Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Just A Hat: Book Blitz and Giveaway

JUST A HAT
By SHANAH KHUBIAR
Young Adult / Coming of Age / Jewish Fiction / Small-Town Texas / 1970s
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Page Count: 254
Publication Date: July 18, 2023
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Action-packed, humorous, and bittersweet, this 1970s-era coming-of-age novel is more relevant than ever--exploring how a second-generation immigrant kid in a new hometown must navigate bullying, unexpected friendships, and the struggle of keeping both feet firmly planted in two very different cultures.
It's 1979, and thirteen-year-old Joseph Nissan can't help but notice that small-town Texas has something in common with Revolution-era Iran: an absence of fellow Jews. And in such a small town it seems obvious that a brown kid like him was bound to make friends with Latinos--which is a plus, since his new buds, the Ybarra twins, have his back. But when the Iran hostage crisis, two neighborhood bullies, and the local reverend's beautiful daughter put him in all sorts of danger, Joseph must find new ways to cope at home and at school.
As he struggles to trust others and stay true to himself, a fiercely guarded family secret keeps his father at a distance, and even his piano teacher, Miss Eleanor--who is like a grandmother to him--can't always protect him. But Joseph is not alone, and with a little help from his friends, he finds the courage to confront his fears and discovers he can inspire others to find their courage, too.
Just a Hat is an authentically one-of-a-kind YA debut that fuses the humor of Firoozeh Dumas's Funny in Farsi with the poignancy of Daniel Nayeri's Everything Sad Is Untrue.

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Shanah Khubiar is a retired law enforcement officer, and she is now self-employed as a subject matter specialist. She holds a BS and MEd in education from East Texas State University and a PhD in philosophy. A student of her Persian ancestry, she incorporates (Mizrachi) Middle Eastern Jewry into her fiction, examining the historical challenges and triumphs of a different culture and narrative than what usually appears in literature. Khubiar is a sometime resident and always fan of most things Texas.
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Signed hardback copy of JUST A HAT
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Friday, April 26, 2024

Magical Elements of the Periodic Table: Book Blitz and Giveaway

 

MAGICAL ELEMENTS OF THE PERIODIC TABLE
PRESENTED ALPHABETICALLY
BY THE ELEMENTAL DRAGONS
Magical Elements of the Periodic Table, Book 2
By Sybrina Durant

Children’s Picture Book / STEM / Chemistry
Publisher: Sybrina Publishing
Page Count: 44
Publication Date: March 9, 2024

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In this unique alphabet book, members of the Elemental Dragon Clan present 26 Magical Elements of the Periodic Table in alphabetical order. Each member of the clan has an element tipped tail. They also have magical powers based on the properties of their metals. There are no more perfect groups than unicorns and dragons to familiarize yourself with elements from the Periodic Table. Their theme is: "No Metal -- No Magic. . .and No Technology."

In this book, Antz starts out the book by introducing the very necessary metal, Antimony on his element page. Zora rounds out the alphabet by presenting scientific facts and other fun information about the metal, Zirconium, on her elemental page. In all, readers will get some great insight into the properties of 26 elements from the periodic table. Each page is full of amazing facts and tons of FUN. There's a Magical Elemental themed periodic table, too!

This unique book will help tweens, teens and anyone else quickly absorb the elements of the Periodic Table.
REMEMBER. . .
No Metal,
No Magic…
And No Technology.
It's Techno-Magical!

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Sybrina Durant is a unicorn author and entrepreneur. In addition to books, she offers unicorn-themed activities, t-shirts, and more. Plus, she has pulled together a collection of nearly all the unicorn books available today from hundreds of authors. They are categorized on her website by Little Kid, Middle Kid, and Teen Unicorn Books





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Signed paperback of Magical Elements of The Periodic Table, Book 2
and 24 x 36 poster of the Periodic Table
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Saturday, April 6, 2024

Shahrazad’s Gift: Interview and Giveaway

SHAHRAZAD’S GIFT
by
Gretchen McCullough

Contemporary Fiction / Linked Short Stories / Humor
Publisher: Cune Press
Date of Publication: February 20, 2024
Number of Pages: 198 pages 

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Shahrazad’s Gift is a collection of linked short stories set in contemporary Cairo—magical, absurd and humorous. The author focuses on the off-beat, little-known stories, far from CNN news: a Swedish belly dancer who taps into the Oriental fantasies of her clientele; a Japanese woman studying Arabic, driven mad by the noise and chaos of the city; a frustrated Egyptian housewife who becomes obsessed by the activities of her Western gay neighbor; an American journalist who covered the civil war in Beirut who finds friendship with her Egyptian dentist. We also meet the two protagonists of McCullough's Confessions of a Knight Errant, before their escapades in that story.

