The Pearlsong Letter: Romance

November 2008

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May 04, 2007

The Queen of Rubenesque Romances to reign at Brentwood, TN Borders bookstore Saturday, May 12, 2007

After nearly dying from an eating disorder in her teens, Pat Ballard fought her way to self- and body-esteem. Now, as the Queen of Rubenesque Romances, the Nashville, TN author encourages women of all sizes to love themselves.

NASHVILLE, TN--Pat Ballard will appear in full regalia as the “Queen of Rubenesque Romances” at the Brentwood Borders bookstore at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 12 in conjunction with the publication of her latest book, the romantic suspense novel The Best Man.

Ballard’s books and short stories feature “plus sized” heroines and are written to inspire self-acceptance and self-care in all women, as well as to entertain. Ballard herself almost died from an eating disorder in her teens, and continued dieting/starving herself for years until resolving to eat normally and learning to love the body that resulted.

In addition to signing copies of The Best Man, just published by Pearlsong Press, Ballard will chat with
the public and pass out ribbons imprinted with her “10 Steps to Loving Your Body (No Matter What Size You Are)." She is expanding the steps into a nonfiction book tentatively scheduled for publication by Pearlsong Press in 2008.

Ballard is also the author of Dangerous Curves Ahead: Short Stories, Wanted: One Groom, Nobody’s Perfect, His Brother’s Child, A Worthy Heir, and Abigail’s Revenge. She maintains a website at www.patballard.com.

Excerpts from her books, as well as archives of her monthly newsletter, “The Queen’s Proclamation,” are posted at her page on the Pearlsong Press website (www.pearlsong.com/pat_ballard.htm).

May 04, 2007 in Author appearances, Pat Ballard, Presentations, Signings & Appearances, Press releases, Romance, The Best Man | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 08, 2007

New romantic suspense -- and free shipping offer -- from the Queen of Rubenesque Romances

Sparks fly the night Lana Clarke meets to plan her sister's wedding--and not just because curvaceous Lana announces she's stopped dieting and doesn't care if she's fat as maid of honor.

The strong-willed sister of the bride attracts the attention of the groom's devastatingly handsome best man, Anthony Angelino. But when the sparks become flames, Lana's in trouble.

Tony's first wife died mysteriously. Will Lana be next?

Pat Ballard's new romantic suspense novel, The Best Man, is being released in May 2007. Pearlsong Press is offering free shipping within the U.S. for advance sales through our website.

April 08, 2007 in Pat Ballard, Romance, The Best Man | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Big girls -- and women -- live happily ever after in tales by Canadian author Judy Bagshaw

Judy Bagshaw has a mission and a vision: writing romantic stories and novels in which plus-sized women live rich, involved lives. It’s a dream that grew out of her struggles living as a large woman in a world in which fat is reviled.

It wasn’t until her late twenties that Bagshaw realized she had wasted a good portion of her time obsessing about her weight and her looks. The subsequent journey of self-acceptance led to her writing career.

Her most recent work, At Long Last, Love, a collection of short stories featuring plus-sized (and in some cases middle-aged) heroines, was published by Pearlsong Press in April 2007.

Writing had always been a part of the Canadian school teacher’s life, but it became a serious pursuit when she reached her mid-thirties. Bagshaw started taking writing classes and one summer stumbled upon an ad for a publisher seeking plus-sized romances.

“I can remember a writing instructor telling me emphatically that there was no real market for romances featuring plus-sized heroines,” she says. “I thought then that I would really enjoy proving him wrong!”

Her first work was published in 1999. In 2005 Bagshaw retired after a 28-year career as an elementary school teacher to devote herself to writing fulltime at her home in southern Ontario.

“I have so many stories I want to tell. And since finding publishers who want work that is outside the mainstream box, I know that there are people out there that want to read stories where the big girl wins the hero’s heart and lives happily ever after.”

At Long Last, Love: A Collection is available from online and offline booksellers, directly from the publisher at www.pearlsong.com, and wholesale from Ingram Book Co. and others

April 08, 2007 in At Long Last, Love, Judy Bagshaw, Press releases, Romance | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 04, 2005

Pearlsong Press to publish Abigail's Revenge by Pat Ballard

Pearlsong Press will publish Abigail's Revenge, a romantic suspense novel by Pat Ballard, in fall 2005.

"We're excited to add another novel by Pat to our catalog of entertaining and empowering books," publisher Peggy Elam, Ph.D. said in announcing the deal. "We hope to have the book available for sale at our booth at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN October 7-9."

