Book Launch for ATHENA!

(Originally posted on The Newport Ladies Book Club blog)

What a great night. We had the ATHENA launch at the Fort Union Deseret Book, which is the bookstore that has hosted all of the Newport Ladies Book Club launches. Josi wasn't able to come since she had booked a trip to see the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque. (If you've read her mystery novel Tres Leches Cupcakes, you'll know the connection.)

Here are the pictures!

 We all signed a collection of books (Josi did beforehand), and 3 sets were given away as prizes.

Because the Fort Union store agreed to let us have the launch on Oct 6, which is their semi-annual Ladies Night, the publisher had to send the book to press a month early. Copies are only available at this store until the official release month of November.

Our official launch picture--everyone holding ATHENA! (Heather, Julie, Annette)

Now we are holding the entire set! And just FYI, this first set of 4 covers the first 4 months of book club for Olivia, Daisy, Paige & Athena. The next set of 4 will cover the next 4 months and will contain Ilana, Ruby, Shannon & Victoria's stories.

 It was great talking to readers. This is Diony George's mom visiting from Alaska.

I think people who love books are always drawn to each other.

Not sure how I feel about this one. My girls stopped to visit (Rose on left, Dana on right, who I dedicated ATHENA to) . . . but then Julie sneaked in and posed behind us.

Author Lisa Mangum was there for Ladies Night as well, signing her new YA love story, AFTER HELLO. (Annette, Julie, Heather, Lisa)

Notice the tin of baklava on the table (from my mom). In ATHENA, her mom is a great cook and one of Athena's favorite desserts is her mom's baklava. Recipe is at the back of the book.

And finally, photographer Heather Gardner took this lovely picture. She has come to our launches and several of my other book signings.

It was a great night and we're grateful for everyone's support and enthusiasm for this series! It wouldn't be successful without our readers!

Cover Reveal: ATHENA

I'm really excited to show the cover for Athena because it's the fourth book in this series, and completes the parallel portion of the series with Paige (by Annette Lyon), Olivia (by Julie Wright), and Daisy (by Josi Kilpack). The next four books (Shannon, Ruby, Ilana, and Victoria) will move ahead in time to the next 4 book club meetings.

When we submitted Olivia, Athena, Daisy, and Paige to our publishers, we didn't know what order they'd be released. We didn't know if the publishers would do one a year, or maybe two a year. We were working with two publishers so it was tricky to get everything lined up. When they agreed to release all four books in 2012, we were really excited. Readers wouldn't have to wait too long between books and the parallel stories will feel more like real-time, how they are meant to be.

While writing Athena, I was trying to decide who Athena would fall in love with. I was about 30 pages into the story and hadn't decided. So I emailed Josi/Annette/Julie and they all had the same opinion of who the man should be--so that made it easy.

It was a lot of fun to write Athena (except for the not so fun parts of the story), and I realized that her personality is a lot like mine. My family life and situation are completely different, but we are similar in many ways. So it will be interesting to read the reviews :-)

Athena will be released in November, but you can get an early copy at the October 6th Book Launch (Fort Union Deseret Book, Ladies Night, 6:00-8:00 p.m.)

Newport Series blog is HERE.

Submission letter for ATHENA

Below is my submission letter for ATHENA, my most recent book. It will give you an idea of how I pitch a project to my publisher. This project is unique in the fact that I'm co-writing this series with other authors. (We have a blog dedicated to the series called The Newport Ladies Book Club)


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Dear *Editor*,

I’m pleased to submit Athena, one of the books in The Newport Ladies Book Club series, complete at 66,000 words.

As a reminder, the first installment of this series includes four books, each written by a different author. The novels function as companion books that are interconnected, but don’t have to be read in any particular order. They can be read as stand-alone as well since each book finishes the story of the point of view character.

Subtitles will be the names of each of the characters:

Athena by Heather B. Moore

Daisy by Josi S. Kilpack

Paige by Annette Lyon

Olivia by Julie Wright

Overview of The Newport Ladies Book Club series:

The four books follow the same four or five-month timeline in which the characters go through their own character conflicts, then come together on the book group night. Over the course of each novel, each character’s conflict is resolved.

Paige (by Annette Lyon) is the only woman in the book club who is LDS. Her faith has a great impact on the other women in the book club, and each woman is touched one way or another. Women’s fiction is a major genre in the national market, but it’s very difficult to find any clean reads. We hope that this series will provide an excellent option for women and will also touch their hearts and minds with the spiritual growth and self-discovery each character goes through as she discovers the value of friendship through the book club.

The books the group reads will also carry messages and help the women through their challenges. Reading one book will not give away the ending to all of the characters’ conflicts. For example, in Olivia’s story (written by Julie) we learn how Olivia’s marriage and relationship with her children turn out. We learn bits of the other characters as Olivia interacts with them (but only from her point of view), yet we have to read the other books to find out the resolutions to the other characters’ challenges. This way, one book won’t give away the ending of any of the other books. And the books can be read in any order.

Brief Character Sketches:

Athena Di Jasper (written by Heather B. Moore): Athena is a self-proclaimed bachelorette—it’s better that way—no one gets hurt. But when tragedy strikes, Athena realizes friendship and love is the only way she can pull through, and she must, for the first time in her life, risk opening her heart.

Daisy Martin-Davis (written by Josi S. Kilpack): Since becoming a mother at the age of 17, Daisy has looked forward to the day when she could check "motherhood" off her list of things to do. At the age of 46 everything seems to be right on track, until she suddenly finds herself facing a very different future then she planned on, and an uncomfortable evaluation of the past she thought she understood.

Paige Anderson (written by Annette Lyon): Young, divorced, with two children, Paige must come to terms with her husband’s betrayal, discover who she is as a woman rather than a wife, help her boys adjust to life in a broken home, and decide if love and trust will ever be a part of her future again.

Olivia Robbins (written by Julie Wright): Olivia has it all—and does it all—from motherhood, to being the perfect wife, to volunteering at the hospital. But when her marriage is threatened, Olivia must decide if she has the strength, or desire, to save it.

Marketing Ideas:

*Release of books relatively close together

*Blog for The Newport Ladies Book Club: http://thenewportladiesbookclub.blogspot.com/

*Appearances by all four authors for book signings and events

*Book Club book tour

*Conference calls to book groups across the nation

*Eventual companion cook book. The women bring homemade goodies to book group, so the cook book could compile those recipes along with highlighting recipes enjoyed by other book groups around the country.

If the four-part series is successful, we plan to write another companion four books on the minor characters in the first four books: Ruby (by Heather B. Moore), Shannon (by Josi S. Kilpack), Ilana (by Annette Lyon), and Victoria (by Julie Wright).

I look forward to hearing from you about Athena.

Sincerely,

Heather Moore