet ride through the most creative and revolutionary decades the musical world has ever known.

Book One, With A Dream, begins in 1966 in Swinging London at the height of the British Invasion. A young, rather naive Gordon forms a band called Tuppence and, due to his genius as a visionary songwriter and the group’s innovative sound, they skyrocket to the top of the charts. When Gordon meets supermodel, Felicity, his entire life changes as he begins to learn that “fame and fortune” and the forfeit it demands, is no respecter of persons.

With A Dream is now available for purchase at these locations:

Amazon
Amazon Kindle Store
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords
Lulu.com

Don't have a Kindle? You may install FREE Kindle software on your PC!

Takes just a minute, and there's no catch!

Reviews: Walking Through Illusion by Betsy Otter Thompson

2010-12-14T14:19:00.013-06:00

Title: Walking Through Illusion
Author: Betsy Otter Thompson
Publisher: O Books, Winchester UK, Washington USA
__________

Because I’m a musician, I relate to things in musical terms and draw musical analogies from things around me. I couldn’t help but maintain this while reading Walking Through Illusion by Betsy Otter Thompson.

I can’t remember his name, but I once read a quote by one of Mozart’s contemporaries who said something to the effect that the composer’s music had so many beautiful ideas, he could scarcely digest one "delicious morsel" before having another set before him. This long-forgotten statement came to my mind time and again while reading Ms. Thompson’s book.

Walking Through Illusion is rich in spiritual wisdom and insight, but I can’t say that I was introduced to any new ideas (I must add, however, that I’ve read hundreds of books dedicated to spiritual enlightenment). Its true beauty lies in that the author relates these ideas in a way that makes them more tangible, more digestible than I’ve encountered before. Hers is an entirely novel delivery of ancient truths. To get something from this book, one need not be a lifelong seeker; it speaks to the novice as clearly and as breathtakingly as it does to the adept.

The themes are self-accountability and the law of karma, but the umbrella theme is love. Through interviews concerning his friends and the people he knew, Jesus (who comes across as the man I always felt he was—gentle, creative in his analogies, a little playful, and completely modern) explains that karma is not about reward and punishment, but why we choose, on a higher level, the things that happen to us so that we may learn the lessons we set for ourselves before we come here.

Walking Through Illusion challenges us to admit that when we think of ourselves as victims or sufferers, it is because we are not being self-accountable and that there is a deeper emotional need that drives us. As I often say, we don’t make positive changes in our lives because we’re still getting mileage out of the consequences of having made negative ones. Employing spirituality, psychology, and common sense, the author points out that life is illusory, a theater as it were, and that the only reality is what we put into our parts, emotionally. The book is more creative than analytical, more emotional than intellectual. It asks us to feel rather than rationalize.

What I enjoyed most was the Personal Insights at the end of each chapter. After the interview form throughout the body the book, it was nice to have Ms. Thompson speak to me in her own voice. Each chapter is also concluded with a few questions, and there is space beneath each so that the reader may write in their response. I found the questions more thought provoking on the introspective level, however. They encouraged a dialogue with myself in which I could shift and vacillate as I worked through each of them, mentally.

Finally, it is difficult for me to write this review without being emotional because the book hit me on so many emotional levels. There are subjects on which I, quite frankly, needed clarity, and I cannot help but believe that this book came to me providentially. Therefore, it is easy for me to recommend Walking Through Illusion. But more, I truly hope you will buy the book and read it for your own sake. It is a book about grace, a book that needs to be read, especially at this important moment in the course of human evolution.

Please visit Betsy Otter Thompson's website at http://www.betsythompson.com.
Walking Through Illusion is available at:
   Amazon
   Barnes & Noble
   Borders
   O Books

With A Dream: Book One (Beyond The Bridge) by SK Waller

2010-09-30T03:12:00.007-05:00

Turn it up!

So Faithful A Heart by K. Lynette Erwin

2010-09-30T03:10:00.005-05:00

Why is Indie OK for Musicians and Filmmakers…But Not for Writers?

