THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM--Big News from Kathleen Burkinshaw and an Audiobook Giveaway!

Kathleen Burkinshaw is not only a dear friend of mine, but no stranger to this blog. I've shared her story of writing and publishing her debut middle grade historical novel in three different blogs: I interviewed her about how the book was built on her mother's experience in Hiroshima, reviewed the book, and then checked in with her post-publication. It's only fitting that she asked me to share her news about the audiobook that was just released! 

In this post you'll to hear from Kathleen and Yuuki Luna, the narrator. PLUS, if you click here, and then click on Sample, you can hear Yukki read the book.

 

 A United Nations Office of Disarmament Education Resource for Teachers and Students

Advisory Council Member, International Center for MultiGenerational Legacies of Trauma

HiroshimaNagasaki75

October 2018 BOOK RIOT list of "30 Fascinating Historical Fiction Books for Middle School Readers" 

Nominated 2019 NC School Library Media Assoc. YA Book Award

Finalist 2018 Sakura Medal, Japan

SCBWI Crystal Kite Award Finalist(southeast region)

Scholastic WNDB Reading Club Selection, 2018 & 2016

An Interview with Kathleen Burkinshaw

Carol: For my new followers who might not be familiar with your book, please summarize it for them.

Kathleen: THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM is about a young girl's life in Hiroshima during WWII. She discovers a shocking family secret right before her world is about to become a shadow of what it had been. THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM (TLCB) is based on my mother's experience surviving the atomic bomb. It is through her 12-year-old eyes that readers witness that horrific day. 

The novel is written with information on the culture, mindset, and daily life during WWII before the bomb was dropped-something that hasn’t been done before.  My hope is not only to convey the message that nuclear weapons should never be used again; but to also reveal that the children in Japan had the same love for family, fear of what could happen to them, and hopes for peace as the Allied children had. The ones that we may think don't belong or are our "enemy" are not so different from ourselves.

Carol: What was involved in making TLCB into an audiobook?

Kathleen: The audiobook process for TLCB happened later than most books, since the hardcover of TLCB first published 5 years ago. In my contract with TLCB's publisher, Sky Pony Press, the unexercised audiobook rights reverted back to me after a few years. So, once they were mine, my  agent Anna Olswanger, Olswanger Literary, began submitting to audiobook publishers in January 2021. I received an offer from Dreamscape in April! Naturally I was ecstatic!! 😁

I hoped that they would choose a Japanese or Japanese American voiceover artist and was overjoyed when Yuuki Luna reached out to me on Instagram after recording TLCB. Once she told me of her connection with Hiroshima, that her grandfather was a Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) from Hiroshima, I knew that it was meant to be.

We did not have an opportunity to be in touch while she was recording TLCB with Dreamscape. However, after that was finished we had an opportunity to meet each other on Zoom (she lives in California). Not only that, but that day I had the honor to meet her mother, a second generation Hibakusha like myself, and I introduced them to my daughter, Sara, a 3rd generation HIbakusha like Yuuki. I could feel my mom with us.

Yuuki's lovely voice and grace added so much to my written words about my mother's story. When I first heard her narration, I cried. It touched me so much to hear a young voice for my mother's character in Yuriko. I also cried  because I thought an audiobook would not happen. Although, I must confess that I haven't listened to the chapters about the day of the bombing or after that. I know it will be extremely emotional for me because I already hear my mother's voice and her cries when I read the words. And I know it was emotional for Yuuki to read as well because of her compassion and connection to the story. 
I'm so grateful that The Last Cherry Blossom is now accessible to more readers and I'm thrilled to say that in addition to being available through Audible, Libro.FM, and anywhere audiobooks are sold, it is also on Hoopla Digital. 

Interview with Yuuki Luna

Carol: Please tell me a little bit about yourself, how you got into creating audio books, etc. What is your background? 

Yuuki: I started out as a stage combat performer during my childhood, performing in local community shows and festivals. I then started performing with the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, and then started voiceover work, which led me into the audiobook world. 

Carol: What goes into preparation of recording a book like TLCB? How long did it take to record—was it over many sessions? 

Yuuki: In terms of preparation for audiobook reads, I've found it best to read the work at least once, maybe twice before I start recording, taking notes along the way. Recording The Last Cherry Blossom did take around a week, as I tried to fit in a few hours of recording each day. 

