If you follow my blog, then you know, I enjoy a good mystery and/or suspense.  So when Kim of Sparkpoint Studio contacted me, I wanted to know more about today’s guest and her book.  Please help me give a warm welcome to Fleur Philips!

FLEUR PHILIPS

Fleur Philips is a graduate student at Antioch University in Los Angeles, pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing. She attended the University of Oregon in Eugene where she was awarded placement in the Kidd Tutorial Creative Writing Program. After a short-lived acting career (she was a “featured extra” on Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can), she completed three manuscripts. I Am Lucky Bird is her first novel and was selected as a general fiction finalist for the 2011 Book of the Year Award from ForeWord Reviews. She’s currently working on her second novel which will be released in the summer 2013. She lives in Upland, California, and when she’s not writing, she’s cheering for her son in his athletic endeavors.
Visit Fleur Phillips at her website, Facebook, Twitter and GoodReads.

ABOUT THE BOOK

When her mother mysteriously vanishes from the small town of Plains, Montana, 12-year-old Lucky Bird’s childhood comes to an abrupt end. Left to defend herself against her suddenly abusive grandmother, Marian, and forced to endure the twisted predatory games played out by Marian’s lover, Lucky soon finds herself trapped in a nightmare.

Even when she manages to escape, the outside world can’t take away the brutal images of her past. Still haunted by her mother’s disappearance and the trauma that followed, Lucky is easily led down a path of self-destruction—a path that only the intervention of a young stranger and his family can guide her away from. But first, Lucky will have to confront her demons, and the dark truths kept hidden.
Purchase links:

THANKS TO KIM AT SPARKPOINT STUDIO, I HAVE ONE (1)
COPY TO GIVE AWAY. U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO
THE GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE

DISCLAIMER
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or
Barnes & Noble.  I am an IndieBound affliate.
I am providing link(s) solely for visitors
that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

As promised, Lisa from Sparkpoint Studio, is stopping by today with another author to introduce us to.  So without further ado, Thérèse !!

THÉRÈSE

My mother was Irish but for reasons best known to herself, gave me a French name; Marie-Thérèse, note the grave, acute and hyphen. Very posh. I’ve tried to be French all my life but it was hard in Liverpool, where I grew up and difficult in California where I now live. I have a son as well as a daughter and a lovely husband, who for future blogging purposes will be known as ‘husband.’
You can visit Thérèse at her website and on Twitter.

GUEST POST

Thank you for inviting me to CMash. After reading a few of your guest posts I’m seriously tempted to spend the rest of the summer reading rather than writing, there are so many great books out there.

Until we immigrated to Los Angeles, I lived Stratford on Avon, a small town in middle England, famous as the birthplace of William Shakespeare. If you’ve ever lived in a town that is themed you will understand that after a while the theme gets old and you have to either move or get over it. We moved.

We brought our teenage kids with us (they heard were leaving.) Our two cats were flown out in advance and stayed at The Best Little Cat House, a facility offering cat concierges, rooms with views, web cameras, complimentary manicures, pedicures, daily massages and a choice of menu. Okay I admit this sounds a little over the top, but they were emigrating too.

In the following months life became surreal; my new assistant thought she was a reincarnated angel. Our son was coming home from sleepovers with tales of meeting Jack Nicholson and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Our daughter was sporting an American accent and doing a round of Bat Mitzvahs that would make Lady Gaga’s stage set look bland.

And then our own social life kicked in with a vengeance. We were invited to garden parties, fundraisers, dinners and receptions. Hostesses frequently insisting their event would be  ‘very casual.’ I’ll admit it took me quite a while to get the hang of that. In rural England casual means flat shoes, Capri pants and a long (preferably navy) sweater. It is not a good feeling turning up to something looking like you’re through to the final episode of Survivor and finding yourself on what appears to be the set of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.  In these situations alcoholic beverages are important.

Exactly how casual are uniformed maids, waiters, hired bands and enough ice sculptures to deplete Alaska? I wondered. How casual a Cartier watch, eight -carat diamond and a Shih Tzus in a personalized Gucci tote? This was giving whole new meaning to the words ‘culture shock.’

