Visit Lisa & Lori's Blog: http://hazelmoonlisaloriminneti.blogspot.com/
PUBLISHER'S INTRODUCTION
I REMEMBER WATERCOLOR nights with my father and can still conjure up his voice, creaky like an anise candy wrapper. Sometimes he’d shade my world with his knowledge of birds, bats, and insects, or recite the lyrics to ballads like, “To Know Know Know Him, is to Love Love Love Him.” Now pushing seven years old, I would often spend my days sloshing around swamps in my yellow plastic boots searching for tadpoles and leopard frogs. When the wind howled dad would say, “See little November, there is music everywhere.” Come along on a magical and mystical literary ride, a coming-of-age story set in the post-punk rock era of 1984, with November Rainer Savitchian reliving the fateful night of the Celtic Hazel Moon Festival. Hazel Moon unfolds over 24 hours on Earth, yet also Spans Centuries and Travels the Universe. Hidden in the author's colorful prose are poignant layers of profound Wisdom & Parable worthy of a classic text like Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha.
By
way of character background, Hazel Moon’s principal protagonist is a
young and proud Armenian, November Rainer Savitchian. Although the authors,
Lisa & Lori Minneti, are second generation Italian & German immigrants,
growing up, one of their very best friends was an Armenian girl. From that
close friendship and having learned much about Armenian culture and the
Armenian Genocide, November Rainer Savitchian became the anchor for their
coming-of-age story.
There
are any number of references to Armenian culture, food, and the Armenian
Genocide. November’s grandmother came to America as a result of the Genocide
and could not stand eating rice because it reminded her of being force fed rice
during her Armenian Trail Of Tears experience.
FROM
THE BOOK
Her grandmother was a survivor of the Armenian
Genocide. During that horrible period of ethnic cleansing, families of
Armenians were rounded up and forced to relocate. During long death marches,
many died from exposure and lack of adequate food and water.
There were some rest
stops when rice was provided, but the starving children often gorged themselves
and ended up gagging to death when theirstomachs ruptured.
This was the traumatic
memory that plagued her grandmother and followed November into her generation
so that even thinking of certain foods, if not rice, even the color of rice,
like white Italian cheese, could trigger a gagging reflex. The nightmare was
passed down so that…No Armenian Would Ever Forget.
That
said, November is the kind of girl, kind of person who will inspire any
Armenian in the Diaspora, but especially Armenian teenage girls, to revel in
their Armenian heritage while boldly facing all the normal challenges that have
to be overcome while growing up in a new homeland.
The Writing Gods have blessed me with a new project recently completed, Hazel Moon. Lisa & Lori Minneti are the authors, two fraternal twin sisters joined at the creative hip, each making their own unique contribution to the marvelous coming-of-age story whose characters and scenes are all adapted from the author's personalities and experiences.
The day before Easter, 2015, I walked into a Walgreens and saw someone I'd last met 25 years earlier. What stunned me was that this person, Lisa Minneti, apparently hadn't aged a day. I had to say hello, we got to chatting, and the "Magic" that seems to follow her around like a guardian angel, led to her sharing that she'd penned a novel. Of course, I had to see it, gave her my business card, and a day or two later she reached out via email and we got the project started.
The joy of serving the literary community as a publisher comes when someone like myself finds that Hope Diamond in the Rough ... that manuscript that though in need of editing, glows with the gift of storytelling gold. Although publishing is today within the digital grasp of any writer with the ambition to Click Send it's still a rare event for a book to be published and rarer still for a book to sell more than a few hundred copies in the competitive marketplace.
All that said, some writers have dreams that just won't be denied ... and in the case of the authors I'm working with on this project, their dreams and intentions seem to be connected to the greater Universe and take on an aura of Destiny.
PROJECT
At this point, the First Edition of Hazel Moon has been completed, but the novel will continue to evolve over the next few months until the Second Edition is ready. The authors accepted most of my editing suggestions, but during Round 2 of the shaping process we'll get feedback from friends and relatives by getting the First Edition into their hands as well as revising the entire manuscript in order to make improvements. Also, the book cover will be updated with Lori posing as the character Lady Luna from the book. The authors are also making preparations to produce a book video and possibly a series of YouTube videos where they act our scenes from the book.
Normally, a publisher works with the authors to edit and produce the book, but in this Facebook/Twitter/YouTube world we live in, this particular project will be first let loose on the social media web site for authors and readers, www.wattpad.com. There, readers and other writers can comment, suggesting anything they like to make the story better. They can also post comments to have another rare experience, having the opportunity to interact on a personal level with the author of a book.
So, anyone interested go to:
http://www.wattpad.com/story/37042129-hazel-moon
And both read their story as it develops and get to know the authors, Roma & Venice (their current pen names) but collectively writing on WattPad as VeniceSighs.
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