FAMILY SECRETS Release Party

A lot is happening now that Family Secrets is available for pre-order on both Amazon Kindle and Smashwords.

On October 28th, Family Secrets will be released by my publisher, Fire Star Press, an imprint of Prairie Rose Publications. It will be available on Amazon Kindle, Nook, Smashwords and as a trade paperback from Amazon.

I am in the process of updating my Amazon's Author page to show me as Robyn Echols writing as Zina Abbott. I am also updating my Zina Abbott Books website which can be found at zinaabbott.homestead.com. I already have my Pinterest board for the novel which you can access from this blog. Now that the time is getting closer, I will be adding more pins to give you more hints about the book.


                   RELEASE PARTY

For those of you on Facebook, I have announced a Family Secrets release party on Saturday, November 1st, which will be held both there and on this blog. The Facebook portion will be an interactive sharing of images, recipes, buy links and, hopefully, feedback and comments from those who attend. If you have not already done so, please search for my Family Secrets page, "Like" it, and come to the party.

The names of all who comment on the Family Secrets Facebook page during the hours of the party will be thrown into Buck's cowboy hat. [In keeping with the Vietnam War theme which makes up a portion of this novel, I should say his steel pot (helmet). However, he left that behind when he got out of the Army. So, we'll use his cowboy hat.] I will pick one winner to be announced the last 5-10 minutes of the party. The winner will receive one digital copy of the novel from the vender of their choice.

For those of you not familiar with Smashwords, it has several file types available for download to your computer. They include epub (used on Nook), mobi (used on Kindle) and several other document formats. From there, you can read it on your computer or upload most of them to your e-reader, tablet or smartphone.

The hours for the portion of the party held on Facebook will be as follows:

Pacific Time Zone:        10:00am-12 noon
Mountain Time Zone:    11:00am-1:00pm
Central Time Zone:        12 noon-2:00pm
Eastern Time Zone:        1:00pm-3:00pm

In case you are wondering what these pictures to the right are, They go with the Zina Abbott Books blog portion of my release party.

The Zina Abbott Books blog portion will be held on Saturday, November 1st from 1:00am to 11:59pm Pacific Time Zone. I hope you will all stop by, read what I post for that day, and leave a comment.

On Monday, November 3rd, I will take all the names of those who comment on my Facebook page between 10:00am PDT and 11:59pm PDT on November 1st AND the names of those who leave a comment on this blog between 1:00am and 11:59pm PDT on November 1st and put those names in Buck's cowboy hat for a drawing. The prizes I'm offering for  this portion are:

1.  One "any way you read" book bag as pictured. (It should be obvious, but for legal-eagle reasons, I need to clarify that the e-readers and cell phone shown in these images are not included.] Since Family Secrets is part of my Golden Oaks series, I chose a fabric design using gilded oak leaves on a rusty red background. The large pocket holds a large reader or most tablets and the shorter pockets hold a small reader and/or a cell phone. The outside of the pockets are padded and I did a rough outline stitch around part of the design. 

2.  I will give away either a digital copy from the vendor of your choice or an autographed copy of the book in trade paperback format. (You will need to wait a couple of weeks for the print version.)

The following is a quick overview of Family Secrets:

In many ways, Family Secrets is three stories in one.

Even though Jennie is married to a soldier deployed to Afghanistan, and the novel includes scenes from the year Jennie's Grandpa Mike fought in the Vietnam War, Family Secrets is not a war story.

With the exception of one, the chapters dealing with the Vietnam War and the return to the SEATAC airport are loosely based on Buck's (my husband) experiences during his year in Vietnam. It is his pins and patches that are depicted on the red storyboard on the bottom of the novel cover.

Family Secrets is not a traditional Thanksgiving Day story, although Thanksgiving plays a big role in this novel. Not only do we learn of Mike's Thanksgiving experience in Vietnam, but, thanks to Jennie's prodding, over forty years after his return, he shares the reason it is important to him to celebrate this particular holiday surrounded by his family each year.

Family Secrets is about three generations of a family, their secrets, how they resolve their individual challenges and draw closer together.