2010-09-27T12:41:00.000-05:00

Amy Edelman believes that self-published books deserve more attention from readers and retailers.

She developed IndieReader.com, a website that curates and sells self-published books. The site is launching a service to distribute these titles to independent bookstores.

By Amy Edelman

Why is it that indie movies like The Hurt Locker and indie bands like The Shins win tons of praise for bucking the “establishment”, doing it on their own and being unique? It is because the movies are great and the musicians are talented? Sure. But then what of the great and talented indie writers? Doesn’t that same formula exist for them? Despite the success of indie books from Tolstoy’s War & Peace to Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the traditional publishing industry would have you think not.

It was that disconnect — that downright idiocy and short-sightedness — that led me, a year ago this month, to launch IndieReader (www.indiereader.com). It was my belief that it made no sense to brand all self-published books as “crap” just because the “traditional” publishing industry didn’t embrace them. I knew, of course, that many very successful books were initially rejected by traditional publishers — Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Gone With the Wind, Carrie, (an early Stephen King novel) and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. In fact, IndieReader’s first featured author, Lisa Genova, spent a year and a half writing her book Still Alice while trying to find a literary agent, only to be told that there wasn’t “a general audience that would want to read about Alzheimer’s.” In the end, Lisa decided to self-publish, even after an agent counseled her that doing so would “kill” her writing career before it started. Not quite. Still Alice spent over a dozen weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, landing Lisa a deal with major publisher.

I couldn’t believe that there weren’t more great self-published books and authors out there waiting to be discovered. I knew that many good books weren’t embraced by the traditional publishing world because it was believed that they lacked what is commonly referred to as a good enough “platform.” Either that or the subjects of their books didn’t have enough mass appeal. Despite that, there were many self-published books that somehow managed to defy expectation and break through. So, where I asked myself, would I look for the other 750,000+ books (the number of books self-pubbed in 2009, a 181% increase from the year before). That question had me stumped. Because although there are many self-published books that can be found on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, how would you start to look for them? And more importantly, how could you separate the great from the not-so-good?

And that brought me to the problem self-published books have with image. Although I’ve written several books, my day job for over twenty years has been as a publicist. I’ve worked with companies including Ralph Lauren, Tiffany, Hanes, and M&Ms. I understand all about image. I also understand that, in today’s mass-market world, people are naturally drawn to what’s unique and genuine. It was true for indie movies and indie music. So why not indie books?

The truth is, the reading public is more than ready for IndieReader, which is really just a part of a vast sea change in publishing. Self-publishing has become a viable and financially desirable option for many authors, first-time and established alike. And with more and more indie books finding mainstream success (Still Alice, The Shack) and more mainstream authors writing indie books (John Edgar Wideman, Dave Eggars), it is clear that, to quote Dylan, “the times they are a-changin.”

To help aid the process of getting indie books into book-lovers hands, we just launched IndieReader Selects, the first-ever distribution service bringing the best indie titles onto the shelves of the best indie bookstores nationwide. This not only helps indie authors, it also helps indie booksellers by saving them time (they can send indie authors directly to IRS for info on bookstore distribution), makes them money (our co-op program pay booksellers to stock our branded indie books), and sets them apart from the big box stores that do not yet carry indie books.

The submission fee for IndieReader is $149 per title per year (IndieReader Selects is $149 per title for review and inclusion in our database). If your book is not accepted to IR, we will refund all but $25, which is our vetting fee. Exclusivity is not required, but your book will get more visibility on IndieReader. Anyone can offer their books for sale on the giant websites — which makes them a small tree in a very large forest. Unless someone is looking specifically for your book, they are unlikely to find it among the thousands of others. On the contrary, IndieReader has become a destination for high-quality self-published books.

