Come and join Writer's Block Bookstore and Quantum Leap Winery as we host Viola Shipman for an in-person book signing and talk to celebrate the launch of his latest book, The Wishing Bridge. Sign up now as space is limited. **ALL TICKETS INCLUDE A COPY OF THE WISHING BRIDGE AND A GLASS OF QUANTUM LEAP WINE.
Most of Viola's older book titles will be available for purchase at the event as well.
If you cannot attend the event but would like a signed copy, please follow the link here, and add in the notes you would like a signed copy.
ABOUT THE WISHING BRIDGE
Set in Frankenmuth, Michigan—the Christmas-iest town in America—Viola Shipman's unabashedly charming winter novel features a jaded workaholic who learns the true value of her family, friends, and hometown when her misguided plan to sell her parents company to a huge soulless conglomerate backfires. The Christmas Bridge will be a hit with fans of Kristy Woodson Harvey, Nancy Thayer and Jenny Colgan.
After losing a promotion to a younger protégé and now fearing for her job at the holidays, a Detroit mergers & acquisitions executive who specializes in corporate takeovers is desperate to reinvigorate her career. She impulsively tells her bosses that she can convince her aging parents to sell their iconic Michigan Christmas store by the start of the New Year to a massive corporation looking to polish its tarnished image.
She returns to her Michigan hometown – the storybook Bavarian town of Frankenmuth – during its magical Christmastime season on the pretense visiting family but intent on pressuring them to sell their business – now the largest, privately held store in the world and one they started in her grandparents’ basement. During her time there, she reconnects not only with a quirky collection of childhood friends (who work at and run such local institutions as the Cheese Haus and the dueling Bavarian chicken restaurants) but also with a former boyfriend who broke her heart at Christmas on the Holz Brücke (Michigan’s largest covered bridge), which forever tarnished her affection for the town and for the holidays.
Slowly, she begins to reconnect with the magic of the store, her parents and the holidays … while also rediscovering the magic of her small town, the boy she once loved, dreams of being an entrepreneur (and hiring, rather than firing, people at the holidays) and the joy of Christmas.
ABOUT VIOLA SHIPMAN
Viola Shipman is the pseudonym for bestselling and award-winning memoirist Wade Rouse. He chose his grandmother’s name to pay tribute to the woman whose heirlooms, life, lessons and love inspire his fiction. His first novel, The Charm Bracelet, was published by SMP in 2016. Graydon House acquired him in 2018 and he hit the USA TODAY bestseller list with the MMP format of The Summer Cottage, and with his 2021 release The Secret of Snow. Additionally, we are publishing Wade's memoir under his real name in Hanover Square Press in May 2022.
Wade is a tireless self-promoter who’s a bit of a celebrity in his home state of Michigan, and also brings a nice platform with him, writing regularly for People, Good Housekeeping and Coastal Living, among other places, and is a contributor to All Things Considered. He counts several bestselling authors amongst his industry friends, including Nancy Thayer, Kristy Woodson Harvey and Susan Mallery. He divides his time between the resort towns of Saugatuck-Douglas, Michigan, and Palm Springs, California.
Important event information:
If you have a disability and need accommodations to make sure this event is safe and comfortable for you, please reach out to us at events@writersblockbookstore.com to let us know how we can help.
Your copy of The Wishing Bridge will be given to you when you arrive at the event.
There is free parking on-site at Quantum Leap Winery and surrounding streets. Check-in line will open at 5:45 PM. Please arrive accordingly.
If you miss the event, we will hold your book for pickup at Writer's Block Bookstore in Winter Park until December 13th. Books not picked up by December 13th will be donated.