Simon & Schuster

"Orange: the colors of the sky are he same when the sun rises as when it disappears." The unforgettable #memoir from poet #ninariggs #thebrighthour - read this and put in the hands of someone you love 💛 #mustread #summer #brighthour #bookstagram #summerreadinng #inspiration #love #family

@elliedoodledog has one! Tag #GizellesBucketList with your own bucket list to enter for a chance to win a copy! 💙 : @elliedoodledog One day I will catch one of those fluffy-tail rodents 😈🐿 @simonbooks wants to know what’s on your #bucketlist 🎉📚 Share a picture of you holding a sign with something on your bucket list and tag #GizellesBucketList for a chance to win a copy of @lfernwatt amazing book!!! Check out @simonbooks post for more info 😉#giveaway #dogs #cuteness #inspiration #inspo #dogsofinsta #puppies #dogsofinstagram #cute #love

We're celebrating #InternationalWomensDay with amazing female. Ovelists, inspiring woman journalists & incredible leaders #thefutureisfemale #iwd2017 #feminism #nyc #rebeccatraister #helenecooper #shondarhimes #ruthbaderginsburg #heroes #inspiration #womensmarch 📚 (at Simon & Schuster)

Weaving together scientific studies from psychologists, longitudinal studies of health and happiness, historical accounts and literary depictions, child-reading manuels, and the language of online dating sites, #JonahLehrer's #ABookAboutLove explores the most mysterious, most formative, most important impulse governing our lives...out now! ❤️ #nonfiction #love #reading #quotes #inspiration #❤️ #bae #fallinginlove #hearts #books #dating #wednesdaywisdom

Morning #inspiration from #ThePathBook (out April 5th!)

Our #wcw is the incredible @shondarhimes who is inspiring people everywhere to #sayyes...📷: @shondarhimes...After my @ted talk! #TED2016 #yearofyes #nowreading #inspiration #tedtalk #shonda

It's not trailblazing to write the world as it actually is."

Congratulations to the incredible Shonda Rhimes for being awarded the Norman Lear Achievement Award at the Producers Guild Awards this weekend!

Check out Year Of Yes now to learn more about this amazing woman! http://bit.ly/1Qs4auc

Katie Holmes is reading @hillaryclinton's HARD CHOICES. Are you? @katieholmes212 ・・・ #inspiration

"Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside."

- Henry David Thoreau

Image via Bookshelf Porn.

Interview with Kathy Czepiel, author of A VIOLET SEASON for The Maiden's Court

I have to say that my attention was immediately caught by the mention of the violet industry – I didn’t even know there was such a thing! How did you come to writing about this subject?

I didn’t know there was such a thing either until I returned to my hometown after college to work for the local newspaper. My editor was a local history buff, and she told me that the area where I grew up—New York’s mid-Hudson Valley—had once been known as The Violet Capital of the World. Many years later, when I was ready to write a novel, a violet farm was the obvious choice of setting. It was something I knew I would be interested in researching.

Mother-Daughter themes can be such powerful reading. Did you draw on any of your own experiences with your mother or with your daughter?

Not directly. But I think there is always some emotional truth behind the fiction, whether it’s our own or something we’ve observed. My mother and I have a great relationship, though it took the usual bumpy road through my adolescence. My daughters are 10 and 13, so we’re just entering that phase together. The “truth” behind the fiction for me, in this case, is probably the fear we have as mothers that we will let our children down or hurt them without even realizing or understanding that we’re doing it, that we will make mistakes that can’t entirely be repaired. I say “we” because I know I’m not the only mother who thinks about this.

What has been the most difficult part of the process for your debut novel? What has been the most surprising or interesting?

The most difficult part was writing it without knowing whether anyone but my writing friends would ever read it. For fiction, you have to have a complete, polished manuscript before you can begin pitching it to agents. Some of my short stories had been published in various literary journals, so I knew it was possible that I could sell a novel. But there is never a guarantee. The most interesting part has been learning how the publishing process works. There’s a steep learning curve in terms of marketing and publicity.

Read the rest on The Maiden's Court.