In closing, with over 750,000 books self published last year, it’s just plain dumb to think that they are all bad (and to help them get better, our sister company IndieReader Publishing Services just partnered with WordSmiths, which offers craft-based advice for writers by Iowa Writers’ Workshop Graduates and other professional writers).

There are, in fact, many wonderful writers who — either by choice or by circumstance — end up going indie. The change is that with the advent of IndieReader (and IndieReader Selects), it won’t be so hard to find the good ones.

Amy Holman Edelman has worked in public relations and marketing for longer than she cares to remember. She is the author of three books, one self published and two traditionally published.

Source: Publishing Perspectives

Keep On Truckin' - An Interview with S. K. Waller

2010-04-05T14:33:00.016-05:00

Tell us about Beyond The Bridge. What is it about?
The Beyond The Bridge trilogy is about Gordon Hammond, a English guitar god who, with his band Tuppence, rises up from the British Invasion of the 1960s to attain fame and fortune. That’s the surface of the story anyway. Beneath that it’s the story of a group of people and how they get through the tumult of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s while dealing with the rewards and demands of their lifestyle. Even deeper, it’s about how “fame and fortune” is no respecter of persons and how life deals out blows regardless of how important people seem to be.

What inspired you to write the Beyond The Bridge trilogy? Why a trilogy?
My eternal quest for Rock fame! A successful life as a Rock star passed me by, so I gave it to my characters. The trilogy idea came when I set up the initial outline. The story covers three decades and I thought that by putting it into one book, a lot of the story world be lost.

How did you come up with the title?
I know that a lot of people probably picture an physical bridge when they first read the title, but it’s actually a musical term. In music a bridge is a transition, a section that carries the song over to its conclusion. Seemed fitting.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Maybe that no matter what we do in life, whether we’re rich or poor, famous or unknown, life is no respecter of persons and we all go through our joys and sorrows. Stars are no different than we are, except that maybe life is more complicated for them.

How much of the book is actual fact?
The events in the musical world are faithful to actual timelines of those three decades, but other than that it’s an historical fiction. I like the idea of clouding the lines that separate fact from fiction and sometimes it's hard to tell if something in the books really happened, or if I created it. My characters' lives mingle with those of actual Rock celebrities. They go to the same clubs and parties and are part of it all.

What was the easiest part of writing your book?
The characters. I love them. They’re my friends.

What was the most difficult?
The reading and research. I'm an historian and I detest shoddy, lazy research, so it seems that every day there's something new for me to track down and confirm.

Of your characters, which one do you like the best and which one do you like least?
Well, I like Gordon best, of course. He’s a good guy, but he’s not perfect. He means well and he lives his life following his own code of integrity, regardless of what it costs him. I like that. Having said that, I also adore Noel. He's the one who can make me laugh when things start getting a bit heavy. The character I like least is probably Jason’s wife, Carol. She’s just a bitch.

Are any of your characters based on actual people?
The eternal question! Of course they are, but they’ve developed to where they’re not easily recognizable. Gordon is very much his own man, although he's based on a friend of mine whose identity is revealed in the dedication of Book One. Noel is clearly an old friend of mine--he played bass in a Blues band we had for a while, but I wouldn't count on me revealing his identity if I were you.

What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
I wish I could tell you that when I sit down to write, that’s it, it’s all I do. I also wish I could tell you that I’m gloriously disciplined and don’t consider it a good writing day unless I’ve written ten pages or so many thousand words, but it’s just not true. I have so many other things going on, I find I’m forced to write ‘catch-as-catch-can’. My best writing time is late at night—the wee hours, really—when everyone both in the home and online is asleep. Plus, I have to have something I want to write, a particular scene or something like that. I don’t work on inspiration so much as on mood and available time. But once I get into the writing thing—once the day’s work is over—I can spend twelve to fifteen hours at a time writing.

