Bookstores and Authors Series: Lisa Barr

There’s something so special and intimate between authors and their favorite Indie bookstores, especially the locals – those shops we “grew up” in. When I penned my debut novel, I dreamed of one day being displayed in their iconic glass windows filled with bestselling books. If only … And when that significant moment arrives, somehow you arrive.

Those Indies are yours – home base; you are theirs – hometown author. It’s an umbilical, unbreakable bond. When you give birth to a new novel, your locals are there in the Waiting Room, part of your literary family, cheering you on. But it’s a two-way street — a loyal quid pro quo.

When the pandemic hit, and lockdown threatened my favorite bookstores’ existence – I made sure to buy books from them on-line and told my friends and family to do the same. Recently, when Instagram and Facebook went down, I realized I was starving for the human touch. I got in my car, hit the road, and paid a visit to my three faves — The Book Stall (Winnetka, Illinois), the Book Bin (Northbrook, Illinois), and Lake Forest Bookstore (Lake Forest, Illinois) — and introduced them to my new book baby publishing in the Spring. Their response: Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. As I drove away, I knew, as always — no page is left unturned: I could count on them.

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Lisa Barr is the award-winning author of WOMAN ON FIRE, THE UNBREAKABLES (Harper Perennial/HarperCollins), and the historical thriller FUGITIVE COLORS, which won the IPPY gold medal for “Best Literary Fiction 2014” and first prize at The Hollywood Film Festival (Opus Magnum Discovery Award).

Lisa also served as the editor and creator of the popular parenting blog GIRLilla Warfare: A Mom’s Guide to Surviving the Suburban Jungle. Her article entitled “Being Left Out Hurts: Moms, Stop ‘Social Engineering’” went viral, viewed and shared by nearly five million readers nationwide. She has been featured on Today, Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, and Australia TV for her work as an author, journalist, and blogger.

Earning her master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, Lisa went on to serve as an editor/reporter for The Jerusalem Post, managing editor of Today’s Chicago Woman, managing editor of Moment magazine, and as an editor/reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, for which she launched the newspaper’s first women’s section called “Lifestyles”.

Among the highlights of her career, Lisa covered the famous “handshake” between the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat, and President Bill Clinton at the White House in 1993.

She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and their three daughters (aka: Drama Central).

https://lisabarr.com/

WOMAN ON FIRE

From the author of the award-winning Fugitive Colors and The Unbreakables, a gripping tale of a young, ambitious journalist embroiled in an international art scandal centered around a Nazi-looted masterpiece—forcing the ultimate showdown between passion and possession, lovers and liars, history and truth.

After talking her way into a job with Dan Mansfield, the leading investigative reporter in Chicago, rising young journalist Jules Roth is given an unusual—and very secret—assignment. Dan needs her to locate a painting stolen by the Nazis more than 75 years earlier: legendary Expressionist artist Ernst Engel’s most famous work, Woman on Fire. World-renowned shoe designer Ellis Baum wants this portrait of a beautiful, mysterious woman for deeply personal reasons, and has enlisted Dan’s help to find it. But Jules doesn’t have much time; the famous designer is dying.

Meanwhile, in Europe, provocative and powerful Margaux de Laurent also searches for the painting. Heir to her art collector family’s millions, Margaux is a cunning gallerist who gets everything she wants. The only thing standing in her way is Jules. Yet the passionate and determined Jules has unexpected resources of her own, including Adam Baum, Ellis’s grandson. A recovering addict and brilliant artist in his own right, Adam was once in Margaux’s clutches. He knows how ruthless she is, and he’ll do anything to help Jules locate the painting before Margaux gets to it first.

A thrilling tale of secrets, love, and sacrifice that illuminates the destructive cruelty of war and greed and the triumphant power of beauty and love, Woman on Fire tells the story of a remarkable woman and an exquisite work of art that burns bright, moving through hands, hearts, and history.

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