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I have the honor and privilege to introduce you to today’s guest, as she kicks off her virtual tour with Providence Book Promotions at the request of Doubleday Publishing. I ask that you help me in welcoming Ms. Brenda Ashford to CMash Reads.
Brenda Ashford is a graduate of Norland College, a world-famous institute for British nannies. For sixty-two years, she cared for more than one hundred children, making her Britain’s longest-serving nanny. She lives outside London.
Connect with Ms. Ashford via Doubleday at 
“I had puzzled many times over the ingredients for a perfect recipe for a happy home. Throw in some stability, a dash of routine and respect. Sprinkle some fun and imaginative games and stir well. But the most vital ingredient is the mother. The mother is truly the heart and soul of a family.”
“As for fussy eaters? I don’t stand for it. I have taken a hard line on this topic. This is a home, not a restaurant and you will jolly well try it before you turn your nose up at it.”
“If a child has sufficient breakfast, lunch and dinner they shouldn’t need a snack. I don’t really like it today when I see children being wheeling along in a pram stuffing things in their mouth. ”
“Children cannot get up to your level, so you have to get down to theirs; try and understand how the world looks through their eyes.”
“If we respect little people then they in turn will grow up to respect others.”
“Put a book in a child’s hands or plant them in an empty field or park, and suddenly the world opens up and becomes a fantastical place of make believe and adventure.”
“Never let a house define you. You can make a home anywhere from an air raid shelter to a shed, if you have to. Riches and wealth don’t matter a jot.”
“I was always honest with my charges. In fact in every area of my life I have been most careful to never tell a lie. Why can’t everyone be more careful to tell the truth? At least we would all know where we stand in life.”
“Little folk deserve a childhood that’s full of fun. It’s the single most valuable lesson in my eyes. I have always encouraged children to have a giggle wherever and whenever they can.”
PEARLS OF WISDOM FROM A Spoonful of Sugar: A Nanny’s Story by Brenda Ashford * 9780385536417 *On Sale April 2, 2013Strung Together During 60 Years of Devoted Service as a Nanny
Brenda Ashford is the quintessential British nanny. Prim and proper, gentle and kind, she seems to have stepped straight out of Mary Poppins. For more than six decades Nanny Brenda swaddled, diapered, dressed, played with, sang to, cooked for, and looked after more than one hundred children. From the pampered sons and daughters of lords ensconced in their grand estates to the children of tough war evacuees in London’s East End, Brenda has taught countless little ones to be happy, healthy, and thoroughly well bred. In this delightful memoir, Brenda shares her endearing, amusing, and sometimes downright bizarre experiences turning generations of children into successful adults.
From the moment Brenda first held her baby brother David she was hooked. She became a second mother to him, changing his nappies, reading him stories, and giving him all the love her warm heart contained. Knowing a career caring for children was her calling in life, Brenda attended London’s prestigious Norland College, famous for producing top-notch nannies. It was a sign of privilege and good taste for the children of the well-to-do to be seen being pushed in their Silver Cross prams by Norland nannies, who were recognizable by their crisp, starched black uniforms with white bib collars, and their flowing black capes lined with red silk. And what skills were these trainees tested on daily? Lullaby singing, storytelling, pram shining, bed making, all forms of sewing, cooking simple meals, and dispensing first aid—including knowing the best way to help the medicine go down.
In A Spoonful of Sugar, Brenda recalls her years at Norland and her experiences during the war (after all, even if bombs are dropping, there’s no reason to let standards slip), and recounts in lovely detail a life devoted to the care of other people’s children.
Sprinkled throughout with pearls of wisdom (you can never give children too much love, and you should learn how to sew a button, for goodness’ sake), this delightful memoir from Britain’s oldest living nanny is practically perfect in every way.
Genre: Memoir
Published by: Doubleday Publication
ISBN: 978-0385536417
Number of Pages: 320
Publish Date: April 2, 2013
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It has been a very busy week here at CMash Reads. And last, but not least, I have the privilege to introduce you to today’s guest author, Mr. Wix Simon! Welcome!!
Wix Simon worked for the Environmental Protection Agency for many years and is now a consultant. His scientific training provides him the basis for understanding modern police work, which is heavily rooted in science and technology. Wix learned about police work from Mickey Lloyd, the lead investigator for the APD in the Atlanta Child Murders that occurred between 1979 and 1981. He is the author of the novel A Toxic Assault; he also plays the fiddle and enjoys black-and-white photography.
Visit Mr. Simon at his website here.
Writing and Reading:
-Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
I use personal experiences to shape character and motivation. I think some about current events for plot, but usually I start the plot with an idea I’ve had for several years.
-Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
I never know where the book is going. How boring would that be! Instead, I start the plot and then as I get to know the characters, they act out the plot through their motivations and desires. Every character I create, even Rusty Nails in “A Lost Gun”, has some aspect that engages me.
-Your routine when writing? Any idiosyncrasies?
When I’m writing a novel, I either think about the book or write for about 45 minutes while I sit in my kitchen drinking coffee. I use a small computer to write novels and it’s easy to fire it up in the morning.
-Is writing your full time job? If not, may I ask what you do by day?
I work as a consulting scientist. I have a solo practice as a consulting toxicologist. As a toxicologist, I’m writing a text book on environmental risk assessment. It’ll end up about 110,000 words. I write it when I can. Much more time consuming than writing a novel–after all, I can’t just make it up for the text book. I can talk further about my work if you wish.
-Who are some of your favorite authors?
for thriller/suspense: James Lee Burke, Oliver Potzch, Gillian Flynn, Lee Child, James Elroy for literature; Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis, Joseph Heller, William Faulkner for philosophy: Karl Popper, Friedrich Neitzche, Soren Kirkegaard, David Hume, Robert Pursig
-What are you reading now?
The Beggar King by Oliver Potzch and a biography of the photographer Edward S. Curtis.
-Are you working on your next novel? Can you tell us a little about it?
I completed about 80 pages before starting on the text book. In that story, Detective Bud Prior goes after a serial killer. This is the story in which he meets his first wife Sandi. Sandi drove a friend to an abortion clinic and was waiting for her. She was reading Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary. Bud is a reader and was intrigued by her choice of books. That was how they met.
Fun questions:
-Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?
In “A Lost Gun,” I’d cast Rooney Mara as Jessie, Jude Law as Bud Prior, and Keith Couture as Ron Niles.”
-Would you rather read or watch TV/movie?
I like both books and movies–the choice is driven by content. The last movie I saw out was “Django Unchained.” It was great. I’d read another Jack Reacher book by Lee Child, but I think he’s likely burned out. I read “Dark Places” by Gillian Flynn recently. I’d read another by her in a NY minute.
-Favorite food?
I have food allergies and am gluten free. I eat to live rather than vice versa. I like good sushi.
-Favorite beverage?
Coffee, what else?
Other interests:
I do traditional black-and-white film photography and play the violin.
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I am switching things up a bit for today and tomorrow. Samantha, from JKS Communications asked if I could do a 2 day showcase and when I read the synopsis, well, how could I say no. Today I will be featuring the book, along with a giveaway. And mark your calendars, you have to stop by again tomorrow, so that you can meet the author, Ms. Lee Mims.
SYNOPSIS:
What’s a live rattlesnake doing sunning itself in the back seat of field geologist Cleo Cooper’s Jeep? Nothing good, you can be sure — but the dilemma of how it might have gotten there isn’t as crucial to her as making certain it doesn’t stay. Yet, alarming as such an uninvited passenger might be, more disturbing to the plucky, single-minded Cleo is the need to nail down her deal for mining rights to a rare, vastly valuable North Carolina granite deposit.
The problem is that the property owner, Gladys Walton, has suddenly and mysteriously disappeared, while neglecting to sign the final documents.
First, a murder interferes with locating her: is the woman’s body found dumped in a well that of the missing Gladys? Amid the wooded, rocky countryside, suspicious misdeeds multiply and Gladys’s conniving relations all behave extremely badly.
The increasingly provoked Cleo sees her dog shot, the progress at her job site dangerously disrupted and, finally, is made witness to another death. Whom can she trust? And what kind of distractions should she allow herself when so much is at stake? Both her charming but exasperating ex-husband and an even more seductive former lover are both on hand competing to rescue her; it’s clear to Cleo, though, that she must go it alone and risk the consequences.
BOOK DETAILS
Paperback
$14.99
ISBN: 978-0738734231
Fiction/Mystery
264 pages
Llewellyn Worldwide, MIDNIGHT INK
Jan. 8, 2013
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Start popping that popcorn…it’s movie time!!!
Brought to you by and thanks to Marissa, from Grand Central Publishing / The Hachette Book Group.
The film adaptation of ADMISSION, directed by Paul Weitz and starring Tina Fey, Paul Rudd and LilyTomlin, will be released by Focus Features on March 22nd, 2013.
ISBN-10: 0446540706
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: April 13, 2009
For years, 38-year-old Portia Nathan has avoided the past, hiding behind her busy (and sometimes punishing) career as a Princeton University admissions officer and her dependable domestic life. Her reluctance to confront the truth is suddenly overwhelmed by the resurfacing of a life-altering decision, and Portia is faced with an extraordinary test. Just as thousands of the nation’s brightest students await her decision regarding their academic admission, so too must Portia decide whether to make her own ultimate admission.