What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?
I like to harvest photos of people from the internet who resemble my characters in some way, then Photoshop them until they’re basically unrecognizable from the originals. I have a slideshow screensaver on my computer with these pictures and it makes my characters very real to me. I also make detailed character analyses, but the information on those often changes as the story progresses. Nothing is set in stone when I write; I don’t like restrictions like that. I like my characters to tell me about themselves. I allow them to evolve through the passage of their own time.

Do your characters ever surprise you?
All the bloody time!

When and why did you begin writing?
My very first piece was a poem I wrote in 1st grade about Halloween. It wasn't half bad, especially for a six year-old! In 5th grade I wrote a play—a spoof of Bonanza set in the 20th century. It was actually performed, but I never got to see it. It was later, in high school, that I decided I wanted to write. Music took precedence over that, however, until only very recently. Now I’ve found a way to combine the two. I may be too old to break into the music business, but I'm just the right age to share what I learned through all those years of trying.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I never didn’t consider myself a writer.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
I don’t think I have one. I have favorite authors, but I wouldn’t consider any of them a mentor where this book is concerned. Perhaps in a broader sense, Robert Spryszak, for his ability to look unflinchingly into his characters and their lives, as well as his own. He’s a no-nonsense writer. People need to know about him.

When will Beyond The Bridge be available?
With A Dream (book one) will be available at the end of summer. With A Bullet (book two), hopefully in the fall (I'm currently writing both of these), and With A Song (book three) still has to be written. I’m aiming for winter of 2011, but like I said, I have so many things going on. I just have to keep on truckin'!

Visit the Beyond The Bridge website
Visit S. K. Waller's website

__________
The views and opinions expressed in this interview are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily represent those of Alla Breve Books. If you would like to re-post this interview, or any part of it, please contact Alla Breve Books at allabrevebooks@allabreve.org

Removing Modern Filters - An Interview with K. Lynette Erwin

2010-04-03T19:48:00.007-05:00

K. Lynette Erwin is the author of So Faithful A Heart: The Love Story of Nancy Storace and Wolfgang Mozart, published in December 2009.

When and why did you begin writing?
I began writing when I was in my early teens. I think the first short story I ever wrote was for my 8th grade English class. We were studying Greek Mythology and were asked to write our own tale based on the characters found within that tradition, incorporating their personalities, attributes and relationships. My teacher was so impressed with my story that she recommended me for the Honors English track when I entered high school.

When I was sixteen I began writing a love story about a couple in 18th century England. I don’t remember all of the details, except that the characters and situations were amazingly similar to those found in So Faithful a Heart. It’s astounding considering that I didn’t begin my research on Nancy Storace for another twenty-four years.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I would say that I personally considered myself a writer when I was in college. I wrote several short works and articles for various college publications and newspapers. I enjoyed writing on historical, political, and musical subjects.

What inspired you to write So Faithful A Heart?
In the fall of 1999 I began work on my master of music in vocal performance and pedagogy. I had already put in several years worth of research on Mozart, my favorite composer, when I stumbled upon some information about one of his favorite sopranos and his original Susanna in his comic opera Le Nozze di Figaro, Nancy Storace. I was fascinated by her story and astounded by the fact that despite the wealth of information about her, so little had been written, recently, of her. When I learned that many notable and respected Mozart historians believed that Mozart had been in love with her, and that there was evidence that he had written a series of letters to her that many believed to have been love letters, my interest was piqued. The chair of my graduate committee encouraged me to write my master’s thesis on Storace and her relationship with Mozart and I took him up on that advice. Years later, after traveling to Vienna with my partner, S. K. Waller to be featured in a documentary for Mozart’s 250th birthday, and putting in more background research into both Mozart and Storace, I felt compelled to write their story. It was as if Mozart and Nancy came to me and told me that I they had chosen me to write it. It was an epiphany, for lack of a better term.