After a year of furious scribbling, I was awash with material and wrote a book titled How to Stay Upwardly Mobile When You’re Spinning Out of Control.  Little Brown rejected it because I didn’t have a platform; I wasn’t a columnist and didn’t have a blog at the time. They suggested I might consider using the material for a novel. They loved the observations.

And so I took their advice and India was born. I lived vicariously through her. At one point she had her own Facebook page and more ‘friends’ than I did. I would post pictures of her in Malibu riding horses, or jet-skiing with Adam Brooks her drop dead gorgeous boyfriend. Her life became way more exciting than mine has ever been and yet I do believe that her story is not improbable. I think she is grounded and real and from what I hear, people fall in love with her. I hope you do too.

Thank you Thérèse for spending time with us.  I am sure many will enjoy reading your book, India’s Summer.  I know I am looking forward to reading it.

ABOUT THE BOOK

THANKS TO LISA AT SPARKPOINT, I HAVE ONE (1) COPY
OF THIS BOOK TO GIVE AWAY. U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO
THE GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE.

DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,
in exchange for my honest review.
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or
Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affliate.
I am providing link(s) solely for visitors
that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

Ohhhhh…so many books!!!  Are you like me, that at times you wish you could read 24 hours a day, seven days a week, because of all the novels you want to read?  Our friend Lisa, from Sparkpoint Studio, is stopping by today and next Wednesday to introduce us to 2 authors and 2 more books to add to our lists.  Today she is here with author Maria Geraci.  So I ask, that you help me welcome them to the CMash blog.

MARIA GERACI

Maria Geraci was born in Havana, Cuba, and raised on Florida’s Space Coast. Her love of books started with the classic, Little Women (a book she read so often growing up, she could probably quote). She writes contemporary romance and women’s fiction with a happy ending. The Portland Book Review called her novel, The Boyfriend of the Month Club, “immensely sexy, immensely satisfying and humorous.” Her fourth novel, A Girl Like You,  is released today, August 7th, 2012 by Berkley, Penguin USA.
You can visit Maria at her website, Facebook and Twitter.

GUEST POST

Inspiration from the Unexpected
Like most writers, I’m always asked where I find the inspiration for my novels. I’d be answering honestly if I said that my ideas come from just about everywhere. But I’d be a little more than chagrined to admit that the idea for my latest novel, A Girl Like You, came from the Real Housewives show.

Now, I don’t watch the Real Housewives of Anywhere. Not that there is anything wrong with the show. I’m a total reality show junkie. Survivor, The Bachelor, So You Think You Can Dance. Bring ‘em on! But the Real Housewives isn’t a show I’m addicted to. Lucky for me, however, that while switching channels one afternoon, I came across an episode. Two of the housewives were talking and one mentioned that she had just dropped her daughter off at college, then went on to commiserate that all the girls at her daughter’s sorority were beautiful and how was her daughter to “shine” if there wasn’t an ugly girlfriend around? Talk about an epiphany! I immediately began to “see” my novel and my central story question was born: What if you found out you were the ugly girlfriend?

In case you’ve never heard of the expression before, let me give you the definition I found in the Urban Dictionary. Ugly Friend: A friend a person brings with him/her to a gathering /event in order to make him/herself appear more attractive in comparison.

When my main character, Emma, overhears herself referred to as the ugly friend, she’s devastated. But it begins a chain of events in her life that lead her to discovering more about her friends and ultimately, about herself, changing her life forever. Sometimes the unexpected turns out so much better than we first imagined.

Thanks, CMash, for inviting me to guest blog today!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Emma Frazier is smart, hardworking, and loves her job as a journalist for a Florida lifestyle magazine. Emma knows she’s no great beauty, but she’s pretty certain she has a shot with her handsome new boss, Ben Gallagher—until Emma overhears a mutual acquaintance refer to her as the “ugly friend.” In an effort to reclaim her battered self-esteem, Emma decides to impress Ben at work by promising an exclusive interview with NASCAR legend, Trip Monroe.

