giveaway
A very special giveaway for my very special readers: 1920 Fragrance from Besame Cosmetics
And the winner is … {drumroll}…Brooke Bumgardner! Yea, Brooke! I’ll be contacting you privately to get your mailing address. Thanks to everyone for entering and for leaving such nice comments. I’ll definitely do this giveaway again, since it seems to be a popular one! jll
Who says you can’t put time in a bottle? Catch a whiff of the Roaring Twenties. Read on to learn how.
Jennifer Lamont Leo’s Reader Community recently passed the 2000-subscriber mark! To celebrate, I’ll be giving away a half-ounce bottle of 1920 Fragrance from Besame Cosmetics.
1920 is part of Besame’s brilliant Decades of Fragrance Collection which also features 1910, 1930, 1940, 1950, and 1960. The company describes the collection as “an olfactory picture of a decade of time, using familiar ingredients from each period to create an impression in your mind of a time gone by. Each perfume extract is meticulously crafted from precious essential oils and natural alcohol.”
Specifically, 1920 contains top notes of mandarin, juniper berry, and galbanum; heart notes of jasmine, violet, muguet, and suede; and base notes of cocoa, myrrh, amber, and musk, all packaged in a beautiful glass vial with rollerball applicator.
This giveaway is open only to subscribers of my Reader Community. If you’re not subscribed already, you can do so over on the right. Then come back here and leave a comment about why you’d like to win a bottle of 1920. One winner will be drawn at random on Mothers Day, May 13, 2018, from among subscribers who leave a comment (to make sure it goes to someone who truly wants it).
I’m sorry to say that, due to international shipping regulations, this giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.
Jennifer
Sparkling Vintage Reads: A Trail of Crumbs by Susie Finkbeiner (with Giveaway!)
UPDATE: We have our winner! Newsletter subscriber J. Kihn has won a copy of A Trail of Crumbs. (J., I’ve sent you an e-mail requesting your mailing address.) Thanks, everyone! Watch for more giveaways and goodies, plus news on the sequel to You’re the Cream in My Coffee and other publishing projects, coming soon. JLL
The circumstances of the Great Depression of the 1930s weren’t pretty, but they sure make for good stories.I’ve just finished reading A Trail of Crumbs by Michigan author Susie Finkbeiner, and found myself very moved by it. Here’s the five-star review I posted on Amazon:
Susie Finkbeiner
Before launching my Susie Finkbeiner-fandom by reading her earlier book, A Cup of Dust, my knowledge of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl had been pretty much limited to a high-school reading of The Grapes of Wrath. A Cup of Dust made this harrowing period of American history more real for me through the eyes of a young girl, Pearl Spence. (I even interviewed Susie about A Cup of Dust: read the interview here.)
A Trail of Crumbs picks up Pearl’s story where A Cup of Dust leaves off. A heartbreaking tragedy launches Pearl’s family on a journey to live near relatives in 1930s Michigan, where Pearl must adjust to new people and situations, along with the more ordinary challenges of growing up. Susie Finkbeiner’s lyrical descriptions and heartfelt portrayals transported me to an era that seems very different from our own, and yet so similar in some ways. The characters are well drawn and believable, especially Pearl. Through all of her difficulties, there are bright spots, such as her lively Aunt Carrie, and the teacher who introduces her to Frank L. Baum’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I loved seeing how caring adults can have a positive impact in the life of a child through such small but thoughtful gestures, even as other adults make poor and destructive choices.
I’m eager to read much more from Susie Finkbeiner. Find out more about this talented author at susiefinkbeiner.com.
I’ll be giving away one softcover copy of A Trail of Crumbs to someone in the Sparkling Vintage newsletter community! To join, simply enter your e-mail in the sidebar to the right of the blog. If you’re already a subscriber and you’d like to enter the drawing, just let me know in the comments below. I’ll draw the winner at random on Friday, April 7, 2017. 🙂
Some extra Cream for your Coffee: Goodreads Giveaway thru Oct. 20!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
You’re the Cream in My Coffee
by Jennifer Lamont Leo
Giveaway ends October 20, 2016.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
WinnerS of the Sparkling Vintage Mug-ging giveaway
Source: Greg Lamont
Edited to add: Okay, sometimes it pays to reread one’s own posts. I see that I had promised to pick TWO winners of a mug and a book! So there’s been a second random mugging! MINDY HOOVER is our second mug-gee. Congratulations, Mindy!