These stories are told in the tradition of A Thousand and One Nights.






Interview with Gretchen McCullough

  

You’re a Texan: how has being a Texan (or Texas) influenced your writing? 

I don’t necessarily think this book is influenced by Texas. But of course, living abroad makes you think about where you came from. It has taken me some time to work my way back to writing about Texas. The new novel that I just finished is set in West Texas during the nineteen-thirties during the Depression. It is focused on one of the CCC projects, an enormous spring-fed swimming pool called Balmorhea.  

The late Allen Wier was my mentor at the University of Alabama. He was from Texas and he encouraged me. 

 

How long have you been writing?

I started writing seriously when I was in college. After I finished at Brown, I was eager to have experiences and spent six years teaching abroad: Egypt, Turkey and Japan. It was very hard to write while I was teaching school. It was also very lonely. That’s when I decided to return to graduate school and get an M.F.A. This was a wonderful decision. At that point I was thirty and was very focused. Having time was a real gift. 

 

What kinds of writing do you do? 

I write essays, short stories, reviews, and novels! I feel so comfortable in the novel form because I want to create a world with many characters. Writing short stories is actually harder because you have to shave away so much. You have to compress a great deal; my natural instinct is to expand and digress! 

 

Where do you write?

I have a desk that looks out a window in front of huge trees, even though I live in a densely populated part of Cairo. I usually block off the mornings to write, especially if I am not teaching. 

 

What do you think most characterizes your writing?

I think my writing became less realistic after I moved to Cairo in 2000. So much was inexplicable. My writing could be characterized as wacky and humorous. I exaggerate wildly. 



Gretchen McCullough was raised in Harlingen Texas. After graduating from Brown University in 1984, she taught in Egypt, Turkey, and Japan. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama and was awarded a teaching Fulbright to Syria from 1997-1999. Her stories, essays and reviews have appeared in The Barcelona Review, Archipelago, National Public Radio, Story South, Guernica, The Common, The Millions, and the LA Review of Books. Translations in English and Arabic have been published in: Nizwa, Banipal, Brooklyn Rail in Translation, World Literature Today and Washington Square Review with Mohamed Metwalli. Her bi-lingual book of short stories in English and Arabic, Three Stories From Cairo, translated with Mohamed Metwalli, was published in July 2011 by AFAQ Publishing House, Cairo. A collection of short stories about expatriate life in Cairo, Shahrazad’s Tooth, was also published by AFAQ in 2013. Currently, she is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Rhetoric and Composition at the American University in Cairo.

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Two winners receive paperbacks.
One winner receives the eBook of Shahrazad’s Gift.
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Monday, April 1, 2024

Amethyst, the Shallows: Character Spotlight and Giveaway

AMETHYST, THE 
SHALLOWS
by
Kellye Abernathy

YA / Magical Realism / Coming of Age
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Page Count: 296 pages
Publication Date: February 6, 2024


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"This is a night for being brave."

In the aftermath of a devastating sickness that shatters their close-knit beach town, six lonely kids are drawn together during the unpredictable autumn equinox. Among them are fourteen-year-old Lorelei, who yearns to be an oceanographer, and her peculiar younger brother, Tad, who possesses an otherworldly curiosity.

When Lorelei has a strange and almost deadly encounter in a sea cave, her loyal boyfriend, Casey, cannot reconcile her fantastical experience with the rational world. Condi, Lorelei's best friend, understands ocean magic but isn't free to share what she knows. Kait, a girl from Ireland, regrets her impulsive move to America--all because of an odd occurrence involving her deceased boyfriend's lost surfboard. When tides turn and the moon shifts, Isaac, the new kid in town who despises the ocean, is forced to face the truth--a profound and powerful magic lives in the deep.

Guided by a wise surf master, mystical old women known as the Beachlings, and an open-hearted grandmother, six kids embark on transformative adventures that challenge their beliefs about possibilities and the intense nature of love.

Amethyst, the Shallows is the companion novel to The Aquamarine Surfboard.

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Kellye Abernathy's passions are writing and serving trauma survivors as a yoga teacher and practical life skills advocate. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary English Education from the University of Kansas. Her home is in land-locked Plano, Texas—where she’s dreaming of her next trip to the sea!


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