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FIRSTS By C. Alease, March 1, 2010 I don't remember anything about being a baby, or how it must have felt inside when I took my first step, said my first word, or got my first "booboo." All I can do is feel my way vicariously through the absolute pride and joy in my mother's eyes; that twinkle in them when she reminisces about how my grandfather would stand a few steps away from the top of the landing of the stairs to the kitchen and pat his hands against the top-most step, nearest the opening. She would laugh out loud when she remembered how each time I crawled to him at the top of the steps, dragging a brown paper bag, full of stuff I collected while I crawled around the house. She told me he would say, "When I come back from work today, you are gonna walk straight to me." Of course, it took a few of those pats from my grandfather against the wooden stair step, but one day, she recalled, as her smile filled her cheeks to their brim, "when Grandpop Lawson came home and stood those few steps down from the top of the landing and began to pat his hands on the top step, you got up, clutching your brown paper bag full of stuff you collected, and you walked straight to him!" While I regret nothing of my life so far, it has been a series of the same good and not so good things, repeating themselves in different forms and experiences, but repeats, nonetheless. Until now. I am now situating inside of the tremendously sublime place of firsts again; my first novel, my first sale, my first radio interview, my first book signing. The feelings I have will not be expressed adequately by the words I write to describe them, but sufficed to say, it’s like being a baby all over again, but with a twist; I will remember these firsts. |
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AMAZON BREAKTHROUGH NOVEL AWARD ENTRY By C. Alease, February 10, 2010 On January 25, 2010, I entered the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA). This is the third annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, the international competition seeking the next popular novel. For the first time, the competition will award two grand prizes: one for General Fiction and one for Young Adult Fiction. The 2010 competition is open to unpublished and previously self-published novels waiting to be discovered. Each winner will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $15,000 advance. (excerpted from the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Website, http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011). The first round of the contest required that we submit a 300 word "Pitch." The pitch had to be an original writing and had to describe the novel, while convincing the judges that it is not only good literature, but that it is marketable, inasmuch as a contract with Penguine Publishing is the end game. This is the pitch I entered into the contest. Anyone can have a “Trollop,” a “Chatterbox” and even a “Perfectionist” in themselves. When acknowledged, the question then becomes, “who among them is in charge?” Our main character and narrator in The Gatekeeper, a Novel by C. Alease, contends that some of her best friends live inside her head. “So it appears that I am fragmented, though not completely split.” In reality, this woman is a human jigsaw puzzle not yet assembled, cracked mirror pieces in a worn, weather beaten frame, ready to fall apart. Something inside her believes that her desire to find a therapist is actually for her eighteen year old son, to manage his anger issues. A close friend recommends one, and after a few visits with her son, the therapist becomes much more interested in her. And so begins an unintended journey through her fractured, but not broken, dissociated mind, to places she did not know existed, chose to forget, and was not prepared to revisit. This odyssey takes the reader and our main character through an obstacle course of events, a journey of self-actualization and recollection, trauma and confusion as she learns the agonizing extent to which she has been guided by, interacting with and struggling to find a precarious peace amid these fractured pieces of herself, all living inside her head, and all of whom were created for their own specific purpose. Our main character’s exquisite narration enables readers to identify clearly with each of the characters as the situations unfold. Readers will find that the story of The Gatekeeper is dark and foreboding, yet amusing and playful, providing a proverbial rollercoaster of emotions that will touch the reader’s soul, as these multifarious personalities emerge alive, completely different, yet being, loving, and living, much like the best friends that our narrator believes they are. Below is the list of key dates in the contest:
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WHAT DOES THE "BUMBLEBEE" STAND FOR?" By C. Alease, February 10, 2010
Now, BumbleBee represents the official website for me and my debut novel, The Gatekeeper. It will be the home for all my novels. Right now, visitors can can view the official book trailer for the novel, view a video excerpt, sign the guestbook and read the first three chapters of the novel for free. In addition, reviews will be posted, along with news, events and even blogs that I write will be put up on the site. |
