Friday, April 4, 2014

"Blue Butterfly" by Marian L. Thomas

NEW RELEASE and GIVEAWAY
Blue Butterfly
by Marian L. Thomas


Blue ButterflyMarian L. Thomas' latest novel, has just been released. Help celebrate by joining the author for a Facebook Chat on 9 April. This book blast and giveaway is brought to you by Write Now Literary Book Tours.


Description
There have been five black ballerinas that have made a noticeable mark in the world of ballet. Five that have fought to have the world see their talent rather than the color of their skin. Each has graced the stage as soloist and/or principal dancer. Precious Blue Johnson is set to become one of them.
Precious Blue Johnson, young, country and naive, from Lutts County, Georgia, is traveling to the energizing city of New York to search for her birth father and perhaps make history by becoming the first black ballerina.
Her simple mocha skin and thick lips will put her in the center of a movement, expose secrets and unlock the past as she steps onto the stage as the Blue Butterfly. She will be guided by the vivacious and wise Ms. Ann and fall in love with the alluring Ray Silvers.
Ray brings the whole package. Enchanting eyes, a bright future as a doctor, and a willingness to love completely. To Precious, he is perfect. Except Ray’s package includes his deadly past.
Will their love survive the one person who could end it all - his drug-addicted mother?


Book Trailer


Excerpt
They say on the night that I was born June 30, 1969the fringes of the moon could be seen peeking out through the thin layers of the clouds. They say that the rain had done come down so hard it felt like something was tearing away at your soul, drop by drop. They say my mama was laying in the birthing room screaming because I was ripping her life away from her. They say that the doctors wanted to cut away at her tummy, but she had done plain-out refused. She was an ebullient woman, with the heart of an unbreakable but beautiful stallion.
I ain't never seen the woman with eyes so blue they felt like they could reach down into the pit of your core and tell you about yourself. I ain't never seen the warmth of her smile or the way she could soothe my daddy with her kind-hearted words. People talk under their breath about her. Talk about how long her silky blond hair was or how thin and soft her frame was. I do alls I can when I hear them whispering about the woman who gave her life so I could dance in the rain on a hot summer day.
Just before she took her last breath they say that she stared into my eyes and smiled because I done come into the world with what she thought was the better part of her. The one feature that my daddy loved the most.
She was the one who placed the weight of my name upon me. Precious Blue Johnson, but everyone around here in Lutts County, Georgia, fixed my name at Precious.
My dear, sweet Daddy is a tall, well-stocked-around-the-tummy man. I heard that back in his heyday he sported a nicely trimmed frame of six feet, two inches. That his hair used to be slicked back so perfectly there wasn't a black woman in Lutts County that wasn't dying to give it a coat or two of sweet brown sugar with the very tips of their hard-worked fingers.
His shoulders hang now sometimes, but that wasn't always the case. No, it be said that when Charles Johnson used to walk down these dirt-filled roads, his shoulders stood towering with an air of confidence that one could breathe in from a mile away.
Once upon a time, it be rumored that his hazel brown eyes were fixed on singing his way out of Lutts County. They still talk about this fact in the rooms of their barely-able-to-stand homes, where they figure can't nobody hear them but God. Whispering under the dim lights about how it is such a shame that he wasted his talent on a white woman.
There are nights when I would wonder what his voice must have sounded like. I would hear him humming sometimes, but I ain't never heard the sound of butter flowing from his lips.
That's what they say he sounded like.



Review
 “Author Marian L. Thomas has woven a page turner that will have you wanting more. In her book, Blue Butterfly, the author does a fantastic job developing each character and taking the reader on a ride of unexpected turns.” ~ Paulette Harper, Award winning author of Living Separate Lives



Guest Post by Marian L. Thomas (originally posted on her blog)
When the word ballerina is heard, it often invokes the image of a beautiful and radiant white woman dancing in a graceful manner. Our mind never imagines black women as ballerinas. However, there have been five ballerinas in the world that have carved a niche for themselves and made a noticeable mark on the ballerina stage (Misty Copeland, is a great example of one). It is these women, that I find myself taking inspiration from. Such inspiration gave birth to my newest book; Blue Butterfly - a heart-touching story about a black girl (Precious Blue Johnson) that fights all odds in order to become the first black ballerina.
The story unfolds when Precious Blue Johnson leaves her Georgia hometown for New York, in search of her birth father. During this journey, Precious meets the wise Ms. Ann, and falls in love with the very handsome Ray Silvers. While the stage for a heart-warming love story appears to fall in place, her real struggle will not be of the heart. It will be fought in the world of ballet, as Precious, seeks to find a place to hang her own pair of pointe shoes.
Some wonder why I selected April 4th as the day to release Blue Butterfly. It is the anniversary of the day that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. His fight for freedom and equality provides the back drop to the story. Part two of the book, shows how his death reached into the heart of Anya Duport, a beautiful and young white ballerina who struggles to carve out her own sense of what freedom means.
I sincerely hope that Blue Butterfly will trigger emotions of romance, love, family, friendship and even the harsh reality of betrayal. But, in the end, I hope that readers conclude the last page understanding the depth and purpose of forgiveness and the pleasure of peace

About the Author
Clean Fiction novelist Marian L. Thomas is a dynamic story-teller with five engaging and dramatic novels to her credit. Her books have been seen on national television stations and featured in print magazines and newspapers. She has also been a guest on many broadcast and online radio stations. Her titles, My Father's Colors and Strings of Color both received the USA Best Book Finalist Award.
What makes her books unique? Marian is a pioneer for clean fiction for contemporary female readers. She refuses to lace her work with explicit sexual themes or profanity. Marian's books are rich with ever-intriguing themes of race, family strife, love, courage, friendship and forgiveness. And yet her tales, which seem to pre-stage current tabloid headlines, are spelled out in ways that suit the delicate moral tastes of both the Christian Fiction reader and the Clean Fiction book reader.
Marian resides in a suburb of Georgia with her husband, family and dear friends.

Giveaway
Enter the shared giveaway for a chance to win an ebook copy of Blue Butterfly by Marian L. Thomas.

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