Well With My Soul by Gregory G. Allen Virtual Book Tour October and November 2011

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Join Gregory G. Allen, author of the literary fiction novel, Well With My Soul (ASD Publishing), as he virtually tours the blogosphere October 17 through November 18 2011 on his first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

About Gregory G. Allen

Gregory Allen Gregory G. Allen moved from Texas to New York in the late 80s and has been in the entertainment business for over twenty years as an actor, director, producer, songwriter, playwright and author. He’s had over ten shows that he has written produced on stage, been the recipient of musical grants from BMI, ASCAP and the Watershed Foundation, and has had short stories and poetry published in Off The Rocks, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal, The Oddville Press, Perpetual Magazine, Loch Raven Review, Word Catalyst Magazine, and Rancor’d Type.

He is a member of ASCAP, The Dramatist Guild, and the Theatre Communications Group. He now lives in the suburbs of New Jersey and for the past five years he’s managed an arts center on a college campus. Proud Pants: An Unconventional Memoir was published this summer and is available as a digital download on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. This is his first novel.

For more information on Gregory, visit his website at www.ggallen.net or http://www.facebook.com/author.gregory.g.allen.

About Well With My Soul

Well with My Soul introduces two brothers who, although close in childhood, have drifted away from each other and closed the door to engagement and emotional connection. The older brother, Jacob, flees his small Tennessee hometown to seek a new life in New York, where he imagines he will overcome his self-hatred and growing sexuality as a homosexual. The younger brother, Noah, stays behind and feels trapped by his role as caretaker for his aging mother. As they grow apart, both brothers go through a series of traumatic events that irrevocably alter their lives: while Noah, shackled by familial duties, finds courage in the sorrow of the past, Jacob’s frenzied search for freedom leads him into a labyrinth of fear and doubt which alienates him from his true identity and wreaks havoc in the lives of those closest to him. Covering the wild times of the 1970s and the restraint of the Reagan years and told through the perspective of both brothers, Well with My Soul is about the families we inherit and the families we build. It is an unflinching exploration of the way that we deal with what most unsettles us, at times using it for the highest form of inspiration, and at other times letting it confine us in previously unimaginable ways.

Book Excerpt:

At twenty-six, Jacob had the slight figure of a girl, which made him look much younger, maybe twenty — constantly getting carded at bars. Not a big, brawny southern man with a beer gut like myself, handsome in his own unique way. I had heard him described as “something from a Greek painting,” or even “a beauty contest host.” He had a thick head of brown hair, nothing like the straw on my head, which had started thinning my senior year of high school. He stood six feet tall, when you could get him to get off his butt and stand up, that is; and he possessed a smile that could bewitch anyone. And trust me, he used that charm every chance he got. If he didn’t shave for a week, he might pass for a lanky cowboy. Until he opened his mouth.
Jacob had been gay for as long as I could remember.
The day it become very clear to me was back in high school, when I walked in on Jacob and Bryan Derbing fooling around. He was a friend both of us had shared until that moment. Seeing them in that compromising position made me sick. Jacob swore that Bryan had talked him into it, but deep down I knew Jacob had masterminded it.
It only fueled my own fire to be as manly as I possibly could. At twenty-three, I had a job with the parks and recreation department as a maintenance man. This after years of mowing lawns, hauling hay and any other outside job I could take. But as I looked at Jacob, lying on the sofa like some sort of male model, it made me realize how much all those jobs had taken a toll on me. The sun had already weathered my skin so much that I looked older than my own brother. Even lazing around the house, his hair was neatly combed, while mine was unkempt. His face had no marks on it, whereas I had scars from where I had scratched myself as a child when I had chicken pox, as well as a huge one on my chin where I fell against the coffee table as a kid. I matched him in the height department, but I was much more round, which also made me look older. He definitely got the looks in the family, while I oft en felt as if I had been awarded the “thanks for just showing up” prize. And I’m sure if I got close enough, he would reek of some fancy cologne, while I could smell the stink of my own arm pits.
Speaking of smells, the aroma got there long before Mama entered the room with a plate of piping hot donuts, some smothered in white powdered sugar and others in chocolate syrup.
“Fizzlesnits! Do I have to do everything myself?” she asked us.
Jacob chimed in. “Smells great, Mama.”
“Thank you. You boys should try some,” she said as she tried to get spilled white powder off her four year old polyester dress. Between that and her premature specs of white hair, which had sprouted over 15 years before, it seemed like there had been a powder explosion in the kitchen that covered the woman.
Jacob was already grabbing two donuts and devouring one.
“I think this is your best batch yet,” he said.
“Kiss up,” I said.
“Hush up, Noah,” Mama scolded. “Leave your brother alone.”
“Why don’t you let him cook?” I asked. “He is spending your money to learn to be a great chef.”
Jacob had been in a cooking class for a year now, one of the many fads he had gone through since graduating from high school. Community college hadn’t work out. I was keeping constant tabs on all of his failures, while Mama only noticed his successes.
“This isn’t cooking,” Mama said. “It’s just fixing up biscuits to look like donuts.”
“Thanks, Mama,” Jacob said, shooting a huge grin towards me.
I knew there was nothing more to say on the subject. Once Mama took a verbal stand for her Jacob, that conversation was closed.
“There is a luncheon this Sunday after church,” Mama said, bringing the cat-eyed glasses dangling from a chain around her neck up to her eyes so she could see what Jacob was watching on TV.
Neither of us responded. We knew we were about to be led down guilt lane.
“Do you think either of you can come?” she said. “People have been asking why my boys never show up.”
“I don’t like to go to church anymore because people gossip about me,” Jacob said. “Not very Christian of them.”
“They do not, son. You should come back.” She rubbed his arm as if he were a six year old boy who had fallen off a bike.
“We’re both a part of the birth and resurrection society now,” I said. “We attend on Christmas and Easter.”
“Noah Preston!” Mama said, using my middle name, which meant trouble.

