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.

The Time That's Given

The Time That's Given

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Description

<p><strong><em>Have you ever awoken from a vivid dream and wondered which side of waking was real?</em></strong></p><p>Burt Higgins' retirement is not going well. His children have grown, and his wife has gone off to earn a late-life degree, leaving him alone in his sprawling suburban home. With too much time on his hands, he broods on the state of the world, obsessively following the worst of cable news and the Internet. Increasingly angry at the state of affairs, he nurtures a fantasy that a dark lord from another realm has foisted these problems on humankind. If only he could transport to that world, he'd confront the demon and use the magic found there to defeat the beast and end despair forever.</p><p>On a particularly bad news day, while housebound in the midst of a snowstorm, he retreats to his study to shut out the world and immerse himself in his books. When, on a whim, he lights a candle purchased in an obscure Prague curiosity shop, a magical guide appears and offers to take him on whatever quest he chooses. When he asks to become a hero in a fantasy realm, he discovers a more complex world than he expected, and battling evil with magic turns out to be far from his greatest challenge.</p><p><strong>EVOLVED PUBLISHING PRESENTS</strong> a specualtive fantasy adventure sure not just to entertain you, but to make you consider your life, your dreams, your goals. [DRM-Free]</p><h2><strong>Books by David Litwack:</strong></h2><ul><li><em>Along the Watchtower</em></li><li><em>The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky</em></li><li><em>The Time That's Given</em></li><li><em>The Children of Darkness</em> (The Seekers - Book 1)</li><li><em>The Stuff of Stars</em> (The Seekers - Book 2)</li><li><em>The Light of Reason</em> (The Seekers - Book 3)</li></ul><h2><strong>More Great Fantasy Fiction from Evolved Publishing:</strong></h2><ul><li><em>The Awakening of David Rose</em> (David Rose #1) by Daryl Rothman</li><li><em>Shadow Swarm</em> by D. Robert Pease</li><li><em>Kingdom in Chains</em> by J.W. Zulauf</li><li>The &quot;Grims' Truth&quot; Series by Isu Yin &amp; Fae Yang</li></ul><p> </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.

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>