How did you come up with the title?
The title is taken from a line in the concert aria that Mozart composed for Nancy as a gift in 1787, C’hio mi scordi di te…Non temer amato bene, K. 505. He composed it using obbligato piano—actually a duet for voice and piano—and played the piano part himself in her farewell concert in late February of 1787. The text is a lover’s lament over his forced separation from his love, and how, despite their cruel separation, his heart will always remain faithful to her.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
There are several messages in this novel that I believe are important, but I suppose that if I had to pin it down to the most important message, it’s that love transcends all manmade limitations. Human beings try to place all sorts of religious, moral, and ethical boundaries upon love, but two people can, and will, love one another, whether it’s within the scope of all the rules and regulations or not.

How much of the book is actual fact?
Well, personally, I believe it to be completely factual. It’s extremely difficult to pin it down to a percentage of what is fact and what is “fiction”. Of course, all of the love scenes and dialogue that take place between the characters are fictional. However, I based the structure of the story—timelines, dates, events, places, etc.—on documented facts taken from both Mozart’s and Storace’s biographies. There is nothing in this novel that couldn’t have happened, and any of what I have written as “fiction” could easily have taken place.

What was the easiest part of writing your book?
People will laugh, but the easiest parts of this book were the love scenes. Why? Because the emotions that poured forth from these two people for one another was so powerful and profound, those scenes literally wrote themselves.

What was the most difficult?
The most difficult technically was Nancy’s nervous breakdown on stage and staying within the 18th century’s limited understanding of human psychology and mental illness. The most difficult, emotionally, was the scene where John Fisher nearly beat Nancy to death with his fists. Domestic violence is horrible no matter the century in which it’s depicted.

What do you think your readers learn from your book?
I hope they learn that we cannot judge people from two-hundred years past by our 21st century standards, and that people are people no matter what time in history or culture they come from. Human beings have been plagued with the same difficulties and life lessons from the dawn of time. We return to this planet over and over again to learn those life lessons and to learn better how to love.

What books have most influenced your life most?
The first historical fiction novel I ever read was Gone With the Wind. I read it when I was thirteen years old, and in the course of about two years, I read it six times. I think that the strength and tenacity of the characters in the face of overwhelming tragedy were what stood out to me, and I often drew from their courage and strength, years later, when faced with the seemingly insurmountable difficulties in my own life. We should never underestimate the influential power of fictional literature upon our lives.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
I consider my partner, Steph, my mentor. From the first time I read her historical fiction novel, Night Music: The Memoirs of Wolfgang Amadè Mozart, I was struck by her ability to make her characters so real, so human, and so accessible emotionally that I could literally see them and even sense them around me. I got lost in their lives, in their story. Writing is about communication, and some writers allow themselves to get in the way of communicating by following too many rules of writing (things that publishers and editors demand these days), and they don’t allow the characters to come to life. Steph is one of the few whose stories are easy to believe because her characters are so real.

Are you working on a new book?
I am. Don’t ask me what it’s about yet, because I haven’t completely decided. I’m not sure that I’ll write another historical fiction anytime soon. I spent ten years researching this one and I’m not entirely sure that I want to spend that much time researching another one!

Did you learn anything from writing your book, and what was it?
I learned that writer’s block is only a lazy excuse. If you have a story to tell and you have the ability to write, then there is no excuse not to write it.

Do you have any advice for other writers?
Just write. Don’t get bogged down by the rules. Don’t worry about whether or not it’s “publishable”. You have a story to tell—tell it. Your editor will help you fix it later on.

Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
No, I was not uncomfortable writing the sex scenes in this book. So Faithful a Heart is a love story—a sometimes very torrid, passionate, and heated love story about two very passionate people. Although this book is an historical fiction and not a romance novel, the sex scenes are vivid because of the nature of the story. Without them it would be rather bloodless and flat.

Visit the So Faithful A Heart website
Visit the So Faithful a Heart weblog

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The views and opinions expressed in this interview are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily represent those of Alla Breve Books. If you would like to re-post this interview, or any part of it, please contact Alla Breve Books at allabrevebooks@allabreve.org

Welcome to Alla Breve Books

2010-04-03T15:49:00.006-05:00

Alla Breve Design For the Arts is proud to introduce its new division, Alla Breve Books, founded by Steph Waller and Lynette Erwin.