Admission is at once a fascinating look at the complex college admissions process and an emotional examination of what happens when the secrets of the past return and shake a woman’s life to its core.
JEAN HANFF KORELITZ
Jean Hanff Korelitz is the author of the novelsADMISSION, THE WHITE ROSE, THE SABBATHDAY RIVER and A JURY OF HER PEERS, as well as a forthcoming novel, YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN, to be published in early 2014. She has also written a novel for children,INTERFERENCE POWDER, and a collection of poetry, THE PROPERTIES OF BREATH. Her non-fiction has appeared in various anthologies and in publications such as Vogue, Real Simple, Reader’s Digest and The New York Times.
Born and raised in New York City and educated at Dartmouth College and Clare College, Cambridge, she lives in Princeton, New Jersey with her husband, Irish poet Paul Muldoon, and their children.
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Please excuse me if I’m a bit star struck, but I am sure that some of you will be too, when you hear who is visiting today. I started watching Days Of Our Lives when I was in high school, and if you know me, then you know that was many years ago :). So when Jodi, from WOW! emailed me, I jumped at the chance to host today’s guest. Are you ready? Everyone….Ms. Gloria Loring!!! Welcome to CMash Reads!
When not starring on the soap opera Days of Our Lives, Gloria Loring found herself expressing herself with music. She is the recording artist of the #1 hit song Friends and Lovers as well co-composer of television theme songsDiff’rent Strokes and Facts Of Life. Gloria’s new musical show TV Tunez, a celebration of television’s best theme songs that earned standing ovations, is in development for a Las Vegas run. She is currently in the studio with producer Ted Perlman and songwriting legends Burt Bacharach and Desmond Child.
After her four-year-old son was diagnosed with diabetes, she created and self-published two volumes of the Days Of Our Lives Celebrity Cookbook which raised more than $1 million for diabetes research. She has also written Kids, Food and Diabetes, Parenting a Child with Diabetes, The Kids, Food & Diabetes Family Cookbook, and Living With Type 2 Diabetes: Moving Past the Fear. Gloria was honored by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation with the Lifetime Commitment Award and the Founders Award from the National Disease Research Interchange.
The Miss America Organization gave her the Woman of Achievement Award, an honor she shares with past recipients Barbara Bush, Roslyn Carter, and Hillary Clinton. She is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who of American Women.
Visit Ms. Loring at her website, on Facebook and Twitter.
Coincidence Is God’s Way of Remaining Anonymous is Loring’s spiritual exploration of how coincidence helped her make sense of life’s challenges and uncertainties. Coincidence helped her raise $1 million for diabetes research; it arrived in the form of mysterious letters during her separation and eventual divorce from actor-writer Alan Thicke; and it helped her discover and then heal from the trauma of long-forgotten childhood sexual abuse. It also brought her a chance encounter with the man she is married to today. With eloquence and humor, Loring takes readers on a quest for a deeper understanding of life’s journey and the role coincidence plays in all of our lives, revealing that even the most difficult circumstances can be beneficial. Her experiences may be just the evidence readers need to begin watching more closely what they are attracting and what they are running from in their own lives.
While coincidences may appear to come out of the blue, Loring suggests that we can all play a starring role in their appearance. “For years, I’d been waiting for someone else to make (my life) better. You’d have thought I was starring in “The Perils of Pauline.” In truth, I wasn’t a victim, I was a volunteer. . . . Coincidence gave me an experience of the lesson I needed to learn: You don’t have to wait for someone to save you.”
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After many years working as an editor in non-fiction publishing, Judy became a Stay-at-Home Mother to her two girls, conceived via infertility treatment. She wrote Child of Mine as an homage to the struggle nearly 1 in 6 couples go through in order to have their families.
Visit Judy at her website website, or at FB, Twitter, GoodReads and LibraryThing.
What lengths would you go to in order to become a mother? Midwife Katie Cohen-Langer delivers babies for a living, but despite years of intensive infertility treatments and growing desperation, she can’t have her own child.
As families grow under Katie’s careful watch, her husband wants to move on to adoption. But Katie, who was adopted as a newborn, can’t bear the thought of never having a biological connection to anyone.
So she sets off on a journey to the other side of the country, along with her emotionally unstable sister, to find her biological relatives.
What she discovers about her roots –and about the parents who adopted her — rocks her world in a way she never could have expected. And even as she deals with what she finds, she still needs to figure out a way to become a mother.
