How did Xerox Print Those Books?

More than 250 entries were received from across the country. Xerox recruited book reviewers Maureen Corrigan, book critic for National Public Radio’s "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" and Emily Chenoweth, fiction editor for Publishers Weekly to judge the final three books.

The Three Winners Are:

Synopsis - Elaine Barlow has a bargain with her husband George: if she doesn’t find a new job by year’s end, he will choose their next move and re-establish his vet practice, which will probably spell the end of her career. Elaine used to be a high-flyer. She got her PhD, traveled all over Africa on a string of prestigious research fellowships, and landed a top-notch university teaching job. But she failed at the game of academic politics, she didn’t get tenure, and now she can’t seem to find another job. She’s lost her paycheck, her social status and her self-esteem. Stripped of her professional identity, Elaine lives a life of errands with her preschool daughter Stella. She listens to former colleagues being interviewed on NPR, while she has become invisible. Elaine studies the people she meets to see how they do it—how they live without tenure. She begins to imagine herself as something else. Lawyer? Teacher? Wildlife rehabilitator? Convenience store clerk? Long days with the spirited Stella leave Elaine feeling like a double failure. George stays out late several nights a week, supposedly working long hours at the job he hates. Can Elaine pull herself together before her marriage collapses too?

Finally, Elaine gets a chance at another academic job, but George refuses to relocate for it. He obviously has a secret, and Elaine fears the worst. But Elaine has been learning—from a manicurist, a flooring salesman, her former students, her parents, Stella, and their menagerie of special needs pets. She learns that it’s never too late to grow into a person you respect. And when that happens, anything is possible

Jeannine Deline/Bobbi L'Huillier, Rochester, New York - "The Long Black Veil"
Bio - Pop music, 20th century history, horse racing, movies, blogging, politics, the Dave Matthews Band — as sisters, Jeannine DeLine and Bobbi L’Huillier share a rare compatibility that allows them to unite their varied interests into a shared creative vision. For an informal chronicle on the progress of current projects (including four screenplays, a stage play, and a second novel) check out www.delhui.blogspot.com. The Long Black Veil is their first novel.

Synopsis - "Y'all are playing with fire . . ."
Summer 1963… in the golden days of Camelot, before the engulfing shadow of Vietnam… the last days of innocence. But as rakish Southern drifter Jamie Delacroix discovers, those days were not so idyllic for all.

After a decade alternately spent chasing women and his freedom, Jamie’s luck runs out in a Northern town where a black musician and a twelve-year-old white girl become his unlikely rescuers. Calvin Lewis offers camaraderie that transcends race and social status, as well as financial assistance through his longtime friends Harry and Eve Novotny. The Novotnys’ brilliant but solitary daughter Jane worms her way into Jamie’s life, her crush on the charming older man compelling her to defend Jamie from the local “hussies” — and from himself.

Yet Calvin unwittingly thrusts Jamie into the middle of the secret he carries: his passionate but forbidden love affair with Eve. Against a backdrop of the provincial town’s racial tensions, Jamie struggles to understand the black man’s agonized betrayal of Harry Novotny, and Eve’s apparent willingness to discard her marriage and her child. The little girl’s astute yet unwavering innocence endears her to Jamie, and he tries to shield Jane as she wrestles with growing pains and first love.

But despite his concern for her, Jamie’s determination to look out for himself compels his silence. Only Calvin’s arrest for murder finally forces him to act… but having waited so long, Jamie cannot protect them all. As fate forces his hand, Jamie finds his only hope for redemption is to stand up for what he believes — and for the people he loves.

Synopsis A Jewish assassin operating in Berlin during WWII? German officers are in a panic to find this man who operates so freely with devastating consequences. Seen through the eyes of teenager STEFAN HIRSCH, the Nazi party comes to power and squeezes the life out of the Jewish community in Berlin. Stefan and his family escape to Italy, but are arrested and sent to an Italian work camp.

Stefan’s family is killed. Vowing revenge, Stefan kills his guard and escapes. He makes his way through war-torn Italy into the arms of MARIA, a widow who nurses him back to health and teaches him how to make love.

His evasive travel leads Stefan to a church sanctuary in Genoa. CARLO, a fishing boat captain, takes him via the underground, to England. Because he speaks German fluently, Stefan is given special training by the Special Air Service, the most elite fighting force in the world.

Stefan parachutes into Germany. His mission: to wreak havoc and cause panic within the Nazi command structure and eliminate the Berlin Security chief, Colonel HEINRICH SCHMIDT. Stefan poses as a GESTAPO officer and assassinates German officers. His thirst for revenge continues but he is tormented going against his religious tenets by taking life.

Stefan meets Colonel Schmidt’s nanny FRIEDA and romances her. Frieda discovers his few family pictures, accuses him of being Jewish and turns him in to the Gestapo. Stefan escapes with seconds to spare. Colonel Schmidt pursues him. He escapes and steals a boat to rendezvous with a submarine, but someone aboard the boat attacks and severely wounds him. Stefan barely manages to overcome his attacker.

Stefan wakes up in an English hospital a hero. His father, uncle and aunt managed to survive the war and Stefan locates them during a tearful reunion.