Well With My Soul Book Publicity Tour Schedule

Wednesday, October 5

Interviewed at Next Magazine

Friday, October 7

Reviewed at Great Minds Think Aloud

Saturday, October 8

Interviewed at Sole Focus

Friday, October 14

Book Featured at Shelf Awareness

Monday, October 17

Book Reviewed at Alaskan Book Cafe

Tuesday, October 18

Book Reviewed at Libdrone Books

Wednesday, October 19

Interviewed at The Writer’s Life

Thursday, October 20

Interviewed at Review From Here

Book Reviewed at Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interview

Friday, October 21

Interviewed at Broowaha

Monday, October 24

Guest Blogging at Feeling a Draft

Tuesday, October 25

Interviewed at Pump Up Your Book

Wednesday, October 26

Interviewed at Literal Exposure

Thursday, October 27

Interviewed at Examiner

Friday, October 28

Book Reviewed at You Wanna Know What I Think

Monday, October 30

Podcast at Book of Excellence

Tuesday, November 1

Interviewed at American Chronicle

Wednesday, November 2

Guest Blogging at The Book Bin

Interviewed at Blogcritics

Interviewed at Morgan Bailey

Thursday, November 3

Interviewed at Associated Content

Friday, November 4

Guest Blogging at Blogher

Monday, November 7

Book Reviewed by Reading Frenzy

Tuesday, November 8

Guest Blogging at Redroom

Wednesday, November 9

Interviewed at Divine Caroline
Guest Blogging at Digital Journal

Thursday, November 10

Guest Blogging at Shine

Thursday, November 17

Book Reviewed at iMiraculous

Gregory G. Allen’s WELL WITH MY SOUL VIRTUAL BOOK PUBLICITY TOUR will officially begin on October 17 and end on November 18 ’11. Please contact Tracee Gleichner at tgleichner(at)gmail(dot)com if you are interested in hosting and/or reviewing his book or click here to use the form. Thank you!

If you would like to book your own virtual book tour with us, click here to find out how!

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Question of the Day

How do you make sales happen for you?

A lot of hard work! I sponsor a lot of on line parties, festivals and contests. Book sales don’t magically happen, believe me. An author has to work hard to earn her readers. And then she has to work hard to keep them by giving them something they’ll enjoy reading. I try hard to make my books worth a reader’s time.

-- Sheila Roberts, Author of Winter at the Beach