YOUR JAVA SCRIPT MAY NEED TO BE UPDATED
IF YOU AR EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTY
USING THE RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM
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 affiliate.
I am providing link(s) solely for visitors
that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.
I have another treat for you today that I know you are going to enjoy!!! Alissa from Media Muscle/The Book Trib is stopping by with guest author Susan Mallery!! So without further ado, I ask that you help me in welcoming them to the group!!
With more than 25 million books sold worldwide, New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery is known for creating characters who feel as real as the folks next door, and for putting them into emotional, often funny situations readers recognize from their own lives. Susan’s books have made Booklist’s Top 10 Romances list in four out of five consecutive years. RT Book Reviews says, “When it comes to heartfelt contemporary romance, Mallery is in a class by herself.” With her popular, ongoing Fool’s Gold series, Susan has reached new heights on the bestsellers lists and has won the hearts of countless new fans.
Susan grew up in southern California, moved so many times that her friends stopped writing her address in pen, and now has settled in Seattle with her husband and the most delightfully spoiled little dog who ever lived. Visit Susan online at www.SusanMallery.com and www.facebook.com/susanmallery
1) What are some writing quirks or rituals that you have in order to keep you focused?
I’m not sure I’d call it a quirk or a ritual, but looking at my mortgage statement helps me focus. Writing is a joy – I love it – but it’s also my job, and I have a lot of people depending on me to meet my deadlines. A good work ethic is something I admire in others, and it’s something I require of myself.
2) What does your writing space look like?
I work at a big wooden desk in my home office. One of the biggest luxuries of working at home is that my dog Nikki comes with me to the office every day. She snoozes while I write, but still, she’s good company. When the characters make me laugh, Nikki will run over to join the fun. She’s very wiggly when she’s excited.
By the time I reach the end of a book, the desk surface is littered with sticky notes, reminding me of something that needs to happen. Then I clear it all away and start the next book.
3) The Three Sisters Queen Anne houses and Andi Gordon’s home restoration play a large role in your new book. How are architecture and home renovation a part of your real life?
I’ve moved so many times that my friends stopped writing my address in pen. (Not as much of an issue now as it was before we saved all our addresses digitally.) Which means I’ve spent many a happy hour staring at paint swatches, trying to decide between shades of taupe. I never had a contractor as sexy as Wade, though, I’m sorry to say.
I’m addicted to HGTV. My new favorite show is the Property Brothers. You can’t go wrong with two cute brothers. I’m especially fond of the one who knows his way around power tools.
However, I’m not sure I’d have the patience to take on a renovation project as extensive as Andi’s. She was in a bad state when she bought the house on Blackberry Island. She had just been left at the altar by a man she’d dated for ten years. He wasn’t ready, he said. After ten years. So when she saw this beautiful old Queen Anne house in need of love, it called to her.
4) What do you love about writing romance novels?
I love the happy endings. As a reader, I get angry when I’ve invested my emotions into a book and then it ends badly for the characters. I have been known to throw a book against the wall. I don’t think an unhappy resolution makes a book deeper or more realistic. When readers pick up my books, they can relax into the experience because they’ll know that no matter what pain the characters might feel, they will find their way to a happy ending. I can’t even imagine writing a book that doesn’t end happily. The characters would haunt me for the rest of my life!
5) If you could choose one romantic character from literature to jump off the pages and become real, who would you pick?
Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy – oh wait, he did come to life. He goes by Colin Firth now.
Follow Susan’s Mallery’s blog tour on BookTrib here.
After Andi Gordon is jilted at the altar, she makes the most impetuous decision of her life—buying one of the famed Three Sisters Queen Anne houses on Blackberry Island. Now the proud-ish owner of the ugly duckling of the trio, she plans to open her own pediatric office on the first floor, just as soon as her hunky contractor completes the work. Andi’s new future may be coming together, but the truth is she’s just as badly in need of a major renovation as her house.
When Deanna Phillips confronts her husband about a suspected affair, she opens up a Pandora’s Box of unhappiness. And he claims she is the problem. The terrible thing is, he’s right. In her quest to be the perfect woman, she’s lost herself, and she’s in danger of losing her entire family if things don’t change.
Next door, artist Boston King thought she and her college sweetheart would be married forever. Their passion for each other has always seemed indestructible. But after tragedy tears them apart, she’s not sure. Now it’s time for them to move forward, with or without one another.
Thrown together by fate and geography, and bound by the strongest of friendships, these three women will discover what they’re really made of: laughter, tears, love and all.
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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 affiliate.
I am providing link(s) solely for visitors
that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.
