Before BlueStocking Girl There is Filter

Book 2 of the von Strassenberg Saga should be out sometime this fall (barring the miracle of me actually securing a literary agent before then). If you haven't read Filter yet, get on it! These books are not stand-alones. You absolutely need the first to make sense of the second. If you need a little more convincing here are snippets of reviews on Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11234679-filter 


These are real reviews, not friend reviews. I don't have that many friends. And they are not paid for either. I'm too poor for that. 

Bunny says, "How they are connected is a mystery, and the story is basically page after page of adventure as we try to fit together the pieces of the puzzle. The story is dark, gothic, romantic, and tragic. Yep, Ole Miss Bunny Cates cried her face off toward the end. "


Dani says, "Wright's formatting of this book is part of what makes this book so “un-put-downable.” (Yes, you can quote me....lol.) She switches the story's POV chapter to chapter (first person for Rocky and third person for Katherine) and masterfully keeps the mystery moving through both storylines, revealing just enough to make sense of both stories, and often leaving you with mini cliffhangers until that heroine's next chapter. I've read some books recently where the shift between narrators is just a confusing mess; however, this is never a problem in Filter and the shift between narrators/timelines is one of this story's greatest strengths. Another aspect of the shifting POVs that I absolutely LOVED was that each POV was written to the period of the narrator. I absolutely hate when period pieces sound too modern day, but Wright has expertly tailored each girl's POV to their respective times." 


Heather says, "There are authors who know how to end a chapter and then there is Gwenn Wright who practically drives you into the beginning of the next chapter with her skillfull weaving of just the right balance of suspense and revelation!





Filter is also available in paperback at Amazon and Barnes and Noble (cheaper at Barnes and Noble!) and in just about every ebook format at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/20957

The von Strassenberg Saga ~ Yet Another Review

From Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/173084874
"Oh my goodness. Run, do not walk, to your nearest computer/Nook/Kindle/smartphone and order this book. Filter is an absolute must-read. I am going to try very hard not to include any spoilers in this review because I can't stand having a book possibly ruined for a future reader! 

The story is so riveting that you can't stop thinking about it as you go about the rest of your daily life. There are authors who know how to end a chapter and then there is Gwenn Wright who practically drives you into the beginning of the next chapter with her skillfull weaving of just the right balance of suspense and revelation! You are simply drawn back to Wright's beautiful descriptions and the completely enthrallling characters if you are ever able to put this book down for any length of time--which I obviously was not able to do since I finished it in about 36 hours. You will laugh and cry and hurt and rage with her characters, who are so completely developed you feel they could jump of the page. Wright's physical descriptions, especially eye color, are so clever and build so much into the reader's knowledge of her characters. You want nothing more than to keep reading until suddenly the book ends and you are dying for more! I simply can't wait for the next segment of the Van Strassenberg Saga!"
Available at Amazon ($2.99 for Kindle, paperback editions will be available again in a week. Publishing a new edition with the opening chapters to book 2.)
 For Nook  (also $2.99) at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/filter-gwenn-wright/1100248778?ean=2940012882028&itm=1&usri=filter%2bgwenn%2bwright

Crisis Averted

All right kids....

Thanks to a very helpful thread on Amazon's Createspace and a guy who knew just the right thing to say, we now have page numbers! Woohoo! Page numbers have never been this exciting! Also, whilst finding the solution to our page number woes I also discovered something most of us probably don't even pause to consider: Chapters always start on the right-hand page. Never thought about it, but it's so true! So....we have page numbers and our chapters begin on the right-hand page. Folks around here will probably be a little sad that I have things figured out. I've been giving away the proofs that weren't quite right. Not that there is a hoard of people following me and demanding copies, but there are several people who have been waiting. So, cross your fingers, this may really be it! And, now at 394 pages the book will be $15.99. Maybe that sounds ridiculous but if you bought Filter at your local bookstore that would earn me $0.82. So no, I'm not trying to get rich quick! That's just what it is. If you want to save $15, you can download the ebook for $0.99! It doesn't need page numbers!

Katherine Searches for Viktor

Filter: Book One of the Von Strassenberg Saga

Katherine was considering becoming a suffragette. She would wear split-skirts and burn her corset and get a job as a clark in a bank. She would smoke those little cigars and shove her pretty white gloves down the throat of whoever had come up with the blasted idea in the first place.

“A man, most likely,” she snarled in cursing tones. The wood behind the mansion was thick with under-growth, most of which sported tangles of thorns. She imagined he also had a moat with hungry reptiles lurking in its depth. “And he feeds them,” she huffed. “In a pool in his dungeon where he has locked Viktor away. Because he knows,” a mosquito dived toward her face and she swatted at it. “Viktor wishes to marry me, so he locked him up and threatened to feed me to the beasts if he escaped.”

Her ramblings continued as she fought the thorns and briers and blood-sucking parasites. Was there no end to this stone wall? Her strength, she knew, would soon give way.

