Lynn's Romance Enthusiasm: Audiobookworm Presents: Passports and Plum Blossoms by Barbara Oliverio; #AudiobookBlogTour, #NowAvailable, #OutNow

Monday, May 6, 2019

Audiobookworm Presents: Passports and Plum Blossoms by Barbara Oliverio; #AudiobookBlogTour, #NowAvailable, #OutNow

Author: Barbara Oliverio

Narrator: Faye Wagner

Length: 7 hours and 28 minutes

Publisher: Scolapasta Press

Released: Feb. 6, 2019

Genre: Romantic Comedy

By the readers' favorite award-winning author, Barbara Oliverio. Barbara's "Love on the Lido Deck" was recently made into a Hallmark Channel Movie.

Annalise Fontana is feeling blue with no job, no boyfriend, and packed among her childhood memories in her parents' home. What could be more enticing than the opportunity to serve as a companion to her elderly Auntie Lil on a senior citizens' tour of China (with a side trip to Singapore)? She digs out her passport and packs her bags and assumes that she's in for a tranquil Jane Austenesque journey.

Nothing could be further from the truth as the trip takes a turn before they even leave the country. What follows is a lively journey with a cast of quirky travel companions who are anything but dull. The Fontana girls immediately fit in to the festive group.

While visiting heart-stopping sights, Annalise also has her heart begin pounding faster as she meets a number of charming young men. But who is the mysterious, brooding stranger who seems to pop up on the streets of Singapore, in Beijing's Forbidden City, and stays on her mind at the Great Wall of China?

Readers' Favorite Award™ Winner Barbara Oliverio is the daughter of Italian immigrants and a real coal miner’s daughter. She grew up in West Virginia with a love of reading and a passion for learning. Following a career path that included being a teacher, journalist, and marketer, she has lived as far away from home as Italy where she practiced her family's native tongue and took advantage of living near other European countries to travel extensively.Her life-long joy in writing has culminated in novels that focus on young Catholic women in a positive light. Readers of all backgrounds have fallen in love with her charming characters who come from close-knit Catholic families who live out their faith.She is also a freelance editor, professional book critic, and mentors blossoming writers on their own paths.A rabid Pittsburgh Steeler fan, she lives with her husband, an equally committed New York Giants fan, outside Orlando where off-football-season dinner conversation is calmer and is usually accompanied by a meal she cooks from one of her mother's treasured recipes. Other interests include New York Times crossword puzzles, good movies, and travel.

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After touring the country with Broadway’s “Annie”, Faye studied at the famed Moscow Art Theatre, in winter, for the full Chekov experience. Returning to the sunshine of Los Angeles, she earned her BA in Theatre Arts magna cum laude from Loyola Marymount University. Faye’s stage work includes a Broadwayworld award winning turn in “To Kill a Mockingbird”, and “The Grapes of Wrath” directed by MacArthur “Genius” winner David Cromer. TV work includes “Law and Order: True Crime”, “I Love Dick”, “Ray Donovan”, “Lucky Louie”, “’til Death”, and “The War at Home”.

Writing Just Ain’t for Sissies

By Barbara Oliverio

Oh sure, we’ve all seen it in the movies. Someone announces that she is going to write that book she’s always wanted to write. Friends and family are tentative, but loving and supportive. Fast forward while she is sits at a pristine desk or cozily tucks into a corner at the coffee shop with just her laptop and a latte, then, bang, she’s at a book signing standing behind a huge pile of hardbacks, with a line of eager fans stretched outside the (brand name, chain) bookstore waiting for a signed copy. Friends and family are so proud. Minutes later, her agent is talking about the movie rights. That is exactly how it works.

Right.

If Hollywood documented most journeys, they might look a bit more like this:

Our heroine finally decides to write a book. She may have thought about this for her whole life, or it may be a relatively recent dream. In any case, she’s thought quite a bit about taking this plunge. Chances are she is not independently wealthy, so she worries about how to pay for minor things like, oh, food and shelter while writing, and that is what has kept her from starting her project up to this point. When she finally determines a workable plan, she tentatively announces her decision.

Well-meaning people weigh in: “Are you sure?” one asks. “Don’t you realize how hard this will be?” says another. And those are the supportive comments. She assumes a brave-little-toaster smile and nods. Despite this lukewarm support, she soldiers onward.

(Not so) fast forward, she completes the necessary research. Despite the myth of the “muse”, she knows that writing is just as much a skill as an art. She studies nuances, learns the subject matter, and perhaps takes classes or seminars. She wonders just how Jane Austen ever did this in the pre-computer era.

Her desk is an explosion of notebooks, scraps of paper holding random ideas for dialog, pictures ripped from magazines, reference books, good luck charms, chocolate bar wrappers, teacups, and other items that are essential to her process. If she does move her operation to the coffee shop for a few hours, she lugs her computer, scouts out the seat near an electrical outlet so that she can make sure she will be fully charged, and probably has a backpack chock full of notes with her.

Manuscript complete, she edits and re-edits (then re-edits yet again) as she pitches to agents hoping for representation or takes a chance and decides to independently publish. In any case, going from manuscript to actual book takes roughly the amount of time as gestation of an elephant.

She launches her book and works on publicity, including book club visits, signings at small and large bookstores and any other avenue she can manage. She maintains her presence daily on every social media site. Ah. Finally the glamour -- she is a published author! (Never mind the physical therapy bill for dragging cartons of books hither and yon.)

Encountering the same people who were skeptical when she embarked on the project, she is excited and proud to let them know she completed the book. At last! Maybe they’ll acknowledge that her leap of faith paid off.

The response: “Oh. Nice…When will your next one be out?”

Writing just ain’t for sissies.

Barbara Oliverio is an award-winning author of comedic novels featuring young women who sort out their work lives and love lives while staying true to faith and family. She is also a writing mentor and a professional book critic. She just released her fifth novel Peak to Peak: A Romantic Comedy with Altitude www.barbaraoliverio.com.

Dream Cast

Character(s) Actor

Annalise Fontana Lacey Chabert

Eli Chamberlain Henry Golding

Lilliana (Auntie Lil) Fontana Rita Moreno

Genio Cusamano Armand Assante

Georgiann (Georgi) Pierini Ivonne Coll

Tom Pierini Joe Montegna

Rory Bella Thorne

Breck Domnhall Gleeson

“Bear” Willems Chi McBride

Frida Willems Lisa Kudrow