Ballard has been dubbed the "Queen of Rubenesque Romances" due to her featuring plus-sized or "big beautiful" heroines in all of her works. Her previous novels (Wanted: One Groom, Nobody's Perfect, His Brother's Child, and A Worthy Heir) and short story collection, Dangerous Curves Ahead, have also been published by Pearlsong Press.

Ballard's books can be purchased from online bookstores including Amazon.com (click on the links in the righthand column of this screen to be taken to the Amazon listings for her books) and BarnesandNoble.com, as well as the retail store at the Pearlsong Press website, Buck Off Babes, and Borders bookstores. Other "brick and mortar" bookstores can order Ballard's books for any customer if the books are not already on their shelves.

Ballard maintains a website at http://www.patballard.com.

May 04, 2005 in Forthcoming Books, Health At Every Size, Pat Ballard, Romance | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 28, 2005

Pat Ballard to appear at Enterprise, MS festival May 7, 2005

Pat Ballard is returning to her home state of Mississippi to participate in the Enterprise, MS "May Festival" event, to be held Saturday, May 7, 2005 at the Enterprise Gazebo and Park. Pat will sell and sign copies of all five of her books at the festival, which is sponsored by the Enterprise Woman's Club.

Pat's books include Dangerous Curves Ahead: Short Stories (Pearlsong press, $13.95 trade paperback), Wanted: One Groom (Pearlsong Press, $13.95 trade paperback), Nobody's Perfect ($13.95 trade paperback), His Brother's Child (Pearlsong Press, $13.95 trade paperback), and A Worthy Heir (Pearlsong Press, $13.95 trade paperback), all available through Amazon.com or other online booksellers, Ingram Book Group and Baker & Taylor wholesellers, Broadart Company, and directly from the publisher at www.pearlsong.com, P.O. Box 58065, Nashville, TN 37205, 1-866-4-A-PEARL.

Pat maintains a website at www.patballard.com.

April 28, 2005 in Health At Every Size, Pat Ballard, Presentations, Signings & Appearances, Romance | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 23, 2005

Pat Ballard's books available from Buck Off Babes

Pat Ballard's novels and short story collection are now available for purchase from Buck Off Babes, the new online store where shipping's free and you get a buck off your next purchase.

You can find her books in the "Let Us Entertain You" section. Enjoy!

April 23, 2005 in Health At Every Size, Pat Ballard, Romance | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 11, 2005

Pat Ballard on the radio

Catch Pat Ballard discussing her romance novels this week on Veronica Cook-Euell 's "Size Matters" show on WCRS Radio (Akron, OH) and the Internet .

Click here to access the mp3 file of the 30-minute show free through January 15, 2005. After the 15th, the archived show can be accessed at the Size Matters website for a small fee.

Next week (January 16-24, 2005), "Size Matters" will feature a second show with Pat discussing "Women of Size and their Sexuality."

Enjoy!

PegE

January 11, 2005 in Health At Every Size, Pat Ballard, Radio Interviews, Romance | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Pearlsong Press books

