Song of the Shaman

Productinformatie

What if your ten-year-old knew more about your past than anyone in the world – even you?


Sheri Lambert is the classic New York workaholic: driven ad exec, financially successful, emotionally empty. Searching for meaning in her life, Sheri becomes a single mother. From the start, her son, Zig, displays strange behavior. He recalls people and places he couldn't possibly know and leads Sheri to a startling discovery of a hidden ancestry she never knew existed. With Zig, the past alters the present and reality merges with the fantastic.


From the urban grind of present-day Brooklyn to the shamans and rituals in the rain forests of 19th century Panama and Costa Rica, two interwoven stories collide. Sheri learns she must find the courage to trust Zig and his mystical guidance to uncover the secrets of her past—or remain lost from herself and the truth about her origins.


Praise for Song of the Shaman:


"A beautiful and compelling novel about a mother's yearning—for her origins, for unconditional love, for the sacred, and for the secret behind her son's mysterious connections to the past. Song of the Shaman tells a haunting story of what happens when the wounds etched on a woman soul long ago are finally brought into the light of awareness."


—NANCY PESKE, Co-Author, Cinematherapy for the Soul: The Girl's Guide to Finding Inspiration One Movie at a Time


"The opening scene is a gritty one of a woman giving birth on the Brooklyn Bridge. Which of course means I can't stop reading even if I wanted to. What a way to open a book!"


—TIPHANIE YANIQUE, Author, Land Of Love And Drowning.


"I was totally taken by the modern woman's struggle with identity and spirituality."


—CATHERINE TEXIER, Author, Victorine


"Annette Leach weaves a fascinating historical love story with a present day, single mother's quest for self-discovery. In both women work to transcend the cultural norms of their time. A well written, thoroughly enjoyable page turner."


—DEIRDRE FISHEL, Writer, Director, and Producer, Sperm Donor X


"A tale that is part fanciful and completely intriguing… From a forbidden love hundreds of years ago to a young boy in present day, Ms. Leach successfully crosses the centuries bringing the readers along with ease. This novel makes one ponder the possibility of past lives and think harder about deja vu. An intricate story told in a simplistic way. I look forward to reading more of Annette Leach's work."


—DEE CASADO, NetGalley Book Reviewer http://floridadragonfly.blogspot.com/


"This story was hypnotic and alluring as a mother struggles to find her past to know who she is. Across the exploration, the reader will root for single mother Sheri and her son Zig in the present day and be captivated by a family meeting an indigenous Shaman in 1899. It all comes full circle when the past is reborn into today. Romance, intrigue, the struggle of single motherhood and discovering roots all culminate into a fantastic tale."


—SHANNON GOMEZ, NetGalley & Goodreads Book Reviewer http://literarilyillumined.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/a-soulful-embrace-when-the-past-involves-multiple-lifetimes/


"This story made the hair on the back of my arms stand straight up. Unforgettable."


—ROSEMARY SMITH, NetGalley & Goodreads Book Reviewer http://wedin2001.wordpress.com/?s=song+of+the+shaman&submit=Search


Author Bio:


Annette Vendryes Leach is a Brooklyn author, publisher, and entrepreneur who started her career as a copywriter for a Madison Avenue ad agency. For years she wrote magazine, radio and TV ads for everything from soda to the CIA. After winning industry awards and moving on to Creative Director, Annette decided it was time to follow her real passion – fiction writing.

She founded the Black Literary Club (BLC), the foremost direct mail book club devoted to African-American, African and Caribbean literature. BLC's success garnered attention in major media and trade publications. Annette became a consultant for a leading publishing company to help develop a new niche book club.

Her membership in several writers' workshops in Brooklyn and Manhattan led Annette to publish a short story, "Tima And The Quetzalcoatl", in Voices of Brooklyn: Writings from the Women of Color Writers' Workshop. Song Of The Shaman (MindPress Media, 2013) is her first novel. Annette is a graduate of The New School where she majored in Creative Writing and Comparative Religion. A writing coach and publishing consultant, Annette provides publishing services for authors through MindPress Media. She is currently working on a second novel. Annette lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and two sons.


Why I wrote this book:


Song of the Shaman was inspired by two vivid family stories:


1) The mystical things my sons told me when they were very little about their past lives and where they were before they were born. Their striking stories led me to ponder questions of identity -- who are we really, what does the knowledge of past lives bring to the present, and why?


2) I discovered late in life that my grandmother was orphaned when her mother died in childbirth. I set out to trace my grandmother's family in Panama but my search turned up very few clues. Though I hardly knew my grandmother, I was always curious about the vacant look on her face, her far away eyes. I now attribute that look to her lost ancestry. With the few facts I did know about my grandmother I began to create this story for her, as a way to give her a history. This book is dedicated to the memory of my grandmother and my mother.


In the end, the process of weaving Song of the Shaman's historical love story with the contemporary single mother's search for her origins transformed me as a writer and storyteller. For more information, please visit annetteleach.com.