Can you tell us a little bit about your latest book? When did it come out? Where can we get it?
Dancing with Air is my new release,
and it came out on 08/08/2016. I am truly excited about this story, and I hope it
will resonate with you, just like my previous novel, The Music of Us. This
story takes two fascinating characters--Lenny, the marine, and the girl he
loves, the rising star, Natasha--for a trip down memory lane.
As an artist, I love playing with
contrasts in my paintings and watercolors. This story offers me great
opportunities to play with contrasts between the two characters, and over the
arc of their life together, the contrasts between the way they used to be, and
the way they are now.
Sounds interesting! Congratulations on your new release!
For a long time I had this idea of
creating a series around the events in the life of a unique family. The characters
had to have not only a compelling voice, but they had to see things in an
entirely different light, which would create contrasts and conflicts, as each
one of them comes from a different background and has different passions,
needs, and aspirations.
Dancing with Air is volume IV in
this series, but like the previous volumes, it is also a standalone novel,
which you can read independently of the others. It opens in 1970 with Lenny and
Natasha who have been married for a long time, and by the brilliant lens of
memory, Lenny reflects back on the months leading to D-Day, when he and Natasha
first got to know each other and their love was tested to the ultimate limit of
trust.
All right.
I knew it ever since I was a child.
Before I knew how to put pen to paper, my father, who was a poet and writer,
would write down my stories. He also used to ask me to rhyme his poems for him,
as a fun way that led me into the music of words.
To my surprise, he sent me an entire
notebook full of these early endeavors, written in his beautiful, calligraphic
handwriting, just before he passed away.
Wow! That's impressive! So sorry to hear about your father. :( But that was quite a legacy to leave you.
It's fascinating to hear about an author's journey. :)
I sure do! I love American authors
as well as authors from around the world, for example The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer by Mark Twain, Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky, and Catcher in
the Rye by J. D. Salinger, for their expressive use of ‘stream of
consciousness’.
Playwrights have a great impact on
my writing, for example The Price by Arthur Miller, because they teach
me to listen, to dialogue, and identify emotions and motives through the speech
patterns of the characters.
Those are definitely good lessons to learn.
I
write every minute I can, day and night around the clock, because I must capture
my characters as soon as they start to chatter in my mind.
Such dedication!
Are there any words you'd like
to impart to fellow writers? Any advice?
The most important tool to bring
attention to your books is something that to my surprise, not many authors do,
and it is quite simple and readily available to you: excerpts from your
writing.
So let’s assume you are a gifted
writer. Here is one way to test it: open your book at a random page and throw a
dart at it. Quote an excerpt, starting at the paragraph before the place you
have hit, and ending at the paragraph following it. If you read this excerpt
out loud, will readers be moved? Will they be intrigued?
If so, create a post with this
paragraph, and at the end of it add the title of your book, and buy links to it.
When readers on Facebook like the post, thank them for it. When they comment,
engage with them. It’s as simple as that.
Wish to take it one step further?
Having quoted it, do you recall what inspired you to write this passage? Was it
a childhood memory? Was it an old photograph, or perhaps a famous painting by
your favorite artist? Tell the readers about your inspiration. Add an image of
that art that stirred you into writing.
Your readers will love you for it.
And thank you so much for stopping
by to visit us here today at Writing in the Modern Age. It was so nice
having you! :)
Readers, here is the blurb for Dancing with Air.
Serving on the European front, Lenny
longs for Natasha, the girl who captured his heart back home. At first, he
enjoys fulfilling his military task, which is to write bogus reports, designed
to fall into the hands of Nazi Intelligence and divert their attention from the
upcoming invasion of Normandy. To fool the enemy, these reports are disguised as
love letters to another woman. His task must remain confidential, even at the
risk of Natasha becoming suspicious of him.
