JocelynGreen.com newsletter

I have book news! But first, a smidge of background... In 2017, my book Free to Lean: Making Peace with Your Lopsided Life released from Discovery House (now Our Daily Bread Ministries). This was the nonfiction book of my heart, the one in which I metaphorically link arms with you and we talk about what it means to live an unbalanced life. (Hint: Not only is it OK to not do it all, it's biblical to focus on priorities for a given season.) It went out of print a few years later, which was much too early in my opinion.  And so, over the last several months, I formed my own independent publishing company called Prairie Lantern Press, learned how to format the interior of a book, and hired the very talented Hannah Linder as my book cover designer, all so I can finally re-release Free to Lean. This second edition has the same content as the first with the addition of a brief preface. It releases March 26 in paperback and ebook, and is available for pre-order now! As soon as I can this spring, I'll also release the audiobook format, which I am narrating myself. Here's the book description: Do you feel like you have a lopsided life? Good. You're normal! Instead of constantly trying to "fix" our lives by achieving some perfect balance that doesn't exist, let's dump the guilt and admit that we need to lean into God. His perfect plan for us includes seasons of life when we may be more focused on caring for our children or our elderly parents, working for pay, or volunteering at church. Free to Lean gives you permission to recognize the season you're in and live in harmony with it. Free to Lean will help you to: Stop feeling "less than" for not being able to do more Shed the burden of other people's expectations Find ways to prioritize and order your life Learn to recognize the various seasons in each of our lives Develop the five pillars even the unbalanced woman must lean upon Grow in your confidence of God's plans for your life So grab your cup of coffee and copy of Free to Lean. Stop feeling guilty about not "doing it all," and refocus your thoughts on leaning into Jesus. Allow Him to make your lopsided life complete. Available to order at the following places: Amazon (paperback) Amazon (ebook) Barnes & Noble (paperback or ebook) Kobo (ebook)  Books-A-Million (paperback) You can always ask your local bookstore and/or library to order a copy as well. The ISBN for the paperback is 9798989696307. Thank you!

A River Between Us is now officially out into the world, and I couldn't be happier to finally deliver to you the full story of hope and home these characters deserve.  Many readers have asked how they can support the launch of the book. Thank you!! I'm so grateful that you asked. The most obvious way is to buy a copy of the book. (You can check with your local bookstore, order a signed copy from my Etsy shop here, or shop from other retailers here.)  But that's not the only way you can help. In fact, here are SEVEN things you can do that won't cost you a single cent. Most of these will only take a few moments. 1. Read the book and post an honest review on a book review/retail Web site. Readers are most comfortable buying books after seeing what their fellow readers thought, so this is really crucial! The goal is to reach 50 reviews on a given site as soon as possible after launch. This triggers an algorithm which will bump up exposure for the book. Reviews don't need to be long and they don't need to summarize the story. Simply share what you liked or what kind of reader you think would enjoy the book. Once you write one review, it's easy to copy and paste it into other sites. Here are the places accepting reviews for A River Between Us now: Amazon BarnesandNoble BookBub BooksaMillion ChristianBook Goodreads Kobo 2. "Like" a review. When you visit the book's page on one of the Web sites listed above, take a few seconds to click the "like" button on some of the positive reviews for the book. This is especially helpful on Goodreads, because every review "like" increases the book's exposure. 3. Ask your library to carry the book. Most libraries welcome patron suggestions and have a way for you to do this on their Web site. Be sure to mention that both paperback and ebook formats are available through their usual distribution channels. If they ask for the paperback ISBN, that is: 978-1625862556. 4. Add the book to your Goodreads shelf. If you have an account with Goodreads, mark A River Between Us as a book you want to read.  5. Share on social media. Create your own graphic or use one of several I've created in multiple formats. Dowload from this Dropbox folder. You could also "share" someone else's post when you see it on social media. 6. Like and comment on a post you see. Every "reaction" to a post on Facebook and Instagram will increase its visibility.  7. Tell a friend. There is absolutely nothing like good old fashioned word-of-mouth. If you know someone who might enjoy a Civil War story of finding hope and home, let them know about A River Between Us. If you're part of a book club, consider including the novel as one of your selections.  Thank you so much for supporting this independently published novel! By the way, the ideas above apply to any book at all, so please make use of them for all your favorite authors' releases!