Carol: Were parts of the book difficult to narrate? What was that experience like for you?

Yuuki: The book became difficult to narrate the more I got closer to the end; the emotions became so real that I needed to take a few breaks in between. Kathleen's story and words are also powerful and hit home in many ways, as I also have family from Hiroshima as well. Her novel is such a rare gem that paints the most genuine picture of how families in Hiroshima (including my own) lived during the war, and I feel honored to have been a part. 

GIVEAWAY

Leave your name and email address (if you are new to my blog) in the comment to enter the giveaway. If you decide to follow my blog or share this on social media, I'll enter your name twice. Kathleen will arrange for the winner to receive a download code for the book.

REMEMBER: I cannot enter you unless I have your name and email address. If you're not sure, leave your email address in the comment. Giveaway ends at 6PM on Wednesday, November 3. 

Congratulations to Barbara Younger who won Headstrong Hallie from last week's blog. 

 

Rare Disease Day and SIX Giveaways!

Like me, you might never have heard of Rare Disease Day. The following three authors have intimate acquaintance with rare diseases. Giveaway details below.

Linda Phillips 

Linda Phillips Skyping with a class in International School of Nanshan Shenzhen, P.R. China (Hong Kong)

Linda is no stranger to my blog. Here is her story:

My involvement with rare disease began during my teaching career when I met two students at two different schools with Batten disease.  While I never taught either of them directly, the schools were small enough for faculty to know many students outside their classroom. I watched with concern as 8-year-old Brandon Hawkins' cognitive and motor skills began to decline instead of thrive as they typically might at a school designed to address learning differences. Concern heightened when his vision began to fail and after extensive testing, his parents shared the diagnosis none of us had heard before: Batten, a rare neurodegenerative disease that has no cure and is often fatal by the early twenties. Not far away at another specialized school, Taylor King, the same age as Brandon, was diagnosed by the same doctor with a form of the same disease.  Brandon moved out of the area, but the crowning blow came when we learned that his younger brother, Jeremy, received the same diagnosis, a phenomenon that's not uncommon when both parents are carrying the defective gene.  

My first book, Crazy, is an autobiographical account of my coming to terms with a mother with bipolar disorder. Watching the unfolding tragedies of the Hawkins brothers and Taylor evoked emotional issues similar to those I had experienced growing up with mental illness in my family. I wanted to explore how a gifted and highly motivated teen would deal with her brothers' physical debilitation and probable early death.  In both Crazy and Behind These Hands, the teen protagonist has no control over the devastation happening before her eyes.  She must find a way to accept a new reality and to react with compassion and love.  I didn't realize how closely related the two books are until I began making presentations through Skype in the Classroom.  My topic is "Compassion:  The Key to Understanding Mental and Physical Disabilities." I'm finding it extremely fulfilling to advocate for compassion towards those with mental illness and rare physical disabilities with teenage classrooms all around the world. 

You can find Linda online at: Skype in the Classroom:  https://education.skype.com/u/1216c5b4-63a7-4f75-6e57-08d777fe2482

Web:  www.lindavigenphillips.com

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/LVigenPhillips

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/lindavigenphillips/

Laura King Edwards

Laura and Taylor

I featured Laura and her book on my blog also. Here is more of her story:

Each year on the last day of February, Rare Disease Day raises awareness of rare diseases and their impact on 400 million people worldwide. It's a day to celebrate not only progress toward treatments and improved quality of life, but also what's special about each of those patients and the people who love them. People battle rare diseases year-round (and not just on a single day set aside to recognize them).  

I lost my little sister to a rare disease called Batten disease in 2018, so Rare Disease Day hits especially close to home. Since the devastating and shocking diagnosis in 2006, I've worked hard to save first her life and, later, the lives of other children like her. Taylor had a special kind of courage. She inspired everyone who knew her (and many strangers) in her too-short 20 years on Earth. Watching her overcome incredible obstacles to learn braille, run 5Ks and more pushed me to be the best version of myself, and it pushed me to fight for change. In 2013, I ran a half marathon blindfolded to bring attention to the cause. The race achieved that goal but also saved my life at a time when I wasn't sure I had the will to keep going. 