Frannie Zellman: FatLand
In the near future the Pro-Health Laws of the United States of America have become so oppressive that people seeking freedom over their bodies have established a new country. In FatLand, life is good and scales are forbidden. Free from the hatred and discrimination of the Other Side, FatLanders have built happy, productive lives. But not everyone is flourishing.
Pat Ballard: 10 Steps to Loving Your Body (No Matter What Size You Are)
The Queen of Rubenesque Romances shares the steps she created -- and used -- to heal the damage of years of dieting. Join her in celebrating size diversity, self esteem, positive body image, and health at every size.
Charlie Lovett: The Program
A new weight loss clinic in New York City has an offer for you -- given them $5,000 and they'll make you as thin as a supermodel. You can eat whatever you want and never gain an ounce. Tempted? Fledgling journalist Karen Sumner would be -- if only she had $5,000. When Karen finally walks through the blue and gold doors of The Program, however, she's on the trail of the hottest story of her career. If she and her friends are right, The Program is doing something even worse than creating an army of unnaturally thin women. Library Journal calls The Program "a lively first novel. Highly recommended."
Linda C Wisniewski: Off Kilter: A Woman's Journey to Peace with Scoliosis, Her Mother, and Her Polish Heritage
Even before she was diagnosed with scoliosis at 13, Linda Wisniewski felt off kilter. Born to a cruel father in the insulated Polish Catholic community of Amsterdam, New York, she learned martyrdom as a way of life. Off Kilter shows her learning to stretch her Self as well as her spine as she comes to terms with her mentally deteriorating, widowed mother and her culture. Only by accepting her physical deformity, her emotionally unavailable mother, and her Polish American heritage does she finally find balance and a life that fits. Maureen Murdock, author of Unreliable Truth: On Memoir & Memory, calls Off Kilter "a courageous, insightful book, particularly relevant for anyone who grew up feeling physically 'different.'"
Pat, Ballard: The Best Man
Sparks fly the night Lana Clarke meets to plan her sister's wedding -- and not just because curvaceous Lana announces she's stopped dieting and doesn't care if she's fat as maid of honor. The strong-willed sister of the bride attracts the attention of the groom's devastatingly handsome best man, Anthony Angelino. But when the sparks become flames, Lana's in trouble. Tony's first wife died mysteriously. Will Lana be next?
Judy Bagshaw: At Long Last, Love
Big beautiful --and in some cases slightly more mature -- heroines grace the pages of this collection of romantic short stories by Judy Bagshaw.
Jack Adler: Splendid Seniors
An inspiring ensemble of 52 people whose accomplishments after age 65 remind us that creativity, passion & influence can not only flower in later years, but bear delicious fruit.
Mary Saracino: The Singing of Swans
"The Singing of Swans is a remarkable narrative calling--even compelling--us to connect with our own ancestral roots, to seek our own inner wisdom, and to reclaim our own inner voices!" --Margaret Starbird, author of The Woman With the Alabaster Jar & Mary Magdalene: Bride in Exile
Ellen Frankel: Beyond Measure: A Memoir About Short Stature and Inner Growth
"If you have ever measured your height or your weight and felt good or bad about yourself as a result, you need this book. In its pages, Ellen Frankel makes an important contribution to human liberation by telling the most fabulous story that can be told, the story of a person coming fully into her own. This book is thought-provoking, heart-rending, and a genuine solace for people of all sizes." --Marilyn Wann, author of FAT!SO?
Pat Ballard: Abigail's Revenge
Injustice, romance and suspense smolder in a small Southern town. Romantic suspense from the Queen of Rubenesque Romances, Pat Ballard.
Pattie Thomas, Ph.D.: Taking Up Space
"Thomas's incisive blend of sociological inquiry and personal narrative amounts to a provocative treatise on fat oppression in our culture. Taking Up Space is a kind of roadmap through the minefield of the 'war on obesity,' and it offers protection to the reader ready to fight for cultural change surrounding the meaning of fatness." --Kathleen LeBesco, Ph.D., author of Revotling Bodies: The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity.
Anne Richardson Williams: Unconventional Means: The Dream Down Under
Shattered by family tragedy in the early 1960s, an upper-middle-class Southern teenager finds solace in art and literature. Decades later she is called to the continent whose literature once comforted her, and to a magical connection with an Aboriginal woman transcending race and half a world.
Pat Ballard: A Worthy Heir
When Pam Spencer sees the newspaper ad seeking "a worthy heir" to Fiona Bainbridge's millions, she jumps at the chance to get her brother the medical care he needs after a job-related accident. But Reese Bainbridge, Fiona's handsome grandson--and jilted heir--rushes home in anger when he hears his grandmother has moved Pam and her brother into the family mansion. Sparks fly--and Pam is up to the challenge.
Pat Ballard: His Brother's Child
One party, one silver-tongued, double-talking stranger intent on winning a bet, and Faith Carr ends up betrayed, alone, and pregnant. When Edward Brenner shows up on her doorstep intending to right his brother's wrongs, she's scared and vulnerable. But she agrees to marry this stranger to give the baby a father, although keeping him at a distance. She doesn't realize that Edward fell in love with her the moment he saw her. Will her battered self-esteem allow her to see the truth--and her own beauty?
Pat Ballard: Wanted: One Groom
Wealthy Hanna Rockwell will lose her home and her inheritance unless she marries by her 30th birthday. She's stunned when Matt Corbett, the faded rock start she worshipped in her teens, accepts her brother's offer to bail him out of financial trouble if he'll marry her. Her teenaged fantasies come to life--bringing a few surprises with them.
Pat Ballard: Nobody's Perfect
Nella Covington can't believe she's agreed to marry arrogant Samuel du Cannon, even if it IS only a marriage of convenience. He needs a mother for his young son, and she needs to keep her childhood home. If Sam's work keeps him on the road enough, she won't have to deal with him much. Sam's never been attracted to plus-size women, so they won't be tempted to have a real relationship. At least, that's what they keep telling themselves--
Pat Ballard: Dangerous Curves Ahead: Short Stories
Ten romantic tales pack suspense and sizzle into this collection of short stories featuring amply curved women.