Press Releases
Contact:
Barbara Louise Leiding
e-mail: BLLeiding@aol.com
Phone: (201) 960-7761
Media Rumors Provide Laughs for Hero of New, Offbeat Novel
Fictional tennis celebrity uses humor and charm to shrug off his mistaken identity in the media, while his fans long to strike it rich in a new, award-winning novel, Dancing with Jou Jou
The hero of the forthcoming novel, Dancing with Jou Jou (iUniverse) by Barbara Louise Leiding, is a beloved tennis champion known around the globe for his quick wit, impeccable Southern manners, and a voracious appetite for burritos. To camouflage himself from the paparazzi, he zips around in a beat up Volkswagen Beetle, while the media has a field day speculating on his presumed sexual activities. The rumor is that he must be having multiple affairs with beautiful women. Perhaps even a man?
A line from the first chapter describes the character as having “more product endorsements than Tiger Woods,” but the author claims that she did not actually model him on the famous golfer.
“I’ve never followed sports, especially golf,” the author said. “The inspiration for the book was the proliferation of media circuses that pop up from time to time, along with the apparent basic human need to indulge in gossip until the truth is completely unknown. The main characters become tangled up in love triangles involving not just lust, but greed.”
The plot is set in motion when a sweet-talking con artist ropes his trusting girlfriend into a madcap scheme for swindling a pair of lottery winners out of a fortune. When a diamond heist goes hopelessly awry, a wild chase begins, and the tennis celebrity is swept into the madness. In the process, he becomes romantically attracted to a most unlikely heroine who may—or may not—be wanted by the police. Despite media speculation, the beloved tennis star proves to be they type of man who can only focus on one woman at a time.
“Even though his personal life is placed under a microscope for the entire world to see, he says he simply does not care,” the author said. “In fact, he uses humor to deflect media rumors, firm in the belief that no one’s sexual activities are anyone’s business, but his own. It's his ability to be indifferent to the opinions of others that makes him a hero. I think few people are as self-confident or secure.”
Dancing with Jou Jou was the second place winner at the 17th Annual Hawaii Writers Conference. The official release date is March 2010. The book can be ordered now directly through the publisher, iUniverse, or any bookstore in paperback (ISBN: 9780595527557) or eBook through Amazon’s new Kindle Store (ASIN: B003A83NS0) For rights and permissions, contact the author directly at (201) 960-7761 or e-mail: BLLeiding@aol.com.
Dancing with Jou Jou – A Novel
Press Release
Contact:
Barbara Louise Leiding
email: BLLeiding@aol.com
Phone: (201) 960-7761
Laugh Away Recession Blues with Three New Books
Authors form a three-way “humor bookfest” after connecting on a writers’ blog
Humor is a personal taste. What’s funny to one may not be funny to all. It is also a serious business for authors who need to promote themselves in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Three writers who took on the challenge discovered common ground after connecting on an Amazon blog. They have since joined forces to discuss their work: Into the Sunset (Kindle and Rebel Press/iUniverse: 2007) by Donald Capone; Dancing with Jou Jou (Kindle and iUniverse: 2010) by Barbara Louise Leiding; and Something to Read on the Plane: A Bit of Light Literature, Short Stories & Other Fun Stuff. (Writers Circle Publishing: 2006) by Jan Hurst-Nicholson.
“I laughed out loud after reading a scene that Don posted,” Leiding said. "The premise of the book alone was funny."
Into the Sunset is a racy story about a young man who disguises himself as a senior citizen to rent an affordable apartment in a retirement community--then finds true love with a woman old enough to be his mother.
“Only an original mind with a bold wit would come up with a story like that,” Leiding said. “I just had to drop him a personal e-mail after seeing his address on Amazon's authors' pages.”
Leiding’s novel, Dancing with Jou Jou, was a winner at the 2009 Annual Hawaii Writers Conference, taking second place. The story is a madcap tale about a sweet-talking con artist who ropes his trusting girlfriend into swindling a pair of lottery winners out of a fortune. She is also the author of the parable, Would You Eat a Rotten Tomato for a Million Dollars? A Slightly Quirky Tale of Greed, which was awarded “Editor’s Choice” in 2004.
As Capone and Leiding exchanged e-mails, Hurst-Nicholson was reading their blogs from her home in Durban, South Africa. She reached out to Leiding after discovering her e-mail address through Amazon.
"I've been looking for a way to widen my readership," said Hurst-Nicholson. "I wanted to connect with other authors in the US, preferably ones whose work is in the same category as my own."
Hurst-Nicholson got the idea to publish a compilation of her humorous articles and short stories while volunteering at a charity bookshop. She often helped customers who were looking for "something to read on the plane."
"There are stories to suite all tastes, from humour to crime," Hurst-Nicholson said. "And we made the book pocket-sized, with a decent font, and even used some illustrations for people who only read books with pictures," she added, laughing.
Hurst-Nicholson, who has published many humor pieces and stories, is also the author of several children's books, including Leon Chameleon P.I. and the Case of the Missing canary Eggs; Leon Chameleon P.I. and the Case of the Kidnapped Mouse; Bheki and the Magic Light; and Jake. Her adult humor novel, But Can You Drink the Water? is currently a quarter-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition.
Capone’s work has appeared in print magazines and online journals, including: Edgar Literary Magazine, Word Riot, Weekly Reader's READ magazine, and Thieves Jargon; and in the anthologies See You Next Tuesday, Skive Quarterly 6, The Ampersand volume 4, and Rebellion: New Voices of Fiction.
The writing styles of the three authors are as varied as the ways humor can arise. Whether its from a premise, narrative voice, mistaken identity, or through dialogue, especially during a conflict when expectations collide, their approaches are very different.
"The characters in Dancing with Jou Jou thrive on mayhem spurred on by status-seeking greed," Leiding said. "The story is intended to capture the cheerful pandemonium of a classic, madcap comedy, but in the form of a novel set in the current day. If I had written it for television, the show would be a contemporary take on I Love Lucy with multiple love triangles tossed in."
Hurst-Nicholson describes her style as observational humor. "It's the kind where people recognize themselves and the situations," she said. "It is very much British humour."
And Capone's style? "Into the Sunset's humor is playful, sexy, racy, and ribald, though ultimately--and hopefully--insightful," he said.
# # #
Book & Author Info:
Into the Sunset by Donald Capone (Kindle and Rebel Press/iUniverse: 2007). Kindle: ASIN B002C4L6SM (.99). Softcover: ISBN-10: 0595451276 and ISBN-13: 978-0595451272. ($15.95). Pages: 242. Author’s Site: http://www.donaldcapone.blogspot.com/ and http://www.rebelpress.org/intothesunset.html.
Dancing with Jou Jou by Barbara Louise Leiding (Kindle and iUniverse: 2010). Kindle: ASIN B003A83NS0 ($2.95). Paperback: ISBN-10: 0595527558 and ISBN-13: 9780595527557 ($19.95). eBook ISBN: 9780595628070 ($7.95). Pages: 324. Author’s Site: http://www.barbaralouiseleiding.com/.
Something to Read on the Plane by Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Writers’ Circle Publishing/Obsome-Porter Literary Services 2006) ISBN: 0-9584978-4-2. Paperback/Softcover: $12.95. Pages: 164. Available through Amazon. Author’s Site: http://just4kix.jimdo.com/.
