Reading, Reviewing, Guest Authors, Giveaways and more.
I’m back!! The past 3+ weeks I have been gone and it was due to an unexpected medical emergency that resulted in a hospital admission and 3 subsequent operations. Starting today, I will be easing myself back to blogging, posting overdue showcases, guest author visits and giveaways that were scheduled during my absence. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. Hopefully I will be up to speed over the next couple of days. It’s good to be back!!
……of Narcolepsy by Eric James Fullilove
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Toni’s writing career started when she stapled her first “book” together and launched it at a reading attended by her brother, Scotty, and her Boxer, Lonesome. The title-less story was a mash-up of Hansel and Gretel, The Six Swans, and a Box Car Children adventure, with the protagonists (sister, brother, and dog) risking everything in their quest for a magical lump of coal that would save the town. It was an immediate success. During the fifty years between her first and second book, The Goodbye Year: Wisdom and Culinary Therapy to Survive Your Child’s Senior Year of High School (and Reclaim the YOU of You) she has, in no order of importance or chronology
Toni lives in Marin County California, which is a long way from her Western Pennsylvania hometown, Heilwood. She is busy on her next book, which may revisit the power found in a magical lump of coal.
Connect with Toni at these sites:
How To Reclaim the YOU of You
A funny thing happens on the way to Motherhood Nirvana—we get a little lost. It is so busy being a mom. One day tumbles into the next and by the time we come up for air our baby is a senior in high school. The summer before my oldest and only daughter, Page, started her senior year I could feel the sand shifting beneath me. I had dove into the deep end of motherhood, gratefully, gleefully, and completely. Before Page graduated from pre-school she had a toddler and infant brother at home. We were a family of five and I was defined as “Mommy” a role I cherished. When my first Goodbye Year started I recognized that it would be a year of Last Times. What I didn’t recognize was the woman staring back at me in the bathroom mirror.
I had three Goodbye Years and they couldn’t have been more different from one another. I was a different person each time, too. As I let go of my need to please everyone in my family I caught glimpses of my authenticity. It didn’t happen in one day, or one year, but the journey back to womanhood was and is a beautiful one.
From Chapter One: The First of the Lasts
“The start of a new school year means new friends and some- times saying goodbye to old ones. The September of your Good- bye Year might also mean saying the first goodbyes to some of the roles that you have taken on as mom. With the last back- to-school night dawns the realization of just how much of your social time is spent with fellow moms, whom you met as you settled into your new roles as purveyor of food, school supplies, and clothes, and conveyer of bodies to class, baseball practice, and dance recital. If your child liked another child, you met the mother, and a friendship was formed. That’s nice. They’re nice. Your friendships are still valid, but ask yourself two questions: Will you spend time with this group after graduation? And what kind of folks might you be spending time with if this had never happened, this being your motherhood?
To Do: Join a New Group It can be as easy as taking a class. Are you interested in photography? Not the family-photos-on-the-annual-vacation kind; I’m talking about black-and-white shots of raindrops pearled on a paned window. Maybe you really know how to apply eye shadow. That’s a skill and could be your passion. Take a cosmetics class or volunteer your talents to the makeup department of your community theater and meet like-minded folks. The members of your new tribe may be much older or much younger than you. They may be single, childless, pierced, or Republican, but they will share your passion for the written word, coastal conservation, or a rubber of bridge. Your new group will stimulate a spark in the You of you that has been buried under the weight of years of motherhood. Don’t worry. The flame is still there; it just needs some air.”
The Goodbye Year is an inspirational, honest, and hilarious tale of Toni’s approach to the end of an era in the Piccinini household.
For many mothers, a child’s senior year brings about a serious look back on the past eighteen. Every event—from Halloween to Mother’s Day—becomes The Last Time.
Toni Piccinini knows exactly what that’s like, and in The Goodbye Year, she offers the loving support every soon-to-be Empty Nester needs. Think of Toni as your bossy-but-loving Italian auntie, with modern sensibilities and a packed pantry. With the wisdom she’s acquired from saying goodbye three times to her own children, she reassuringly holds your hand while encouraging you through the insanity of the college application process, the rejections and the acceptances, and the teary dorm drop-offs. Even better, she reminds every mother that the best is yet to come—freedom, creativity, flexibility, and the Me Years.
BOOK DETAILS:
Genre: Health & Well Being
Paperback: 264 Pages
Publisher: Seal Press
Publication Date: September 10, 2013
ISBN: 1580054862PURCHASE LINKS:
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USING THE RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM
B.J. Daniels wrote her first book after a career as an award-winning newspaper journalist and author of 37 published short stories.
That first book, ODD MAN OUT, received a 4 ½ star review from Romantic Times magazine and went on to be nominated for Best Intrigue for that year.
Since then she was won numerous awards including a career achievement award for romantic suspense and numerous nominations and awards for best book.
Daniels lives in Montana with her husband, Parker, and two Springer Spaniels, Spot and Jem. When she isn’t writing, she snowboards, camps, boats and plays tennis.
She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Thriller Writers, Kiss of Death and Romance Writers of America.
