Freida Lives Book Launch

Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, May 21, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Answering the Call of The Blues

Freida Lives a story of struggle, sin and song.

At first glance, Luisa LeBlanc doesn’t give the impression of knowing a lot about the blues. She’s a 36 year old mother of two who lives in Vaughan, Ontario, a municipality not exactly known for its blues history. And as the youngest daughter of Italian immigrants, she heard way more accordions in tarantellas growing up than guitars or harmonicas by musicians such as Robert Johnson, Son House and Sonny Boy Williamson II.

But that’s proof of the enduring strength of the blues. It doesn’t matter how long ago the songs may have been recorded or how far away she may be from the Mississippi Delta, where the blues first took hold. Once Luisa got a taste of the music she had been missing, she was instantly hooked. The blues became such a dominant part of her life that she was inspired to write her first full-length novel. Freida Lives is the fictional account of a young girl born under mysterious circumstances who has to deal with racism, cruelty, the loss of childhood and having her roots pulled up, all during the blues’ formative period of the early 20th century.

“It’s like these songs speak to me directly,” Luisa explains. “You can absolutely hear the hardships people were going through back them, the effects of which can still be felt today. There’s a sense of truth that pervades through the lyrics that’s incredibly powerful, and I tried to convey that feeling, that realness, in Freida Lives.”

Appropriately enough, Luisa will be launching her book at Waterfront Blues, a music festival happening at Woodbine Park in Toronto’s Beaches neighbourhood. She’ll be selling signed, exclusive first-run print copies of Freida Lives for only $10 on Saturday, June 5 and Sunday, June 6. For more information on Waterfront Blues, including directions there as well as a list of the acts that will be performing during the weekend, go to WaterfrontBlues.ca.

And every person in the Greater Toronto Area who buys a copy of Freida Lives will be given the unique opportunity to have Luisa come out to a book club meeting this summer. She’ll read some passages, discuss issues, talk about the connection between music and her writing, and answer any questions about her novel. Be one of the first groups to discover and share your opinions on this exciting new book.

If you can’t make it out to Waterfront Blues, Freida Lives is available in a variety of formats on Lulu.com, like eBook for those with an Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, or iPad. Luisa is proudly self-publishing Freida Lives through the company her and her husband Gilles have established, Harmony Road Publishing. To find out more about Luisa and her musically-motivated book, or to set up an interview with this up-and-coming author, feel free to email her anytime at freidalives@gmail.com.

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