Book Giveaway: A Promise Stitched in Time by Colleen Kosinski

Author/illustrator Colleen Kosinski has new MG book titled, A PROMISE STITCHED IN TIME. It’s now available in bookstores. Colleen has agreed to share a book with one lucky winner. All you have to do to get in the running is to leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know the other things you do to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you.

Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, reblogging really helps spread the word for a new book. Thanks for helping Colleen!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Promises can be hard to keep, but Maggie McConnell is determined to keep the promise she made to her father before he died. She must win a scholarship to a prestigious art program, but her grief gets in the way as she struggles to find her artistic vision. When Maggie purchases an old tweed coat as inspiration, she never guesses this fur-collared coat will forever change the way she views life and her place in it. The coat awakens her muse, but also awakens something else: Maggie believes its previous owner haunts the coat. Dreams and visions give way to clues from the past, and then a Holocaust victim’s tattoo appears on her arm. With the help of a steampunk-dressing school outcast named Taj, Maggie must decipher what the ghost wants her to discover, and in the process find herself.

BOOK’S JOURNEY:

This story has traveled a long meandering journey starting in 2010 when I discovered an obscure bit of history. I learned that during the Holocaust, Hedwig Hoess, the wife of the commandant of Auschwitz, had imprisoned two young seamstresses in the attic of their family home. Under sever conditions they were tasked with creating clothing for the Hoess family using fabric from the very clothes that had been stolen from other prisoners. Nobody knows the names or what became of these two young women.

At the time I began writing this story I was experimenting in various genres of writing, including screenwriting. After several rewrites I set the manuscript aside and concentrated on developing picture books. I’d worked as a fine artist before I became serious about writing, so picture books were a natural fit for me. In 2016 Sky Pony Press published my first picture book, Lilla’s Sunflowers—but I continued thinking about that middle grade novel still sitting not so quietly in my drawer. The girls wanted people to know about them, even if my story was a fictional account of who they may have been and what may have become of them. I took the manuscript out and revised multiple times until I had a story ready to be read. Since the story’s conception tensions in the world have steadily increased making the theme of the story more important than ever—we should be mindful of how we treat others and be active in helping those who are being treated unkindly.

I was so excited when my editor asked to read the full manuscript on a Friday and contacted me on Monday to say how much she loved the story and would be taking it to acquisitions that week.

I still love the picture book genre and have sold two more books that will be coming out in the future, but middle grade also holds a special place in my heart and I look forward to introducing readers to many more of my novels.

COLLEEN BIO:

Colleen Rowan Kosinski has always found joy in creating. She grew up in Collingswood and worked at Arts Plus on Haddon Ave and participated in the Collingwood Arts Festival when she was 15 years old. Later, she earned her B.A. from Rutgers University in visual art, attended classes at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and is an alumna of Moore College of Art of Philadelphia. She rediscovered her passion for writing after many years as a successful, freelance fine artist. When she discovered children’s book writing she knew she had found her passion. Along with A Promise Stitched In Time, Colleen also authored and illustrated the picture book, Lilla’s Sunflowers. Colleen resides in Cherry Hill, NJ with husband, pets and so far no ghosts as far as she knows. Visit Colleen at: https://colleenrowankosinski.com/

Thank you Colleen for sharing your debut YA book and its’ journey with us. I can’t wait to read it. Sounds very interesting.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy