Beneath the Rainbow

Current edition 2018

Book One – Freya’s Story

Author: Lisa Shambrook

Publisher: BHC Press – H20

Date of Publication: 14th August 2018
(Previous editions: June 2011 and October 2013)

Retail Price: £7.95 UK Paperback/$12.95 US Paperback
£5.26 UK eBook/$6.94 US Paperback

ISBN: 978-1-947727-41-0 Paperback
978-1-947727-88-5 eBook

Cover Blurb:
It’s those silly dreams that keep us alive.

Freya won’t let anything stand in the way of her dreams – not even her death. Now her family will need to uncover the clues to her secrets before it’s too late.

Discover how Freya’s hope heals grief in this heartbreaking tale of triumph.

***

Beneath the Rainbow is the first book in the Surviving Hope novels. A trilogy of books that encompass the lives and families of three girls:

Three girls, three lives, three stories composed with the melody of hope.

Freya’s death sends ripples through many lives as Meg loses her best friend, and Jasmine, her sister. Lost dreams need to be found, hidden family secrets need to be unearthed, and grief must be embraced before ghosts can be laid to rest.

These beautifully composed tales of coming of age, mental health, and the struggles of finding yourself, begin with grief and culminate with hope. As grief is faced, hope becomes the only force to cling to and build upon. Freya, Meg, and Jasmine need to survive with hope.

***

Writing Beneath the Rainbow

First book cover 2015

Beneath the Rainbow was conceived on March 17th 2009. Wandering through our local park the first line of the book leaped into my head and I couldn’t shake it… “Freya was seven-years-old when she got hit by the car, it was a 4×4 with a bull bar.” I came home and scrawled it out in my notebook and spent the next few hours crafting the first chapter.

It was a book that flowed and by October the story was complete, but I had no idea what to do with the manuscript.

I sent the first three chapters to agents but received standard rejections, which unfortunately coincided with an episode of depression on my part and I shelved both the book and writing until I recovered.

I returned to Beneath the Rainbow in 2011 running through more edits, tightening the story, and then my daughter helped me come up with a book cover.

The book cover was a diversion, something to take up my time instead of querying it.

Several friends asked about the book expressing a desire to read it, so, in a naive move, I decided to put it on Kindle. I couldn’t be the only one who’d heard stories about self-published authors suddenly becoming Kindle sensations and being picked up by publishing companies? Which didn’t happen.

I published the eBook in June 2011 and family and friends bought it. Their feedback, though biased, was beautiful. They enjoyed it, laughed in all the right places and cried buckets where I’d hoped they would!
I was encouraged.

Then sales dwindled as no one out in the big, wide world knew about the book.

What to do? I created a Facebook Page, joined Goodreads and made an author profile, and sorted an Amazon author page too. What else? My daughter was on Twitter and suggested I join.

Second book cover 2015

I joined Twitter @LisaShambrook and after a few months I discovered Flash Fiction. I began to learn more about the trade, my trade.

I spent the next six months writing flash fiction, reading blogs, taking advice and learning…and learning…and learning some more!

My Twitter friends helped me find a wonderful writing community and helped hone and shape my writing.

Beneath the Rainbow got an upgrade, two years after publishing on Kindle.

I worked hard with Blue Harvest Creative to put together a brand new cover and wraparound print book cover, and a redesigned and formatted interior. It also went through an extensive re-edit, including the removal of an author’s indulgence chapter. It became a more polished book and was relaunched on 11th October 2013.

The covers of all three books were my own photographs of my daughter, and Blue Harvest linked them beautifully.

In 2018 I was offered a publishing deal with BHC Press and became one of their Authors. I had recently released A Symphony of Dragons with them and we worked to rerelease the Surviving Hope novels. This meant new covers and to create a branding identity I was asked to paint covers in a similar vein to my Symphony dragon. This was a feat, but one I enjoyed and Beneath the Rainbow was released by BHC Press‘s H20 imprint on 14th August 2018 with a brand new cover.

Beneath the Rainbow is available in eBook and paperback from most online retailers, all links are found on my website and at BHC Press. You can also buy signed and discounted paperbacks from my own Etsy shop, Amaranth Alchemy, too.

Beneath the Rainbow © Lisa Shambrook