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FORTITUDE OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT OR "WHAT BLIZZARD?" By C. Alease, December 19, 2009 The weather report for Philadelphia, PA on December 12th promised a partly sunny sky, brisk and chilly. Whew, I thought. With all the rain going on of late, I'm glad that we'll have a good day for the booksigning. By December 14th, the long range forecast still promised a bit of sun, turning to clouds for the 19th. All was going to be right for the 19th, my booksigning. The 19th was when I was going to have my first booksigning for "The Gatekeeper, a Novel by C. Alease." My wonderful hairstylist, Charlie Trendi, of the Charlie Trendi Salon and Spa of Philadelphia, (a gratuitous plug), had offered to present my novel at her salon. Hmmm, what a neat idea, a real "Trail Blazing Idea." Why not start a "Salon Circuit." The thought of traversing the salons in the area began to sound like something that would be great fun. By December 16th, there suddenly became news of a "Nor-easter," a big one, one that was going to start swinging and wasn't going to stop on the 18th. This snow storm was going to cut across the south from the north, then to the east, and then force it's might back up north, huge, white, wet, cold and clammy, swinging through the cold wind wildly to open-hand slap me right across the booksigning on the 19th. The snow began to fall in earnest late Friday night, the 18th. Charlie said that the booksigning was still on when I left with my perfectly coifed hair from her salon. On the radio while driving home, the weather report stated that they had issued a severe storm warning -- not a "watch" which means "maybe," but a warning, which means inevitable. Oh, Oh, I thought, nervously. When I awoke, the TV was on, and the news was all a buzz about the "snow storm." Vivid pictures of cars crashing, slipping and sliding, and interviews with the brave but seemingly not so sensible people who were out in the four inches of snow that had already blanketed the ground, with no chance of letting up until Sunday morning. The first wave was going to drop about 4-6 inches, and the second wave was supposed to drop an additional 6. Crap. No chance of having the booksigning now. I said to my husband after receiving a text message from Charlie to her customers announcing that she was closing the salon due to "inclement weather." I texted the question that I thought for sure she was going to answer with a "are you (expletive intended but not added) kidding?" But I got no answer; no answer for about two hours. When I did, the message read, "Yes, honey, we are on." And so we were. I got excited again. My husband thought I had truly gone insane; nevertheless, he got dressed as I got dressed and we prepared to leave. We were about to be among the few, the brave, and perhaps not so sensible people out in the Blizzard of 2009, because I was having my first book signing. I really liked the sound of that. Even more, I liked the thought of anybody at all braving the storm to visit and maybe even purchase my book, and perhaps listen as I read some of it. And they came. Not in throngs, hordes or swarms, but in modestly, little bits, and few. The lady who gets her hair done every two weeks, "damn the weather." The friend who drove from about two hours away. Another person who lived just around the corner. Two ladies who happened to hear me reading. They bought and I signed, and we had laughs and we hugged. And then another, and still another came. The lady who bought three books for gifts, and the one who bought two for the same reason, and decided to gift herself. Then the stylists themselves decided to purchase the book. And we took pictures, and we laughed and we hugged. Before long, it was difficult to see the Rite Aid sign across the street because of the snowy blanket that had covered it. The last person called the salon. "Hey is the booksigning still going on? I really wanted to get my book signed." So we stayed and ate the veggies and fruit from the fruit bowl, and some of the visitors drank the wine that Charlie had so graciously set out for their pleasure. We waited and then she ran in, cold, wet, and laughing. "I told you I wouldn't miss this for the world." she said to Charlie. Then she offered to host a "book signing party" at her home for me. Another novel idea (no pun intended), book signing parties in homes." I was honored by each and every one of the people who were there. Honored by their Fortitude. When my husband returned to pick me up for the drive back home, and I slipped in the snow into his arms, I smiled, winked at him and proclaimed, "WHAT BLIZZARD!" |
I received a few questions about BumbleBee recently. BumbleBee was an idea I had after an inspiration hit me to use BumbleBee as a logo from a picture of my granddaughter, China on her second Halloween. I bought her a cute, furry bumblebee costume, complete with a leatherette tail and two felt antennai with fur balls on the tips. Of course, the bumblebee costume was too big, but just enough to droop in around the arms and the bottom, which actually made her look even cuter in it. Of the many pictures we took that Holloween day, there were two pictures that I loved the most. One of them is the one that sits above the "B" and the "U" in the Logo.