November Indie Next Pick: Freeman Walker
Freeman Walker by David Allan Cates is a November Indie Next Pick! Here’s what Barbara Theroux of Fact & Fiction in Missoula, MT had to say about it:
Armed with his ‘free’ papers and a copy of the Declaration of Independence, seven-year-old Jimmy Gates is sent to England for an education by his owner-father. After his father dies, the schooling ends, as Jimmy becomes an apprentice, learning life’s lessons from prostitutes and revolutionaries. Taking a new name, Freeman Walker grows into manhood on the battlegrounds of the Civil War and his adventures tell us much about freedom and bring home the message that ‘freedom isn’t free.
Recent Unbridled Reviews
The positive reviews for Unbridled’s fall titles continue to roll in! Check these out:
For In Hovering Flight by Joyce Hinnefeld:
The movement of this novel is frankly a miracle, but a natural one — like the graceful flight of a bird, gliding along a path you couldn’t trace if you tried. I can’t imagine how the author conceived of this structure or had any idea where she was as she was creating it. But the more I read, the more impressed I became at her gently insistent exploration. This is a book so assured and confident that it gradually teaches you how to read it. Hinnefeld moves again and again through the lives of Tom, Addie and Scarlet, revisiting the same events, letting details slowly accrue, building our understanding of these characters and their complicated friendships. A certain degree of suspense builds up, but that’s not really the point. In Hovering Flight is as quiet as twilight and just as lovely. – The Washington Post
Hinnefeld has composed a pair of contained but rich coming-of-age stories… – San Francisco Chronicle
For Freeman Walker by David Allan Cates:
[Freeman Walker is] a magnificently absorbing novel, one that subtly, yet definitively, resonates with the highly politicized tenor of our current times, while adding substance and perspective to our past. – Missoula Independent
Although it moves like a historical thriller, Freeman Walker is really a meditation on freedom. – Missoulian
For Conscience Point by Erica Abeel:
It would be shameful, a spoiler, to reveal exactly what these relationships are in this richly drawn portrait of an ambitious yet appealing parvenu’s encounter — indeed, collision — with the wealthy and entitled….Ms. Abeel is good at incorporating shrewd observations into a structure evoking the literary traditions of Waugh, Proust, Dickens, plus a touch of Stendhal, Nabokov, and Roth. – The East Hampton Star
George Rabasa on MPR's All Things Considered
Last week, George Rabasa was interviewed about THE WONDER SINGER on MPR’s All Things Considered. Click here to listen.
Bloggers Weigh In On IN HOVERING FLIGHT
Bloggers around the country are reading and loving IN HOVERING FLIGHT by Joyce Hinnefeld. Click below to see what different bloggers and online publications are saying!
Largehearted Boy
Booking Mama
NewPages.com
Philly Mag
Publishers Weekly
will read for food
#1 INDIE NEXT PICK* FOR SEPTEMBER
In Hovering Flight by Joyce Hinnefeld was chosen as the “1 Indie Next Pick for September!
“Tailor-made for indie booksellers…stack it high, for it is a handseller’s dream.“—Elizabeth Jordan, BookPeople, Austin
“A rich first novel about love, loss, and the fragile beauty of nature…
Particularly notable for its engrossing details about bird life… moving.”—_Library Journal_, Starred Review
“Deep and believable.”—_Philadelphia Magazine_
“…provocative and page-turning…Hinnefeld’s drama soars….”—_Publishers Weekly_
“A compelling and mysterious novel.”—Ursula Hegi
“I loved everything about it. You’ve got a winner.”—Nancy Olson, Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh
“Rich and beautifully written, and it touched me deeply.”—bookingmama.com
For more quotes, please visit http://unbridledbooks.com/inhoveringflight.html
Hear a brief interview with Joyce Hinnefeld: http://unbridledbooks.com/media/promolong.mp3
*Indie Next is the new Book Sense program
Hallam's War PB Rights Sold
UNBRIDLED BOOKS ANNOUNCES PAPERBACK RIGHTS FOR HALLAM’S WAR SOLD TO BERKLEY BOOKS
(July 28, 2008) Unbridled Books is pleased to announce the paperback rights for Elisabeth Payne Rosen’s debut historical novel HALLAM’S WAR have been sold to Sandra Harding at Berkley Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA).
Set in West Tennessee during the time leading up to the Civil War and through the first devastating years of its fury, HALLAM’S WAR, which Unbridled Books released in May 2008, has been called “powerful,” “richly developed,” and “remarkable,” earning high praise and critical acclaim nationwide.
Greg Michalson notes, “We’re thrilled that Berkley shares our excitement for HALLAM’S WAR. We think it’s a thoughtful, authentic, page-turning saga with something for everyone, bringing vividly to life a heart-rending drama that resonates with deep personal grief shot through with moments of beauty and joy.”
Harding said of the acquisition, “Berkley Books is thrilled to be publishing the paperback of HALLAM’S WAR. This is a stunning family saga and Elisabeth Payne Rosen is a remarkable writer who uses a keen, generous intelligence to create complicated, sympathetic characters and place them against a meticulously researched, nearly-epic Civil War backdrop. As a book that explores questions about duty, honor, love and race, it is truly a story for our time.”
Film Rights Sold for Unbridled Books Debut
Andrea Portes’ First Novel, HICK, to Be Feature Film
Unbridled Books is pleased to announce that the film rights for Andrea Portes’ debut novel, HICK, have been sold to producers Christian Taylor of Taylor Lane Productions and Steven Siebert of Lighthouse Entertainment.