To contact her, write: B.J. Daniels, P.O. Box 1173, Malta, MT 59538 or email her atbjdaniels@mtintouch.net
Connect with B.J. at these sites:
Writing and Reading:
-Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
I draw mostly from personal experience. With FORSAKEN, I had done a newspaper article about an old sheepherder and his “tender,” the young man who took care of camp while the sheepherder took care of the sheep.
So when I began to write my book, I remembered that old sheepherder (I think he said 3 words total) and the poor young man who couldn’t shut up after traveling 150 miles with the sheep over 3 months back in the Beartooths with only the sheepherder as company. J
So I remembered that and it gave me the idea for the book. Other books come from overhearing conversations, news, newspaper stories, or just my own crazy thoughts. J
-Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
I write by the seat of my pants, so I just start writing at the beginning and hope for the best. For FORSAKEN, I knew I would have a mystery and a romance and 2000 sheep back in a remote part of the Beartooths. That’s about all I knew. As I meet the characters, they tell me the story.
-Your routine when writing? Any idiosyncrasies?
I write every day. My goal is 10 pages. Once I get those done I can quit for the day. Idiosyncrasies? Hmmm. I have to have a Coke Zero or I can’t write. J
-Is writing your full time job? If not, may I ask what you do by day?
Writing is my full time job. When I’m not at the computer I’m thinking about my characters. There aren’t any days off because of that.
-Who are some of your favorite authors?
Oh gad, I love so many of them. Off the top of my head…Lisa Gardner, Gillian Flynn, Harlan Coben, T. Jefferson Parker, so many more. I read anything I can get my hands on.
-What are you reading now?
Deadwood by Dani Amore
-Are you working on your next novel? Can you tell us a little about it?
I am always working on my next novel. J MERCY is the fifth book in the Beartooth, Montana series. The series began with UNFORGIVEN, then REDEMPTION, then FORSAKEN. ATONEMENT comes out in March and then MERCY. MERCY is about a US Marshal who goes rogue to catch a serial killer. It isn’t your usual serial killer kind of book though and it’s going to be a lot…sexier than some of the others. That’s all I can tell you because I haven’t written it yet.
Fun questions:
-Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?
I would love to see the Beartooth series as a TV series or movie. I think Tom Selleck could be my sheriff. Or Sam Elliott. The younger hero? Collin Firth.
-Manuscript/Notes: hand written or keyboard?
Keyboard. I can’t imagine not working on a computer.
-Favorite meal?
Anything Mexican
-Favorite food?
Chile Rellenos (that would be peppers and cheese)
-Favorite beverage?
Coke Zero. J
Thank you for stopping by CMash Reads and spending time with us
Thank you for having me. It’s been fun.
Danger runs high and passions burn hot in Montana’s wild country
Big-city detective Bentley Jamison is a long way from home in the Beartooth wilderness when one of local rancher Maddie Conner’s ranch hands goes missing. Towering mountains and a small, tight community are as unfamiliar to Jamison as herding sheep, but he’s never shied away from a challenge. As the new deputy sheriff, he’s sworn to protect every inch of this rough terrain—starting with unraveling a mystery that has left Maddie a wide-open target.
Maddie’s as beautiful—and untamable—as the land around them. Like Jamison, she won’t back down from danger. But desire that flares hotter than their tempers only raises the stakes when a fierce storm traps them in the high mountains. Caught in a killer’s sights, Jamison and Maddie must trust one another, because now survival and love are all that matter.
BOOK DETAILS:
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Published by: Harlequin HQN
Publication Date: Sep 24 2013
Pages: 384
ISBN: 9780373777808PURCHASE LINKS:
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USING THE RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM
BRIAN ANTHONY is a writer and award-winning filmmaker. His first feature film, Victor’s Big Score, was praised by Variety as “A tremendous calling card for writer-producer-director Brian Anthony.” As a writer-producer Anthony has contributed to shows for American Movie Classics, Arts and Entertainment, and Fox Syndication, including Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Lost in Space Forever. A veteran film historian, Anthony has been interviewed on network television regarding film history, and co-authored the acclaimed biography of the film comedian Charley Chase, Smile While the Raindrops Fall, in 1998. Brian is an expert art and book restorationist, and you can see his work at Anthony Restorations.
Connect with Brian at these sites:
BILL WALKER is an award-winning writer whose works include novels, short stories and screenplays. His first novel, Titanic 2012, was enthusiastically received by readers, and Bill’s two short story collections, Five Minute Frights and Five Minute Chillers, are perennial Halloween favorites. A highly-respected graphic designer, Walker has worked on books by such luminaries as Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Dean Koontz, and Stephen King. His most recent novel, A Note from an Old Acquaintance, was published in 2009.
Connect with Bill at these sites:
Genre: Alternate History
Published by: Lowtide Books
Publication Date: 10/5/13
Number of Pages: 352
ISBN:
978-0-9897457-0-3 (Hardcover)
978-0-9897457-1-0 (Paperback)
978-0-9897457-2-7 (ebook)
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DISCLAIMER
No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
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