This tour will be January 29- February 26(weekdays only)
I am scheduling reviews, guest blogs, interviews and spotlight stops
Your blog name and url
A couple suggested dates during the tour
Please let me know if you wish to review
Drinking
the Knock Water: A New Age Pilgrimage
Emily
Kemme
Genre: Chick Lit
Publisher: Arrowhead Publishing
Date of Publication: January 27,
2017
ISBN: 0983740127
978-0983740124
ASIN: B01MTE7QGJ
Number of pages: 288
Word Count: 107,532
Cover Artist: Mia Kemme
Tagline: “We all live with
ghosts. . . Some are those of people who’ve never been born.”
Book Description:
“We
all live with ghosts. . . Some are those of people who’ve never been born.”
So
begins Drinking the Knock Water: A New Age Pilgrimage, the second novel by
award-winning Greeley, Colorado author Emily Kemme.
Loosely
based on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the novel takes on life itself as a
pilgrimage. One of life’s biggest struggles is fitting in with the rest of the
human race, and an aspect of that is having children. It’s not meant for
everyone and yet, true to Darwinian forces, it’s almost expected. Giving birth
and then raising a child to maturity is one of the bravest tasks we take
on.
On what was supposed to be a day
to celebrate, another cruel outburst from Holly Thomas’ sister-in-law begins a
spiral of events that would leave Holly questioning every choice she’d ever
made and every belief she held as truth.
Had she done the right thing by
her unborn child? Had she given enough, or too much, freedom of choice to her
son? Did she truly, deeply know her husband and clinic partner, Roger? And what
right had she to counsel infertile couples after her own pregnancies?
With the Fertility Tour only
weeks away, a group of unlikely and disparate pilgrims look to her for
guidance. But Holly’s life has unraveled in ways she could not have imagined,
including a restraining order against her. Will she be able to find her footing
and make peace with her choices and herself? Will visiting the religious and
sacred feminine sites in England help her regain control or only tear her
further apart?
Reviews
"Today
exists for you to let your mind wander, let it free, all week long. This is the
time for reflection and evaluation."
Deeply
traumatized after her daughter, Arella, is born dead, fertility counselor Holly
Thomas struggles to achieve inner peace. Roger—Holly's supportive husband and a
prominent fertility doctor—accepts her grief-induced eccentricities, but his
intolerant Christian family resents her and her Jewish roots. When Edward,
Roger's brother, openly belittles the Bar Mitzvah of Daniel, Holly's son,
tensions escalate, and her whole world threatens to fall apart. To overcome
heartbreak and reflect on self-discovery and relationships, Holly and Roger
take a group of patients from their clinic on a fertility tour. This tour
becomes a spiritual pilgrimage for unrealized truths.
Kemme
elegantly examines the complicated aspects of life and relationships. Using
Holly's experiences with a failed pregnancy, her in-laws, and Roger, Kemme
focuses on how pain can shape and enlighten us. That religious intolerance can
inflict significant emotional damage is depicted through Roger's family members
who weaponize words to hurt Holly. This, along with Holly's emotional
fragility, causes strain in her marriage. However, Roger's unwavering love
helps Holly stay somewhat balanced, letting her emotionally heal many patients
who cannot conceive. Some of these couples include Leah and Rachel, the
Rhanjhas, the Chandlers, Burbages, and Jane Brown and her mother. As Holly and
Roger take their chosen couples on a fertility tour to England, various
colliding elements within the patients' lives emerge, thereby projecting how
relationships bless or burden us. Pain becomes a recurrent theme in the novel,
neutralized by the healing touch of water as a metaphor. Arella's grave is near
water, and the visit to the sacred sites of England serves as ritual cleansing
for the characters. Artistically nuanced language and the sincere, soothing
tone bring out the true beauty of this literary novel. This is an
introspective, gentle novel that illuminates and rejuvenates in the same
breath.
RECOMMENDED by The US Review of Books
Fertility
doctors confront the lingering effects of personal and cultural emotional
trauma. Holly and Roger Thomas have a stable marriage, fulfilling careers, and
a son practicing for his bar mitzvah. Holly insists on throwing a birthday
party each year complete with gifts for their stillborn daughter, but Roger
doesn't complain. His Catholic brother and sister-in-law, however, find fault
with Holly, primarily because she's Jewish. Her religion haunts her, almost as
much as the death of her daughter. . .
