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.
A FREE Kindle version of the Silver Birch Press release DEBT, a novel by Rachel Carey is available from Thursday, Nov. 14, through Monday, Nov. 18, 2013. You can download the Kindle version— which retails for $6.99 – for free at Amazon.com.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Set in New York City, Debt – a satirical look at the 2008 financial meltdown — follows a range of characters who owe something to someone in a variety of ways. From main character Lillian Fitzgerald — a recent grad with an Master’s in Creative Writing in one hand and $100,000 bill for her student loans in the other — to Henry Bolt, the mysterious force who owns the bank that financed Lillian’s student loans, and an assortment of other people up and down the debt chain (bill collectors, stock market mavens, the wealthy, the foreclosed, the bankrupt, the desperate, the spoiled, the gamblers, the winners, and the losers), Debt covers a wide universe without leaving the five boroughs.
NOTE: If you don’t own a Kindle, you can download Kindle read apps — for free — at Amazon.com.
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.
The Silver Birch Press release DEBT, a novel by Rachel Carey is available for free at Amazon.com on Friday, July 26, 2013. You can download the Kindle — which retails for $6.99 — at Amazon.com.
So remain debt-free today (at least when it comes to this novel) and download your Kindle version of DEBT for free!
In February 2013, Silver Birch Press published DEBT by Rachel Carey, one of the best novels we’ve ever come across (as a reader or publisher) — with everything you’d want in a great read: fascinating characters, humor, wit, a page-turning story, and terrific writing. We recently updated the cover of DEBT (see above) to better impart the novel’s central idea — how student loan debt bleeds into every aspect of someone’s life.
But the book with the original cover (shown at left) has recently garnered an impressive piece of press coverage — a video review and recommendation for summer reading at the trendy site mommalogues, where reviewer Jenni Chiu called it “a satirical, witty read.”
Congratulations, Rachel on the stellar shout out! We are proud you’re a Silver Birch Press author and we’ve played even a small part in what we are sure is the start of an amazing literary career. You are a writer par excellence. Let the buzz begin!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: RACHEL CAREY is a writer and filmmaker. She received an MFA in Film Directing from NYU, an M.Ed. from Harvard, and a BA in English from Yale. She currently lives with her family in New Jersey and teaches college film classes. Debt is her first novel.
DEBT, a novel by Rachel Carey is available in paperback and Kindle at Amazon.com.
PENNIES FROM HEAVEN
Song by Johnny Burke & Arthur Johnston (1936)
Oh every time it rains
It rains pennies from heaven
Don’t you know each cloud contains
Pennies from heaven
You’ll find your fortune
Fallin’ all over town
Be sure that your umbrella is upside down
Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers
It you want the things you love
You must have showers
So when you hear it thunder
Don’t run under a tree
There’ll be pennies from heaven
For you and me
…“Pennies from Heaven” was one of jazz-great Billie Holiday‘s signature songs. Listen to Lady Day (1915-1959) sing the tune at youtube.com.
Illustration: Portrait of Billie Holiday by Derrick “Vito” Hollowell. Prints available at etsy.com.
“I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too.” STEVE MARTIN, actor, writer, comedian, musician
Illustration: Homer Simpson dollar bill by Jeremy Hara, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Visit artist Jeremy Hara at his blog jeremyhara.blogspot.com.
SMART
by Shel Silverstein
My dad gave me one dollar bill
‘Cause I’m his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
‘Cause two is more than one!
And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes — I guess he didn’t know
That three is more than two!
Just then, along came old blind Bates
And just ’cause he can’t see
He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,
And four is more than three!
And then I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs
Down at the seed-feed store,
And the fool gave me five pennies for them,
And five is more than four!
And then I went and showed my dad,
And he got red in the cheeks
And closed his eyes and shook his head –
Too proud of me to speak!
FINDING A DIME
by Jim Harrison and Ted Kooser
Sometimes all it takes
to be happy
is a dime on the sidewalk.
…Find more poetry by Jim Harrison and Ted Kooser in BRAIDED CREEK: A Conversation in Poetry, available at Amazon.com.
Photo: “Dime on ground” by Kiddharma
Silver Birch Press 