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Lori Stephens

Lori Stephens

About

Lori Ann Stephens’s debut novel, Song of the Orange Moons,will be released in October 2010 by Blooming Tree Press. When she's not writingor teaching writing, she reads, dances, and eats the best gourmet, home-cookedmeals. She is not the cook. She lives in Plano, Texas with her family.

Santa's Birthday Gift

Santa's Birthday Gift

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Description

<p><span style="color:#000000;line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">Santa’s Birthday Gift was written in response to a grandchild’s question, after reading the story of the Nativity.<span>  </span>She asked, “But where’s Santa?”<span>  </span>This story tells the story of the Nativity and then goes on to tell the story about how when Jesus is born, Santa sees the star at the North Pole and travels to see the baby.  Since he is a toymaker, he brings his bag of toys - and offers them to the Christ Child, and then to all the people of the town.  His birthday gift to Jesus is a promise to bring gifts to all good boys and girls each year on the Christ Child's birthday</span></p>

Story Behind The Book

SONG OF THE ORANGE MOONS is a mosaic of stories that follow the intertwined lives of three girls coming of age. Two young girls and an elderly widow try to find happiness in a seemingly cruel world. In spite of their different cultural and economic backgrounds, Rebecka, Helen, and Adelle all share the delicate, self-conscious journey to womanhood. All three search for love and meaning in a variety of places-- a charismatic church, a Depression-era orphanage, a moonlit Savannah park, an orthodox Jewish boarding school-- and end up finding lasting strength in the power of their friendships.

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Reviews

<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span><span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman';"></span></span></span></em><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">Nuanced and lovely, written in three pitch-perfect voices of narrators aching for a self, <em>Song of the Orange Moons</em> is an enchanting debut novel from an exciting new writer. ~ Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of <em>A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain</em></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><span style="color:#000000;">In this premiere novel, Lori Ann Stephens offers a poignant allegory of our time. Each of her characters seeks the true nature of the woman within; each must recognize and accept both the bitterness and the sweetness of life’s deeper truths.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#000000;">            Clay Reynolds, award-winning author of <em>Monuments</em> and <em>Franklin’s Crossing</em>.  <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">The characters and, just as importantly, the words in Lori Ann Stephens’s debut novel will stay with you long after you close the cover. Full of heart and startling images, <em>Song of the Orange Moons</em> is a haunting book about love and loss. The interwoven stories of a widow and her two young neighbors are humorous and horrific, and crafted with bittersweet honesty. I highly recommend it.<span>  </span><span> </span>~Robert Nelsen, president of the University of Texas-Pan American</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">This is a book about love, loss, reclamation.  Stephens reconstructs the brutal, vivid experience of childhood with startling clarity.  A fine, exquisite novel full of feeling and careful observation.<span class="il"></span><br /> ~Claudia Smith, Pushcart Prize nominee and author of <em>The Sky is a Well</em>, and <em>Put Your Head in My Lap</em></span></p>