# SWALLOW: Multiple Award-Winning Novel



## tonyaplank (Jun 14, 2010)

Hi you guys,

I just wanted to announce that my recently-published first novel, Swallow, about a young female Manhattan attorney with the psychosomatic condition, Globus Hystericus, has recently won several awards and is now available on Kindle for $.99. The novel is comical but also very serious, and it provides a (hopefully ) entertaining view of contemporary NYC life and a glimpse of the criminal justice system.

It just won the Gold Medal in women's fiction in the 2010 Living Now Book Awards, the Gold Medal for best fiction set in the Northeast in the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Awards, and was a finalist in general fiction in the 2009 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards and in regional fiction in the National Indie Excellence Awards.

It's received good reviews and recommendations from Vanity Fair online, ForeWord, MidWest Book Review, and a slew of book bloggers and top Amazon reviewers. Here are a few:

"Swallow &#8230; hooks you from the opening pages with its breathless urgency and captures what it's like to live in NY now, with money worries and ambition and myriad obligations breathing down your neck, and none of it written in cutesy chick-lit'ry. So give it a try." --Vanity Fair Online, James Wolcott, January 15, 2010

"Plank has a knack for combining philosophical opinions, hard-luck family stories, discount shopping triumphs, and gently slapstick humor into a book that makes readers laugh, think, and swallow hard in sympathy." --ForeWord Reviews

"An entertaining pick for general fiction readers.' Midwest Book Review

"Keep an eye on Plank." Eva Yaa Asantewaa, arts journalist

"Highly recommended for native New Yorkers, fellow transplants, and anyone curious about what it's like to carve out a life in NYC." Michael Northrop, author of Gentlemen

I worked for many years as a criminal appeals attorney in NY. Also a former competitive ballroom dancer, I write the dance blog, Swan Lake Samba Girl, which has received some good press as well. It can be found at my website: www.tonyaplank.com

Thanks so much you guys! If you do check it out, I hope you enjoy the book! Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/Swallow-ebook/dp/B0032FNZZC/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Sincerely,
Tonya


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## Debra L Martin (Apr 8, 2010)

Hi Tonya,

Congratulations on your book and welcome to KB.  You'll find a great bunch of people here to hang out with.

Deb


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Welcome to Kindleboards, Tonya, and congratulations on your book!

We invite you to use your book cover as your avatar and have links to your book and website in your signature. Be sure to read the fine print below. Don't forget to bookmark this thread so you can update it. Although self-promotion is limited to the Book Bazaar, most of our authors have found the best way to promote their books is to be as active throughout KindleBoards as time allows. This is your target audience--book lovers with Kindles!

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Book Bazaar Moderators

_The fine print:
Please add to your existing book thread when you have news about your book rather than start a new one, it helps the members who are trying to follow you. You may have a separate thread for each of your books. We recommend you bookmark your post so that you can find it in the future.  You may respond to all posts, but if there have been no member posts, we ask that you wait a week before "bumping" the thread by posting back-to-back posts of your own. And we ask that Amazon reviews not be repeated here as they are easy to find at your book link. Also, full reviews from other sites should not be posted here, but you may post a short blurb and a link to the full review instead. All this, and more, is included in our Forum Decorum. From time to time our site rules may change; be sure to check Forum Decorum (http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,36.0.html) for the current guidelines and rules. _


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## tonyaplank (Jun 14, 2010)

Thank you, Deb and Ann!


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## tonyaplank (Jun 14, 2010)

Hi Everyone,

Just to let you know, I'm participating in the summer / winter Smashwords promotion and have made my novel, Swallow, available for free throughout the rest of July. You can download it here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/12099


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## tonyaplank (Jun 14, 2010)

Hi Everyone, 

Just letting you all know that I've made my Kindle version available for 99 cents for at least the rest of the summer. 

Thank you!


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Today's featured author at the Indie Spotlight is

Sunday: Tonya Plank - Swallow

http://www.theindiespotlight.com

Come up and read and leave a comment.