(C) Gwenn Wright 2010

Rocky's Battle. Filter: Book One of the Von Strassenberg Saga

He yanks and yanks again, expletives flying without pause for breath. With back pressed tightly to the door, out of necessity because he has me painfully pinned, I turn the lock. My tiny room is sparsely furnished. The twin bed will only fit against the wall with the busted window. And my desk, my beautiful, white knight desk, is here beside me, crammed into the small space between the bedroom door and the closet door. Two nights ago I had started working on that stupid project for history. A battle scene, complete with corn syrup blood and cardboard trees. And there beside the last fallen soldier, still waiting silently for his place on the battlefield, are my scissors. New and sharp.

I have been growing my hair put for the last two years and it’s knock out, sexy model hair. I’m not the vain type, but I’m vain about my hair. And I will admit, that mixed in with the tears of terror and anger and adrenaline now are tears of vanity as I cut my beautiful chestnut curls and separate myself forever from the man who had kept his promise to my dead mother for seventeen years.

Kept it but blew it all to heck today.

(C) 2010 by Gwenn Wright

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Filter-The-Von-Strassenberg-Saga/150889648309305

Prologue

FILTER: Book One of the Von Strassenberg Saga

Prologue

Vienna, Austria 1866

“That monk is a doddering fool.”

He remained bent over the microscope, speaking more to his Petri dish than the imbecile who had come to question him.

“Yes Doctor, but what you’re working on…” “Will ensure Austria’s power for eternity.” The man scoffed. He had heard of the scientist’s maniacal zeal. His mother had warned him

that being intelligent was admirable and, if utilized properly, profitable but there came a point

when it was nothing but a detriment. Genius was often followed by madness, she had said. Looking at the frenzied younger man, Dr. Rochenstein fully appreciated the wise woman his mother had been.

“The University,” he continued. “Needs more assurance of the potential success of your work.”

A bitter laugh resonated within the form hunched over the microscope. “You mean they would like to know when my work will begin repaying their generosity.”

It was not a question.

Everyone knew of the lavish expenses of the professor, but no one was certain of what the money was being spent on. There was gossip and speculation that perhaps he was building some great invention, but this was circulated only among those who did not know his particular field was biology.

****YA THRILLER ROMANCE, Rated PG-13, well maybe PG-15

You can also visit me here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Filter-The-Von-Strassenberg-Saga/150889648309305

Going to paperback...maybe....

Currently I am editing and re-formatting Filter for Amazon’s CreateSpace. But it still makes me edgy. It seems like a big commitment.

So here’s an excerpt:

Mr. Demure leaned in and kissed his daughter’s forehead and gently spread a blanket across her. “I have always warned her that her curiosity would be the death of her. That or her clumsiness.”

She heard the men laughing as they drifted out of the room.

The shadow stayed.

She wished he would go. The burning tears ached to be set free. She couldn’t restrain them much longer. With a trembling, unwilling hand she rubbed her throbbing forehead and exhaled deeply.

For a moment she believed he had left, but as she shifted away from the wall she sensed him there beside the bed. He was very close.

Wretched curiosity!

But she would fight it and not look.

“Katherine,” he whispered, his breath rolling in a warm wave across her cheek. A traitor tear spilled out, the humiliation was too much to contain. Gently, a finger dabbed the wetness from her skin. He said it again, softly, as though it pleased him just to say it,

“Katherine.”

“Viktor!” the accented voice bellowed from below. And then the shadow was gone.

Darkness overwhelmed her then and carried her away to a land of crows and mocking strangers.

.....To vote on whether or not I should go to paperback go to Filter: The Von Strassenberg Saga Book One Facebook Page

Thanks!

A Snippet

From Filter: The Von Strassenberg Saga

My hand shoots up, palm flat and smacks Kevin’s flushed and sagging face square in the nose. Stunned, he releases me and reels back, profanities hurling from him with his blood and mucus. Not bothering to wipe the gore away, he spins on me, trying to catch me as I dart passed the immobile rhino and head for my room. My room with its flimsy door and busted window. For a jacked up drunk man Kevin is fast, too fast. He’s at my back grabbing my hair as I try to leap the last few feet into my room, slamming the door behind me. White lightening slices into my brain and a scream rips its way out of me as those wide-awake five senses tell me everything I already know. My hair is caught in the door. The other end is still in Kevin’s all too strong carpenter’s hands. Strong, unforgiving hands. He yanks and yanks again, expletives flying without pause for breath. With back pressed tightly to the door, out of necessity, he has me painfully pinned, I turn the lock. My tiny room is sparsely furnished. The twin bed will only fit against the wall with the busted window. And my desk, my beautiful, white knight desk, is here beside me, crammed into the small space between bedroom and closet doors. Two nights ago I had started working on that stupid project for history. A battle scene, complete with corn syrup blood and cardboard trees. And there beside the last fallen soldier, still waiting silently for his place on the battlefield, are my scissors. New and sharp.

Copyright Gwenn Wright 2010

FILTER IS AVAILABLE!!!!

Filter is officially available on Amazon! You don't have to have a Kindle to download and read it!