Reading, Reviewing, Guest Authors, Giveaways and more.
Jenny Sauer is a SAG-AFTRA television and film actress whose credits include Water For Elephants, Project X, The Hangover: Part II, Millionaire Matchmaker, The Mentalist and more. She has also appeared in commercials for Old Navy, Sun Chips, 901 Tequila and Swiffer. Born in Jacksonville, Ill. and raised in Winchester, Ill., Sauer is also a third generation farm girl. Sauer has also modeled for a national Corning Ware advertisement, now featured in the new spring issue of The Knot Magazine, and Chicago designers Boris Powell Designs and Anna Hovet.
Connect with Jenny at these sites:
As readers will learn in your new book, you grew up on a farm, worked in a lab, modeled, and have acted in numerous films and commercials. How did you come to write a book?
Those various experiences took me across the country to live in different places and subsequently threw me into different cultures where I met so many types of people. It made for a collection of interesting stories, especially from during my “serial dating” stage in L.A., I wanted to share for people to connect with and hopefully even learn from my mistakes and many adventures.
How are you so unapologetic? You say things most people probably want to say but for some reason or another don’t.
My whole family is very quick-witted, so growing up I learned a lot from my older brother and sister concerning comebacks and how they dealt with things. From that I created my own effective way of dealing with people. I won’t say I’m completely unapologetic, but I am brutally honest. I’m not a drama fiend and much prefer being straight up and real about something. I believe honesty makes life easier. That being said, I don’t enjoy hurting someone on purpose. I do actually feel bad if my honesty unintentionally hurts a person’s feelings.
I think the people who come to me for advice ask because they know I will tell them the truth and not sugar coat things. And I respect others who are just as honest with me. If someone tells me I’m wrong about something, great! I want to know my faults, and I know that I can be wrong. You won’t get anywhere in life just thinking you’re better than everyone else.
While you do give many of your exes a tough review, the good guys definitely get a nice pat on the back and you’re honest about your own faults, too. Is it hard to open up about such a personal topic as dating?
It really wasn’t hard to open up about my dating experiences; I’m essentially an open book anyway. I tell stories and argue with facts. So if the guys represented don’t like how they are viewed, tough noogies because it’s the truth.
You say you’re really close to your mom – is she going to gawk at any of these stories about her little girl in the dating scene?
She has read the book and thinks it’s funny. She has known all of the stories along the way; so there weren’t any surprises to her. I really do tell her EVERYTHING.
The nicknames for your Match.com encounters are hilarious. What do you think you ex-dates would call you?
Hmmm, that’s a good one. “Smartass McDoogle,” “Eyes”…I’ve had a lot of different experiences with guys so I’m really not sure. I’ll be frank, I really don’t want to know. 😉 I’m usually just known as “Jen” or “Jenny,” in their phones anyway. For the record, I hate the nickname “Jen,” especially on a first date. Don’t shorten a person’s name when you just met them, for crying out loud! You don’t hear me shortening your name because I’m feeling lazy and don’t want to speak an extra syllable.
You’ve written a book on dating, but you’re not married?
You don’t have to be married, or an expert, to date. And these are real, actual experiences. That’s what I’m sharing. The good, bad and ugly. I’ll find that person someday, but I’m in no rush. I’d rather take my time to make sure. I don’t feel like pulling an Elizabeth Taylor and having more than seven or eight weddings. Plus, weddings are expensive and stressful, not my cup of tea to do more than one.
Do you stay in touch with any of your exes in the book?
Yes I do, and it’s probably obvious to the reader which ones. The guys I don’t speak ill about, I still like and we left everything on good terms, so why not stay in touch as friends?
There are actually a few where I talk to them about who they are dating now and give them advice. Not every day, but every couple of months here and there. It’s nice.
From text hoarding, to stiletto porn, to old people’s toenails, you draw quite a few laughs in your book. But there is a mix of funny and serious, as you also offer some real advice. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever personally received about dating?
“Stop looking, it’ll happen.”
Model and SAG-AFTRA television and film actress Jenny Sauer adds author to her resume as she sets to release her first book on March 1. “Snickering Out Loud” is an autobiographical look into Sauer’s own dating life, showcasing her experiences from growing up on a small Illinois farm to her serial dating escapades in the big city of Los Angeles.
The book opens with an introduction into Sauer’s not-so-normal life – she’s gone from herding cattle on the family farm to publishing scientific research to modeling and acting in national films, commercials and magazines. And the dating adventures she shares next show how her various suitors have been just as much a mixed bag. College, work and love brought Sauer across the country to make lasting memories in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Little Rock, Oklahoma City and other small towns in-between.
