Ask the Author: Marjorie M Liu

On Tuesday, August 4, at 11am SLT (Pacific time zone), author Marjorie M Liu will be making a very unique appearance on Athena Isle in Second Life to discuss her latest Dirk & Steele book, The Fire King.

(Stay tuned to http://athenaisle.blogspot.com/ or email marjorieweb@gmail.com for details.)

But we need your help!Now is your chance to have your burning questions about the Dirk & Steele series answered. Send your questions to marjorieweb@gmail.com, and Marjorie will select 5 lucky winners to receive an autographed copy of The Fire King!

Your questions can be about character, plot, or even Marjorie’s writing process, but it must be Dirk & Steele related in some way to qualify. We will be accepting questions until midnight Pacific time on Sunday, August 2, so don't delay!

If you are unable to attend the Second Life event, a transcript of the interview will be made available on the Athena Isle blog http://athenaisle.blogspot.com/ and the Dirk & Steele blog http://dirkandsteele.posterous.com.

If your question is not selected for the interview, we will also be posting a select number of additional Q&A to the Dirk & Steele blog (http://dirkandsteele.posterous.com ) throughout the month of August so stay tuned.

CLICK FOR SLURL TO EVENT.

Athena Isle is a Second Life community for writers, entrepreneurs, community builders, artists, women and moms. Story Mountain Center for Writers is a part of Athena Isle and is co-sponsoring Ms. Liu’s appearance in Second Life.

Chat With Bestselling Author Carleen Brice in Second Life July 26

UPDATE: Time has been changed to 12:30 p.m. SLT!!

Thanks to a different bestselling author and Second Life resident, Connie Briscoe, Story Mountain Center for Writers is honored to host an appearance by bestselling author Carleen Brice, whose second novel, Children of the Waters, has just been released as A One World Trade Paperback Original by publishing giant Ballantine.

Ms. Brice (shown in photo receiving 2009 Black Caucus of the ALA First Novelist Award) will discuss her work at the Story Mountain Lodge at 3:30 p.m. SLT (Pacific time zone) Sunday, July 26, 2009. Sponsoring her appearance is Connie Briscoe, author of five novels and SL resident Zillow Dejavu, who will interview Ms. Brice and facilitate an audience question-and-answer session.

All Second Life residents are warmly invited to attend this free event at Story Mountain. (Teleport directly to Story Mountain, located on Athena Isle, by clicking this link to the SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Athena%20Isle/203/105/23/?title=Story%20Mountain%20Center%20for%20Writers.) Fiction writers and novel readers will both find this event entertaining and informative.

Carleen Brice’s first novel, Orange Mint and Honey, made many bestseller lists, was chosen as a Target “Bookmarked Break Out Book,” and has now been optioned by Lifetime TV for the Lifetime Movie Network, with Damon Lee ("This Christmas" and "Undercover Brother") producing.

About Children of the Waters: Children of the Waters explores the connection between love and race, and what it really means to be family. It strikes deep emotional chords and poses the intriguing question: Can two strangers become sisters?

Trish Taylor’s white ancestry never got in the way of her love for her black ex-husband, or their mixed race son, Will. But when Trish’s marriage ends, she returns to her family’s Denver, Colorado home to find a sense of identity and connect to her past.

What she finds there shocks her to the very core: her mother and newborn sister were not killed in a car crash as she was told. In fact, her baby sister, Billie Cousins, is now a grown woman; her grandparents had put her up for adoption, unwilling to raise the child of a black man. Billie, who had no idea she was adopted, wants nothing to do with Trish until a tragedy in Billie’s own family forces her to lean on her surprisingly supportive and sympathetic sister. Together they unravel the age-old layers of secrets and resentments and navigate a path toward love, healing, and true reconciliation.

“I was exhausted and singing the blues the hour I began Carleen Brice’s new novel, Children of the Waters. Five hours later, I’d finished this fresh, free-rein novel about mothers’ secrets and children’s sorrows and was shouting ‘Hurray!’”
—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

Connie Briscoe, who is sponsoring Carleen Brice’s appearance at Story Mountain Center, has been a full-time published author for more than 10 years, with five novels, one photo-essay book and one novella published to date. Her work has hit many major best-seller lists, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, USA Today Weekend, and Essence magazine. Her sixth novel, Sisters and Husbands, (the sequel to her first) will be released shortly.