The Rendering [Paperback]

Leann Marshall (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 143274318X | ISBN-13: 978-1432743185 | Publication Date: August 26, 2009

MOVE OVER SOUTHERN WRITERS, THERE'S SOMEONE NEW AMONG YOU, AND SHE'S GOOD -REALLY GOOD...

...In her first book, The Starfish People and now her second, The Rendering... Leann Marshall is a whiz at writing stunning Southern dialogue and getting her readers into the heads, hearts, and laps of her Southern characters. Don't think for an instant though that you'll feel stifled by or anchored to a specific region. She has supplied both books with big wings that transport the reader from the flars (flowers) down home to lofty and deep-reaching themes. Barbara Milbourn of Writers in the Sky

Product Details

• Paperback: 306 pages
• Publisher: Outskirts Press (August 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 143274318X
• ISBN-13: 978-1432743185
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,619,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Leann Marshall is the author of two novels. Her first book, The Starfish People, won the Silver Medal in the Fantasy/Science Fiction Category of the 12th Annual 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) and received honorable mention in both the 2008 Beach Book Awards held in Atlantic City, and in the science fiction category of the 2008 New York Book Festival.

Her second book, The Rendering, has just been published and is now available on Amazon, and will be available on other online bookstores as soon as they receive the information from the publisher. This book--speculative fiction--is part mystery, part supernatural thriller. The Rendering, as The Starfish People, will soon be available on Kindle. Check it out!

"Born in Springfield, Missouri and having a father in the Communications industry, we moved a few times so that I grew up in St. Louis, Nashville, and ended up in Charlotte, NC where I've lived for many years.

Seems like when I'm in a group of people, I've always been the one quietly observing everything going on instead of planting myself in the center of things. Not that I'm anti social--I'm not--it's just the way I am. And actually it's been invaluable to me as a writer to fall back on these observations of people and places and things through the years. Many writers are thoughtful observers--they'll tell you so.

What do I get out of writing? Besides the fact that all you really need is a pen and a tablet which will go anywhere--at the very least it's a great creative outlet--at the most it's a wonderful form of self expression and an extraordinary, ongoing learning experience about many things, including myself.

I've been influenced by many different genres and author voices from an early age. As a girl I read classics such as Little Women and Black Beauty, and mysteries such as the Nancy Drew series. Later on, I also loved books by Jules Verne and George Orwell, John Irving, Arthur C. Clarke and Grisham and King and Brown and Binchey and--!--anything new and unusual and mind-provoking--The point is, I've always loved to read and to me it's a privilege to have written something that perhaps others can enjoy for years to come.

My published writings include a humorous short story in Hodgepodge; my story received the magazine's "Best Short Story of the Year Award"), a horror story in Dead of Night, and three contributions printed in Dark and Stormy Rides Again--the book compiled by Scott Rice from the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest. Between 1993 and 1995, I wrote several human-interest articles and many humorous columns for the Lincoln Gazette, a section of the Gaston Gazette."

Visit my personal Website: http://www.leannmarshall.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The inspired new writing of an accomplished author, October 11, 2009

By 

John E. Cashwell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rendering (Paperback)

Leann Marshall's "The Rendering" is first and foremost a robust recognition of her growth as a fine and accomplished writer. When she told me it was available at Amazon, I asked for a copy wherein I encountered these great passages about the "aura phenomenon," which I accept as those "electrical pulses" emanating from all of us that most people believe to be our "souls." I am not as familiar with the definition of the many colors, but I am very aware of the influence of auras. If you are a believer, you are going to love this book.

Jam-packed with strong characters and an even stronger core philosophy praising life and the power of love, Ms. Marshall knows how to spin a tale of suspense and non-stop action. A huge step forward as a complete author and a welcome read. Enjoy!***** __ John E. Cashwell

5.0 out of 5 stars Love and the power of fantasy, September 22, 2009

By 

John Casey (St. Louis) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Rendering (Paperback)

While waiting for my car to be inspected, I decided to finish the final chapters of this great piece of imagination. My decision was a good one because my focus was to stay involved in the final sweep of events. I wanted to see how this writer could pull a love story all together . . . not on my impending negative inspection report. Of course, I was somewhat distracted, a bit, by an exotic, absorbed young woman in the waiting area who had activated an impressive laptop . I make the comparison because I saw a connection between one person, alive, solving a business solution, and another woman, a writer with the ability to grant life to major characters - empowering them to alter events that can and should be altered. Today's technology will do that with the right hookups with the right person at the right time. Oh, by the way, our Toyoto passed with flying colors, as did The Rendering!

5.0 out of 5 stars A great story well told, August 31, 2009

By 

Barbara Milbourn "writer and editor" (Nashville) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rendering (Paperback)

Move over Southern writers, there's someone new among you, and she's good--really good.

I'm not sure Leann Marshall wants to be called a Southern writer, but her first book, The Starfish People and now her second, The Rendering, both take place there and she lives there as well. She's a whiz at Southern dialogue and getting her readers into the heads and hearts of her Southern characters.

Don't think for an instant though that you'll feel stifled by or anchored to a specific region. She has supplied both books with big wings that transport the reader from the flars (flowers) down home to lofty and deep-reaching themes.

In The Rendering, Mike Lot is released from 29 years in prison for the murder of the one he "loved more than anything." He'd never talked of her to anyone the whole time there and he'd done well to keep his thoughts of her sequestered in a place he called the Dream Safe. But he feels her around him; it's almost as if she were not dead, and when the prison gates close behind him, the one thing he wants to do is to see her again.

While he makes that journey, the reader's attention turns to an art studio in which something speaks in first person of becoming, of being created, of seeking to see and understand itself. It discovers its power to not only think and to feel emotions of love, loneliness, fear and desire, but its power to move things, to break things, to transfer its self into people and stuffed animals. It observes and comes to question and then conclude which is greater in this "round world"--good or evil, love or anger.

Mike returns to the time and place he first met his love and there encounters and old dowser woman who dowses for more than water. She knows things and wishes to teach him so he can find his love again, save her, and send her home. There's a spirit tree, an artist, a terrific storm, a lightning strike, and events that change things forever. There is a private eye that sets Mike upon a road and a townsperson from Ash Creek who discovers a secret. There is opposition in many forms and another surprise near the end that makes the book even greater than the sum of so many already wonderful parts.