The tall, funny and brutally honest female provides refreshingly unapologetic commentary on everything – yes everything – a gal or guy has wanted to say about those horrible dates, questioning a relationships status and waiting for “the one” to finally come around.
Tying everything up at the end of the book, Sauer includes a list of helpful advice on love and dating she’s gathered throughout her time in the field.
“The book is a nice heaping dose of Irish sarcasm, wit and humor for the dating impaired,” Sauer explained. “Let’s face it, dating isn’t always enjoyable, so I have taken my unexpected, yet surprising, experiences and made them into a big ball of side-splitting material for your reading pleasure. It’s okay not to be good at dating, just make sure you laugh about it.”
BOOK DETAILS:
Number of Pages: 168 pages
Publisher: Grinding Gears Publishing
Publication Date: February 15, 2014
ISBN-10: 0578137887
ISBN-13: 978-0578137889PURCHASE LINKS:
YOUR JAVA SCRIPT MAY NEED TO BE UPDATED
IF YOU AR EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTY
USING THE RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM
Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of A girl and her books and is now hosted on its own blog.
According to Marcia, “Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
Click on title for synopsis via IndieBound (I am an IndieBound affiliate)
Wednesday: Safe Keeping by Barbara Taylor Sissel from author
Peter Murphy was born in Killarney where he spent his first three years before his family was deported to Dublin, the Strumpet City.
Growing up in the verdant braes of Templeogue, Peter was schooled by the De La Salle brothers in Churchtown where he played rugby for ‘The Wine and Gold’. He also played football (soccer) in secret!
After that, he graduated and studied the Humanities in Grogan’s under the guidance of Scot’s corner and the bar staff; Paddy, Tommy and Sean.
Murphy financed his education by working summers on the buildings sites of London in such places as Cricklewood, Camden Town and Kilburn.
Murphy also tramped the roads of Europe playing music and living without a care in the world.
But his move to Canada changed all of that. He only came over for a while – thirty years ago.
He took a day job and played music in the bars at night until the demands of family life intervened.
Having raised his children and packed them off to University, Murphy answered the long ignored internal voice and began to write.
He has no plans to make plans for the future and is happy to let things unfold as they do anyway.
Connect with Peter at these sites:
BORN & BRED is the first novel in the Life & Times Trilogy, a cycle of three books that will chart the course of one star-crossed life. It is a work of vibrant imagination from a poetic novelist of the first order.
Danny Boyle was a born angel.
At least that’s what his granny used to say, and she should know – she raised him after his parents proved incapable. When she becomes ill, Danny is reunited with his parents but they do not get to live happily ever after, as the ghosts of the past haunt their days. And when the old woman dies, all of her secrets come to light and shatter everything Danny believes in.
In the turmoil of 1970’s Ireland, an alienated Danny gets into drugs and is involved in a gangland killing. Duped by the killers into leaving his prints on the gun, Danny needs all the help his friends and family can muster. Calling in favors from bishops and priests, police and paramilitaries, God and the devil, the living and the dead, they do all that they can. But even that might not be enough.
On the night of Aug 10th, nineteen seventy-seven, Daniel Bartholomew Boyle made the biggest mistake of his young life, one that was to have far-reaching consequences for him and those around him. He might have argued that the course of his life had already been determined by happenings that occurred before he was born but, poor Catholic that he was, riddled with guilt and shame, he believed that he, and he alone, was responsible. He had been dodging the inevitable since Scully got lifted but he knew it was only a matter of time before it caught up with him. Perhaps that was why he paused in front of the old cinema in Terenure after weeks of skulking in the shadows. Perhaps that was why he waited in the drizzle as the passing car turned back and pulled up beside him.
“Get in the car, Boyle.”
Danny wanted to make an excuse – to say that he was waiting for someone – but he knew better.
And it wouldn’t do to keep them waiting. They weren’t the patient sort, twitchy and nervous, and single-minded without a shred of compassion. He looked around but the streets were empty. There was no one to help him now, standing like a target in front of the art deco facade of the Classic.
The cinema had been closed for over a year, its light and projectors darkened, and now lingered in hope of new purpose. He had spent hours in there with Deirdre, exploring each other in the dark while watching the midnight film, stoned out of their minds, back when they first started doing the stuff. He used to do a lot of his dealing there, too, around the back where no one ever looked.
“Come on, Boyle. We haven’t got all fuckin’ night.”