Alla Breve Books desires to support and publish authors who dare to step to the forefront of the self-publishing revolution. No longer content to send manuscripts to large publishing houses, whose only concern is "the bottom line" and to turn out formula books, we envision books that are well written, thought-provoking and individualistic. Following the lead of such notables as the Bloomsbury Group and other self-published literaries who dared to think outside the box, we want to bring great books to the world.

Opponents will try to tell you that what we propose brings bad writing to print, but bookstore shelves are home to plenty of that from major publishers. They also will try to convince you that self-publishing can never lead to any kind of notoriety or financial advantage for the authors, but there are many famous titles that contradict them:

Remembrance of things Past
Marcel Proust

Ulysses
James Joyce

The Adventures of Peter Rabbit
Beatrix Potter

A Time to Kill
John Grisham

The Wealthy Barber
David Chilton

The Bridges of Madison County
Robert Waller

What Color is Your Parachute
Richard N. Bolles

In Search of Excellence
Tom Peters

The Celestine Prophecy
James Redfield

The Elements of Style
William Strunk, Jr.

The Joy of Cooking
Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker

When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple
Sandra Martz

Life’s Little Instruction Book
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Robert’s Rules of Order
Henry M. Robert III, William J. Evans, Daniel H. Honemann, and Thomas J. Balch

There are many more famous authors who were self-published:

Deepak Chopra

Stephen Crane

e.e. Cummings

Alexandre Dumas

William E.B. DuBois

Benjamin Franklin

Zane Grey

Rudyard Kipling

Anais Nin

Thomas Paine

Edgar Allen Poe

Beatrix Potter

Ezra Pound

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Carl Sandburg

Bernard Shaw

Upton Sinclair

Gertrude Stein

Henry David Thoreau

Mark Twain

Walt Whitman

Virginia Wolff

Self-publishing is allowing otherwise unpublished writers to create books that not only sell, but also to write according to their own dictates, not turn out only that which the business graduates who populate the publishing houses deem to be "marketable".

If authors write books that only a select group of publishers want, then the voice of people the world over becomes standardized and scripted, a current dangerous trend.

"It is unreasonable what some assert, 'That printers aught not to print anything but what they approve,' since if all of that business should make such a resolution, and abide by it, an end would thereby be put to free writing, and the world would afterwards have nothing to read but what happened to be the opinions of printers." Benjamin Franklin

We at Alla Breve Design and Alla Breve Books believe the Arts come first, and with financial support for the Arts dwindling from both the government and the private sectors, it's our intent to publish books from many genres that the established publishers will not touch.

Please check out not only our titles, but those that we proudly endorse.

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Thanks to Dan Poynter at ParaPublishing for these lists.

What Does a Media Kit Include?

2010-03-01T16:50:00.000-06:00

A professional looking media kit is a critical marketing tool to sell your book. Without one it is very difficult to get the notice it deserves. A good media kit will include the following:

Press Release: This is sent to the media to announce book releases, book signings, and favorable book reviews. See example.
Title Information: This sheet includes all of your book's information, including ISBN numbers, description, a brief author bio, and contact information/web addresses. See example.
Author Bio: This tells the media what they need to know about you, including your credentials and your other titles, if applicable.
Author Interview: This is optional, but it helps the journalist to know how to write about you, and gives them quotes they can use in their article. It may also spur other questions that they may like to ask you. Alla Breve Books will interview you for the purposes of your press kit. See example.
Front Matter & First Chapter
Book Cover
Sell Sheet: This is one-page flyer that provides all the details about your book in an attractive layout. It is used to sell or promote your book to retailers, wholesalers, and consumers. See example.
Author Photos: Most journalists appreciate two professional quality photographs, a head shot ad a full shot.

For more info or pricing, please contact us at allabrevebooks@allabreve.org