Monday, December 15, 2014

The Story Behind Adelita’s Secret by Christopher Cloud



Adelita's Secret

When I started laying the storyline groundwork for Adelita’s Secret I had no idea that the story would move into the realm of fantasy.  Short of Harry Potter, I had never read fantasy, and had never written fantasy. But that’s where 17-year-old Adelita took me.  Adelita is strong-willed and curious, and it was her inquisitive nature that brought her to the attic of her home on that cool autumn day and changed the genre of her story from young adult to young adult/fantasy.  

Adelita was in the attic searching for her mother’s golf clubs. My original thought was to have Adelita stumble on a stack of old Mexican newspapers that were stored in an attic footlocker. If she read the stories detailing the bloody Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920 she might feel a sliver of understanding of her heritage—Adelita is ashamed of her Mexican roots. 

I didn’t know until she opened the footlocker that she would find the diary of her great grandmother. And I didn’t know what she would find in that diary until she picked it, dusted it off, and began reading. I wasn’t sure what would happen next. She read the first page of the diary and recited aloud the first entry: “El viaje largo a la libertad empieza hoy.” Adelita doesn’t speak Spanish, and she had no idea was  just said, but in the next instant her great grandmother appears, and Adelita’s Secret takes a giant leap into the world of fantasy.     


Read Chapter 1 – 4 on Amazon
Title is available at Amazon kindle or paperback
Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble



About Adelita’s Secret   
Lost in a superficial world of materialism and social status—and ashamed of her Latino heritage—seventeen-year-old Adelita Noé is loved by two men, two men separated by a hundred years and vastly different stations in life. One man owns little more than the shirt on his back. The other, a poet at heart, is heir to a vast fortune. Their love for Adelita serves as the backdrop for the Latino girl’s quest to better understand herself and her Mexican roots.

Adelita’s Secret tells the story of a teenage Latino girl who has lost her moral compass. She is ashamed of her Mexican heritage. Quite by accident, she finds a diary written by her great grandmother. The diary provides a portal for Adelita to travel back in time. She finds herself immersed in the Mexican War of 1910, a war pitting Mexican farmers against the corrupt land barons. Adelita joins the soldaderas, a band of warrior women, then meets and falls in love with a Mexican soldier, Diego Santiago. Her love for Diego serves to bring Adelita closer to her Mexican roots.  


About Christopher Cloud

Author Christopher Cloud
Award-winning author Christopher Cloud writes middle-grade and young adult novels. He began writing fiction full time at the age of 66 after a long career in journalism and public relations. Chris graduated from the University of Missouri in 1967 with a degree in journalism. He has worked as a reporter, editor, and columnist at newspapers in Texas, California, and Missouri. He was employed by a major oil company as a public relations executive, and later operated his own public relations agency. He created the board game Sixth Sense in 2003. Chris lives in Joplin, Missouri, and enjoys golf and hiking.

Visit Christopher Cloud’s website

Visit Cloud’s blog

More books by Christopher Cloud
 





Friday, December 12, 2014

The Story Behind The Book of Zev


The Book of Zev  

The opening quote is what inspired me to want to write this story: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing.” A man I met on a train as I was returning from a screenwriting conference where I had conducted a workshop on creating great characters using my trademarked writing system inspired the Book of Zev. This man was a religious Jew who was travelling to different orthodox communities to try to find a place where he fit in. His questions about faith mirrored my own. We talked for three hours and the next thing I knew, I was writing a book. 

About the Book 

  Paperback: 298 pages
  Publisher: Koehler Books (December 1, 2014)
  Language: English
  ISBN-10: 1940192781
  ISBN-13: 978-1940192789 



The Book of Zev Synopsis

The Book of Zev is a psychological thriller that tells the story of two gentle people who change the course of history. Zev Bronfman, a strapping 32-year old-virgin, angry atheist, refugee from a religious Jewish life, and former engineer for the U.S. Patent Office in Alexandria, Virginia, drives a cab and sleeps around in New York City. After a bitter divorce, Sarah Hirshbaum, a beautiful, redheaded, depressed, God-hating kosher chef, seesaws between yoga and too much red wine. Independently, the two consult the same psychic who inadvertently sends Sarah Zev’s session tape. When Sarah contacts Zev to pick up the recording, a series of events forces them to connect with a powerful terrorist in order to thwart his plans to destroy the UN and Israel.

Click here to read an Excerpt of The Book of Zev  

Amazon

 
Author Marilyn Horowitz 
About Marilyn Horowitz

Marilyn Ida Horowitz is a producer, writing coach, and award-winning professor of screenwriting at New York University. From her books on her trademarked writing system—now standard reading at NYU—to her appearances at Screenwriters World and The Great American Screenwriting Conference & PitchFest, Marilyn has guided the careers of literally hundreds of writers. She is currently featured in the Now Write! Screenwriting Anthology (Tarcher/Penguin) and in the upcoming The Expert Success Solution (Morgan James). Her production credits include And Then Came Love (2007), starring Vanessa Williams.


@marilynhorowitz