Come celebrate the launch of my newest Civil War novel: A River Between Us Sunday, October 1, at 2pm! The Civil War-themed party will be held in the ballroom of the Cedar Falls Woman's Club at 304 Clay Street, Cedar Falls, IA, and will include: Live string trio provided by Cedar Valley Strings A program by the author, Jocelyn Green A Victorian dessert buffet with tea and coffee A Civil War fashion show, featuring dresses on loan from Gettysburg, and interpretation by Civil War fashion expert Ann Olsson An opportunity for book sales and signing will follow in the parlor. This is a ticketed event. Purchase your tickets in advance at Eventbrite here. *NOTE: If you cannot attend, you can get a signed paperback shipped directly to you by pre-ordering from the author at JocelynGreen.com/River. Our venue, the Cedar Falls Woman's Club, is shown below with pictures of the exterior and the parlor. This historic house was built in 1867 and features all Victorian decor, making it the perfect place for our event. The Launch Party begins at 2:00, but doors open at 1:30pm. There is on-street parking as well as a lot behind the house. If stairs are a problem, plan to enter through the rear entrance to use the ramps instead. If you arrive earlier than 1:30, add to your afternoon by visiting the Victorian House Museum directly across the street from the Cedar Falls Woman's Club. The Victorian House was built in 1863, during the Civil War. In A River Between Us, the Aldridge family would have styled their home similar to this one. Admission is free, donations welcome. The Victorian House Museum will open at 12:30pm on October 1 to allow you time to explore it before our event. OUT OF TOWN GUESTS: If you're in town for the weekend, check out Cedar Falls' Main Street for dining and shopping. For another Civil War Era point of interest, look for The Black Hawk Hotel is the second longest operating hotel in the country! Built in 1853, it operated during the Civil War, and has undergone several name changes and renovations since then. (Near the end of Jocelyn Green's novel Yankee in Atlanta, the characters Ruby and Edward Goodrich spend the night in this hotel.) The hotel is the large brick building in the photo below. Purchase your tickets in advance at Eventbrite here.   Frequently Asked Questions This sounds fancy. Do I have to dress up to attend? There is no dress code, so come in regular clothes if you like!  Is the venue handicap accessible? Yes. Plan to enter the Cedar Falls Woman's Club through the rear doors in order to use ramps and avoid steps. Will you be selling tickets at the door? Because we need to know how much food to prepare, please purchase your tickets through Eventbrite ahead of time. Thank you!

Last weekend I had the opportunity to explore an exhibit on King Tut's tomb and treasures while in Columbus, Ohio! This exhibit was hosted by Cosi and will remain open until September 4, 2023. Given the King Tut fever that served as the backdrop and catalyst for my novel, The Metropolitan Affair, I couldn't resist visiting--and of course I took along a copy of the book. (Quick recap: King Tut's tomb was discovered in November 1922. The inner tomb was finally reached and excavated months later, in early 1923. When my novel takes place in 1925, King Tut fever was all the rage. Read more about that here.) Want a glimpse inside? Let's go! But first, to be clear, all of these are reproductions. None of these are originals, which actually fits so perfectly with my novel's theme of fakes vs. genuine artifacts. I looked for a book in the gift shop on the making of this exhibit, because how fascinating would that be! Alas, I found no such guide. But it's truly amazing to see all these pieces. I was so enthralled with the history it represented, I forgot a few times that what I was looking at wasn't original. There is a line from The Metropolitan Affair that says, "People see what they want to see." While touring the displays, that came to mind a few times. It's easy to imagine how the art of the artifact becomes larger than the fact. (See what I did there?) I want to show you a few things that my curator protagonist, Dr. Lauren Westlake, points out in the novel. In one section, she is pointing out how amateur forgers might slip up and make mistakes by "correcting" the human anatomy of paintings. For example, let's look at this painting from inside the tomb. Notice that males are painted with red-brown skin tones, and the female is painted with yellow skin tone. This was the standard rule. Next, look at the woman's hands. See anything unusual about them? Here's a closer-up look, below. Both thumbs are positioned above the rest of the fingers, which means her right thumb doesn't match the natural position of thumbs. This is another hallmark of Egyptian art a forger might miss. Now take a look at the feet, below. No matter how the viewer looks at the feet, we always see the big toe side foremost, of both feet.  And then, of course, there are the distinctive eyes: Even on the profile of people, the eyes are painted as though you are looking at them straight on, not from the side.  So there you have it--a few illustrations of what Dr. Westlake explains in The Metropolitan Affair. Now let's take a look at King Tut's treasures! I'll just show you a small sampling. Let's start with the shrines. There were four shrines, each one nesting inside a larger one. Inside the smallest shrine was the sarcophagus, and inside the sarcophagus was another nesting set of three coffins. The inner coffin holds King Tut's mummy. The picture below shows the third largest shrine on the right, with the smaller two shrines and the sarcophagus stretching out the left. Below, you see the largest shrine with its doors open. The coffins, sarchophagus and three other shrines fit inside this one. The drawing below is an enlargement of the diagram Howard Carter made. You can see how everything fit together, and you can also see where some treasures were tucked between the shrines. The photo below offers a closer-up view of one of the shrines. Below, is the sarcophagus that held the coffins: Now for the coffins! You see below the outer coffin (mostly gold) and the middle coffin in the foreground. The originals were made of cypress wood with gold overlays and gemstones. Here is a closer-up view of the middle coffin, below. Now on to the inner coffin. The original was pure gold and weighs 234 pounds.They displayed this reproduction with its cover off and lying beside it so you can see how the mummy would have been buried inside it. Now for what is probably the most iconic artifact associated with King Tut: the funerary mask. The original was laid over the mummy's head and shoulders, and weighs 25 pounds. It's an idealized likeness of the young king. Many consider this to be the centerpiece of all Tut's treasures. On the forehead of the headdress, the emblems of the vulture and serpent represent Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt, respectively. The pharaoh was buried with plenty of jewelry, including the collars below.  The mumified feet were encased in these gold sandals and toe sheaths, below.  How about another shrine? This one, on the left of the photo below, holds King Tut's canopic jars, pictured at right. You may already know that canopic jars were what the ancient Egyptians used to store human organs of mummies (but not the brain, which they discarded). Most of the time, the jars were simply jars with lids that depicted human heads or heads of various gods. Not so with Tut's! Take a look below. After pulling up the lid, there was a mini-coffin in a vertical compartment for each of the king's organs. These little coffins in the picture above represent the canopic jars that were tucked inside the alabaster box. There was so much more to see, but I will leave you with his throne and footstool. The couple depicted on the chair back is King Tut and his wife. Thanks for coming along with me! Did anything in this post surprise you? *Please note: I moderate comments to keep the spam at bay. So your comment will show up after I approve it, which I will do as soon as I can. Thanks! In front of one of the (fake!) shrines!   

