I’m hosting the starter day party today for the book tour for NA/YA fantasy “Song of the Oceanides”. The tour runs from September 23 to November 23. Stay tuned for my review on October 12!
Tour Schedule
September 23rd: Starter Day Party @ I Heart Reading
September 23rd: Promo Post @ Stormy Night Reviewing
September 25th: Promo Post @ I’m an Eclectic Reader
September 27th: Author Interview @ Bedazzled Reading
September 28th: Book Review @ Bedazzled Reading
September 30th: Guest Post @ Libreria de Beppe
October 2nd: Promo Post @ The Book Daily
October 4th: Promo Post @ Just Books
October 6th: Author Interview @ Majanka’s Blog
October 8th: Promo Post @ Books, Dreams, Life
October 12th: Book Review @ I Heart Reading
October 14th: Promo Post @ Bookaholic Ramblings
October 16th: Promo Post @ The Bookworm Lodge
October 19th: Author Interview @ Books are Forever
October 20th: Book Review @ Books are Forever
October 22nd: Promo Post @ Silver Dagger Scriptorium
October 24th: Guest Post @ Editor Charlene’s Blog
October 25th: Book Review @ Editor Charlene’s Blog
October 26th: Promo Post @ Hollow Readers
October 28th: Promo Post @ Maari Loves Her Indies
October 30th: Promo Post @ Cassidy Crimson’s Blog
November 2nd: Book Review @ MSJ Mentions
November 4th: Promo Post @ The Reading Guru
November 8th: Author Interview @ The Single Librarian
November 9th: Book Review @ The Single Librarian
November 12th: Promo Post @ Indy Book Fairy
November 16th: Promo Post @ Bookworm for Kids
November 23rd: Guest Post @ Bookish Madness
About the Book
Title: Song of the Oceanides
Author: JG Zymbalist
Genre: YA/NA fantasy/steampunk
Song of the Oceanides is a quirky but poignant coming-of-age tale about children, Martians, freaky Martian hummingbird moths, and alluring sea nymphs.
The first thread relates the suspenseful tale of a Martian girl, Emmylou, stranded in Maine where she is relentlessly pursued by the Pinkerton Detective Agency’s Extraterrestrial-Enigma Service. The second thread concerns her favorite Earthling comic-book artist, Giacomo Venable, and all his misadventures and failed romances. The final thread deals with a tragic young lad, Rory Slocum, who, like Emmylou, loves Giacomo’s comic books and sees them as a refuge from the sea nymphs or Oceanides incessantly taunting and tormenting him.
As much as anything, the triple narrative serves to show how art may bring together disparate pariahs and misfits—and give them a fulcrum for friendship and sense of communal belonging in a cruel world
Author Bio
J.G. Źymbalist is the pseudonym of a very reclusive author who grew up in Ohio and West Germany. He began writing Song of the Oceanides as a child when his family summered in Castine, Maine where they rented out Robert Lowell’s house. There, inspired by his own experiences with school bullying and childhood depression, the budding author began to conceive the tale.
For several years, J.G. Źymbalist lived in the Old City of Jerusalem where he night clerked at a series of Palestinian youth hostels. There he wrote the early draft of an as yet unpublished Middle-Eastern NA fantasy. Returning from the Middle East, he completed an M.F.A. in poetry at Sarah Lawrence College.
The author returned to Song of the Oceanides while working for the Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society, May-September, 2005. He completed the full draft in Ellsworth, Maine later that year.
He has only recently decided to self-publish a few of his previous works. Foreword Reviews has called his writing “innovative fiction with depth,” and Kirkus Indie has called his style “a lovely, highly descriptive prose that luxuriates in the details and curios of his setting.”
Thank you for hosting, Majanka. You’re so lovely!
For anyone curious for more information, come to jgzymbalist.com and click on the about-the-book section. Lots of great art and pictures! Be warned though! This book is character driven and very quirky. The stories and emotional hardships my characters endure serve as highly-poetic metaphors for very serious topics: childhood depression, school bullying, coming of age in an increasingly-cruel world. Alas I do humbly conceded that my writing won’t be for everyone.