Virtual Blog Tour for A Christmas Carol 2: the Return of Scrooge by Robert J. Elisberg

Join author Robert J. Elisberg on his Virtual Book Tour for A Christmas Carol 2: The Return of Scrooge, presented by Pump Up Your Book!, from October 7-31, 2013.  Please leave a comment or question for Robert to let him know you stopped by. 

Title: A Christmas Carol 2: The Return of Scrooge
Genre: Holiday/Humor
Author: Robert J. Elisberg
Publisher: Third Road Press
Pages: 156
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0615727573
ISBN-13: 978-0615727578

About A Christmas Carol 2: The Return of Scrooge

It’s five years to the day after dear old Ebenezer Scrooge has passed away and left his thriving firm to his former clerk, Bob Cratchit. However, Bob’s overly-generous benevolence with lending and charity-giving has driven the company into the ground, on the verge of bankruptcy. And so the ghost of Scrooge returns one Christmas Eve to teach Cratchit the true meaning of money, with the help of visitations of three spirits – not all of whom are happy t be there.  (It is Christmas Eve, after all, and they have other plans.) Making the swirling journey through Christmases past, present, and yet-to-be all the more of a chaotic ride for Cratchit are the dozens of characters from other Dickens novels woven throughout the story, together for the first time. God bless them, most everyone.

And it’s all augmented with footnotes of letters between Mr. Dickens and his publisher, along with notes from Dickens’s own hand and scholarly research.  At least that’s what the editor tells us, though we’re a little skeptical of his honesty.

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ABOUT ROBERT J. ELISBERG

Robert J. Elisberg has been a commentator and contributor to such publications as the Huffington Post,Los Angeles Times, 

Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, C/NET and E! Online, and he served on the editorial board for the Writers Guild of America. He has contributed political writing to the anthology, Clued in on Politics, 3rd edition (CQ Press).

Among his other writing, Elisberg wrote the comic novella,A Christmas Carol 2: The Return of Scrooge,” which reached #2 on Amazon’s Hot List for Humor/Parody. His most recent novel is the swashbuckling adventure, The Wild Roses. He co-wrote a book on world travel. Currently, he writes a tech column for the Writers Guild of America, west. He also co-wrote the song, “Just One of the Girls” for the Showtime movie Wharf Rat, and wrote the book for the stage musical Rapunzel!.

Born in Chicago, he attended Northwestern University and received his MFA from UCLA, where he was twice awarded the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. Not long afterwards, Elisberg sold his screenplay, Harry Warren of the Mounties. He was on staff of the international animated series, Flute Master, and co-wrote three of the Skateboy films based on it. He also co-wrote the independent film, Yard Sale. Most recently, he wrote an adventure screenplay for Callahan Filmworks.

You can visit Robert J. Elisberg’s website at 

www.elisbergindustries.com.

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My Review

A fan of the original A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, I really looked forward to reading A Christmas Carol 2: The Return of Scrooge by Robert J. Ellsberg.  While Mr. Ellsberg’s story takes place roughly five years after Scrooge’s death, the writing tends to lean more towards a contemporary viewpoint than what I suspect an actual book written five years after Charles Dickens’ death would have depicted. 

Mr. Ellsberg employs his knowledge of Charles Dickens, and his work, in an interesting fashion in this tale.  While I don’t normally read “Introductions” in books, because most of the time they are basically more like dedications and thank you notes, I did read Mr. Ellsberg’s introduction, which I discovered to be an interesting history of how Charles Dickens wrote, why he wrote and how the original A Christmas Carol came to be.  Mr. Ellsberg then begins his tale by setting up Bob Cratchit’s “current” situation and showing us the kind of businessman Bob has become without the daily leadership of Ebenezer Scrooge.

Introducing a host of characters from Charles Dickens’ other books, Mr. Ellsberg incorporates them into Bob Cratchit’s “holiday” experience.  Bob meets Ebenezer Scrooge as the “ghost” of the door knocker, like Ebenezer met Bob Marley in the original, and then is visited by Ebenezer later that night.  Informing his former employee, and friend, that he’ll be visited by three ghostly companions that night, Ebenezer leaves Bob in a fairly bad emotional state.  Bob is then visited by the ghosts, whose purpose is to teach him what he needs to do in order to change his ways.

Mr. Ellsberg not only uses the characters from Dickens’ other books in the story, he also provides extensive footnotes for the reader in case the reader doesn’t know about the character’s origins.  We learn about Fagin, Little Dorrit, Edwin Drood and even Dickens’ tie to a story about a whale (Herman Mehlville’s Moby Dick) just as examples.  We also discover that not all of the ghosts assigned to Bob’s “case” are happy about having to spend their “holiday” with him. 

Will the ghosts who visit Bob Cratchit be as successful with their task as the ghosts who visited Ebenezer Scrooge?  Will Bob learn how to balance good business sense and charity?  You’ll have to read A Christmas Carol 2: The Return of Ebenezer Scrooge to find out. 

My Rating: 3 out of 5 Crowns   

FTC Disclosure:  I received a complimentary copy of this book as a part of a book tour in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Tour Schedule

Monday, October 7 – Book Review at Bibliotica

Tuesday, October 8 – Book Review at Miki’s Hope

Wednesday, October 9 – Book Review at Splashes of Joy

Thursday, October 10 – Book Review at Giving N Sharing

Friday, October 11 – Book Review at Shhh…Not While I’m Reading

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Monday, October 14 – Book Review at Authors and Readers Book Corner

Tuesday, October 15 – Book Review at I’d Rather Be at the Beach

Thursday, October 17 – Book Review at Queen of All She Reads

Friday, October 18 – Book Review at Deal Sharing Aunt

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Tuesday, October 22 – Book Review at Inside BJ’s Head

Wednesday, October 23 – Book Review at Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

Thursday, October 24 – Book Review at Reviews From the Heart

Friday, October 25 – Book Review at WV Stitcher

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Monday, October 28 – Book Review at Blooming With Books

Tuesday, October 29 – Book Review at 4 the Love of Books

Wednesday, October 30 – Book Review at The Book Connection

Thursday, October 31 – Book Review at Jersey Girl Book Reviews