To celebrate the 119th anniversary of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s birth, on Thursday, September 24, 2015 the Kindle version of THE GREAT GATSBY ANTHOLOGY (Silver Birch Press, 2015) is available free all day. Get your free Kindle copy at Amazon.com (one day only — 9/24/15). If you don’t own a Kindle, you can read the book on your computer by downloading free Kindle apps at this link.
A FREE Kindle version of the Silver Birch Press release DEBT, a novel by Rachel Carey is available through Monday, Nov. 18, 2013. You can download the Kindle version— which retails for $6.99 – for free at Amazon.com.
NOTE: If you don’t own a Kindle, you can download Kindle read apps — for free — at Amazon.com.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Author Rachel Carey Talks About Her Debut Novel, Debt
The original inspiration for Debt was my rediscovery, as an adult, of the works of Charles Dickens. I’d always liked Dickens, but I really fell in love with his writing when I was old enough and cynical enough to appreciate how smart he was about human weakness. But as I was reading Bleak House and Little Dorrit, I was also tracking the news about the financial meltdown of 2008, and I began to wonder what Dickens would have made of a figure like Bernie Madoff. What would he have had to say about students who owed a hundred thousand dollars in student loan debt, or bankers who received a government bailout and immediately paid themselves million dollar bonuses with taxpayer money?
I think Dickens would have understood those people very well, because people like that appear in all his novels: people who take out debt because they convince themselves it’s necessary, poor people who struggle against a system they don’t understand, rich people who justify any amount of self-indulgence by claiming that they are “important.” But if there was a modern American writer tackling our debt-ridden society with Dickensian scope, I wasn’t sure who it was. So I decided to take on a challenge: writing the book I thought Dickens would have written, if he’d been alive to witness our current social ills.
Of course, the book didn’t turn out at all like a Dickens novel, because my own voice and perspective quickly took over the project. But many elements of Debt are stolen straight from Dickens: the picaresque characters from all walks of society, the dense plot filled with fantastic coincidences and illegitimate children, even a little lame boy who says, essentially, “God bless us, every one.” I also created a protagonist — an orphan, of course — who shared some superficial elements with my own life, not out of narcissism but because Dickens frequently did so. One of my favorite qualities in Dickens is the democratic quality of his plots, the way he weaves together the lives of the rich and poor, so I tried to keep that essential truth in my plotting of Debt: social classes are more interconnected than they appear, and sometimes the pauper has the power to bring down the king.
This book was my tribute to my favorite social satirist. I hope it brings some of the pleasure to my readers that his work has brought to me.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rachel Carey is a writer and filmmaker. She received an MFA in Film Directing from NYU, a M.Ed. from Harvard, and a BA in English from Yale. She currently teaches college film classes — and lives with her husband and daughter in New Jersey. Rachel is still paying back her student loans — and has dedicated her novel to the Sallie Mae Corporation.
ANNOUNCEMENT: For her outstanding and original writing, Silver Birch Press is nominating Rachel Carey for a 2013 Pushcart Prize.
NOTE: A FREE Kindle version of the Silver Birch Press release Debt, a novel by Rachel Carey is available through Monday, Nov. 18, 2013. You can download the Kindle version— which retails for $6.99 – for free at Amazon.com.
PHOTOS: Author photo and cover photo by Jeff McCrum.
A FREE Kindle version of the Silver Birch Press release DEBT, a novel by Rachel Carey is available through Monday, Nov. 18, 2013. You can download the Kindle version— which retails for $6.99 – for free at Amazon.com.
WHY WE LOVE THIS BOOK: The tone, setting, and subject matter of Debt by Rachel Carey — a comic look at New York City, money, and social status — resonate like The Bonfire of the Vanities on fast forward. More than 20 years after Tom Wolfe‘s masters of the universe ruled Wall Street, it’s a very different financial picture – everybody has gone bust, or is on their way there. Debt features an extensive cast of characters that would feel at home in a novel by a Charles Dickens, a crime caper by Donald Westlake, or satirical work by P.G. Wodehouse. Debt is a fast, funny read — tackling a serious subject with a light touch and a lot of heart.
BOTTOM LINE: Great story, engaging characters, funny, witty, clever, incisive, insightful, and original. Read it — for free!
NOTE: If you don’t own a Kindle, you can download Kindle read apps — for free — at Amazon.com.
Thanks to everyone who downloaded a free Kindle version of the Silver Birch Press Green Anthology on Monday, 8/12, the collection of poetry & prose has hit #5 on the Amazon Top Free List for Poetry. The Silver Birch Press Green Anthology Kindle version is yours for free on Tuesday, 8/13, and Wednesday, 8/14.
Tell your friends! We’d love to give away enough copies to hit #1 on the Amazon Top 100 Free list Poetry List. We’d appreciate any reblogs, tweets, or facebook posts.
The Silver Birch Press Green Anthology features poetry, short stories, novel excerpts, essays, and memoirs that revolve around the many and varied connotations of the word “green” — nature, luck, money, envy, young love, new life, the environment, food, trees, seasons, water, eden, and much more — from over 70 authors in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Europe, and Africa.
Get your free Kindle version of the Silver Birch Press Green Anthology at Amazon.com.
As we announced earlier today, the Silver Birch Press release Debt, a novel by Rachel Carey is available as a free Kindle download on Tuesday, August 6. Today, Rachel Carey appeared as a featured author on the premium ebook site FreeBOOKSY.com — where she rated a terrific feature about her novel. To read the article, visit FreeBOOKSY.com, where’ll you’ll find links to editor’s picks for the best in free ebooks.
We are trying to spread the word — through multiple methods, including free Kindle downloads — about Rachel Carey’s amazing debut novel. For this reason, we’ve extended the offer of free Kindle downloads for DEBT through Friday, August 9th. We’d appreciate any reposts, reblogs, or mentions of this free offer. Thank you!
Find Debt by Rachel Carey as a free Kindle download at Amazon.com.
Silver Birch Press 