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Song of the Oceanides - Book Tour, Interview and Giveaway

6/7/2016

30 Comments

 
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                               Song of the Oceanides
                                              by J.G. Zymbalist
                                           GENRE: YA Fantasy

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​ong of the Oceanides is a highly-experimental triple narrative transgenre fantasy that combines elements of historical fiction, YA, myth and fairy tale, science fiction, paranormal romance, and more.  For ages 10-110.
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Dyce’s Head, Maine.
31 August.
     Rory Slocum had only just returned home from Putnam’s General Store and Newsagent when he noticed the girl standing in the heart of the garden. She seemed to be lost in the music of the wind chimes dangling from Mother’s lilac tree. Still, despite the girl’s seeming innocence, somehow he just knew that she must be one of the Oceanides who had been taunting him all summer long.
    She must have heard his footsteps in the salty afternoon breeze because she turned to look upon him. What a comely girl too.

    A bit of jam and then some! He stopped in his tracks and studied her classical features.
    She had plum-black hair, eyes of sea green, bold chiseled planes to her face, fine hallowed cheeks, and a sharp jaw line. How could she be anything but an Oceanide?

​    Slowly he advanced as far as the fog cannon where he paused a second time. Perhaps he would do something so as to entertain her, and once she realized how amusing he could be, she would tell the others to leave him be. He walked over to the lilac tree. “Look what I’ve got here!” With that he held up his copy of Sir Pilgarlic Guthrie’s Phantasy Retrospectacle.

    She must have resented the whole notion that a boy like Rory would even think to approach someone like her. Grimacing, she called to another girl who had just walked up through the gale-torn bluffs. The two of them spoke in a tongue resembling the Byzantine Greek in which the drunken churchwarden sometimes delivered his public addresses.
    As giddy as ever, Rory advanced a few more steps. “You know what they call this sort of picture book, do you? Down at Putnam’s, they tell me it’d be un comique pittoresque. Just like the newsagents sell down there in Paris.” Now he pointed to the picture on the dust jacket—the Oceanides’ long flowing hair and the mint-cream linen gowns reaching down to their ankles. Afterward he pointed at the girls themselves standing there in their own creamy-white gowns. “Sir Pilgarlic Guthrie, he’s the bettermost! Everything bang up to the elephant and—”
    “Have you any idea how odd you are?” the first Oceanide asked. “And you’ll be beginning your fifth year in school next fall, isn’t that right? They’ll tear you apart, a beanpea like you.”
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​    J.G. Źymbalist began writing Song of the Oceanides as a child when his family summered in Castine, Maine where they rented out Robert Lowell’s house.
    The author returned to the piece while working for the Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society, May-September, 2005. He completed the full draft in Ellsworth, Maine later that year.

For more information, please see http://jgzymbalist.com

NOTE: The book is on sale for $0.99. Free for Kindle Unlimited Members or as part of Kindle MatchBook.
LINKS:
http://www.amazon.com/JG-Zymbalist/e/B01B1ZLE2A/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14930590.JG_Zymbalist
http://www.amazon.com/Song-Oceanides-JG-Zymbalist-ebook/dp/B01AM2I8MC
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Do you have any tattoos?

Certainly not. I’m very uncool. Still, I think it would be exciting to be married to a woman with tattoos. I certainly don’t have anything against it, and I’ve heard that some women with tattoos prefer a husband who is a little bit bland in his own tastes. Bland is definitely me.

Is your life anything like it was two years ago?

It is precisely the same. Ever since I began writing full time, I find myself lost in the page. Years blend into one another. Nothing ever changes. And that’s just fine with me. I’m very introverted.

How long have you been writing?

I’ve been writing all my life, but I threw almost all of it away. The only thing I really have left is what remains of my NA Middle-Eastern epic. Decades ago, when I was in my twenties, I wrote the rough draft as I was night clerking in a series of Palestinian youth hostels in the Old City of Jerusalem. It’s a historical fantasy all about the British Empire during the First World War. I do plan to self-publish the piece in a few years. There is very little sex and violence, so I see no reason to query the agents.

What advice would you give a new writer just starting out?

Write only if you have to. Oh, and put lots of sex and violence into the text if you want the gatekeepers to like it.

Tell us something about your newest release that is NOT in the blurb.
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I believe my book, Song of the Oceanides, to have therapeutic power. My father was a physician, and my mother was a registered nurse, so I guess it’s in my blood. If you slip into my story, the cathartical elements can and will do you some good. I’m sure of it. I’m a little bit like the Blues Brothers in the sense that I sort of feel I’m “on a mission from God.” Or perhaps I should just say that I do have a conscience and do wish to write the sort of books that can help others cope with the facts of life.
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a Rafflecopter giveaway
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30 Comments
Goddess Fish Promos link
6/7/2016 04:44:55 am

Thank you for hosting. FYI, this book is now FREE everywhere it's sold!

