Now available on Radio Free Bliss -- a podcast interview with Lee and her alter ego about the environment, animals, money, the harp, and health -- and a few other things too!
Lee is featured in the premiere issue of X-it Magazine, the publication of the Monmouth County (NJ) Arts Council. Download the interview at this link and learn more!
How much do you know about these wonderful creatures from the Land Down Under? Seek out some Aboriginal wisdom today in Lee's new book! Scroll down to learn more. . . .
Help The Animals!
With each purchase of Lee's new book, Klassic Koalas: Ancient Aboriginal Tales in New Retellings, you'll be helping the Australian Wildlife Hospital, founded in memory of the late Steve Irwin's mother Lyn and a major project of Wildlife Warriors Worldwide. In 2006 alone, the Hospital treated more than 600 koalas -- and they treat up to 30 species daily, on average. With these numbers, they are already expanding.
Help them in their mission, so that they can continue to preserve, protect, and heal Australian wildlife. Check out their site, and then check out Klassic Koalas: Ancient Aboriginal Tales in New Retellings. ALL AUTHOR AND ARTIST ROYALTIES FROM THIS BOOK GO TO HELP THE HOSPITAL.
Mick the rare white koala is helped by medical treatment
See the YouTube trailer for Klassic Koalas: Ancient Aboriginal Tales in New Retellings!
Check out Koala Jo Publishing to see more fabulous books on the koala!
THE BEAT OF GAIA'S HEART
The newsletter is LIVE. Want to learn more about animals and the environment, and find ways to help? Sign up for the newsletter and learn how! Just click on Environment, in the toolbar above, and you'll be taken to the newsletter page, where you can sign up. You can read the first issue now.
For an autographed copy, contact Lee (scroll down to the "E-mail me!" link at left). Each purchase of the book benefits the Australian Wildlife Hospital, a project of Wildlife Warriors Worldwide, Steve Irwin's foundation. There's also an e-book version available, which is kinder to the planet -- no paper, no ink, no shipping materials, and no postage! -- and it contributes to the Hospital as well. Do something good for the Earth and for yourself too!
NEW FOR SEPTEMBER
September 8 Long Branch Day
A late summer day at the Jersey shore offers the perfect opportunity for a fundraising walkathon, followed by a signing and sale of Lee's new book, as well as other koala books and gift items featuring koala art. Lee is looking for pledges for the walkathon to raise money for the Australian Wildlife Hospital. And once everyone's had a chance to walk for a good cause, she'll be signing books and offering attendees the chance to purchase t-shirts, caps, coffee mugs, and other goodies decorated with koala art from her book. All purchases benefit the Hospital.
Where? Long Branch, New Jersey. When? All day, September 8.
NEW FOR AUGUST
August 16-18 BOOK SIGNING AND SALE AT TEDDY BEAR ARTISTS INVITATIONAL
One good cause helps another as Lee signs books at TBAI, the Teddy Bear Artists Invitational, in Binghamton, NY. TBAI benefits the Ross Park Zoo, and so will Lee's appearance. She will be fundraising for the Australian Wildlife Hospital with sales of her book Klassic Koalas: Ancient Aboriginal Tales in New Retellings and other Koala Jo books.
Mystery author John Lamb will also be there with his new book The False-Hearted Teddy.
NEW FOR JULY
July 18 Story Hour and Book Signing
Lee presents a story hour, with harp music, followed by a signing, at the Borders Books in Whitehall, PA. The store is located at 1937 Macarthur Rd., Whitehall, PA 18052; phone is (610) 432-5520.
NEW FOR JUNE
June 1-3 BookExpo America
Lee goes to New York, and signs copies of her environmental novel A Dream of Drowned Hollow at the Mystery Writers of America booth on Saturday, June 2.
Lee Barwood, seated, center, at BEA with (L to R) Judith Peck, Ed.D.; Gurdip Hari; Bob Secreti; and Bettina Sparkles. Photo NABE
NEW FOR MAY
May 19 Book Launch Party in Reynoldsburg, Ohio
Lee will be in Reynoldsburg to celebrate the launch of Klassic Koalas: Ancient Aboriginal Tales in New Retellings with Donna Boiman and the young students of the Central Ohio Art Academy, some of the illustrators of the book.
While there, Lee will visit both the Columbus and Cleveland Zoos.
April 25 Wildlife Warriors acknowledges Klassic Koalas: Ancient Aboriginal Tales in New Retellings!
Wildlife Warriors Worldwide has posted news about Lee's new book on its website's fundraising page. Acknowledgment of the book's efforts to help the koala and other Australian wildlife means a lot -- and can help even more wildlife!
April 21
Lee's been interviewed by the Asbury Park Press! Go here to read the article. Then celebrate Earth Day by doing something for the planet -- or for someone you love.
April 19
Lee will read from her new book Klassic Koalas: Ancient Aboriginal Tales in New Retellings for the children of Holy Family School in Hazlet, NJ, as part of Read Across America.
