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Virginia was my first guest author, featured in May 2002. Enjoy!
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"We began the dress on the last evening in October."
For three sisters, it will become a banner of hope, spun from
delicate memories of genteel tradition and woven with threads
of possibility. Through the desolate landscape of winter,
it will act as a beacon of unexpected fortune and faith in
a world void of promise. It will inspire the noble heart that
lies dormant beneath layers of grief. Together, the stalwart
ladies of Oak Creek, Virginia will fashion their impossible
dreams into...
The Wedding
Dress
Virginia Renfro Ellis's extraordinary work of historical
fiction evokes the tattered essence of the post-Civil War
South, where widows, children, and scarred veterans were left
to reconstruct a country. There is little to wish for in the
lives of the Atwater women.
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Ballantine
Books, May 2002
ISBN: 0-345-44482-5
Click on Cover to Order a Copy
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Julia and Victoria were barely brides before their husbands
marched off with the doomed Confederate army. Now alone, with
scarcely enough money to see them through until spring, they
embark on an impetuous mission to bring a sparkle of joy back
into their youngest sister's eyes. Seventeen-year-old Claire
has always wanted to be married. And though she has no intended
groom, her sisters decide to sew her a wedding gown.
As the dress takes shape, the gates of their meager plantation
home welcome the arrival of Sergeant Monroe Tacy. He has come
to fulfill a dying man's last request, but his presence begins
a series of remarkable events that will transform the Atwater
sisters forever.
The Wedding Dress is an unforgettable lesson in hope,
written with the natural simplicity and beauty of a born storyteller.
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 Maggie
Award winner and four-time RITA finalist Lyn Ellis sold her first
book to Harlequin Temptation in 1993. Since then she has written
for both Temptation and Superromance. Her latest Superromance
titled: Annalee and The Lawman came out in January 2001.
She also writes as Virginia Ellis for Ballantine hardcover women's
fiction, her first title, The Wedding Dress will be published
in June 2002 and has been optioned for a movie by Dolly Parton
in partnership with Columbia Tri-Star pictures. She is a founding
partner in the small, Southern press, BelleBooks.
We hope you'll enjoy this very special
letter from Virginia ...
Dear Reader:
As a writer and as a war widow (my husband died in
Vietnam) I am inherently drawn to the quiet tragedies
and triumphs of women who lost their men forever. The
Wedding Dress is about the calm strength and innate power
of women caught in difficult situations.
I've been asked what war's effect had on my family.
If the question relates to my own personal family, it
meant I never had one. Or, not a conventional one anyway–with
a husband and children. I've had what the old Chinese
curse would have called ‘an interesting life' instead.
If we're speaking of the effect on my parents, my sisters
and myself, then I would say it was one of the major events
of those chaotic times which, like a lightning bolt, brought
the war and the changes in society home to us. It's one
thing to watch the news, hear the body count and see the
coffins being shipped home, it's another to bury a future.
Writing, in some ways, has been my salvation. I began
as a journaler–writing page after page of whatever
I needed to get out of my thoughts. Somewhere around 1988
I began to write books. I had a hard time at first because
I resisted writing about reality. I didn't want to write
about how sad, in my experience, life could be. In other
words, I had lost my faith in happy endings. But, a good
friend of mine set me on course. She said, "In fiction,
you're God. You can write any ending you want. Write your
own happy ending."
I've been doing that ever since.
I hope you enjoy THE WEDDING DRESS.
Virginia Ellis
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A Letter from
Virginia's Editor
Dear Friend:
Every so often a book comes along that reminds
us why we love to read. The Wedding Dress is that kind
of book--the kind that you immediately want to share with a dear
friend or a mother or a sister.
Virginia Ellis' extraordinary work of historical
fiction evokes the tattered essence of the post--Civil War South,
where women, children, and veterans haunted by battle were left
to reconstruct a country. This is the story of the three Atwater
sisters. Julia and Victoria lost their husbands to war. But they
refuse to allow their younger unwed sister to succumb to sadness
and a bitter heart. So they decide to make her a wedding dress.
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"In
the tradition of Little Women, Virginia Ellis' The
Wedding Dress is a luminous novel that will remain with
you long after the last page is turned."
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For the three sisters, the dress will become
a banner of hope, spun from delicate memories of genteel tradition
and woven with threads of possibility. Through the desolate landscape
of winter, it will act as a beacon of unexpected fortune and faith
in a world void of promise. It will inspire the noble heart that
lies dormant beneath layers of grief. Together, the determined
ladies of Oak Creek, Virginia will fashion their despair into
a shimmering patchwork of hope.
In the tradition of Little Women, Virginia
Ellis' The Wedding Dress is a luminous novel that will
remain with you long after the last page is turned.
Shauna Summers
Senior Editor
Ballantine Publishing Group
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Reviews and Kudos!
"Ellis' narrative warmly embraces its entire
range of characters and keeps the reader guessing until the end."
--Publishers Weekly
"A thoughtful tale, suffused with quiet
southern pride and an old-fashioned womanliness."--Kirkus
"The Wedding Dress was the MOST WONDERFUL
book I've read in a good, long time. I read it at a time when
I truly need a little magic and inspiration and it delivered both.
It's my favorite book of both 2001 and 2002 (I read an ARC in
2001!). I loved, loved, LOVED it! " --NY
Time Bestelling and Award Winning Author - Suzanne Brockman
"This classic, lyrical story of women struggling
to make new lives in the aftermath of the Civil War is written
in the quietly elegant language of the old South but tells an
emotionally contemporary tale of hope, love, and survival. THE
WEDDING DRESS rivals fine recent Civil War novels such as Cold
Mountain.
Virginia has honed her writing craft as a splendid
and acclaimed author of romances over the years, but now she finally
has an opportunity to write true "stories of the heart,"
not only as a historical novelist, but also as a writer and publisher
of acclaimed short stories (SWEET TEA AND JESUS SHOES, BelleBooks.)
Her personal history - as a Vietnam war widow, then as one of
the few women to succeed in the high-profile world of sports media
as a team photographer for the Atlanta Falcons football team,
and finally, as a writer and publisher-infuses THE WEDDING DRESS
with exquisite insight and humanity.
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"Tell
everyone you know.
You won't reget it!"
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Please, please, take this marvelous book underwing
and don't let it be overlooked. After reading it, if you feel
as passionately about its special appeal as I do, tell everyone
you know. You won't regret it." --New
York Times Bestselling Author, Deborah Smith
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Meet Virginia || A Letter
from Virginia's Editor || Reviews & Kudos
Read the First Chapter || Read
an Interview
Visit Other Guest Authors...
Kathryn Shay ~ Promises to Keep ~ August
2002
Nicole Jordan ~ Ecstasy ~ October 2002
Deborah Smith ~ Sweet Hush ~ February
2003
Eileen Dreyer ~ With a Vengeance ~ May
2003
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