Shelagh Pratt Mooberry Announces the Launch of a Web Site for Her Science Fiction Novel "Chronicles of and American Family 1913-2259" (http://www.shelaghmooberry.com). The Web Site Includes excerpts, book reviews and a Freebie--a Tarot Game PC Users Can Download as a Word document.

Launch of Web Site for "Chronicles of an American Family 1913-2259," a science fiction novel, (www.shelaghmooberry.com)includes information, excerpts and reviews on the book as well as a free downloadable tarot for PC users.

April 24, 2004 --
http://www.shelaghmooberry.com contains book reviews, one that tells a lot about the novels content and is on "Chronicles of an American Family's back page: "To my fellow readers: Shelagh Mooberry's _Chronicles of an American Family, 1913-2259_ is aptly titled, I think, with the title's first half telling you the novel will have the pleasures of those big stories that cover many generations, the title's second half then altering your expectations in ways that match the book's other sorts of pleasures (including a marvelous robot, Oscar, who has a wit appropriate to a skilled lock-picker). Gabrielle, the novel's main character (mostly-patiently served by Oscar), has a beautiful dilemma: she lives in a post-apocalyptic world that is seemingly idyllic, with people living in village-sized communities that provide ... well, what do you want? I suppose it _is_ idyllic, if the point of life is the fulfillment of one's desires. Gabrielle does not seem at all troubled by that (rather, she's irked by being unable to get a certain man's attentions for some fun).
But then she finds the chronicles, and thus her family's past -- and here Ms. Mooberry's finest inventions appear, in the novel's many characters, and along with them comes Gabrielle's problem. Her forebears, with all their quirks and passions and foolishness, embody quite well the range of us pre-apocalyptic humans. And that is Gabrielle's study, the far from idyllic lives her relatives write about, a long-ago time she contemplates in the midst of a very pretty life, with very pretty people.
Shelagh Mooberry's _Chronicles of an American Family, 1913-2259_ will delight its readers for many different reasons (wonderful story, a cleverly-made future, compelling characters), but my delight is in the way Mooberry lights up my favorite darkness, the human mind and heart. It is a splendid debut for a deeply talented writer.
Richard Speakes

"The Chronicles of an American Family 1913-2259" web site (www.shelaghmooberry.com)includes a page with excerpts from the main character's 23rd century jouenal, for example: "Before we left, Susan and I watched the lights of all the little townships. Broadcasting into the darkness the continued existence of humans, they shone bravely below us in our own county, across the bay and across the straits. In contrast, the empty blackness over the ocean was chilling....I said I couldnt[go to the beach] because I had an appointment for my L-serum infusion at eleven that morning. As we parted at the outer edge of the park, Susan said 'Ill tell you one thing, Gabrielle, without the serum, you would not be walking so far in those [high-heeled]shoes.'

Another page contains excerpts from Gabrielle's ancestors' papers. An exanple od these follows: "I had noticed the previous night that they [speaker's girlfriend's pajamas]were very old and had probably been blue at one time but were now white from multiple washings, nubby with age and frayed at the cuffs. I remember thinking that anyone but my frugal Phoebe would have thrown them out years before. At any rate, I now guessed that, flannel pajamas notwithstanding, she had become chilled in her sleep because she had pressed up against me, seemingly had tried to burrow right under me, in fact, driving me to the wall. I found myself smiling as I cautiously untangled myself... and held her close to me. I thought ruefully that I never loved Phoebe so much as when she was asleep.
(Jamie, 1989-2046).

Jamie's daugher descrubes "The Plague Years":"We got some early reports and television images of mass migrations out of some of the great cities of Europe and Asia. The scenes were remarkably similar to those we had seen earlier in Africa: men, women and children in a desperate flight from a city, riding in automobiles, on motorbikes and bicycles or making their way on foot, carrying as many of their possessions as their mode of transportation would allow." (Amy, 1989-2068).

Mooberry would be the first to admit that http://www.shelaghmooberry.com is something of a hodgepodge; along with the "Chronicles" stuff, there is a page with photos of her own ancestors. herself when she was a good deal younger, her children and grandchildren with all their animalshorses, dogs, catsand a slide show of her computer art which she calls mouse-paintings or fantasy art. And then theres the free Tarot Game download.

Shelagh Mooberry has two reasons for including the free Tarot game on the web site: 1) she thinks it might draw visitors to her site, and that some of them might hang around long enough to check out information on her book and, maybe, want to read it. 2) It is a game of her own invention. Mooberry was inspired to create it ten years ago because she was tired of looking card interpretations up in her Tarot Reference. The idea is simple and its not very high tech, but nonetheless she thought it was the cleverest thing she had ever done. (She still thinks so.) Each card has its interpretation right next to it, and card and interptetation stay together when the cards are electronically shuffled into what Mooberry believes to be an infinite number of possible combinations. Usually she uses the top ten cards, and she reads them according to the position they would have in the Celtic cross formation. Easy-to understand-Instructions are included.

"Chronicles of an American Family 1913-2239" is published by Publish America. It is available at many on-line bookstore such as Amazon, Powells and Publish America as well as at both of the author's web sites: http://www.ahelaghmooberry.com. http://www.publishedauthors.net/shelaghmooberry/index.html