Run to the Light is the story behind the race, but more than that, it's about how to find hope and meaning in the face of life's biggest challenges. It's Taylor's story, but it's also a universal tale of courage and faith. My sister showed others how to dig deep and persevere, no matter what they were facing. On Rare Disease Day and every day, I hope Run to the Light does the same.  For more information please go to Taylors Tale. 

You can connect with Laura on Twitter.com/lkedwards11, instagram.com/laurakingedwards, or Facebook.com/laurakingedwards.

Kathleen Burkinshaw

You may have already met Kathleen on my blog. Here is her story:

Nineteen years ago, instead of enjoying a candlelit dinner with my husband to celebrate Valentine’s day we sat in a dimly lit room by the low lights of an ultrasound in the ER. The ultrasound revealed that I had a deep vein thrombosis (DVT). What started out as a routine three- day hospital stay to treat the blood clot turned into over a month in the hospital from complications that nearly killed me. My souvenir from my stay- a diagnosis of ReflexSympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) (also known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)) as a result of nerve damage from the blood clots. Definitely would’ve preferred one of those ‘All I got was just the lousy t-shirt souvenir’ instead! 😊

RSD is a chronic, progressive pain syndrome caused by damage/malfunction of the peripheral/ sympathetic nervous system as well as the immune system. (Which is why doctors have said that my mother's exposure to radiation from the atomic bomb on August 6th has played a role in my RSD). Over the years RSD pain crept in taking over my legs and hands. Although, it has taken a lot from me, I’m not ready to give up everything. It did give me time with my mom when she opened up and shared the horrific memories and awful loss she dealt with on August 6th. And I learned that even though I couldn't be the active mom to my 4-year-old daughter(at the time) as I had been or continue in my past career as an executive in the health care field; I found my own ways to be a dedicated/involved mom and realized my brain could still work/be creative through writing. I'm so grateful for the support and love from my family, friends, doctors, and now readers of The Last Cherry Blossom. Their past and continued encouragement, along with my faith keeps me from giving up emotionally or physically.

Connect with Kathleen on Twitter @klburkinshaw1,  Instagram @kathleenburkinshaw,  Facebook @authorkathleenburkinshaw, and her  website www.kathleenburkinshaw.com. 

GIVEAWAYS

Each author is giving away TWO copies of her book. To enter this super-giveaway, please comment with your email address including your email address if you are new to my blog. Books will be drawn randomly and will be personally autographed to the winners by the author. Enter soon! Giveaway ends on February 29.  

The Emotional Wound Thesaurus + Three Stories of Perseverance

Today I have a special post as part of the Writers Persevere event that authors Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are running for the next few days to celebrate their newest book, The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma. This book looks at the difficult experiences embedded in our character’s backstory which will shape their motivation and behavior afterward. 

To help them celebrate this release, many of us are posting stories about some of the obstacles we’ve overcome as writers. As we all know, this isn’t an easy path. Writing is hard and as writers we tend to struggle with doubt. Sometimes too, we don’t always get the support we need to follow our passion, or we have added challenges that make writing more difficult. Because people are sharing how they worked through challenges to keep writing, I decided to share three friends' stories. I trust their perseverance, in the light of discouragement, pain, and rejections, will encourage you as much as they've encouraged me.

 

Kathy Wiechman

I started writing when I was five. I loved putting words on the page. My mother, a published poet, encouraged me.

When I was an adult, I decided to try to get published. I had no idea how difficult that would be. Or how long it would take me. Novels were my passion, but I also wrote poems.

I submitted my writing. And I received rejections. I took classes, went to conferences and workshops, wrote, and submitted. Many people encouraged me, told me I had talent, but publishers kept turning me down. Some of my friends thought I was “out of my mind” to keep trying.

I finally sold a poem in 2002, but my mother did not live to see that success. She died in 1998.

I struggled with health issues, and the older I got, the more often I felt discouraged, thinking I wouldn’t live long enough to achieve my dream of a published novel. My sister advised me to think about how much I enjoyed writing and how many friends I had met along my journey. If I had to decide between being published or having the friends I had made, I would choose the friends in a heartbeat. That realization changed my attitude.

I changed my focus from the drive to get published to loving the process. My new attitude made me a happier writer. I don’t know if my change in attitude improved my work, but my dream came true.

