Barbara Bose from West Palm Beach writing under the Pen Name, Elizabeth Garden has been shortlisted in the Page Turner Awards Writing eBook Award for her memoir, Tree of Lives.
Barbara, an artist lying low in Florida, entered the Page Turner Awards, where published authors and unpublished writers of fiction and non-fiction from all genres can enter their writing to get discovered by high-profile judges from the literary world.
Tree of Lives is about a young artist in Connecticut, perpetually thwarted by the controlling men in her life, discovers the secret trauma haunting her family, led by the ghost of her great uncle, a mass murderer.
When artist Barbara discovered a gruesome family tragedy that made national headlines well before her birth, she realized she couldn’t NOT write the story.
Six relatives, unknown to her and including four children under the age of 12, were not only brutally murdered by her great uncle, but they never even existed, according to her family. This gross injustice lent perspective on her abusive father’s mental illness and the PTSD all of her siblings shared but dealt with in their own ways. Touching on modern American issues that include the legacy of male violence and bigotry that passes through generations, and one woman's redeeming, steely strength gained through persistence, spirituality, and art.
As a newspaper illustrator and later as a magazine art director, the author of the award-winning book, Tree of Lives, spent most of her career on a different side of the publishing business. Words were the gray matter she used to layout a page or compel folks to read with a pithy drawing. Now she was not only the publisher, author, and illustrator, but the protagonist in the story.
It felt like her whole life, including many of the drawings and paintings that she had done over the years, and her spiritual notions which helped her cope, had all led up to the creation of her illustrated novel.
The book’s initial spark was the discovery of a real-life family tragedy that made national headlines well before her birth, and which explained the many obstacles she had to first overcome in order to write it. Her artwork and its intrinsic relationship to the world of spirit are the guiding lights to her thoughtful perspective on family, bigotry, mental health, boundaries, and agency.
Barbara said, “I loved the entire process of applying for a Page Turner Award. It feels very personal - like there are real people there, really reading and really responding to my questions. The thoughtful questions on the website have helped me distill what's important to say about my book and the enlightening expert webinars give me confidence they know the Page Turner folks are guiding me in the right direction.”
Read more about Barbara and her memoir:
https://pageturnerawards.com/ebook-award-finalists/elizabeth-garden
The Page Turner Awards, sponsored by ProWritingAid, gives writers and authors the chance to enter unpublished or published fiction and non-fiction books, where a group of literary agents and publishers will read the work.
Judges are carefully selected literary agents and publishers who are looking for writers to represent and publish, plus influencers in the publishing industry.
Founder of Page Turner Awards and award-winning novelist, Paula Wynne said: “There are writers from all walks of life, from manual laborers to academics. All with stories to tell, most of them heart-warming and moving. We’re proud that our Awards celebrates excellent writing and helps writers and authors to get their stories discovered.”
Success stories from this year’s awards include three writers winning literary representation, six writers winning a writing mentorship, five writers winning a publishing contract and thirteen independent authors winning an audiobook production.
Find out more about The Page Turner Awards: https://pageturnerawards.com. Submissions for 2021 will open on the 1st of January 2021.
