Welcome to the e-book Launch Party for A SHADOW IN THE PAST + GIVEAWAY
The big day is finally here! I’m so excited. Today, I’m hosting the e-book launch party for my debut novel, A Shadow in the Past. I know I’ve been urging you not to download my novel and there’s been a really good reason behind this. If everyone waits until launch day – today – then my book will soar up the ratings at amazon, especially if everyone buys the kindle version… hint, hint…
When a contemporary teen is transported back through time to the Victorian era, she becomes A Shadow in the Past…
Nineteen-year-old Sarah Shand finds herself thrust back into the past. There she struggles to keep her real identity from a society that finds her comments and ideas strange and her speech and actions forward, unlike Victorian women. When Sarah verbally confronts confining social practices, including arranged marriages; powerful enemies commit her to a lunatic asylum. After falling in love with the handsome Laird of Weetshill, Robert Robertson, she must decide whether to find her way back to her own time or to remain in the past with him.
Now that you know what the book is about – let’s PARTY!
Since A Shadow in the Past takes place in Scotland, I thought we’d start out with some Scottish music to get things started.
How about a little Old Blind Dogs to start things off with their song Bennachie.
I suppose you’re starting to get hungry. I know it’s not Scottish fayre, but let’s order in pizza. I know not everyone likes the same toppings, so you can all choose your own by clicking on this link.
While we’re waiting for our pizzas to arrive, I’ll put on some more music. Runrig is another one of my favourite Scottish bands, and when I’m listening to CDs when I’m driving, I love to crank the volume up for this song – Alba.
While we’re recharging our batteries with a bite to eat and a glass or two of bubbly, I’ll pop on 500 Miles by the Proclaimers. Every time I hear this song, I think of the movie Benny and Joon.
As my e-book launch party winds down, I must give you the most important links of all – the where to buy links!
My GIVEAWAY:
You could win one of two A Shadow in the Past swag packs.
A Shadow in the Past 2014 wall calendar with photographs taken by me depicting the area(s) where the book was set.
To enter the draw, leave your answer to this question “If you could go back in time, what era would you like visit?” in the comments. A winner will be chosen randomly.
Good luck!
I hoped you enjoyed my launch party today but even more importantly, I hope you enjoy reading A Shadow in the Past as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Hi Melanie – many congrats on your launch. If I could go back in time I think I’d have to choose the early Roman empire – bring on all that feasting, not to mention nice clothes and jewellery for the girls, and a slave to wash my tootsies. Of course I’d want to be in Italy too – Roman Britain all well and good, but give me sunshine! Ali B
Let me see… the good old American west circa 1880.
If I could I would choose dark middle ages… strange but yes that’s the time I would like to experience…
Happy book launch and good luck Melanie… xx
Thanks for dropping by, ladies. I like the time/place you’ve chosen, Ali. Someone to wash the tootsies would be nice. And that bling the women wore? Bring it on.
Interesting choice, Dorothy. You do realize you’d have to give up your motorcycle though and ride a horse instead.
Wow! That’s an interesting choice. Thanks for your good wishes, Petra.
What a creative idea. Good job, Melanie.
Thanks Vivian. Your support with this project means a lot. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
I think I’d like to go back to the Victorian era. I just adore the style of that era. I’ve always felt that it seemed such a romantic time!
Many congratulations on your launch, Melanie. If I had a time travel machine it would be back to 16th century Scotland. I’d like to solve the mystery of who murdered Darnley once and for all and I’d love to meet my own heroine, Elisabeth Hepburn, Prioress of St Mary’s Haddington & auntie of James, the much-maligned 4th Earl of Bothwell.
All the best with your launch! Slainte!
Marie
If I could go back to a particular era I think I would like to have gone back to the 1700’s I would have like to have taken place in a time where beautiful clothing was a must to attend this ball or that wedding. A time when women were cherished by the men that loved them and children did what they were told to do without argument.
That’s my choice, too, JB. 🙂 I’d love to meet my ancestors – especially my grandparents on my dad’s side since they were long gone by the time I came along. I’d also love to see the house I used as Weetshill mansion in my book when it was in its heyday and have the opportunity to go through it. See how close my imagination was to the actual place.
Congrats on your new launch. I think I would like to go back to the Victorian era.
Me, too, Mabel. So many things happened during that era.
An excellent choice, Vi. The clothing then was gorgeous. But I think I like the fact that kids didn’t back chat the best.
That would be a worthy cause, Marie. Your book sounds wonderful. Slainte!
Great party, Melanie! All the best with your ebook sales. I’ve said on FB that I’d love to visit medieval, Regency and Victorian periods – but not to stay there!
