How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly Book~Interview & Giveaway!*CLOSED*

How Clarissa Learned to Fly By Connie May Fowler

How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly is the transcendent story of a young woman who, in a twenty-four hour period, journeys through startling moments of self-discovery that lead her to a courageous and life-altering decision.

This book is so powerful and exciting that once I started reading it~I couldn't put it down!From the fly in the beginning to the armadillo and rats in the end their actions are described in how it relates to what is going on in the story!

I was lucky enough to get a interview from Connie~

Two things prompted me to write How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly.  The first was that I had a very difficult time dealing with my crumbling marriage, the divorce, and its aftermath.  I talked to a lot of people—women and men—and they all felt similarly and experienced long lasting levels of despair.  But few of them felt comfortable giving voice to their feelings because we tend to live in a get over it society. So I wanted to write a novel about a woman who finds herself in a wasteland of a marriage but can’t find her way out. 

The second inspiration for the book occurred about five years ago when I was researching pre-Civil War Florida history.  I came across information about the Florida Land Purchase Treaty of 1819.  Florida was a Spanish Colony and under Spanish rule, women and black citizens of La Florida could own land and black males could sit on juries; slavery was deeply discouraged.  By contrast, in the American territories slavery was flourishing and women and blacks had virtually no civil rights.  The treaty set forth that two years hence, America would take control of Florida.  That meant that with a stroke of a pen—a real estate deal—the civil rights of a goodly portion of Floridians vanished.  People most likely didn’t even know that their rights had been stripped away until someone stole their land or slapped them in shackles or both.  This haunted me.  I began to create what would become the ghost family of Olga Villada, her husband Amaziah Archer, and their son Heart Archer. 

But I wanted a contemporary story so I decided upon Clarissa Burden, a woman trapped in a loveless marriage who is in deep need of relief.  I like the way Clarissa’s contemporary story plays out over the course of a 24-hour period in tandem to the building resolution the Villada-Archer’s experience.  It was fun for me to write about a character—Clarissa—who suffers from a nearly deadly case of writer’s block because I work desperately everyday not to believe in such a malady.  Clarissa’s journey toward freedom from a petty tyrant tracks closely with the other sorts of freedom the other characters in the book seek.  If you’d like to read more about How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly, you can find tons of info on my website: www.conniemayfowler.com. 

 And~I have some great news!! 

Henry at Hachette Book Group has offered 2 of my readers to win their very own copy of "How Clarissa Learned to Fly"!!

1~The first Mandatory entry is to like How Clarissa Learned to Fly on Facebook

2~Like me on Facebook 

3~Follow Connie on Twitter

4~Follow me on Twitter

5~Tweet About this Giveaway{You can do this daily} You also can copy and paste this~

@conniefowler I am Trying to win How Clarissa Learned to Fly Book @Deb55106http://tinyurl.com/23su64n  Ends 5/6

6~Follow me with Google{2 entries}

7~Subscribe by email or reader{2 entries each}

8~Post about the giveaway on your Blog{5 entries}

9~Tell me what power you wish you had

10~Post my Button on your Blog{5 entries}

OK~That is 10 chances to win not to mention the extra entries and the daily tweets!

Winner will be selected at random and will be contacted via e-mail. If I do not receive a response from the winner within 48 hours I will chose a new winner. This contest ends on May 6th at11:59 PM CENTRAL TIME.


Thanks everyone and good luck! 

*This giveaway is open to USA Only!*




{Disclosure: The review that I posted is my own opinion. No monetary compensation has been offered or accepted. The opinions above are my own.}