.
. . the author often beautifully depicts Holly s self-doubt as she explores
different aspects of overcoming trauma. . . [in a] positive tale of moving
forward through unexpected circumstances.
-- Kirkus Reviews
Dr.
Roger and Holly Thomas run a successful fertility clinic in New York City.
Roger tends to the patients' physical needs while Holly ministers to their
emotional and psychological ones. The couple cherish the routines of their
partnership and their happy marriage as they struggle with the pain of a lost
child. Holly continues to throw their daughter birthday parties long after the
child's been buried. This painful ritual causes her in-laws to question her
sanity and is a source of annual familial strife.
Then
the Thomas's son, Daniel, decides to complete his Bar Mitzvah. While Holly was
born Jewish and Roger was born Catholic, neither parent practices his or her
childhood religion. They've exposed Daniel to both religions for the sake of
their families, but neither of them expected him to take it this far. Roger's
devoutly Catholic family cannot accept Daniel's sincerity, and harsh words are
said at his birthday party. Holly and Roger's resulting fight has surprising
and unintended consequences.
All
this turmoil takes its toll on the workings of the clinic. The Thomases have
hosted something they call the Fertility Tour for over a decade. It's an
opportunity for their clients to connect to one another outside of their
familiar surroundings. Holly conducts the tour; she chooses the participants,
orchestrates ice-breakers, and mediates conflicts. Normally she's a skillful
operator, but she's lost her confidence. This year's tour is populated by an
odd and ill-matched assortment of individuals. Needless to say, this tour does
not run smoothly. Roger and Holly must find a way to reconnect with one another
in order to salvage the retreat.
The
Thomases deal with people at their most vulnerable. Fertility is closely tied
to an individual's identity, and both men and women find it difficult to
process the inability to have a child. While Holly and Roger have never
encountered problems with conceiving, they have suffered a loss and are
sympathetic to thwarted expectations. This closeness to struggle and their
ongoing religious turmoil provide the pair with a lot of philosophical ground
to cover. Is religion necessary to cope with the vicissitudes of life? Is God
responsible?
Drinking
the Knock Water is at heart an exploration of the role religion plays in the
life of an individual. Faith in a god can both connect a soul to others and sow
discord. In the end, it's up to the reader to decide if faith is essential or
composed of empty rituals.
-- Manhattan Book Review
About
the Author:
As the award-winning author for
her novels, Drinking the Knock Water: A New Age Pilgrimage and In Search of
Sushi Tora, and on her lifestyle blog, “Feeding the Famished”, Emily Kemme
tends to look at the world in all its rawness. She writes about human nature,
and on her blog shares recipes and food for thought along with insights about
daily life. She is a recipe creator but winces when labeled a foodie. She is
the Food and Lifestyle Contributor for the Greeley Tribune’s Dining column and
also writes features for the newspaper and its magazine, #Greality.
"I write about what I ate
for lunch only if it's meaningful," Emily says. "Mostly, I'm just
hungry.”
Emily also writes because her
degrees in American and English History, followed by a law degree from the
University of Colorado, left her searching for her voice. She also suffered
from chronic insomnia.
“Writing helps clarify my mind,
erasing clutter, and makes room for more impressions. My thoughts can seem
random and disconnected, but once they flow onto paper, a coherency and purpose
emerges, directing patterns into story. I sleep much better, too.”
As an author who lives in
Greeley, Colorado, she celebrates people’s differences, noting that the biggest
problem with being different is when it’s deemed a problem. Emily often
identifies with the underdog, focusing on humanizing the outsider, showing
there is not only one right way to be or to live. Through her writing she hopes
her audience will be open to new ideas, the acceptance of others, and will
recognize the universalities of human experience in a non-judgmental way as
they meet her characters and follow their stories.
Her first novel, In Search of
Sushi Tora, was awarded as Finalist for First Novel in the 2012 Next Generation
Indie Book Awards and her second novel, Drinking the Knock Water, was awarded
as a Finalist in Chick Lit in the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards and
received two CIPA EVVY awards. Emily is
currently working on a children’s book series, Moro and The Cone of Shame, a
collaborative project with her daughter-in-law, Mia. She is also writing her
third novel, The Man With the Wonky Spleen, a story about human idiosyncrasies.
Professional Memberships: PEN
America
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmilyKemme/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmFeedsYou
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emfeedsyou/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilykemme
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