We have been invited to speak at the Miami Book Fair, Saturday November 14th at 5PM. The panel will consist of other Gold Medal Winners for the Florida Book Award. Rabbit in the Moon won the Gold for Genre Fiction. Hope to see you all there. It may even be on Book TV!
Rabbit in the Moon won ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Silver Medal for Mystery! According to founder and publisher, Victoria Sutherland, winners were selected by dozens of librarians and booksellers who are experts in the subject matter of the books they judged, and who make purchasing decisions daily for their collections or bookstores. Naturally, we are thrilled. Congrats to fellow Oceanview author, Ward Larsen, for winning the Gold!
We returned home Thursday evening after a seven hour drive from Tallahassee. Wednesday night’s Florida Heritage awards ceremony, which included the Florida Book Awards Gold Medal winners, was quite special. After a successful book signing sponsored by the Tallahassee Museum, we were ushered into a “green Room” for snacks and pre-ceremony instructions, In addition to the Book Awards (“Rabbit in the Moon” won for Genre Fiction), legendary country singer/songwriter Mel Tillis and Harry Crews, prolific author of novels, short stories, essays and screenplays were inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Margery Kinnan Rawlings (her niece accepted for “Aunt Marie”) and Gene Patterson, Pulitzer Prize winning editor of the St. Petersburg Times, were among four Florida Folk Heritage Award winners. When it was our turn to pick up our award, we had to squeeze out of our seats (several winners had brought en entourage of friends and family) and bolt onstage to smile for camera and shake the hands of Governor Charlie Crist and Secretary of State Kurt Browning. Governor Crist whispered that with a theme about China, “Rabbit in the Moon” couldn’t be timelier – that was very nice.
According to the program, “Florida Heritage Month is celebrated from March 15 to April 15 and is the time when [we] recognize the importance of our state’s culture and heritage as well as the contributions of individuals and organizations.” The Florida Book Awards is coordinated by the Florida State University Program in American & Florida Studies, and co-sponsored by the Florida Center for the Book; State Library and Archives of Florida; Florida Historical Society; Florida Humanities Council; Florida Literary Arts Coalition; Florida Library Association; “Just Read, Florida!”; Governor’s Family Literacy Initiative; Florida Association for Media in Education; Florida Center for the Literary Arts; Florida Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America; and the Friends of FSU Libraries.
Even though we both wrote “Rabbit in the Moon”, we only received one gold medal between us. When we left the stage, the governor asked us who would be wearing it. “I’ll wear it now,” Deb said. “Joel can wear it on the drive home.” And he did!!
We are delighted. It was just announced. “Rabbit in the Moon” by Deborah and Joel Shlian has been named an Award-Winning Finalist in the Fiction & Literature: Thriller/Adventure category of the National Best Books 2008 Awards, sponsored by USA Book News
We had our book launch on Thursday, May 29th at the Borders Bookstore in Boca Raton. As you see from the crowd, it was standing room only! We spoke about how we started writing novels and how we write together. Since the setting for Rabbit in the Moon is the seven weeks in 1989 from the rise of the democracy movement on April 15th to its fall with the Tiananmen massacre, we talked about those events and showed pictures Joel had taken during our travels in the 1980’s.
StoryCasting.com is a new website (not ours) where fiction readers have the chance to cast their own choices for the characters in the books that they read. Select a book (hopefully our books: “Rabbit in the Moon”, “Double Illusion” and “Wednesday’s Child”), select a role or character and cast your favorite actor or actress. You can also share your cast with others and comment on their casts or discuss the books at the book’s home page (on storycasting.com).
We started with “Rabbit in the Moon” and suggested the beautiful Elizabeth Tsing for the part of Dr. Lili Quan (see her picture below). If after reading our book, you feel the same, add your comments. Or let us know who you’d see in that role as well as the other roles.
Membership is free and anyone can join. Take a look and see what you think.
Thanks to all our fans. We plan to donate all our royalties for the sale of our latest novel, “Rabbit in the Moon”, to a not-for-profit medical charity called Remote Area Medicine.
Please check out the link to the 60 Minutes segment about the organization.