That’s a difficult one for me Melanie as if I could time travel I’d love to go forward in time to see what I’ll be missing in terms of space travel and high tech inventions. Going back would mean, as a woman, I’d have few choices and as my ancestors were all working class, I’d probrably be working in the Big House as a maid. So that’s my choice – as I’d get to meet my great great grandmother and grandfather who were a housemaid and the carriage driver at Croxteth Hall in Liverpool. It’s where my grandmother was born and all her life she liked to tell people of her noble birthplace! Janice xx
I agree, Rosemary. Nice places to visit… just not stay there.
My ancestors were working class, too, Janice. They were farmers. I love the idea of meeting ancestors. Croxteth Hall sounds very noble, indeed. Off to google it.
Congrats on your launch! And, a great party, too. Pizza was yummy.
If I could time travel to any time, it would be to early America, anywhere between 1700 and 1850 but especially around 1770-1780. Even as a kid in school, that part of American history fascinated me – what the people here went through to get their independence/freedom, the sacrifices, the patriotism, the amazing people – public and private. Those were the days!
If I could time travel to any time and place, I’d go to England/Scotland during the same time period. I started reading Bertrice Small in the 70s and her descriptions of life then had me believing – without question – I’d been born in the wrong century. Yes, life was hard, but the romance of the time …
That, and I’m half-English (on both sides) so to see where my ancestors came from (Pilgrims), would be amazing.
In real life, I’m still hoping to launch my ‘trip of a lifetime’ to England/Scotland one day … to see the locales I’m writing about, especially where I put the fictitious castle of the also fictitious Duke of Muileach (Loch Buie)
Best of luck on your launch!
Thanks for dropping by, Julie! I hope you do get your trip to England and Scotland to see the locales you’ve written about… especially the castle. Sounds like an intriguing read.
Hi Melanie
Congratulations on your launch! If I could go back in time, it would be to the time of the dinosaurs. I’d love to see them as long as I could hide somewhere and avoid being eaten!
Hi Carla! *waves* Glad you could drop by. You’ve gone back in time the furthest of anyone so far. Interesting choice.
Hi Melanie, Great party, never seen this done before, but love the idea! Time travel would be interesting but would really like to know I would land in a comfortable family and do as well as your Sarah! Time really doesn’t matter if you have a great family! Really can’t choose!
Well, I would want to go back to Versaille in France, to the Petit Trianon. Louis XV commissioned Ange-Jacques Gabriel to build it for his long-term mistress, Madame de Pompadour. It was constructed between 1762 and 1768, so I’d want to go back on the day it was formally handed over. I’ve been to the Palace of Versailles several times and it overawes me. Madame de Pompadour was just 15 years old when she became the Dauphine of France and the Petit Trianon was where she could get away from the gossip and pressures of her very public life. Have a wonderful celebration Melanie!
Hi Linn! An excellent choice.
Hi Sue, not everyone would be as lucky as my Sarah. She really landed on her feet when she met the Robertsons. Hope you’re enjoying the party. 🙂
Congrats on your launch day, Melanie! You have been very busy! I hope you are having a wonderful time. If I could travel back in time I would like to visit the 1950’s – (I know not a real time ago!) – the fashion and the chance to see a flick of Marilyn Monroe in her heyday during the actual time!
I’d love to live in the days of the young journalist Mark Twain during his stay in Virginia City, and when pioneer women blazed the trail for the rest of us out here on the west coast! Very cool e-launch, Melanie! Congratulations!
So glad you could make it today Gina. I was born in the 1950s so a bit too young to really appreciate them.
Great choice of time, Jo! So glad you could make it.
I think I’d like to go back ten years or so and buy a bunch of stock in Apple, Microsoft and IBM! Barring that, I like Jo’s idea. Mark Twain also spent some time living in Aurora, Nevada, which used to be not far from where I live in Mammoth Lakes, CA. Aurora is no longer there, and all of the bricks in the buildings were salvaged and then sold in San Francisco and elsewhere. I’d love to go back and see what that town looked like when it still existed!
Great to see you here, Kenneth! It’s a shame that some of these older settlements/villages no longer exist. It would be quite the experience to see them as they once were.
Wooohooo! Sorry I’m late to the party, but wishing you a FAB day and continued success ~ so thrilled to see it’s been going so well! Rock on, and cracking music choices too. Way to go! Cheers!!!
Better late than never, Nicky Wells! So glad you got here. Enjoy the music and grab some pizza before you leave.
Really neat idea for an e-book launch, Melanie! As for my era of choice, I was always interested in feudal Japan, somewhere around the Tokugawa era, the 1600’s. Would be a nice place to visit … always assuming I could do it as a fairly high ranking samurai. Not sure if life in the lower castes was quite as romantic.
You would definitely want to be a high ranking samurai back then. But even that was no guarantee of an ‘easy’ existence. Glad you made it to the party, Joe.
Renaissance. I think it would be neat to meet Da Vinci.
I would travel back to the beginning of time and see how the world was made…