Free Food for Millionaires

Article by Diane Chamberlain

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Dear Reader,

I love hearing that a reader stayed up all night to finish one of my books! My first goal as a writer is to entertain and to keep those pages turning. But I also like hearing that one of my stories challenged a reader to imagine herself in my character=s shoes . . even if those shoes are a little uncomfortable.


Sometimes we make choices we later regret, and we must find a way to live with them. That=s the predicament in which CeeCee Wilkes finds herself when the actions she takes as a teenager threaten to haunt her and the people she loves for the rest of their lives. Would you have made the choices she makes? Could you cope with living a Asecret life?@

I found myself caring deeply about CeeCee as I wrote her story. I hope you=ll care about her, too.

Diane

Author Bio

Dear Readers!

People often ask what I want my readers to get from my books. The short answer is this: I want you to be entertained in that fast-paced, can't put down style. And I do hope you can't put this down! I'm a character and theme-driven writer. Both are so important in all my books. So I also hope you will be drawn to Heather and Duncan, the personal issues they face, and the struggles they overcome. May you be entertained and inspired!

Heather Gordon has enjoyed the privileges of 16th-century Scottish nobility her entire life, but she yearns for a more fulfilling existence. On the contrary, Duncan Mackenzie has never known life beyond the rugged Highland countryside and is perfectly content to keep it that way. So when the two are paired in a dangerous plot to rescue Mary, Queen of Scots, they both find themselves drawn together against their better judgment. But as the plot unfolds, they begin to wonder if there is more stirring among them than political rebellion. Are they willing to risk their lives-and their love-for queen and country?

Enjoy!
Kathleen Morgan

Kathleen would be delighted to call-in to your book group via speakerphone Email her to set up a chat.

Dear Reader,

Imagine what would happen if all the men in a town were swept off in a war and the women were left alone... Considering the current situation in much of the world, this topic is sure to generate serious questions.

In my first novel, Tales from the Town of Widows, a band of guerrillas arrives in the village of Mariquita, forcibly "recruits" all the men and takes them away to fight for the communist cause. In a single tragic event, the women and children of the village are left alone to deal with both nature's powerful elements and the absence of the men who had ruled their lives. Now virtual widows, the women must fend for themselves, must get beyond their grief and pull together to survive. In the process of rebuilding their lives, they challenge the strong male orientation of the world and discover their own strength, self-sufficiency and power. Ultimately, they create a social order based on female values: harmony, cooperation and respect for every individual.
This all-female utopia is put to the test when, after sixteen years, four men return to the village... Read Tales from the Town of Widows to find out what happens.

The idea for writing this novel came to me after reading a Colombian newspaper. In it there was an article about a village in the Colombian mountains where communist guerrillas had taken most men away. They talked about how it was almost a trend for guerrilla groups to force peasants and Indians into fighting for their cause. My question (which the article didn't answer) was 'What's going to happen to the women?' To me, the consequential thing wasn't that many men had been taken away, but rather that many women and their children had been left behind and needed to move on with their lives. Colombian women are very strong and have an incredible capacity to endure (skills they've learned from having lived in the midst of the country's four decades of civil war). So I knew they could survive without their men, the question was how they would go about it, and how this process would transform them as individuals and as a society.

Tales from the Town of Widows is my answer to that question. It is also my way of giving voice to women everywhere who live in repressed societies.

Author Bio