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October 10, 2022 Newsletter
Summer of My Dreams is available for pre-order and will be launching in two weeks on 10/23. If you'd like to get an advanced copy, come join my Advanced Reader Team on my website nolalibarr.com.
I was so surprised to get the following. I entered Forbidden Blossom into the Reader's Favorite Award competition, results won't come out till Sept 2023. But they sent the book out to their volunteer reviewers, and Forbidden Blossom received a glowing 5-star review!
Review:
Forbidden Blossom is a simple, fun, and easy-to-read book that poses some interesting questions about who we are, racism, sexism, and the anti-immigrant and especially anti-Asian rhetoric that has infected America far longer than just since the Covid-19 crisis. Author Nola Li Barr has undoubtedly drawn on her own experiences in formulating the young, feisty character of Anne Huang, easy to empathize with and root for but by the same token, on occasions, her extreme naivety gave her a deeper, more complex personality. I appreciated the split nature of the narrative that was told through Anne's perceptions of the current time and Rose's eyes, through her journals, back in the 1940s. This certainly gave the story the extra dimension it needed. The romantic angle in the story was subtle and readers will still be left wondering about Sebastian's true motives. This conflict of interest was one of the highlights of the narrative. The latest family secret revealed at the end sets the stage perfectly for the second book and I'm excited to discover what new twists Anne, her mother, and Sebastian will discover on their forthcoming journey to Taiwan. I enjoyed this easy read and can highly recommend it.
September 10, 2022 Newsletter
Happy Autumn Festival! Also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival or Zhong Qiu Jie in Mandarin. It celebrates the end of the Autumn harvest on the 15th day of the 8th lunar cycle. The whole family usually gets together, but since we don't live close anymore, we zoom and eat mooncakes together :) one of my favorite desserts.
In the book world, I finally got around to uploading the Skyline Mansion hardbacks! I had wanted to release these to yall on my birthday in May, but times got crazy. They are or will soon be available on Amazon :) In the meantime, Family Blossom has received some fantastic reviews!
"If you enjoy reading inter-generational family sagas that are heartfelt and give you a window into Asian culture, this is truly a book and a series for you."
"Once again, I enjoyed the author's pleasing, easy-going style that makes for an enjoyable read."
"I’ve grown so attached to Anne and her entourage, the characters in this four-book-series, that I’m kind of sad it has come to an end!"
August 10, 2022 Newsletter
Family Blossom is officially live! I cannot voice how excited I am that the final book in the series is out. It's been a long time coming and you've been so patient. It's gotten some fantastic reviews and I'd love to hear from you too if you've read it. What did you think?
I've always been a lover of paperback books. Just ask my husband :) I've managed to fill seven bookshelves and still don't have enough space. All this to say that I love bookstores, especially indie bookstores! Books Inc Alameda is hosting an event for Family Blossom on Aug 18 where one of my good friend will be interviewing me and I'll be signing books. I'm so excited and scared but if you're in town come and join me! If you'd like to support an indie bookstore, all the Skyline Mansion paperbacks are available on their website for in store pick-up or shipping.
Last but not least, Summer of My Dreams and Winter of Beginnings - companion stories to the Skyline Mansion series have pre-order dates of 10/23/22 and 3/19/23! Summer of My Dreams is about Gillian who debuted in Secret Blossom. Winter of Beginnings focuses on Anthony Wilkins's siblings and how they met their first love. I can't wait to share these stories with yall!
Family Blossom is available for pre-order
July 24, 2022 Newsletter
Yall are the first to know that the paperback of Family Blossom is available on Amazon already!
I was able to get Family Blossom back in time to upload the paperback and it uploaded a lot faster than I thought.
Only one more week till the release of the ebook, but if you've been wondering how the series ends, you can get the story now :)
Family Blossom is available for pre-order
Read the rest of the newsletter HERE including a video on how paperbacks are printed at Amazon.
July 10, 2022 Newsletter
Hard to believe we're halfway through the year already! Family Blossom is slated for release on July 31 and I can't wait for you to get your hands on it! Check out my instagram feed for little tidbits about the book, @nolalibarr.
In the meantime, Geraldine's short story is written and at the editor. It took me a long time to figure out what her love story would be. Her siblings were easier because they were teenagers or older already, but Geraldine was only ten when Rose joined the family. But I finally figured it out and am in love with her story. Planning on getting it to yall in the Fall.
Family Blossom is available for pre-order
June 10, 2022 Newsletter
With the beginning of June it's less than 2 months till the release of Book 4 of Skyline Mansion!
I'm excited to share with you that the title of Book 4 is
Family Blossom
Release July 31
with a sneak peak of part of the cover below :) I will be revealing the full cover in July's newsletter.
Family Blossom is available for pre-order
May 10, 2022 Newsletter
The month of May is a big month. It's . . .
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month,
My birthday month,
And the last month before we can travel for the summer.
In January, I had big plans to release another novella this month and to have hardcopies of Skyline Mansion uploaded on Amazon. But I overestimated the time I'd have once school started letting parents back in and alas, I am not prepared this month. Not least being our family got covid last week and everything stopped for a week. (We are much better now.)
