Sequel to "From the Chrysalis" finally published!

I've finally released the sequel to From the Chrysalis. What a relief! Feeling for the Air (which also takes its title from the same  Emily Dickinson poem) kind of wrote itself, but tweaking this and that and fooling around with the formatting has been maddening. 

Here's the Amazon book description:
"In Feeling for the Air, Karen Black offers a remarkable sequel about the unconventional Devereux cousins, Dace who’s determined to clear his name and Liza, a gifted college student who’s still crazy in love with him. Like Black’s first book, Feeling for the Air is a rare combination of literary suspense and emotional truth. The realism and piercing psychological insight into the penal system so aptly demonstrated in Black’s debut novel From the Chrysalis is here too. When the story opens on a picturesque but perilous Ivy Lea Parkway, Dace—alleged member of the Wolfhounds motorcycle gang, riot leader and possibly a murderer— has escaped from a brand-new Canadian penitentiary built to house the “worst of the worst.” For his pregnant cousin Liza, he heads to Mexico via an Indian reserve to find out where the monarch butterflies really over-winter. Isolated by her choices and hounded by people in Dace’s hometown, Liza keeps studying while she struggles to raise their baby alone and find out who’s really persecuting Dace. Feeling for the Air is a unique novel, focusing on love and longing, want versus need and how we come to terms with our choices and the lives we're given."

Getting Feeling for the Air professionally edited really gave me the boost I needed. A big thank you to award winning Can Lit novelist Diane Schoemperlen who is also a meticulous editor and knows a thing or two about a prison town and the Canadian penal system. I still can't believe she had the time and energy to check my manuscript for plot implausibilities, missing words, consistency in spelling and font styles and the occasional misuse of lie/lay. Diane's umpteenth book By the Book has just been published to rave reviews.

Cool Heads at Kingston Pen

Ron Haggart's book Cool Heads at Kingston Pen (published posthumously by his daughter) interested me very much. I had never seen the Telegram's coverage of the Kingston Penitentiary Riot, but Haggart is clearly the journalist mentioned in book Caron's Bingo! and Bell's Birdsong.

He confirmed what Caron didn't--that Barrie Mackenzie was the "friend" who freed my cousin Brian Beaucage from his cell during the riot.

Here is Amazon's description of Haggart's book:
"In April 1971, journalist Ron Haggart helped resolve one of Canada’s most serious prison riots. When maximum-security Kingston Penitentiary fell under the control of 500 rioting prisoners, the inmates summoned his help. As a crusading newspaper columnist and police watchdog with a reputation for fairness, he had won their trust. Haggart and four lawyers went inside Kingston Pen and, along with one remarkable hero inmate, were instrumental in mediating an end to the crisis. His gripping account of the four-day stand off, now available digitally for the first time, earned him a National Newspaper Award."

Found these great reviews at: http://www.booklendingclub.com/chrysalis/ How did I miss them?

Roberta J. Ness

Right away I was intrigued. I love reading books involving ex-convicts, and when you throw romance into the mix it just makes the story that more exciting. I've always read a wide variety of book, books by John Grisham to ones by Danielle Steel, and this book has a good mixture of both. This is a great story, great characters, and just overall a very exciting read! I read it all at once and I could not put this book down! For only 99 cents this is great! I wasn't expecting too much for the price but I am so happy I decided to get it. From the other reviews I was clearly not the only one who enjoyed this one, 5 stars from me!

Michelle T.

After reading the description for From the Chrysalis, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I was intrigued enough after reading the sample that I took the plunge- and I'm happy that I did. This novel by Karen E. Black is one of those wonderful reads that breaks the mold and cannot be neatly pigeonholed- it combines elements of otherwise restrictive genre lines to stand alone, effectively creating a new genre. Black's writing style is visual and stunning, her dialog as unique as the characters who are speaking it. Liza and Dace are a literary yin and yang, and their symbiotic relationship drives the narrative into taboo, uncharted territory. From the stark reality of prison life to the passion of forbidden love, the author weaves a tale that will remain in memory for some time to come.

Blogging

Okay, so I'm not very good at blogging and I should be according to How to Be a Writer in The E-Age:A Self-Help Guide