One of the great things about writing a novel set in 1925 Manhattan is that many of the settings are still around and can be visited today. If you’ve not been there personally, I hope this virtual tour of some of the sites will help you picture the scenes in The Metropolitan Affair. Let’s start with the obvious: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is where the protagonist, Dr. Lauren Westlake, serves as an assistant curator of Egyptian art. It’s a gigantic structure on Central Park, as are all three institutions featured in this new series—hence the series name, On Central Park. Speaking of Central Park, you’ve probably seen many movie and/or TV scenes set here already. It’s a lovely green oasis in the heart of a bustling metropolis. Lauren’s apartment building, The Beresford, is on the opposite side of the park from the museum, so she walks through it every day to get to work. A scene from Central Park On one corner of Central Park, The Plaza Hotel rises up like a massive French chateau. Afternoon tea at the Palm Court inside was a special indulgence then, just as it is now. This was one delicious research outing! Below, I’m pictured with my faithful research and travel assistant and friend, Mindelynn Young Godbout. (Yes, the same Mindelynn the novel is dedicated to!) Our hero, Joe Caravello, is a detective with the NYPD. He works out of the headquarters building at 240 Centre Street, which today houses posh apartments. What a gorgeous police building! I couldn’t resist setting a few scenes inside the New York Public Library. If you are ever in the city, please make this one of your stops. The Rose Reading Room is featured in the novel, although back then it was just called the Main Reading Room. The murals on the ceiling are hard to appreciate in this photo, so plan to see it yourself when you can. Main Reading Room of the NYPL Another Manhattan landmark I used for a few scenes was Grand Central Terminal. This is Vanderbilt Hall inside it, with the ceiling painted to look like the night sky with constellations. In 1925, the paint wasn’t nearly so bright, though, since it was stained and dingy with cigarette smoke. Thank goodness for restoration! Below you'll see historic photos of Grand Central's exterior, and then Vanderbilt Hall again, taken in 1919. Because the buildings that have been constructed around Grand Central since then, we won't see light streaming into Vanderbilt Hall quite like this again. Of course, as with any novel I write, my goal is to pick you up and plop you right into the setting even if you’ve never been there, and don’t have access to photos. I hope you’ll come along with Lauren and Joe as they traipse around Manhattan and the North Shore of Long Island on their hunt for the forger! Even with all the dazzle of Prohibition-era New York City, you’ll find that the most dramatic landscape is the unseen terrain of their hearts. Have you been to any of these locations? If not, which of these would you like to visit? *Please note that I moderate comments in order to weed out spam. I'll approve your comment as soon as I can.