This afternoon, I opened the mail to find I SHOULD have gone to Book Expo America.
A Wish in Time was up for ForeWord Magazine’s 2008 Romance Book of the Year Award to be awarded in a ceremony there.
I had thought about going. I talked to my dad about going with me. We looked at the expense and finally decided not to. Jacob was graduating from high school that weekend. Besides, I probably wasn’t going to win anyway.
And then A Wish in Time won “Gold.” You could knock me over with a feather.
(They award bronze, silver and gold.)

So, what does this mean?
I get:
Bragging rights.
An announcement on ForeWord Magazine’s website and magazine.
Recognition at the award ceremony I couldn’t make.
Two copies of the award certificate.
A handful of lovely gold stickers to put on the cover of the book and the right to purchase more.
Recognition from my publisher.
The chance to purchase advertising saying I’m a winner.
The chance to say, “Woo Hoo!”
A really good feeling.
And...did I mention bragging rights?

Laurel

A Wish in Time received a five star review at LASR beginning with this line:
“The first thing I thought when I finished the last page of this book, was, ‘What a great story.’”
http://longandshortreviews.blogspot....

AND it’s up for Best Book at LASR—voting to take place Saturday and Sunday at the address below. If I win I get a nifty button and the privilege of having A Wish in Time featured at the top of that page the entire next week!

http://www.longandshortreviews.com/L...

I just received notification that A Wish in Time is a finalist in ForeWord Magazine’s 2008 Book of the Year Awards!
I am so thrilled!
ForeWord Magazine writes, “These finalists represent some of the best work coming from today’s independent press community.”
The winners will be announced at BEA (BookExpo America), May 28, in New York.
Wish me luck.


Laurel Bradley
A Wish in Time
Crème Brûlée Upset
www.laurelbradley.com

A WISH IN TIME by Laurel Bradley
Published by iUniverse
ISBN: 978-1-60528-017-2
Short Blurb: The quest for a child causes two women to unwittingly switch place in time. They embark on a soul-searching journey to discover the truly important things in life—but will they find the way home before it’s too late?

Back of Book Blurb:

In eighteenth-century Scotland, Magda McClellan, eight months pregnant, is granted one wish from Auld Annie, a wise woman accused of witchcraft. But Magda declines to use her wish because she is perfectly happy; besides, she doesn’t believe in witches. Little does she know how that refusal will forever change her life.

In twenty-first century New York, Maggie McDonald and her husband desperately want to have a child. While they wait for a procedure at a fertility clinic, a Scottish nurse named Annie promises to grant them a baby … if that’s their wish. When Maggie awakens, she finds herself round with child in the eighteenth century and panics.

Magda has also been catapulted through time, waking up in a hospital bed in New York—and she’s not pregnant anymore. When she goes home with a man who claims to be her husband, she searches for clues to the identity of this Maggie McDonald, whose body she now inhabits. Why is Magda here? And why is she no longer pregnant?

As the two women become familiar with their new worlds, they find themselves on emotional paths of self-discovery—but will they find the way home before it’s too late?


Excerpt from “A Wish in Time” by Laurel Bradley
Copyright 2006 Laurel Bradley
(http://www.laurelbradley.com)


In the spring of 1718 in Kirkinwall, Scotland, Auld Annie is accused of witchcraft and thrown into a filthy pit to await the arrival of the religious examiners. Magda McClellan, a young wife eight months pregnant with her first child, doesn’t believe in witches. Knowing that Annie is innocent, Magda has concealed a bundle of food beneath her skirts with the intention of dropping it anonymously into the prison-hole. When she reaches the prison hole, she finds that it has collapsed and Annie, now covered with filth, is locked in the pub’s storeroom. Madga is sent by the parish priest, her uncle, to give aid to Annie under the guise of searching for the “devil’s mark."



The fiscal tugged open the door, swollen with humidity, wrinkling his nose at the smell of rotten food and human waste that greeted him. The pit had been used as a garbage heap and toilet when it wasn’t being used to house inmates.
“Witch,” he said, addressing the gray-haired wretch that huddled miserably between two kegs and a pile of boxes. “We’re checking ye fer the devil’s mark. I’ve a good God-fearing woman willing to do it out of Christian mercy and a group of men who’ll gladly take over if ye give her a moment’s trouble. Which will it be?”
“The woman,” Annie croaked through a raspy throat.
The fiscal nodded to Magda.
“We’ll say a prayer first,” Father Toddy instructed,
bowing his head.
Magda bowed her head as well and recited the words.
The witch didn’t flinch or make a sound.
Dawin and the serving girl returned with the washtub and water. Two boxes had to be taken from the room and
put in the hallway to make room for Magda and the washtub.
Finally, Magda was alone in the cramped room with Auld Annie. She placed a torn shift, cast-off gown, a sliver of harsh lye soap a