Once
she arrives in London, Lenny takes her for a ride on his Harley throughout
England, from the White Cliffs of Dover to a village near an underground
ammunition depot in Staffordshire. When he
is wounded in a horrific explosion, Natasha
brings him back to safety, only to discover the other woman’s letter to him. He
wonders, will she trust him again, even though as a soldier, he must keep his
mission a secret? Will their love survive the test of war?
In
the past Natasha wrote, with girlish infatuation, “He will be running his fingers down, all the way down to the small of
my back, touching his lips to my ear, breathing his name, breathing
mine. Here I am, dancing with air.” In years to come, she will
begin to lose her memory, which will make Lenny see her as delicate. “I gather her gently into my arms, holding her
like a breath.” But right now, during the months leading up to D-Day, she
is at her peak. With solid resolve, she is ready to take charge of the course
of their story.
Dancing
with Air is a standalone WWII historical
fiction novel, as well as the fourth volume of a family saga series titled Still
Life with Memories, one of family sagas best sellers of all time. If
you like family saga romance, wounded warrior romance books, romantic suspense
novels, military romantic suspense, or strong female lead romance, you will
find that this love story is a unique melding of them all.
Here is an excerpt.
At
last, “My day?” said Natasha. “It was much more difficult than expected. The
show was in the lobby of a hotel. There was no grand piano. A year ago they
used to have one, which was fortunate, because when a bomb fell on a steepled
church next to it, bringing down the ceiling, guests could scramble under it,
which saved their lives.”
“No
grand piano? So, what instrument did you use?”
“Oh,
the hotel manager set up something else for me, a minipiano with a matching
stool, both of which have a wonderfully sleek Art Deco appearance. He said it’s
hard to find a technician familiar with the mechanism of the thing, because
it’s quite unique. So wouldn’t you know it, halfway through the performance,
the pianette became unplayable!”
“Oh
no!” I cried.
“But
that,” said Natasha, dabbing the corner of her eye, “wasn’t the hard part.
Something else was.”
We
waited for her to continue, but the girl took her time. She pulled the kitchen
towel out of my hold and wiped the last plate herself, with deliberate, slow movements,
as she was gathering her resolve to go on.
“This
show,” she said, “it was for soldiers lying on stretchers, watching as I
entertained them. One by one, they were carried into the lobby, and I had to do
my best to boost their morale. It just felt... Oh, I don’t know what to say,
what words to use, because really, how can you express it? Horrible? That’s too light a word. I
was in shock, in utter devastation, to see them with their arms and legs blown
off. Just heartbreaking.”
“My,
my,” said Mrs. Babcock.
“At
first I bit my lips, out of sheer agony at seeing these men, who are so badly
damaged. But then, then I told myself, when you do it for them, you should do
it with a smile,” said Natasha. “Try to play, try to keep their spirits up.
Your music is all you have, it is all of you, and that’s what you must give
them.”
“I
don’t know where you find the strength.”
“If
I don’t find it, I’ll break.”
“My,
my,” said the woman, once more.
“These
wounded soldiers,” said Natasha, “each one of them has a sister, a wife, a
girlfriend back home. When I play for them, they imagine that I’m her. I can
see it in their eyes.”
Without
another word, Mrs. Babcock gave her a big hug. Then she left the kitchen,
leaving us alone, at long last.
Natasha
raised her eyes to me.
“You
know, Lenny, during the entire show I’ve been struggling,” she said, “trying to
stay in the moment, but time and again, finding myself distracted.”
“By
what?”
“By
a memory of you. I’ve been fighting it off, trying to set aside that time, which
was so dear to me, when I first laid eyes on you, back at Camp Upton, not even
knowing, back then, how badly injured you were.”
Her
hand hovered over my shoulder, touching-not-touching the area that had been
hit, several months ago, by a stray bullet. Her fingers slipped inside the
opening of my shirt and brushed, ever so gently, around the muscles of my
shoulder, carefully avoiding the scar. There was a sense of healing in her
touch. There was passion.
“My
wound,” I breathed, bringing her hand over my heart, “is more than skin deep. I
ache for you, sweetie.”