April 2 through April 8
Lee is the week-long guest of the Yahoo! group for the Muse It Up Club, voted one of Writer's Digest's 101 Best Writing Sites in both 2005 and 2006. There she'll talk about ecofiction, her books, and anything else about writing that the members ask about. If you're interested, check out the Club and the group!
Another New Review -- Called a "Must Read"!
Three Roses from The Muse Book Review! Says Lea Schizas, "If you are looking for a heroine to cheer. . . , then A Dream of Drowned Hollow is the book you’ve been searching for. And it’s no wonder it won the Andre Norton’s Gryphon Award . . . I highly recommend this book as a must read."
New Article About Klassic Koalas
To learn more about the kids who helped to illustrate Klassic Koalas: Ancient Aboriginal Tales in New Retellings, Lee's new book, check out this link in Ohio's Eastside Messenger.
Editor Joanne Ehrich, herself an artist, has also provided original illustrations and designed the cover! For more information, and a great animation of the book's cover, check out the publisher's website.
To learn more about who did what in the collaborative artwork for this book, click on the link in the Selected Works column, above and to your right!
NEW! RSS FEEDS
Scroll down and look on the left side of the page for the latest feeds about the environment, updated daily, courtesy of Environmental Health News.
New Interview with Lee
Watch for the link on Monday, February 12! Lee will be interviewed by Courtney Mroch on Families.com's Pets Blog, where she talks about the animals in her fiction, her new koala book, and Tribby.
Click the link now to see other interviews with authors who write about pets and animals -- their own, and others'!
The Beat of Gaia's Heart
A new article on ecofiction by Lee Barwood is one of the highlights of author Marilyn Peake's The Golden Goblet Newsletter in February.
Click here and scroll down on Marilyn's website to learn more. Find out how to sign up for Marilyn's free e-newsletter, filled with great articles on writing, links to new scientific discoveries, and Web pages for children's activities.
Lee's new book is a collection of retellings of Australian Aboriginal legends.
Klassic Koalas: Ancient Aboriginal Tales in New Retellings, now out from Koala Jo Publishing, not only introduces readers young and old to stories told by native Australians about the Dreamtime, but also contributes to the care of Australian wildlife. Because Lee has donated her royalties from this book to help the koala, an animal she has loved since childhood, each sale of this book will help to fund the Australian Wildlife Hospital of Steve Irwin's Wildlife Warriors Worldwide.
ECOSUSPENSE AT ITS FINEST
See the YouTube trailer for A Dream of Drowned Hollow!
Lee's long-awaited suspense thriller pits an Ozark girl with unusual gifts against a developer determined to have his way.
From the back jacket:
"There are spirits afoot deep in the Ozark hills of Blackburn County, Arkansas. Things happen. Ghosts walk. Elemental creatures dance to the wild music of the rhythms of Nature. And those who’ve lived in the hills for generations can see them.
"But now there’s activity of another kind ravaging the hills; bulldozers, chainsaws, and hunters of man and beast. As old-growth trees fall to developers, rivers are dammed, hollows are flooded, and residents are driven from land settled by their many-times-great-grandparents, April Rue Stoner hopes against hope that her gift can help her stop the destruction before everything she’s ever known is gone."
See Reviews
From The Muse Book Review, Lea Schizas: "If you are looking for a heroine to cheer. . . , then A Dream of Drowned Hollow is the book you’ve been searching for. And it’s no wonder it won the Andre Norton’s Gryphon Award . . . I highly recommend this book as a must read." Lea gives it a rating of three roses!
From Euro-Reviews: "Lee Barwood possesses a most rare and inestimable gift . . . She goes beyond just making the story real; the reader comes away feeling as if the story has actually been lived out within us . . . This reviewer hopes it will only be the first of many more from the exceptional author Lee Barwood."
From Andrea Maloney of Spinetingler Magazine: " Lee Barwood has written an absolutely fabulous ecological fantasy novel that will take your breath away."
From ForeWord Magazine: "Barwood's language is beautifully wrought . . . rushes to a satisfying conclusion, one in which evil gets its comeuppance and balance is achieved in a most unforseeable manner."
From Kevin Tipple: "It is rare to read a novel that so powerfully captures the beauty of a region and the need to practice conservation and proper stewardship of the land . . . the author weaves a spellbinding tale. . . ."
In Lee's short story "Cold Comfort" in the pages of Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine's November/December issue, Lila Rowe must find a way to escape her abusive husband. But there's a complication: She must also save a herd of rescued horses from certain death.
Double Dragon Publishing's first Illuminated Manuscripts anthology includes Lee's short story "The Minstrel," originally published in somewhat different form in Space & Time Magazine.
Love has led Hugh the minstrel to accept a witch's enchantment -- to remain in the form of a small silver statuette till the kiss of his beloved releases him. But love was blind, and the woman he loves is false. Bound to play and sing through the night until the spell is broken, the little silver statue is thought to be cursed -- or haunted -- and Hugh, frozen in time, wonders if love will ever find a way to release him.