Edward C. Patterson
& Gregory B. Banks


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## tonyaplank (Jun 14, 2010)

Oh, thank you for the shout-out, Edward!

Please feel free to read the opening chapter of Swallow at the link below.

Read a sample of Swallow!

Also, since I first posted here, I've received many more good reviews from book bloggers  If you're interested in checking them out, I'll just link to my web page: http://www.tonyaplank.com/reviews/

Thank you so much, everyone!


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## tonyaplank (Jun 14, 2010)

Just made a trailer


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

I'm pleased to announce that Swallow is our next KB Book of the Day!


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## tonyaplank (Jun 14, 2010)

Thank you, Harvey!

In connection with my KB Book of the Day sponsorship, I'll elaborate a little on what inspired me to write this book. Swallow is about a 26-year-old lawyer, Sophie, who lives and works in Manhattan. She’s originally from a small working-class town in Arizona and through hard work she ends up graduating from a prestigious law school. She’s just begun her first job, as a public defender, and received a marriage proposal from her longtime boyfriend, when she’s suddenly stricken with a psychosomatic disorder called Globus Hystericus, which is the sensation of having a ball in your throat when there isn’t actually anything there. It’s an anxiety disorder but can have very real physical repercussions, such as difficulty eating, speaking, and sometimes breathing. Sophie begins to lose weight rapidly, which makes her physically as well as mentally weak. She also has difficulty in court due to speaking problems. The novel details her attempt to overcome her problem, by figuring out what’s causing it and then by learning how to handle that.

I wrote this book because I suffered from the disorder. It’s not that uncommon but there isn’t much written about it. Some of its causes – deeply rooted low self-esteem, anxiety, for example – are things many can relate to.

I’m a New York transplant and I also wanted to write about my adopted city. I tried to make New York a character in the book (and I'm particularly proud of my Independent Publisher award for best novel set in the Northeast!). Sophie comes from a working-class background (her father makes porn movies, her mother is a prison clerical worker, her sister lives in a trailer) but she finds herself in an environment with a lot of very privileged people, who can be elitist and condescending without really knowing it. But her clients are some of New York’s poorest. The dichotomy can be jarring for her, and she oftentimes identifies with her clients more than her peers. The feelings of not fitting in, of having class differences and being talked down to, of defending both her clients and herself, and of having family who can’t understand her, takes its toll.

I worked for several years as an appellate public defender (criminal defense attorney for the poor) and I developed strong feelings about the criminal justice system, and wanted to write about that. It can be a very difficult job - the clients, the cases, the judges. I was also very affected by the terrorist attacks. (I wrote the book in 2002). My office was a couple blocks away from the World Trade Center. There’s been a lot written about that day but not so much about the aftermath and how average New Yorkers were handling the bomb scares and being fearful on the subways and buses all the time. You hated being scared, and you definitely didn’t want to fear people based on how they looked, but it was hard not to do that. People struggled with it.

Finally, I wanted to write about a certain father daughter relationship. Sophie’s father left the family when she was a child to go to LA to start a film career. Through the years she retained more of a relationship with him than her sister, since he always favored Sophie. But every time she sees him he focuses on her physicality and talks to her like she’s one of his actresses and it makes her very uncomfortable. She must learn to set boundaries with him and with everyone else. The novel’s ultimately about claiming your own identity, about finding your own voice so to speak. 

Anyway, thank you for giving me this opportunity to elaborate. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment!


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## Elizabeth Brown (Sep 20, 2010)

Tonya ~ 

I just finished your novel, Swallow!  I haven't written a review yet, but just wanted to leave you a quick comment. Your initial scenes of 9/11 brought me to tears. Your writing of that day made me feel as if I was right there living it with Sophie... very real. I'll leave my detailed review on Amazon soon. Thanks for a great read... and will there be a sequel? I would love to follow Sophie through the next stages of her life.

~Elizabeth


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## tonyaplank (Jun 14, 2010)

Thank you so much, Elizabeth! I didn't know you were on Kindleboards! 