Emma and Trip went to high school together and although it’s been fourteen years since they’ve spoken, Emma is certain she can score an interview with the elusive super star. But connecting with Trip turns out to be harder than Emma imagined. Her quest for the interview leads her back to her tiny hometown of Catfish Cove, where old secrets and a new romantic interest shake up Emma’s views on life and teach her that maybe the key to finding true love is as simple as accepting yourself for the person you were always meant to be.
Purchase links:    Amazon    IndieBound

THANKS TO LISA, FROM SPARKPOINT STUDIO, I HAVE ONE (1)
COPY OF THE BOOK TO GIVE AWAY. U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO
THE GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE.

DISCLAIMER
No items that I receive
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or
Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affliate.
I am providing link(s) solely for visitors
that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

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IN ORDER TO BE INCLUDED IN THE GIVEAWAY*
BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL

ADDRESS IN THE RAFFLECOPTER FORM
SO THAT I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN
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DO YOU THINK EMMA’S NEW LOVE INTEREST IS TRIP?*

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PLEASE NOTIFY ME IF YOU HAVE
WON THIS BOOK FROM ANOTHER
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Lisa from SparkPoint Studio contacted me regarding today’s guest and asked if I would read and review his book.  But since I am behind AGAIN, I disappointingly had to pass at this time.   Oh how I wish I was a speed reader.  There are just too many books I want to read and today’s guest has written one of those books.  It is definitely on my TBR list.  Welcome David Klein!!

DAVID KLEIN

David Klein is the author of the novel Stash, also published by Broadway Books, and his short fiction has appeared in a variety of literary magazines. He currently lives in upstate New York.
Visit David at his website,  on Facebook and Twitter.

GUEST POST

For Better or Worse

There really are no gray areas when it comes to traditional wedding vows. ‘For better or worse’, ‘Richer or poorer’, ‘In sickness or in health’, ‘Until death do us part.’

There’s no mistaking the intent of those vows, or the range of blissful and brutal conditions, emotions, and situations under which you promise to stay married.

In writing my most recent novel, Clean Break, I spent a long time thinking about the language of traditional marriage vows, and how those vows applied to my main character, Celeste. When the novel opens, she’s been struggling for several years with the level of commitment she “owes” her husband. The problem for Celeste is that the first years of marriage were all on the better, richer, and healthy side of the scale. But then her husband, Adam, fell under the spell of gambling. He lost all of their assets, poisoned their marriage, and emotionally damaged their young son, Spencer. And he lost his temper.

Their marriage had gone from better to worse, from health to sickness, from richer to poorer. Does Celeste really need to stick around because she’d made that promise to her husband ten years ago? The difficult question for her is whether Adam is truly ill, or has developed a nasty, addictive habit and a mean streak. You wouldn’t leave your spouse who is suffering from a disease. But you might leave that same spouse if he won’t stop a destructive behavior.

When talking to his son, Adam tries to tell Spencer he has a disease, “like grandma’s cancer,” and that the doctors are treating him so he gets better. But Celeste tells Spencer that no one chooses to get cancer, no makes a decision to get sick, yet Adam chose to gamble. He placed his bets.

Behavioral problems among adults get a lot of attention these days. In many cases, they’re positioned as addictions: gambling addiction, sex addiction, Internet addiction—you name it. Health professionals often prescribe prescription drugs to help sufferers, which some people argue serves to “medicalize” human distress or a person’s lack of accountability.

Even the mental health profession struggles in this gray area. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is used by health professionals, researchers and policy makers to identify, classify and plan treatment for mental disorders. Proposed revisions would add “gambling disorder” to alcohol and drug problems as a “substance use and addictive disorder” that insurers and others would use to make decisions about treatment and coverage.

Better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health—yes. But the gray areas that life presents? Hard to say. For Celeste, like many spouses who may be stuck in an awful situation, it’s hard to know where commitment ends and survival begins. What are your thoughts on this topic?

ABOUT THE BOOK