Danny’s bowels fluttered as he stooped to look inside the wet black car. Anthony Flanagan was sitting in the passenger’s seat, alongside a driver Danny had seen around. He was called “The Driller” and they said he was from Derry and was lying low in Dublin. They said he was an expert at knee-capping and had learned his trade from the best. Danny had no choice; things would only get worse if he didn’t go along with them.
“How are ya?” He tested the mood as he settled into the back seat beside a cowered and battered Scully. He had known Scully since he used to hang around the Dandelion Market. He was still at school then and spent his Saturday afternoons there, down the narrow covered lane that ran from Stephen’s Green into the Wonderland where the hip of Dublin could come together to imitate what was going on in the rest of the world – but in a particularly Dublin way.
Dave, the busker, always took the time to nod to him as he passed. Dave was black and played Dylan in a Hendrix way. He always wore an afghan coat and his guitar was covered with peace symbols. Danny would drop a few coins as he passed and moved on between the stalls as Dylan gave way to Horslips, Rory Gallagher, and Thin Lizzy.
The stalls were stacked with albums and tapes, josh sticks and tie-dyed t-shirts with messages like “Peace” and “Love,” pictures of green plants and yellow Happy Faces along with posters of Che, whose father’s people had come from Galway.
The stalls were run by Hippies from such far-out places as Blackrock and Sandyford, students from Belfield and Trinity, and a select few from Churchtown. They were all so aloof as they tried to mask their involvement in commercialism under a veneer of cool. Danny knew most of them by sight, and some by name. On occasion he’d watch over their stalls when they had to get lunch or relieve themselves. He was becoming a part of the scene.
***
“Hey Boyle!”
Danny had seen Scully around before but they had never spoken. Scully, everyone said, was the guy to see about hash and acid, and, on occasion, some opium.
“You go to school in Churchtown?”
Danny just nodded, not wanting to seem over-awed.
“Wanna make some bread?”
“Sure. What do I have to do?”
“Just deliver some stuff to a friend. He’ll meet up with you around the school and no one will know – if you’re cool.”
Danny thought about it for a moment but he couldn’t say no. He had been at the edge of everything that happened for so long. Now he was getting a chance to be connected – to be one of those guys that everybody spoke about in whispers. Sure it was a bit risky but he could use the money and, besides, no one would ever suspect him. Most people felt sorry for him and the rest thought he was a bit of a spaz.
“Could be a regular gig – if you don’t fuck it up,” Scully smiled a shifty smile and melted back into the crowd, checking over each shoulder as he went.
***
As they drove off, Scully didn’t answer and just looked down at his hands. His fingers were bloody and distorted like they had been torn away from whatever he had been clinging onto.
Anto turned around and smiled as the street lights caught in the diamond beads on the windshield behind him. “We’re just fuckin’ fine, Boyle. We’re taking Scully out for a little spin in the mountains.”
His cigarette dangled from his thin lips and the smoke wisped away ambiguously. He reached back and grabbed a handful of Scully’s hair, lifting his bruised and bloodied face. “Scully hasn’t been feeling too good lately and we thought that a bit of fresh air might sort him out, ya know?”
“Cool,” Danny agreed, trying to stay calm, trying not to let his fear show – Anto fed off it. He briefly considered asking them to drop him off when they got to Rathfarnham but there was no point. He knew what was about to go down. Scully had been busted a few weeks before and, after a few days in custody, had been released.
It was how the cops set them up. They lifted them and held them until they broke and spilled all that they knew. Then they let them back out while they waited for their court date. If they survived until then – well and good. And if they didn’t – it saved everybody a lot of time and bother.
Danny sat back and watched Rathfarnham Road glide by in the night. They crossed the Dodder and headed up the hill towards the quiet, tree-lined streets that he had grown up in. As they passed near his house he thought about it: if the car slowed enough he could risk it – just like they did in the pictures. He could jump out and roll away. He could be up and running before they got the car turned around and by then he would be cutting through the back gardens and could easily lose them.
“You live around here, don’t ya, Boyle?” Anto spoke to the windshield but Danny got the message. “And your girlfriend – she lives down that way?”
Danny thought about correcting him. He hadn’t seen Deirdre since the incident in the church but there was no point. They’d use anybody and anything to get to him. He was better off just going along with them for now.
He briefly thought about asking God to save him but there was no point in that, either. They had given up on each other a long time ago. He turned his head away as they approached the church where he had been confirmed into the Faith, so long ago and far away now.
Number of Pages: 395 pages
Publisher: The Story Plant
Publication Date: March 11, 2014
ISBN-10: 1611881161
ISBN-13: 978-1611881165
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 affiliate. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.