I'm so glad you liked the book and that my depiction of 9/11 made you feel like you were there. That's what I aimed to do, so I'm really happy to know it had that effect. I haven't decided yet if there will be a sequel. I'm working on another novel right now and perhaps will return to Sophie when I am finished with this one. I definitely have ideas for what could happen in a sequel   

Thank you so much, again, Elizabeth. I really appreciate your support!


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## Elizabeth Brown (Sep 20, 2010)

Hi!   I haven't been on Kindleboards for too long ~ but it sure is a great place! 

Oooh, can't wait for your next book! I do hope you'll do a sequel after... we may just have to bug you enough for it.


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## Karen Fenech (Jul 1, 2010)

Hi Tonya,

Congratulations on the success of Swallow.  I'm looking forward to reading the book.

Have a great weekend!

Regards,
Karen


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## tonyaplank (Jun 14, 2010)

eTrubrown said:


> Oooh, can't wait for your next book! I do hope you'll do a sequel after... we may just have to bug you enough for it.


Thank you so much, Elizabeth 

Karen, congratulations to you too! GONE is definitely on my TBR list as well!


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## kayakruthie (Jan 28, 2010)

Sounds fabulous.  You've sold me on this one!


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## tonyaplank (Jun 14, 2010)

Hi everyone,

I'm very excited because Shelfari (Amazon's social networking site for readers) has spotlighted Swallow in their November newsletter! Here's the link to the book's Shelfari page: http://www.shelfari.com/books/13174936/Swallow

Also, I have a guest post up today on the wonderful website Paperback Dolls. They're doing a "Passport to New York" series, featuring New York authors and bloggers, and since I am both, I write both about my novel, based in NY, and my dance blog. If you like, have a look here: http://paperbackdolls.blogspot.com/2010/11/amazing-author-tonya-plank-on-wrting.html

Thank you all so much for your support, and happy Thanksgiving everyone!


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## Sam Landstrom (May 29, 2009)

Very impressive, congratulations!


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## tonyaplank (Jun 14, 2010)

Thank you, Sam!

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to point to an interview of mine over at The Frugal eReader. I really like this one, as I thought Elizabeth, who writes that blog, asked some excellent questions. She's a very good interviewer! And there's an excerpt there from a later passage in the book that she (and I ) liked. Here is the link: http://www.thefrugalereader.com/2010/11/frugal-ereader-featured-author-giveaway_30.html

Swallow also received two very good blog reviews, one from Lavender Rose Ramblings: http://lavenroseramblings.blogspot.com/2010/11/swallow-this.html and one from the new blog, Kindle Books Reviewed: http://kindlebooksreviewed.com/2010/11/29/swallow/

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

I'm pleased to announce that Swallow is our next KB Book of the Day!


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## tonyaplank (Jun 14, 2010)

Hi everyone,

I have an interview up in this month's Independent Publisher magazine, from whom I won a gold medal in their 2010 IPPY Awards: http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1406&urltitle=The%20IPPY%20Effect%20IX

The interviewer, Nina L. Diamond, asked me several questions about the autobiographical nature of the psychosomatic condition the novel centers around, so I talked a bit about that there.

Also, there's an interview in the same issue with the writer known as Evil Wylie / Emperor Franzen!: http://www.independentpublisher.com/department.php?page=1405&urltitle=Much%20Ado%20About%20Publishing


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## tonyaplank (Jun 14, 2010)

Hi everyone,

The wonderful blog _Hanging Off the Wire_ has given _Swallow_ an enthusiastic thumbs up, calling it "very unique and different" and "a wonderful story that was a pleasure to read": http://hangingoffthewire.blogspot.com/2010/12/swallow-review-giveaway.html

I really love book bloggers! The blogosphere has been so kind to me 

Anyway, happy New Year everyone!


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## tonyaplank (Jun 14, 2010)

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone had a good holiday!

I am this week's guest on the Lit Chick Show, where I discuss my novel, my reasons for wanting to write it, the themes, etc. Here is the video:






Thank you so much to everyone who has supported my writing this past year. Happy New Year everyone!


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