2013
Many thanks to John Michael Lockhart, publisher of the Riverside Reader, for the article below!!!
http://www.facebook.com/n/?pages%2FThe-Riverside-Reader%2F106539363165&aref=75878467&medium=email&mid=8d90c35G5b014b69G485d043G11&bcode=1.1383010056.Ablk9WjziFdU8mnj&n_m=martygmanuel%40yahoo.com
(I'm the one with the red blouse. The two lovely ladies across from me were posing
for a picture for my website! Mom was unable to make the Harvest Fest this year
because they had company that came in to help celebrate dad's 100 birthday the
following Tuesday! Martha Gabour Manuel)
MOTHER & DAUGHTER MYSTERY WRITERS
By John Michael Lockhart
A year ago Martha Gabour Manuel of Ventress unveiled her first novel, Murder on False River. She says she had planned on releasing a sequel earlier this month but she found herself working on another woman’s novel instead.
“Mother and Daddy had the Pineville News and the Patriot-Tribune, but that’s been many, many years ago. And they had... those two newspapers the whole time we were growing up, so my mother was into all kinds of stuff.
“But the one thing my mother always had her heart set on was writing a novel, but she never took the time to do it. After my book came out last year, she finally realized it was now or never because she wasn’t getting any younger.
“My mother was doing her book so I put the sequel to my book aside and we started working on her book, but it’s really her book, her story. So we finished that one this year, Fannie and Udie.
“It’s a mystery book. She started writing and she just got to the point that she couldn’t concentrate enough, so I put mine aside and we finished that one together,” Manuel explains.
Manuel says she was worried she wouldn’t receive her mother’s debut novel in time to sell it at the Harvest Festival on False River but everything came together in the end. That was important to Manuel because it was at the Harvest Fest where she had debuted her own book a year earlier, she says.
“We just got it off the press; I was so excited,” she notes.
For the past year Manuel and her youngest son, Chris, have been making stops throughout Louisiana promoting and selling her novel. It’s been an experience they both say they’ve enjoyed.
“Chris is my business manager; he handles my taxes, my website, and books the personal appearances” she says.
“It has been unbelievable. We’ve been doing book signings all over Louisiana; we’ve been everywhere.
“The Zachary Library just told me they have a waiting list of 22 people to get my book. Everybody who has stopped by our booth just to visit, have told me they’ve read it and can’t wait for the next one to come out.
“Last year I sold 73 books at the Harvest Festival,” she notes.
While Murder on False River and Fannie and Udie are both works of fiction, each also has underlying elements of truth. For example, Manuel made a run for state senate and the two elderly ladies portrayed in Fannie and Udie were inspired by Manuel’s grandmother and great aunt.
“Savannah Devereaux, my heroine, ran for state senator out in this area. It talks about all the things that she went through and there are a lot of places that are mentioned in there that are actual places. What people have told me they like most about it is that it’s so real because I mention real places that people can identify with.
“My parents live in central Louisiana and I would visit them two days each week and my mother and I would work on her book during that time.
“We would go to the food court at the mall in Alexandria and we would talk about it and I would incorporate what she said into the story. She wanted me to put my name on it but I told her no, no, this is your book,” Manuel says.
“When I first started off, my mom edited my book. My mom is 86 and she’ll be 87 in November. My dad will be 100 on Tuesday (Oct. 22) ... "
Manuel says her mother, Ruth Bryan Gabour, was a poet and a reporter for a daily newspaper in Texas before becoming the editor of the two Louisiana newspapers her parents purchased in 1956.
But despite decades of writing articles on real happenings, she never took the time to write a novel until now.
Murder on False River and Fannie and Udie are both available on Manuel’s website, marthamanuel.com.
According to her website, she has appearances scheduled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and West Monroe in November. The books are also available at Amazon.com, Bee Still Books and Gifts in New Roads, Cottonwood Books in Baton Rouge and The Foyer in Baton Rouge. The books are also available via electronic download.
2012
Books of Self-Publishing Authors Featured in the New York Times 03Dec
he December 2nd issue of the New York Times Book Review focuses on the top 10 books of the year. For six Outskirts Press authors, this proves to be a very exciting time when their books will ppear in the New York Times Book Review.
New York Times Holiday Edition of the NYT Book Review is distributed to nearly 5 million people, d in the pages of that edition is the Outskirts Press co-op announcement featured below:
All of these books, and other Outskirts Press titles, are available from all major online retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powells, Books A Million, and others, plus conveniently from the Outskirts Press bookstore at http://outskirtspress.com/bookstore for discounts ranging from 10% – 55%.
All of these books, and other Outskirts Press titles, are available from all major online retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powells, Books A Million, and others, plus conveniently from the Outskirts Press bookstore at http://outskirtspress.com/bookstore for discounts ranging from 10% – 55%.
http://selfpublishingnews.com/2012/12/03/books-of-self-publishing-authors-featured-in-the-new-york-times
