Preparing for Your First Book Signing...

So, how would you get ready for your first book signing if you'd recently released your first novel and had no idea what to expect? Well, if you're a Minneti you get your stage-fright feet wet by putting yourself in the public eye!

Here's my sister, Lori, who flew to Los Vegas to be a spokesperson promoting Twicketer, an online ticketing company. Another Racine entertainer was there, Bob Bohm's family entertainment magic act! She's planning to be back home by the weekend so she can set up the final rehearsal for the "show" she plans to put on during our December 8th book launch party at Peabody's Interiors in Brown Deer, Wisconsin, from 6-9 PM, which will showcase her singing, Lori & I acting out a scene from the Prologue of Hazel Moon, and an acting troupe presenting a scene from Chapter 1, White Chocolate. For more information see our Press Release below.

What did I do, since I'm the frantic stage virgin, certainly a frightened little thespian Velveteen rabbit, who so wants to become a "real" performer, as compared to my experienced professional actress/singer, Lori? Well, Lori was supposed to act in a play based on Truman Capote's, A Christmas Memory, this week, so realizing it would be a good experience for me, I agreed to fill in. That meant a bustle of activity learning my lines and preparing psychologically for the performance which took place last night.

Fortunately, all went well. I played the 60-somthing older woman, who was still a child at heart and in her mind, seen above with her distant younger cousin. After studying the character I learned we both shared a belief in magic! The slice of Americana story, by the way, is beautifully written by Truman Capote and can be found online for anyone interested. 

I got some compliments, and most of all I found I wasn't scared to be performing on stage, which I knew would serve me well on December 8th at our very first book signing! We'll see, though...and you can count on another post right after our book launch party!


Here's the beginning of the story with my first line.

Imagine a morning in late November. A coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago. Consider the kitchen of a spreading old house in a country town. A great black stove is its main feature; but there is also a big round table and a fireplace with two rocking chairs placed in front of it. Just today the fireplace commenced its seasonal roar.

A woman with shorn white hair is standing at the kitchen window. She is wearing tennis shoes and a shapeless gray sweater over a summery calico dress. She is small and sprightly, like a bantam hen; but, due to a long youthful illness, her shoulders are pitifully hunched. Her face is remarkable—not unlike Lincoln's, craggy like that, and tinted by sun and wind; but it is delicate too, finely boned, and her eyes are sherry-colored and timid. "Oh my," she exclaims, her breath smoking the windowpane, "it's fruitcake weather!"

The person to whom she is speaking is myself. I am seven; she is sixty-something, We are cousins, very distant ones, and we have lived together—well, as long as I can remember. Other people inhabit the house, relatives; and though they have power over us, and frequently make us cry, we are not, on the whole, too much aware of them. We are each other's best friend. She calls me Buddy, in memory of a boy who was formerly her best friend. The other Buddy died in the 1880's, when she was still a child. She is still a child.

"I knew it before I got out of bed," she says, turning away from the window with a purposeful excitement in her eyes. "The courthouse bell sounded so cold and clear. And there were no birds singing; they've gone to warmer country, yes indeed. Oh, Buddy, stop stuffing biscuit and fetch our buggy. Help me find my hat. We've thirty cakes to bake."

It's always the same: a morning arrives in November, and my friend, as though officially inaugurating the Christmas time of year that exhilarates her imagination and fuels the blaze of her heart, announces: "It's fruitcake weather! Fetch our buggy. Help me find my hat."
 


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PHONE CONTACT:  Lisa Minneti, 414.550.0298, Lori Minneti, 262.909.1887
EMAIL: Lisa: lisam@peabodysinteriors.com Lori: lminneti@wi.rr.com
BLOG: http://hazelmoonlisaloriminneti.blogspot.com/p/our-book.html  

LISA & LORI MINNETI LAUNCH HAZEL MOON, THEIR NEW FANTASY NOVEL

RACINE, MILWAUKEE WISCONSIN, October 24, 2015— Local authors and bloggers, Lori Minneti of RACINE and Lisa Minneti of FOX POINT, will release their novel, Hazel Moon, with a book launch party hosted by Peabody’s Interiors in Brown Deer, 8655 N. Deerwood Dr., Milwaukee, WI 43209,  on December 8, 2015 from 6-8:30 PM, formal book signing to begin at 7 PM. Please RSVP at 414.962.4550

FORMAT

The Minneti twins have professional entertainer in their blood as well as being authors and from the beginning Lisa & Lori knew they wanted to add a theatrical element to their book signings.

The authors will get you in the Hazel Moon mood with a selection of “Moon Songs” performed by David E. Kirby, a well-known Elvis tribute artist, and author Lori Minneti, a member of the Rat Package, a Frank Sinatra tribute troupe. Story character, Lady Luna, will be in the house and along with other actors playing roles, will bring Hazel Moon to life by acting out scenes from the book.

Attending you can look forward to experiencing the magic of Hazel Moon by being surprised and entertained as well as being offered the opportunity to proudly add to your personal reading library an excellent, layered, well-crafted, inspirational fantasy novel.

