A Holiday Journey Into Life... And Afterlife.
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NOTE FOR REWARDS: "early" copies of The Ghost of Christmas Past will be sent approximately a month in advance of release date. Release date currently scheduled for September 27, 2016
Brief Synopsis
Based on Charles Dickens' character of the same name, the first of three spirits from A Christmas Carol is the center of its own story when taken on a spiritual journey to find meaning for its existence.
The Ghost of Christmas Past has had its fire extinguished. Lost souls cannot find their way to righteousness without the Spirit's luminescence to guide them through their shadowed memories. To rekindle its flame, the Ghost of Christmas Past must journey back to a life long forgotten. Guided by the Christmas Angel, the Spirit braves witness to how it lived as a boy in life, and learns what will become of Christmas should it fail.
Audience
The Ghost of Christmas Past is unique. The novella has appeal to readers of all ages, nationalities, and gender. Thanks to Mr. Charles Dickens, the main character name, Ghost of Christmas Past, is already as recognizable as Mickey Mouse, and the general population has shown remarkable interest in learning the backstories of supporting characters from popular works of fiction. The most notable example would be the novel Wicked by Gregory Maguire, the backstory of the witches from Oz. The Ghost of Christmas Past will appeal to fans of drama, mystery, fantasy, Literary Fiction, the supernatural, and Christianity.
Like A Christmas Carol, The Ghost of Christmas Past is not heavily religious but a story based around a Christian holiday. In 2014, more than 52 million religious books sold in the U.S., representing an increase of over 10.5% from the previous year. (Nielsen.com: Focusing On Our Strengths: Insights into the Christian Book Market)
Marketing
The Ghost of Christmas Past will have a large push to capture the attention of the every day reader from multiple avenues. The money you contribute to the fund will be used in areas of marketing from advertisement to publicity.
- Bookmarks and postcards to be handed out and left in plain sight at multiple places of business including, but not limited to, bookstores, coffeehouses, and libraries.
- Professionally designed online banner ads and the fees to place them on high traffic book sites, blogs, and newspapers.
- Poster boards for live book events, as well as gifts such as tote bags, and handouts such as embossed pens.
- Supply of print copies kept on hand for sending to press, organizations, book clubs, donations, and competition entries.
- Contest entry fees into the most prestigious book competitions in existence: Writer's Digest, Readers' Favorite, San Francisco Book Festival, International Book Awards, USA Best Book Awards, and the competition which honored Night of the Chupacabra in 2014, National Independence Excellence Awards (NIEA).
- Newsletter and announcement book promotion services from top tier companies, such as Book Bub, Library Bub, World Literary Cafe, Digital Book Today, Kindle Book Review
- "Author's Row" table space at various nationwide book conferences and expos.
Book Details
Available in Trade Paperback and eBook (Amazon MOBI, EPUB, PDF)
Word Count: 31,000 approx.
Categories: Literary Fiction, mystery, Christian, fantasy, supernatural, paranormal, spinoff
Street Date: September 27, 2016
Outline
The Ghost of Christmas Past follows a familiar plot formula to its predecessor, including the use of "Staves" for its chapter points.
Stave I - Sara and the Spirit - The Ghost of Christmas Past attempts to help a troubled woman in modern day, who then extinguishes the Spirit's flame.
Stave II - The Christmas Angel - The Ghost of Christmas Past learns he had chosen to abandon his memories when transitioning into the afterlife. Led by the Christmas Angel, the Spirit is taken back in time to find its flame, and watches the troubled young lad it once had been.
Stave III - The Other Spirits – The Spirit has had enough. It refuses to watch any more images. Other spirits arrive to help convince the Ghost of Christmas Past to reconsider.
Stave IV - The Flame –The Ghost of Christmas Past no longer requires convincing. It accepts the challenge to rekindle its flame, no matter the cost.
Stave V -Restoration – With its flame restored, the Ghost of Christmas Past picks up where it left off with the troubled woman, Sara, and helps to restore her own meaning of Christmas.
Stave VI - The Old Woman and the Spirit –The Ghost of Christmas Past visits its next subject, a familiar woman who does not yet know how desperately she is in need of the spirit's magnificent gift.
Michael Hebler is a Southern California native living in Southwest Florida. He dreamed of following his passions for entertainment and storytelling with acting. It was while getting his degree in the theatre arts did Michael realize that his penchant for stories was better suited on the page rather than the stage.
In addition to being an award-winning author of his dark fiction Chupacabra Series, Hebler also enjoys films, roller coasters, Harry Potter, as well as volunteering for Meals on Wheels and aiding in animal rights programs. Prior to writing, Michael spent most of his working career in Hollywood as a script reader before transitioning into international film publicity. Previous publicity credits include numerous titles for Walt Disney/Pixar, Lionsgate, Lakeshore Entertainment, Warner Bros., Summit Entertainment, as well as the 2013 Academy Award-winning Best Foreign Language Film, “La grande bellezza” (The Great Beauty).
To date, Michael’s publications include Night of the Chupacabra (2014 NIEA Award Winner), Curse of the Chupacabra, Legend of the Chupacabra, and Dawn of the Chupacabra (Books I - IV of his six-part thriller series), as well as his first publication, The Night After Christmas, a picture storybook for believers of any age.
ShieldCrest are book publishers based in the UK who fill that vital gap for talented authors where mainstream publishers are unwilling to give them that chance. We strive for excellence and invest in our authors and are listed in FreeIndex as the number one independent publisher in the UK for price quality and service rated author satisfaction. We publish books of all genres including; fiction, historical, biographies and children's books.
ShieldCrest publishing continues to grow rapidly with satisfied authors throughout the UK and overseas. Our range of products includes paperbacks, hardbacks and digitised e-books in all formats used globally in the myriad of e-readers.
In addition to the above, ShieldCrest provides a complete range of services including book design and layout, illustrations, proof reading and editing. For marketing we offer author web page, press releases, social media marketing packages and many other support services to help both first time and experienced authors get their books into the market quickly and maximise on the opportunities available.
These services enable us to guide our authors through the process as we transform their manuscript into a professional book, which can take its place with pride next to any famous author's book of the same genre.
The staff at ShieldCrest have many years experience in the book industry and this wealth of experience is put at the disposal of our authors.
Our clients include established authors such as Diane Marshall who has been acclaimed as the best writing talent to come from Scotland for years by The Scotsman newspaper, and Prof Donald Longmore OBE, who performed the first heart transplant in the UK and has sold thousands of medical books used by students throughout the world. We also recently released "Martin Foran-The Forgotten Man" by J.R. Stephenson, which features fraud within the police, abuse within the prison service and injustices in the courts and has been featured in the press and on TV.
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on April 2, 2016, 9:07 p.m.
a wonderful idea for a book. thank you