While the harp looms large in Gryphon Award-winning fantasy author Lee Barwood's fiction, there's more than music to be found at this site. Lee is very involved in the subjects that she writes about, and some of her research sources can be found in the links included here.
Look to the right, and throughout the website, for links to more information on:
Fiction and poetry
Freelance editorial consulting
Harp performance and instruction
Music as medicine
Holistic medicine and health
Animal welfare issues
The environment
Women's issues
Finance
Watch for SPOTLIGHT headers, here and elsewhere on the site. These indicate a noteworthy publication or timely issue.
SPOTLIGHT
Did you know that donating old furs can save a baby animal's life, or help an injured or sick wild animal to recover? The Humane Society of the United States accepts donated furs, everything from whole coats to collars and cuffs (shearling included), and passes them along to wildlife rehabilitators, who can use those furs to make nests for orphaned, ill, or injured animals in their care. The furry nests can lower the animal's stress level and offer comfort.
If you have old fur coats, hats, stoles, shearling coats, collars, cuffs, gloves, or muffs -- in short, any fur items -- that you would like to dispose of, please consider donating them to the HSUS. Save an animal's life, and make a difference by giving fur back to the animals! For more information, go to www.hsus.org/furdonation.
To donate, place your fur items in a large sturdy box (a padded envelope will work for small items, says the HSUS), and mail to:
The Humane Society of the United States
2100 L St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20037
Attn: Andrea Cimino
SPOTLIGHT
Issue # 14 of HarpLight: The Journal for Small Harps contains an original piece of therapy music and an essay about playing harp for hospital patients and their families by Lee, writing as Marlene Satter.
SPOTLIGHT
A superb site for research on folklore, mythology, sacred traditions, and their effects on or meanings for current events is www.mythinglinks.org, maintained by Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D., a retired faculty member of the Mythological Studies Department at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Dr. Jenks' site is laden with essays, links, artwork, and discussions on current events that will give you plenty to think about. Animal lovers in particular should check out her essay, Through the Sacred Fires: the Animals of Beltane, which will give pause for thought about the animals in factory farms and their effects on our everyday lives.
Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened. -- Anatole France
NEWSLETTER LAUNCHED!
The Beat of Gaia's Heart, Lee's environmental newsletter, features interviews with Dr. Jon Hanger of the Australian Wildlife Hospital; Gail Gipp, its manager; book reviews; articles; resources; and more. To sign up, or to read back issues, click on Environment in the menu above. Let Lee know what you think!
Bindi Irwin Says No to Fur
Bindi Irwin says that even faux fur sends the wrong message. She has joined the anti-fur campaign at the age of eight. Go here to read more.
What's Really in Pet Food?
Do you know what's really in the food you feed your pets? For more information on how to protect the health of your animal companions, read this essential article at the Animal Protection Institute's website, or get a copy of Foods Pets Die For by Ann Martin (scroll down the page for a link to the book). You can feed your pets many of the same things you eat, and it's much safer and healthier. Once you know what goes into most commercial dog foods, you'll agree. My dog lived to be seventeen years old on a diet of organic human-grade food, despite having been diagnosed with a heart murmur as a puppy.
For a searchable database on the FDA's website that will allow you to see if your pet's food has officially been recalled, click here. To sign up for free FDA recall alerts by e-mail, go here (National Institutes of Health Listserv for FDA Recalls) or here for the FDA's Pet Food Recall Page.
January 26 is Australia Day!
Check out www.wildlifewarriors.com to learn more about the wonderful creatures of Australia. Go to www.australiaday.gov.au to find out what Australia Day stands for, learn more about the history of Australia, and check on events to mark this historic occasion.
Tribby has gone to the Rainbow Bridge 7/1/06 to join her daddy Jack and big brother Raven. For seventeen years she was my best friend and faithful companion. Fare thee well, dearest one, and may the Rainbow Bridge be all that you could wish!
A lifetime of storytelling and music
As a child Lee told or wrote stories, sang, and played guitar. As an adult -- well, things haven't changed all that much, except that the guitar has been joined by harps and other instruments, and the stories have gotten longer (and are told to a wider audience than nieces, nephews, and teddy bears).
Fantasy, fairy tales, and horror stories have always been a mainstay of Lee's interests; that holds true now in both writing and music, as she draws on traditional tunes for inspiration in fiction and melody.
UPDATE
H.R. 3484, the bill known as the Puppy Protection Act, which was introduced by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) back in November of 2003 and cosponsored by 47 representatives, had been referred to yet another committee, and at the end of the last Congress, died there. It has not yet been reintroduced in the 109th Congress. This bill has the potential to end the cruelties of puppy mills and to offer the animals we call our pets a life of decent treatment -- but can do nothing if it is not reintroduced. You can call or write your Congressional representatives and ask that they support reintroduction of this bill.
If you don't know who your representative is, you can find out at thomas.loc.gov. You can contact your representative via e-mail, although a phone call or snailmail letter is more effective. For more information on the Puppy Protection Act, go here.