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JG Zymbalist link
6/7/2016 08:05:26 am

Thank you to everyone at Recipe Fairy! It feels so great to be a small part of this great blog!

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Mai T.
6/7/2016 05:37:46 am

What inspired you to write this book?

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JG Zymbalist link
6/7/2016 08:11:07 am

Mai, thank you for the great question! Hmm. Let me think. This book is really a kind of meditation on coming of age and the emotional evolution of late childhood. Those emotional evolutions are made all the more painful by the phenomenon of school bullying of course. Anyway because the book is inspired by such heavy material, the story is quirky and melancholy and atmospheric. So be warned! Given the inspiration, the book commingles the literary with the fun and freakiness of genre writing.

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Peggy
6/7/2016 07:13:08 am

What do you find to be the hardest part of writing?

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JG Zymbalist link
6/7/2016 08:14:54 am

Thank you for the great question, Peggy. The hardest part of writing is the redrafting. Make no mistake about that. This fact holds true whether you're a humble soul like me, or we're talking about someone like J.K. Rowling. A rough draft is not much more than a lump of clay. But redrafting the material into its final form, that is the stuff of sculpting and hard work. And your head will ache, and so will your lower back. Oh, and your eyes too.

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Victoria
6/7/2016 12:37:18 pm

Great excerpt and interview! Thanks for sharing :)

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JG Zymbalist link
6/7/2016 02:23:34 pm

Thank you, Victoria

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James Robert
6/7/2016 12:56:21 pm

Thanks so much for the opportunity to win, I appreciate it

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JG Zymbalist link
6/7/2016 02:24:12 pm

You're most welcome, sir!

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chloe
6/7/2016 01:13:27 pm

What is your best advice for up and coming writers who want to get published?

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JG Zymbalist link
6/7/2016 02:28:39 pm

Chloe, wow great question. I'm really not the person to ask though. I'm a humble self-publisher. My fear is that most of the writers who succeed in traditional publishing are those who are able to network in person with big shots from a particular house. If due to geography or some other circumstance you do not have those kinds of personal connections, it's almost hopeless. For me the best thing to do is go the indie route. Finding a reader who gets something out of one's writing is the only reward that matters.

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Nikolina
6/8/2016 01:21:47 am

The book sounds very intriguing, looking forward to reading it!

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JG Zymbalist link
6/8/2016 07:53:31 am

Thank you, Nikolina. But be warned it's transgenre: part literary, part fantasy, part sci-fi, part paranormal romance, part several other things!

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Laura
6/10/2016 01:55:15 am

Sounds like a great book. I really enjoyed the excerpt!

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JG Zymbalist link
6/10/2016 07:52:05 am

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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barbg
6/10/2016 09:08:46 pm

I would like to win this $50 gift card that would be so awesome. Ok I'll take multiple wins.

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JG Zymbalist link
6/11/2016 07:48:29 am

Barb, may the rafflecopter gods smile down on you!

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Brianne
6/18/2016 01:44:02 pm

Thanks for the awesome giveaway. Your book looks great :)

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JG Zymbalist link
6/18/2016 01:54:52 pm

Cheers, Brianne : )

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barbg
6/25/2016 03:15:53 pm

I know Amazon is my favorite place to shop. I bet it is everyone's favorite place to order online.

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JG Zymbalist link
6/26/2016 07:51:36 am

Amazon is awesome, but don't forget etsy. They give artists a chance to get their work out before the world.

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barbg
7/2/2016 08:48:55 pm

Wow I could buy a lot of goodies, snack items with $50 from Amazon. I am so happy to find this giveaway offered.

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JG Zymbalist link
7/3/2016 08:04:05 am

Barb, if you win and you wish to buy snack items, I would like to recommend raisins. They're good for your body and you soul, and they go good with tea.

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JG Zymbalist link
7/3/2016 08:05:49 am

That's "your" soul. Sorry for my previous typo.

barbg
7/3/2016 06:13:38 pm

Thanks for the reminder, I do love raisins and have not bought them in years. I guess you just shop for what you normally buy. Which is why I like Amazon. If I am on their I can look over all the grocery items without getting worn out from walking the aisles.

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JG Zymbalist link
7/4/2016 08:48:07 am

I know just what you mean!

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JG Zymbalist link
7/4/2016 08:51:33 am

Oh, and happy Independence Day!

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Sarah L
7/16/2016 06:57:29 pm

How many hours a day do you write?
Thanks for the contest.

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JG Zymbalist link
7/17/2016 07:56:19 am

Sarah, thank you for the cool question! I write every single day, from about 9 am-12 am. This is when a person's mind is freshest, so I think that the morning is the best time to work. Then, after a Spanish-style siesta, I come back at 3 pm and read everything back and touch it up and smooth it over till about 5 pm. By 5 pm I am absolutely frazzled and exhausted. That is when I join my cat, and we just trifle about outside or watch old movies till midnight. I know everyone has their own schedule, but mine works well for me. And my cat is fairly used to it too.

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