In
a heartbeat, my voice turned hoarse with desire. I took her wrist in my hand
and pressed my lips to it.
Then
I kissed her.
“Oh,
Lenny,” she said, her cheeks aflame. “Your kiss is my undoing.”
I
said, “Why, Natashinka?”
“Because,”
she whispered, “it makes me feel as if you love me.”
This book sounds great! We'll be sure to check it out! :)
Author Bio
Uvi Poznansky is a bestselling,
award-winning author, poet and artist. Her romance boxed set, A Touch of Passion, is the 2016 winner
of The Romance Reviews Readers' Choice Awards. Her writing and her art are
tightly coupled. “I paint with my pen,” she says, “and write with my
paintbrush.”
Uvi
earned her B. A. in Architecture and Town Planning from the Technion in Haifa,
Israel. During her studies and in the years immediately following her
graduation, she practiced with an innovative Architectural firm, taking part in
the design of a large-scale project, Home
for the Soldier.
Having
moved to Troy, N.Y. with her husband and two children, Uvi received a Fellowship
grant and a Teaching Assistantship from the Architecture department at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. There, she guided teams in a variety of
design projects and earned her M.A. in Architecture. Then, taking a sharp turn
in her education, she earned her M.S. degree in Computer Science from the
University of Michigan.
During
the years she spent in advancing her career—first as an architect, and later as
a software engineer, software team leader, software manager and a software
consultant (with an emphasis on user interface for medical instruments
devices)—she wrote and painted constantly. In addition, she taught art
appreciation classes.
Her
versatile body of work can be seen on her website,
which includes poems, short stories, bronze and ceramic sculptures, paper
engineering projects, oil and watercolor paintings, charcoal, pen and pencil
drawings, and mixed media.
In
addition, she posts her thoughts about the creative process on her blog
and engages readers and writers in conversation in her Goodreads group, The Creative Spark.
Uvi
published a poetry book in collaboration with her father, Zeev Kachel. Later
she published two children’s books, Jess
and Wiggle and Now I Am Paper,
which she illustrated, and for which she created animations. You can find these
animations on her Goodreads author page.
My Own Voice,
The White Piano (woven
together in Apart from Love), The Music of Us, and Dancing with Air are volume I, II, III
and IV of Still Life with Memories,
a family saga with love stories that develop in the face of hardship and
illness over two generations, starting at the beginning of WWII with Lenny, a
soldier, and Natasha, a rising star.
Rise to Power,
A Peek at Bathsheba, and The Edge of Revolt are volume
I, II, and III of The David Chronicles,
telling the story of David as you have never heard it before: from the king
himself, telling the unofficial version, the one he never allowed his court
scribes to recount. In his mind, history is written to praise the victorious—but at the last stretch of his illustrious
life, he feels an irresistible urge to tell the truth.
A
Favorite Son, her novella, is a new-age twist on
an old yarn. It is inspired by the biblical story of Jacob and his mother
Rebecca, plotting together against the elderly father Isaac, who is lying on
his deathbed. This is no old fairy tale. Its power is here and now, in each one
of us.
Twisted
is a unique collection of tales. In it, the
author brings together diverse tales, laden with shades of mystery. Here, you
will come into a dark, strange world, a hyper-reality where nearly everything
is firmly rooted in the familiar—except for some quirky detail that twists the
yarn, and takes it for a spin in an unexpected direction.
Home, her deeply moving poetry book in tribute of her father,
includes her poetry and prose, as well as translated poems from the pen of her
father, the poet and author Zeev Kachel.
Most of these books are available in all three editions:
ebook, audio, and print.
Find her Books, ask to get them Autographed, and subscribe to her Newsletter.
Author Links:
Art Site: http://uviart.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/uviart
Amazon
Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Uvi-Poznansky/e/B006WW4ZFG/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/uviart/
Thank you so much Marie for a wonderful opportunity! I had such a wonderful time here with you.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, hon! Thanks for stopping by! :)
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