News Flash! January 20, 2008

Deb News:
Start boning up on your Deb Trivia, starting with Deb Jenny Gardiner and Deb Eileen Cook! Sleeping With Ward Cleaver and Unpredictable are soon to be launched and for each launch week there will be a contest with exciting prizes to be won.

In a tradition that started with last season’s debutantes, Deb Jenny and Sleeping With Ward Cleaver will be presented tomorrow at Seize A Daisy by our wonderful deb friend, Larramie.

Deb Jenny has gotten some more wonderful early reviews for Sleeping with Ward Cleaver, which apparently Amazon will begin shipping earlier than the publication date (hint hint!).
Rose and Thorn Ezine’s Maggie Grinnell said this: “Sleeping With Ward Cleaver is the most refreshing book I have read in quite some time…The way Gardiner uses satire and humor to express Claire’s emotions is priceless. I would recommend Sleeping with Ward Cleaver to anyone who enjoys insights about women, is frustrated with a man in her life, or who just likes a little humor.”

Armchair Interviews‘ Carrie Padgett says: “In this women’s fiction (book) debut novelist Jenny Gardiner achieves the difficult, if not impossible, task of creating sexual and romantic tension between characters who have been married more than a few years. And they said it couldn’t be done…Gardiner does a great job creating realistic and believable characters…The risk with writing about a married couple is how to sustain the conflict without getting shrill or soapy. Gardiner pulls it off. I wanted to see Jack and Claire fight for their marriage and their romance. Sleeping With Ward Cleaver is a clever and engaging romance with humor and heart.”

Chicklitclub.com says: “This debut novel, winner of the American Title III competition, is an engaging, thought-provoking and humorous insight into what happens when harried meets surly. You won’t be sleeping til you’ve finished it.”

And from Romance Reviews Today’s Marilyn Heyman, “If you enjoy funny, laugh-out-loud books, stories of women going through mid-life crises, you will enjoy SLEEPING WITH WARD CLEAVER. Although the situations are serious, the author looks at them with such a comedic bent that readers will laugh. Well written and well paced, SLEEPING WITH WARD CLEAVER is a romp and a lot of fun — it is a book readers are sure to enjoy.”

Deb Jenny’s also got a fun contest running at RomanceNovel.TV.com for the next two weeks (when faced with protagonist Claire Doolittle’s marital dilemmas, what would you do?), so check it out if you’d like to win a signed copy of the book.
She’s also in another contest over at Fresh Fiction, with a stylish June Cleaver-esque apron and decorative rubber gloves as the prize (along with a signed copy of the book). She’s also running a contest at her website—anyone emailing a photograph of a sighting of her novel at a book store (face out of course!) is eligible to win a $50 Amazon gift certificate.

And not to hog up all the news, but feel free to visit Deb Jenny over at Rose & Thorn E-zine blog for the next two weeks where she’ll be guest author.

On the Deb Bookshelf: What the Debs are reading, or wish they were reading if only they had time…
Deb Danielle is reading Publicize Your Book by Jacqueline Deval
Deb Jenny is alternating between Beginner’s Greek: A Novel by James Collins and Matrimony by Joshua Henkin. She’ll be sharing a panel with the authors called Getting It Right: Marriage in Fiction at the Virginia Festival of the Book.
But she’s also thinking of writing How to Not Have a Nervous Breakdown on the Eve of your Book’s Publication. When she can find the time!
Deb Jess is reading Steve Martin’s autobiography Born Standing Up.
Deb Eileen is reading Three Cups of Tea
Deb Lisa is reading Knock Yourself Up by Louise Sloan