HICK, which Unbridled Books released in May 2007, was a Los Angeles Times paperback bestseller, a Book Sense Pick, a Book Sense Reading Group Pick, and a Midwest Connections Pick. It earned rave reviews nationwide.
HICK is the story of Luli McMullen—feisty, precocious, and out on her own at 13. Luli is running away from Nebraska to Las Vegas, where she plans to escape her disturbing present and even less hopeful future by finding herself a sugar daddy. That Luli finds trouble on the road almost immediately is no surprise. But on her perilous journey west, she learns the truth of American rootlessness and discovers both the power and the peril of her own sexual curiosity. Raw and edgy, hilarious, hopeful and heartbreaking, the novel is at once a true-to-life portrait of an inviolable spirit threatened by drugs and alcohol, sex and crime, and a stubbornly idealistic novel about growing up in America.
Taylor said of the acquisition, “I was immediately struck by the unique voice Andrea had created in 13- year-old Luli. Films like Badlands, Paper Moon and Taxi Driver had left strong impressions on me during my own adolescence, and I was excited by the idea of bringing this kind of character to life on the big screen.”
Luli’s story is loosely based on Andrea Portes’ own childhood. She grew up outside Lincoln, Nebraska, later shuffling between Illinois, Texas, Brazil, North Dakota, and North Carolina before attending Bryn Mawr College. She received her MFA in Theater from UC San Diego and became a script reader for Paramount Pictures. She lives in Los Angeles.
Portes is in negotiations with the producers to adapt the screenplay. Learn more about Andrea Portes at http://www.myspace.com/andreaportes.
Unbridled Galloping Along
Claire Kirch of Publishers Weekly recently highlighted the good work of Unbridled Books:
Unbridled Books, headquartered in Denver and Columbio, Mo., with nine employees scattered across the country and a webmaster in Estonia, continues to buck industry trends in its business model. At a time when other small presses are holding steady in their output or even trimming their fiction offerings, Unbridled is both growing its list—a mix of literary and commercial fiction written by both debut and seasoned authors—and successfully promoting its books in both traditional and unconventional ways.
Click here to read the full article!
The Essence Literary Award...
Margaret Cezair-Thompson’s surprise fall hit, THE PIRATE’S DAUGHTER, is the winner of the first annual Essence Literary Award in Fiction. Winners were announced at a standing room only gala event in New York on February 7, 2008.
Unbridled Books Co-Publisher Greg Michalson said, “We are proud to have published THE PIRATE’S DAUGHTER, and we’re delighted that Margaret Cezair-Thompson’s wonderful novel has gotten this kind of recognition from such a significant magazine.”
The award is the latest in a string of kudos for this independent press title. THE PIRATE’S DAUGHTER was the Number One Book Sense Pick for October 2007. Also, the novel earned rave reviews from national publications such as People, The Washington Post, and USA Today and from booksellers across the country.
First Booksellers, Now Reviewers Rave for THE PIRATE'S DAUGHTER
“Cezair-Thompson has spun a book-club-ready saga with two gorgeous women at its center—Ida, a light-skinned local girl who has a tryst with Flynn, and May, the daughter of that brief union. Flynn never acknowledges paternity, leaving Ida and May to forge a place for themselves in a land where they belong to neither the wealthy class of expatriates, nor the emerging black majority…[the book has] a knockout ending that reveals treasure buried beneath sand-encrusted secrets.” — People Magazine, Critic’s Choice
“With just enough swagger left in him to set island hearts aflutter, [Flynn] embarks on an affair with a young mixed-race girl coming of age, which, set against Jamaica’s own progression toward self-governance, makes for an unabashedly frangipani-scented—and wholly satisfying—armchair holiday of a read.” — Vogue
“*The novel never stops for breath once*…[it] just buzzes along, with years flying by between chapters, and dozens of characters entering and exiting, saying interesting things and doing outrageous ones. These characters range from aristocratic Europeans to desperately poor Jamaicans, and they are constantly pairing off in the most surprising ways.” — O Magazine
“[Cezair-Thompson] explores questions about identity and racism without being heavy-handed about it. She’s best at juxtaposing Flynn’s imported glamour with the realities of Jamaica and at suggesting there’s more than one kind of buried treasure…_The Pirate’s Daughter_ offers plenty of serious passion and escape.” — USA Today
“Cezair-Thompson…brings a smart, lilting voice and a sharp, quirky perspective to a tried-and-true literary formula, the sweeping historical epic…. *unravels a surprising yarn that is rich, salty and ultimately satisfying*…[It’s her] deft evocation of the beauty and unpredictability of Jamaica, its topography and its people, that raises The Pirate’s Daughter to a level far above the bodice-ripping historic epic.” — The Washington Post
“Cezair-Thompson promises her readers a ‘tropical adventure.’ She evokes spectacular shipwrecks and deserted islands, infamous buccaneers and glamorous celebrities. And the story that follows makes good on these promises. The novel fictionalizes an episode in the life of Errol Flynn, the scandal plagued, womanizing movie star whose sailboat capsized off the coast of Jamaica during a hurricane in 1946. Beginning with this very real drama, Cezair-Thompson tells the tale of two imagined women: a beautiful Jamaican teenager Flynn seduces during his time on the island and the daughter she bears him but whom he never cares to know.” — The New York Times Book Review