Veronica’s Nap Virtual Book Publicity Tour October 2011

Veronica's Nap

Join Sharon Bially, author of the women’s fiction novel, Veronica’s Nap (Connaissance Media), as she virtually tours the blogosphere October 3 – 28 2011 on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

About Sharon Bially

Sharon Bially Sharon Bially lived for twelve years in Paris and Aix-en-Provence before settling with her family in Massachusetts.  A graduate of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, she’s a public relations professional and leads seminars for the Boston-based, nonprofit literary arts center, Grub Street Writers.  She’s also an adult student of ballet and modern dance.

Her latest book is the contemporary women’s fiction novel, Veronica’s Nap.

You can visit Sharon’s website and blog at www.veronicas-nap.com.

Visit her at Twitter at www.twitter.com/@sharonbially and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sharon.bially AND http://www.facebook.com/pages/Veronicas-Nap/240292619323500.

About Veronica’s Nap

Veronica's Nap Veronica Berg has everything she needs to achieve her dream of becoming a painter including a charming home studio in Provence, a hard-working husband and a nanny who watches her two-year-old twins.  Yet instead of painting she spends her days secretly indulging in lengthy naps.  When her Moroccan-born, Sephardic husband grows impatient and challenges her to sell one painting, Veronica must find a way to break out of the seductive rut that’s overtaken her life.  Against the backdrop of the impending Iraq war, her journey reveals depression’s sunny mask and the dark side of privilege and security.  With a cast of Moroccan, Sephardic characters, Veronica’s Nap also gives a rare look at contemporary Jewish life in France.

236 pages

Book Excerpt:

After three years in Aix-en-Provence, Veronica knows why Van Gogh cut off his ear. On sunny days, when the sky glows a shade of sapphire as brilliant, she imagines, as the color of God’s eyes, the mistral wind rips apart the beauty, howling with rage, rattling olives from branches and whipping the feathery tips of cypress trees into demented, evergreen whorls. Gates and steel shutters clang madly. The pitch of conversation rises to a scream. It’s a wonder that with these gales that batter southeast France year-round and have been blowing relentlessly for three days straight now, he could paint at all. Veronica hasn’t cracked open an easel since she moved here from New Jersey.

Of course, Van Gogh didn’t have two-year-old twins like Veronica does. Their whiny, high-pitched voices shatter the rare silence between the mistral’s gusts, grating on her nerves, setting her on edge, and making it impossible to concentrate, even when they’re not around. With twins, Van Gogh would have surely cut both his ears off.

He didn’t have a French-Moroccan husband, either—Sephardic, to boot, with a warm heart but a hot, Mediterranean temper—who’s been waiting with thinning patience to see some progress in the studio. This alone can kill the nerves, Veronica thinks. Didier rarely voices his impatience, but from the way his gaze has darted away lately when she’s tried to meet it, she knows. Just as she knows that his edginess these days over her parenting style has more to do with her painting, or lack of it, than it does with the all-too-American habits she’s teaching the kids.

— Excerpt from Chapter 1

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Veronica’s Nap Virtual Book Publicity Tour Schedule

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books kk Monday, October 3

Interviewed & Book Giveaway at Pump Up Your Book

“This might be hard to believe, but after just a couple of minutes of feeling awed and amazed to see the results of so much hard work (as an independent author I also handled cover design and every single other aspect of producing the book and getting it out into the world), I immediately looked ahead to the huge amount of work still ahead and felt…overwhelmed!”

Thursday, October 6

Interviewed at The Book Connection

“I didn’t start paying serious attention to the urge to write until my early twenties, when I drafted a feeble first novel. It never even occurred to me to consider writing as anything other than a hobby until then because “becoming a writer” simply wasn’t an option I was aware.”

Friday, October 7

Book reviewed at Sharon’s Garden of Book Reviews

“I found this to be a fascinating and thought-provoking book on so many levels. The descriptions of the area surrounding Aix-en-Provence were stunning and I found the storyline of a young mother trying to adjust to the schedule of tending her young twins and trying to carve out some time for herself very poignant.”

Tuesday, October 11

Book spotlighted at Book Marketing Buzz

“After three years in Aix-en-Provence, Veronica knows why Van Gogh cut off his ear. On sunny days, when the sky glows a shade of sapphire as brilliant, she imagines, as the color of God’s eyes, the mistral wind rips apart the beauty, howling with rage, rattling olives from branches and whipping the feathery tips of cypress trees into demented, evergreen whorls. Gates and steel shutters clang madly. The pitch of conversation rises to a scream. It’s a wonder that with these gales that batter southeast France year-round and have been blowing relentlessly for three days straight now, he could paint at all. Veronica hasn’t cracked open an easel since she moved here from New Jersey….”

Wednesday, October 12

Interviewed at Pump Up Your Book

“This might be hard to believe, but after just a couple of minutes of feeling awed and amazed to see the results of so much hard work (as an independent author I also handled cover design and every single other aspect of producing the book and getting it out into the world), I immediately looked ahead to the huge amount of work still ahead and felt…overwhelmed!  Like I said, I’m hyper-focused on goals, and writing and publishing are huge goals of mine.  I want people to read Veronica’s Nap and be touched by it, which means I need to spread the word about it.  There are also at least two other books I’m dying to write.  So holding that first copy in my hands was very much about marking the moment yet looking ahead to next steps.”

Thursday, October 13

Book spotlighted at Review From Here

Friday, October 14

Book reviewed at Peeking Between the Pages

I really enjoyed this novel and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.”

Book spotlighted at The Writer’s Life

Every day I try reach out to all sorts of other venues: news outlets, where I’ve gotten a bit of coverage, reviewers, book stores and libraries (including in France), bloggers, book clubs etc. Since I do have a day job and a family, it’s hard to do everything, and the promotion work has to get done whenever I have a spare moment. So it tends to be slow. But as a professional publicist, I know that promotion is a marathon, not a sprint.”

Tuesday, October 18

Interviewed at Beyond the Books

“This might be hard to believe, but after just a couple of minutes of feeling awed and amazed to see the results of so much hard work (as an independent author I also handled cover design and every single other aspect of producing the book and getting it out into the world), I immediately looked ahead to the huge amount of work still ahead and felt…overwhelmed!”

Thursday, October 20

Book reviewed at The Bookish Dame

Friday, October 21

Interviewed at Alive on the Shelves

Monday, October 24

Book reviewed at Acting Balanced

“Veronica’s Nap is a book that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.”

Tuesday, October 25

Guest participant at Literarily Speaking October Book Panel

Book reviewed at Words by Webb

Wednesday, October 26

Book reviewed at Broken Teepee

Guest blogging at Literarily Speaking

Friday, October 28

Chat with Sharon at Pump Up Your Book Live! Chat/Book Giveaway!

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Sharon Bially’s Veronica’s Nap VIRTUAL BOOK PUBLICITY TOUR will officially begin on October 3 and end on October 28 ’11. Please contact Dorothy Thompson at thewriterslife(at)gmail.com if you are interested in hosting and/or reviewing her book. Thank you!

If you would like to book your own virtual book tour with us, click here to find out how!

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