On a brighter note, I am in 18,000 words into Book 1 of the Crystal Lake series. Yes, I have for now, decided to keep the series name. But! It is no longer a summer camp. It is now a place where families vacationed. So a slight change ;)
But a little insight into my process. I had outlined a very general idea of the whole story. Then I started writing and very quickly, within the first chapter, my character decided that what I'd written was garbage and they'd rather go off in a different direction. I eventually brought her back to some semblance of my outline. Which brings me to today. My two main characters decided that they were tired of being the only two in the story for the last two chapters and have now invited five to eight other people to join on a daily a basis for a lunch party. That was very much not part of my original plan, but sometimes it's easier to go along and funner to see where the story goes :)
April 10, 2022 Newsletter
April seems to be filled with birthday parties, school events, and holidays. But it's been great because with restrictions being lifted, I'm starting to put names and faces to my kids' friends and classmates. This past week was their first field trip in two years :) Seventy-five kindergarteners walked to the beach and had an hour of play in the sand and mud. It was glorious.
In book land, my new series has been taking shape and I started writing Book 1, but I met with a dilemma this week that some of you will find funny - I can laugh at it now :) I had come up with the series name; Crystal Lake. It resonated with the B&B I wanted the characters to be fixing up and I was excited about how the storyline was coming along. Separately, my husband had been sharing stories about the sleep away camp he grew up going to. I thought it'd be fun to make the property an old sleep away camp on Crystal Lake. (Some of you know where this is leading.) I told my husband about Camp Crystal Lake as he loves to brainstorm with me and he began laughing non-stop. Apparently, an old summer camp on Crystal Lake was the location of the Friday the 13th movies! I don't watch horror films so I had no idea! And now, I must go back to the drawing board.
March 24, 2022 Newsletter
This is one of those rare times where there is more to share that can't wait till April and hence you get to hear from me twice this month :)
Book 4 is finished! It's currently with beta readers, and I'm nervous and excited to hear what they have to say. Then it'll be off to the editor in May and if timing all goes well, it'll release in early August. I know that's a ways away, but I want to make sure I get yall as polished a book as possible.
For the next series, I've narrowed it down to a five book series about four sisters and a brother. That might change to three sisters and two brothers (I seem to like that combination) but for now that's who I'm working with. If yall have any ideas yall want me to include in the series (things you wish had happened in Skyline Mansion) I'd love to hear it. I'm in the outlining phase so the stories can go in any direction at the moment.
I'm also trying to figure out a Christmas story. Would yall like to see characters from Skyline Mansion or have a whole new cast?
Lots of new things in the works!
March 10, 2022 Newsletter
Can you believe it's March already? Weather is warming up (at least in our area) and there's only three more months of school!
We just had our "ski week" and took an extra week off. Ended up going to both Hawaii and Tahoe. Not sure why we did that as we couldn't even leave everything in the suitcase! We had to repack all winter stuff. But we got to spend Hawaii with my husband's parents and got to play with octopuses :) If you're ever on the Main Island check out Kanaloa Octopus near Kona. That was a highlight of the trip.
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Summer of Second Changes launched this past Sunday and has had 3 #1 Release banners :) It was originally released as Rose but this is the first time it is getting published. Rose is the next companion story to the Skyline Mansion series retelling the end of Forbidden Blossom from the viewpoint of Josephine and Charlie. It is only 99cents for this week only!
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Book 4 is almost finished! I'm on the very end of the rough draft and plan on sending it on to beta readers by the end of the month. It's on schedule to get to yall by the end of summer so thank you for hanging in there with me! This series has been so hard to finish because I want to make sure I've answered all the hanging questions, but it's so close and I'm loving how it's turning out :)
February 10, 2022 Newsletter
I'm excited to announce the first book of 2022 is releasing March 6! Summer of Second Chances is the next companion story to the Skyline Mansion series. It was originally released as Rose and even though it has been out for awhile as a part of promos, I've never published it. But it's time for it's release and as a bonus, I got a new cover for it which you can see below. It's available for preorder for only 99cents!
Would you like to get an advanced FREE copy? Read below for joining the Advance Reader Team.
January 10, 2022 Newsletter
And here we are in 2022!
With school starting and children cases going up I've been super appreciative of how organized our school district is. Testing centers were ready to go before school started and kids had been sent home with rapid tests. I'm still nervous, but it's been a ray of sunshine to see the kids so happy to see their friends after the break.
Did you set a goal for yourself this year?
I'm not much of a goal setter as I tend to veer off the path pretty quickly, but this year I bought a planner designed for indie authors and have high hopes to keep on it! We will see :)
The rough draft of Jack's short story is finished! It needs to go through major editing but in the mean time I'm starting on Geraldine's short story.
I have a couple other novellas that are finished and are getting new covers but I haven't forgotten about Book 4! It's been a doozy but I haven't forgotten about it.
My thoughts are starting to wander to the next series and if there are any characters you wish to see more of let me know! I'd love to hear from you.