Somebody just got mugged! Marcia Whetsel of Careywood, Idaho, won the drawing for the mug and book. Congratulations, Marcia! And thanks, everyone, for participating. More giveaways will be coming up soon.
The book-launch party in Sandpoint, Idaho, last weekend went great. I didn’t count how many people came, but it seemed like quite a crowd. I’m sure the rainy weather helped. I thought I was going to run out of books and be embarrassed by my poor planning, but providentially they stretched to the end. Only two people graciously accepted an IOU for later delivery of their books, and they were very good friends. (Growing up, if we had dinner guests and looked to be running low on some coveted food item, the whispered code was “FHB”–family hold back–to assure there’d be plenty for the guests. I felt as if I’d whispered FHB to my sisters!) I had no idea so many people would want to buy my book. But I’m so glad they did! And another shipment arrives today, so it’s all good.
This coming weekend, I’ll be speaking at the Idaho Writers League annual conference in Coeur d’Alene, on writing for the inspirational fiction market. Please pray that my remarks are well received, helpful, and encouraging to aspiring authors.
I’m ready to stop talking about the book for a while, just as you’re no doubt ready to stop hearing about it. Look for some new posts on other vintage-related topics coming up soon!
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a book.
You’re the Cream in My Coffee releases today! The very kindest thing you can do for the book–and for me–is to tell your friends about it. There’s a needle-in-a-haystack quality to new books these days, so help those people you know who might LIKE the story, to FIND the story.(Feel free to skip your uncle who proudly declares he hasn’t cracked open a book since the day he left school, or your third cousin who only reads vampire novels.)
Post a review on Amazon. And Goodreads, if that’s a site you frequent (and if you enjoy reading, you really should. It’s like the Enchanted Forest for book lovers).
Here are a couple of ways to score a free copy of the print edition:
*If you click “follow” on my Amazon author page today (9/15) , you will be entered into a random drawing for a free copy. (Look for the “follow” button under my photo on the author page. I’m telling you this because it took me a while to find it, lol.) This promotion is facilitated by Readers in the Know.
*If you comment on my blog or sign up for my e-newsletter through 9/17, you’ll be entered into a random drawing for a free copy AND a limited-edition mug.
There’s no reason not to throw your hat in the ring for both promotions.
Thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you. Seriously. You are the bee’s knees!
Jennifer
A Sparkling Vintage Mug-ging!
Source: Greg Lamont
My talented brother Greg Lamont made this fabulous limited-edition mug for the launch of You’re the Cream in My Coffee. Isn’t it–and isn’t he–the bee’s knees?
I’ll be giving a couple of these mugs away as door prizes at the book launch party here in Idaho on September 17. But I’ll bet a whole lot of you Sparklers won’t be able to make it to Idaho that day. And that hardly seems fair. So I’ve decided to also give away 2 mugs here on the blog as well. There are two ways to enter:
(1) You can leave a comment below, finishing this sentence: “One person I’d love to have coffee with is______________because ______________” (The person you choose can be fictional or real, living or long-gone.)
AND/OR
(2) You can sign up for my quarterly e-letter (look to the right for the sign-up form).
On the evening of September 17, I will draw 2 names at random to receive one of these special mugs plus a copy of You’re the Cream in My Coffee (signed, if you want). The names will be drawn at random from commenters and e-letter subscribers.
I’ll start. One person I’d love to have coffee with is Erma Bombeck, because we would laugh until our sides ached, and all the jokes would be clean, proving it can be done.
Okay, your turn.
We have a winner!
The randomly-chosen winner of a copy of Jan Cline‘s heart-stirring new novel EMANCIPATED HEART is Violetta Davis! Congratulations, Violetta. Check your e-mail for a note from me (Jennifer).
Thank you so much to everyone who entered! I hope you will continue to visit this blog, where we talk about Sparkling Vintage Fiction…among other things. 🙂
Hana Kato and her family are nearing the end of their confinement in a WWII Japanese American internment camp. Her beloved Papa has been taken to prison, and Hana works hard to keep the family together until he can join them in preparation for their release. Surviving the attack on Pearl Harbor, and years of enduring difficult living conditions has tested Hana’s faith and trust. Although she stays strong through trials and tragedy, her resolve is weakened as she fights her affections for two men. Will she choose the rebel Japanese young man? Or will the bright Caucasian doctor she works with win her love? Emancipated Heart will hold your attention with a setting of an interesting era in American history, and a lesson in true loyalty, love and forgiveness, told through a Christian worldview.