I had written and submitted novels for 39 years before my first success in that genre. I was offered a contract for what was the eleventh novel I’d completed. I still focus on enjoying the work, and now I am a happy—and published—writer. 

Kathy Cannon Wiechman is a former Language Arts tutor and teacher. Her debut novel, Like a River, was honored with the inaugural Grateful American Book Prize. Both Like a River and her second novel, Empty Places, are frequently used in classrooms. Not on Fifth Street is her third book. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband.

Linda Phillips

My high school counselor told me I’d never make it as a writer.  I’ve come to determine she really meant to say, “be sure you keep your day job” not, “you stink as a writer.”  But I heard the latter, and thus delayed my writing career until well into my adult years as wife and mother.  Up to that point my writing life consisted of a growing stack of journals, desperate attempts to make sense out of growing up with a mother suffering from bipolar disorder. The unresolved questions from my formative years began surfacing in the form of poems, and to my delight and surprise, a number of them were published in adult literary journals. That was the beginning.  It took a dear friend’s suggestion that the scattering of poems seemed destined for a novel, and it took another seven years for the refining fires of editing to produce a publishable book. Today, I am thankful for all the bumps in the road that led to Crazy, and for the doors it has opened to encourage persons whose lives have been touched by mental illness.  

Linda Vigen Phillips is the author of Crazy (Eerdmans/2014), a YA novel in verse about a teenage girl coming to terms with her mother’s mental illness. While she awaits the release of her second book, Heart Behind These Hands (October 2018), she volunteers at NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and counts the days between grandkid visits.   

Kathleen Burkinshaw

The Last Cherry Blossom’s writing journey began in 2009.  My daughter asked me to speak to her seventh-grade class about the people under the famous mushroom clouds on August 6^th- like her grandmother. I had never spoken publicly about my mom surviving the atomic bombing. I had only learned details of that day 8 years earlier. I was seriously ill, hospitalized for a month, and diagnosed with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy(RSD).  RSD is a neurological disorder of the sympathetic nerves causing debilitating, chronic, burning pain.  I couldn’t walk on my own and had to endure grueling physical therapy.  During that time, my mom shared her heart-breaking memories of August 6^th.  I now realize that she didn’t tell me, just so I would know; but to encourage me because as bad as things were, I shouldn’t give up hope.   All along I thought it was therapeutic for her, yet it ended up also being therapeutic for me. 

My mom agreed that I could discuss her experience in Hiroshima because she felt that the seventh-grade students might relate to her story since they were the same age that she was that horrific day. I started writing about life in Hiroshima during the last year of WWII through the eyes of a 12-year-old girl. Finding information about daily life in Japan written in English, took time and patience. Every step on this journey doubled in difficulty because of my RSD pain. There were days my hands hurt so much I couldn’t type, but I was blessed with wonderful friends and family who typed for and encouraged me. Shortly after I received my publishing contract, my mom passed away, overshadowing any other obstacle I had or would encounter. I became determined to honor her by creating through my pain and writing her story.

Kathleen Burkinshaw is a Japanese American author residing in Charlotte, NC.The Last Cherry Blossom, is a SCBWI Crystal Kite Award Finalist (southeast region), 2016 Scholastic WNDB Reading Club selection, and recently nominated for the NC Sir Walter Raleigh Fiction Award. 

Want to add more depth to your stories? Check out The Emotional Wound Thesaurus here. And here's a link to a sample entry. Want all the thesauri at your fingertips? Check out One Stop for Writers. It's my go-to writing resource for checklists, tips, and timelines. It should be yours too!

Do you have a story to share, or some advice for others? You can join Becca and Angela at Writers Helping Writers from October 25-27^th, where they are celebrating writers and their stories of perseverance. Stop in, and tell them about a challenge or struggle your faced, or if you like, write a post on your own blog and share it using the hashtag #writerspersevere.  Let’s fill social media with your strength and let other writers know that it’s okay to question and have doubts but we shouldn’t let that stop us. 

GIVEAWAY ALERT!

There’s a prize vault filled with items that can give your writing career a boost at Writers Helping Writers.

The giveaway is only from October 25-27^th, so enter asap. And don’t forget to share this using the #writerspersevere hashtag so more prizes will be awarded!