SYNOPSIS

The fantasy novel, Hazel Moon, is an urban Gothic fairytale with Celtic overtones that will take you on a magical and mystical literary journey—a coming-of-age story set in the post punk-rock era. In 1984 November Rainer Savitchian relives the fateful night of a full, rising Celtic Hazel Moon. The story opens on a hot, sweltering summer day in late August and unfolds over a 24-hour period, yet also spans centuries and travels the universe. Set in the backdrop of the local and national American concert culture, November and her best friend, Angela, attend a music festival during which magic along with Celtic lore and legend unfold to help guide her struggle to find passion, purpose, and conquer life’s demons. Hidden in the prose are poignant layers of profound wisdom, parable, and metaphor inspired by classic texts like Hermann Hesse's, Siddhartha.


WHERE TO PURCHASE

We’d like people to purchase Hazel Moon, available in print or as an eBook by going through their blog:
http://hazelmoonlisaloriminneti.blogspot.com/p/our-book.html

Just click on the cover picture and it will take you to online purchasing. The blog posts share the story of how Hazel Moon was created. The authors hope to build a community of readers who can interact and share comments on the blog.


There is a social media version of Hazel Moon on Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/37042129-hazel-moon
 

http://hazelmoonlisaloriminneti.blogspot.com/p/our-book.html
http://heritagepresspublications.blogspot.com/p/hazel-moon.html

Their book blog has some of their other writing and the blog posts tell the story of how the book was developed. There are also excerpts from the book on the blog for people to read. Our publisher’s blog, Heritage Press, also has posts which share developmental experiences along with the publisher’s other book offerings.


CONTACT THE AUTHORS  
Lisa & Lori Minneti are available for radio, television, and author interviews and appearances. For booking presentations, media appearances, interviews, and/or book-signings:
PHONE CONTACT:  Lisa Minneti, 414.550.0298, Lori Minneti, 262.909.1887
EMAIL: Lisa: lisam@peabodysinteriors.com Lori: lminneti@wi.rr.com

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

PROJECT BACKGROUND
The authors’ childhood unfolded as twins, caring for and loving each other, always supportive, in a close Italian/German second-generation immigrant family. Their teens became a magical and memorable time of growth and exploration, our lives enriched and enchanted with the music scene and the concert culture as we began to experience both local and national acts. They remember their very first concert, at Memorial Hall (in Racine), the event featuring pop rock sensation, Journey, and the heavy metal band, Montrose. A local band important to them over the years was, Take Me. Kent Parco, Lori’s late husband, was the bass player and songwriter for the band. They toured with Duran Duran and opened for the Psychedelic Furs, Flock of Seagulls, and more. The authors were among their huge fan base as they were instrumental in introducing the popular new wave music scene to Racine. Other local bands they followed were Wally Cleaver, Speed Kings, and Fairies Wear Boots. They were hooked, and even though during their 20s they had to start earning a living, they continued to embed themselves in the concert culture thriving on everything connected to that world throughout their lives.

Life had been rolling along, bright and breezy, when suddenly a close member of their family, their beloved brother, Mark, died before his time. Then, some years later Lori’s husband, Kent, died as well. Within months of that last passing, they felt the need to memorialize, to acknowledge and honor the gift of their lives through some sort of artistic project.

It was around eight years ago when Lisa walked into a library with her younger brother, Michael, and saw a brochure encouraging anyone feeling the impulse to begin writing a novel. It was one of those powerful serendipitous moments that light up a clear path to follow. Slowly the story of Hazel Moon and the characters that tell the story began to take shape, often based on experiences and people in their lives. For any reader who knows them personally and or knows their family history, it would become apparent that much of what takes place in the book represents fictional adaptations, often embellished with surprising twists and turns, of actual people and events in their lives

Now that Hazel Moon is completed and coming out they definitely feel the deep satisfaction of having honored the lives of everyone who inspired them, but especially those of their family members who passed too soon.


EARLY INFLUENCES


Hazel Moon has been in formal development for eight years and the publication process, involving editing and shaping, shooting the covers featuring both of the authors, took nine months. Looking back, they can see that informally all of their life experience became the raw material for their story and characters, but even when they began writing complete chapters, it was not at all clear that their novel would even be published. The remarkable story of the serendipitous meeting with their publisher is documented in their blog and the publisher’s.
 
They’d always been readers. Their grandmother often gave them gifts of books. She’d originally given books like Wuthering Heights & Jane Eyre to their mother who passed them on and later all the volumes of Shakespeare and Jane Austin, grounding them in the classics. Their mother, who was a voracious reader, also set a good example for the young authors to follow. To this day they try to read a new book a month, though with busy professional schedules, don’t always succeed.

Twins, the authors do many things together and even when they’re not together in the same physical space, they still feel connected sharing each other’s thoughts and feelings. Coauthoring Hazel Moon was a deeply collaborative experience—the kind, they feel, only close twins can have. Since Lori was passionately involved in the dramatic arts, they both dabbled writing a murder mystery which was turned into a play and performed. When they formally decided to write Hazel Moon eight years ago they’d been writing on and off for years. It is their hope that one day Hazel Moon will be adapted into a film and or performed as a play.