Barcelona Calling (Paperback)

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Barcelona Calling By Jane Kirkpatrick Cover Image
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Staff Reviews


Jane has written of women doing many extraordinary things
from running a wagon train to becoming a photographer in the early days of
photography.  But this time Jane has
written something entirely different.

Barcelona
Calling
had a working title of Oprah Doesn’t Know My Name.  Trademark issues required a different
title, but the talk show maven is still a presence in the book.  Annie Shaw is an author being published by a
romance publisher.  Understandably her
publisher expects the books to follow the program, boy meets girl, boy gets
girl (or vice versa).  Annie’s books
don’t adhere to the format; they tell stories of people facing conflict and the
choices they make in overcoming the obstacles in their lives.  They are warm stories full of humanity but
lacking in the girl gets boy department. 
As Barcelona Calling  opens,
Annie is sort of celebrating the completion of her latest manuscript with her
sister and closest friends. But Annie is worried.  She is on book 4 of a 4 book contract and
sales of the last two have not been brisk. 
To make matters worse, her advocate in the publishing firm, her editor,
is gone and she is interacting with a new editor.  Annie is afraid she will be dropped, a very
unsettling fate for an author.

Her friends start brainstorming on ways to raise Annie’s
work to the top of the best seller’s charts. 
It doesn’t take them long to hit on a scheme, if they can only get Oprah
to mention Annie, her worries (or at least her publishing worries) will be
over.  Thus begins a series of humorous
escapades aimed at bringing Annie to Oprah’s notice.  They are entertaining.  Let me just give you one of the earlier
attempts as an example.  Annie has long
been a cat lover, but Oprah is known to favor the canine crowd.   The girls decide Annie will adopt a dog then
take it to the dog salon Oprah frequents. 
Oprah being an ardent animal lover will no doubt be charmed by Annie and
her pooch.  It is a doomed quest.  First of all, Annie having no knowledge of
dogs selects a Jack Russell Terrier.  
The cute animal is sleeping peacefully in his cage at the shelter.  Annie is blissfully unaware that for the Jack
Russell there are only 3 speeds, sleep, cuddle, and full tilt boogie, with the
last being the prevailing speed.  Let’s
just say that you could interpose terrorist for terrier and you would have an
idea of the outcome of the dog salon scheme. 
No worries though, Jane Kirkpatrick, like Oprah, is an animal lover.  So the terrier/terrorist is going to be okay.

Annie’s latest book is inspired by events in her personal
life.  She accompanied her sister to
Barcelona where her sister, a cop, was competing in the International Police
and Fireman’s Games.   Riding a bus Annie
is saved from a near robbery by a Spanish cop, sparks fly and a romance
begins.  But Annie leaves Jamie behind to
return to her life in the states.  He
doesn’t want to give her up.  When her
agent and publisher discover the book has a real life love story, they want to
exploit it for publicity. 

As the schemes for
becoming famous multiply Annie starts to lose sight of what made her write and
of how she wants to live her life.  Like
all Jane Kirkpatrick books, Annie’s story has her facing challenges and learning.  But this story is very funny too!   Jane has written a modern story suffused
with humor and warmth. 

— Deon Stonehouse

Description


From bestselling author Jane Kirkpatrick comes this relational story about a close-knit group of five women and their pursuit of life goals. You'll be encouraged and entertained In the tradition of Neta Jackson's Yada Yada Prayer Group series, Kirkpatrick invites you into the lives of five women friends who promise to help each other achieve their life goals. Annie Shaw's goal is far from simple: become famous. But she's in trouble after quitting her day job to write full-time. Her second novel tanked, and her new editor wants her to re-write the ending of her latest work to ensure this one is more successful. In order to pursue fame and an elusive bestseller, Annie travels to Chicago, acquires a rambunctious dog, and participates in antics better suited to a television reality show than real life. Can Annie's best friends help her achieve her goals without destroying her future? Award-winning author Jane Kirkpatrick, known for her superb historical novels, writes this bold, fresh, contemporary story she always threatened she'd one day "put down on paper to make people laugh and consider the true treasures of their hearts.

About the Author


Jane Kirkpatrick is the author of 20 books including 17 historical novels. She's been a Christy and Oregon Book Award Finalist twice and is a two time winner of the WILLA Literary Award. Her first novel, "A Sweetness to the Soul, " won the Western Heritage Wrangler Award. For twenty-six years she "homesteaded" with her husband Jerry on a remote ranch in Eastern Oregon. She now lives with Jerry, and her two dogs and one cat on small acreage in Central Oregon while savoring the value of friendships over fame.
Product Details
ISBN: 9780310293644
ISBN-10: 0310293642
Publisher: Zondervan
Publication Date: September 1st, 2011
Pages: 320
Language: English