Monday Memes

CMash July 25, 2011 Leave a Comment

Hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading

Today’s question:

Do you need to have your owned books out where you can see them, or are you okay with them being stored away?

My answer:
I definitely need to be surrounded by my books. In my reading room, I have a bookcase filled with my personally signed and tbr books and another bookcase with my recently read books. Being a self proclaimed book addict, there is such a feeling of “comfort” of being among the items that I enjoy and bring me pleasure and entertainment.

July is being hosted by Gwen from A Sea of Books

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of A girl and her books and is now on tour.

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.”

Hachette Book Group Doubleday Booking With Bingo

Guest Author

Guest Author Tracy Seeley

CMash July 25, 2011 3 Comments

Another treat today brought to us by Jodi and Robyn from WOW-Women On Writing. Today we are meeting an incredible, courageous and amazing author as she visits and tells us a about her new book, a memoir. Not only is she stopping by to talk about her latest book, BUT, she has graciously offered to extend her visit by responding to your comments and/or answering your questions. So I ask that you help me give, Ms. Tracy Seeley, a very warm welcome to the CMash blog.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

With a Ph.D. in British Literature, Tracy Seeley teaches literature and creative nonfiction at the University of San Francisco. She can claim 26 addresses as her own including towns all across the midwest, Dallas, Austin, New Haven, Los Angeles, Caracas, Budapest, and Barcelona. When not tracking down Kansas addresses that no longer exist, Tracy Seeley lives in Oakland with her filmmaker husband, Frederick Marx. In an attempt to put down roots she has started a vegetable garden and is considering buying chickens.

You can visit the author at her website.

GUEST POST
You’ve Got Cancer…Again

By Tracy Seeley (@tracy_seeley)

The only thing more jarring than hearing the words “You’ve Got Breast Cancer,” may be hearing “You’ve Got Cancer…Again.”

When it happened to me, I’d had four great post-cancer years. The intense, life-changing months of my initial diagnosis, surgery, chemo, radiation, and months of recovery had all receded to a pinpoint in the rear view mirror. My life had been remade by those months, and then I’d moved on. During those four years, I’d started writing My Ruby Slippers, I’d made several trips back to Kansas to gather more material, a long-term relationship had ended, and I’d joyfully gotten married again.

It’s not like I assumed it wouldn’t happen. Anyone who’s had cancer never forgets: despite everything you and your doctors do the first time, you know that the next routine check-up, blood test or scan could bring bad news. In my case, a little voice whispered in my ear nearly every day. “Death,” it would whisper. Or, “Cancer.” Those little reminders jolted me awake, and awake was how I wanted to live.

To be awake. I’d learned the importance of that during my first round of treatment, when I took a class on mindfulness meditation. The idea of mindfulness is to simply be fully aware, present and attentive to whatever’s happening at the moment. To make that kind of living a habit, I practiced formally every day, which is really quite simple: sit quietly, eyes closed, observing your breath, in…out. And observe whatever thoughts float through your mind, but instead of holding on to them or dwelling on them, let them float away.

That simple act of paying attention can be one of the hardest things to do. But when I sat in meditation every day, the awareness I practiced there carried over into the rest of my life. I could be fully awake to washing the dishes, or waking up, or walking down the stairs. And I could be fully awake to my emotions. So when that little voice piped up, “Cancer,” or “Death,” I learned to recognize and say hello to the fear or sadness, then let them float away.

Concentrating on breathing in…and out…teaches us that like the breath, the past moment is over, the future hasn’t arrived. The only life we have is now. So being awake means that at your best and most fully aware, you don’t miss a single moment of your precious life. You learn to recognize and let go not only of the moment, but of hurt feelings and anger and all the other things that can keep us stuck in moods that keep us down or carry us away. Being awake helped me let go of fear.

The state of living fully awake brought a lot of equilibrium into my life during my first cancer treatment. Very little rattled me, even in tough times. Four years later, when the bad news came, I have to confess that it took me awhile to find my balance again. But meditating on my breath in order to be fully awake, helped me find peace again. So every day now, five years after hearing, “You’ve got cancer again,” I just keep breathing. And as long as I can do that…in and out…every day continues to count.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Sure, there’s no place like home—but what if you can’t really pinpoint where home is? By the time she was nine, Tracy Seeley had lived in seven towns and thirteen different houses. Her father’s dreams of movie stardom, stoked by a series of affairs, kept the family on edge, and on the move, until he up and left. Thirty years later, settled in what seems like a charmed life in San Francisco, a diagnosis of cancer and the betrayal of a lover shake Seeley to her roots—roots she is suddenly determined to search out. My Ruby Slippers tells the story of that search, the tale of a woman with an impassioned if vague sense of mission: to find the meaning of home.

Watch the trailer:

THANKS TO JODI AND THE FANTASTIC PEOPLE AT WOW,

I HAVE ONE COPY OF THIS AMAZING MEMOIR TO GIVE AWAY.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO

THE GIVEAWAY PAGE.

DISCLAIMER

Giveaway copies are supplied and shipped to winners

via publisher, agent and/or author. This blog hosts

the giveaway on behalf of the above.

No items that I receive

are ever sold…they are kept by me,

or given to family and/or friends.

Giveaway

GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE "MY RUBY SLIPPERS" ENDED

CMash July 25, 2011 60 Comments

JULY 25th to AUGUST 5th, 2011

MY RUBY SLIPPERS

THE ROAD BACK TO KANSAS

by TRACY SEELEY

SYNOPSIS:

Sure, there’s no place like home—but what if you can’t really pinpoint where home is? By the time she was nine, Tracy Seeley had lived in seven towns and thirteen different houses. Her father’s dreams of movie stardom, stoked by a series of affairs, kept the family on edge, and on the move, until he up and left. Thirty years later, settled in what seems like a charmed life in San Francisco, a diagnosis of cancer and the betrayal of a lover shake Seeley to her roots—roots she is suddenly determined to search out. My Ruby Slippers tells the story of that search, the tale of a woman with an impassioned if vague sense of mission: to find the meaning of home.

THANKS TO JODI AND THE FANTASTIC

PEOPLE FROM WOW-WOMEN ON WRITING

I HAVE ONE (1) COPY OF THIS

AMAZING MEMOIR TO GIVE AWAY.

HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO WIN.

*ALL COMMENTS TO BE SEPARATE*

AND INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

SO THAT I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN

*LEAVE COMMENT: HOW MANY CITIES HAVE YOU LIVED IN?*

*EXTRA ENTRIES*

*LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENT IF YOU PUBLICLY FOLLOW THIS
BLOG (IF NOT, GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT ON RIGHT SIDE).

*LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENT IF YOU FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK.

*LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENT IF YOU FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER.

*REMEMBER TO INCLUDE EMAIL ADDRESS FOR ALL ENTRIES.

*U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY*

*NO P.O. BOXES*

**HONOR SYSTEM**

ONE WINNING BOOK PER HOUSEHOLD

PLEASE NOTIFY ME IF YOU HAVE

WON THIS BOOK FROM ANOTHER

SITE, SO THAT SOMEONE ELSE MAY

HAVE THE CHANCE TO WIN

AND READ THIS BOOK.

THANK YOU.

*GIVEAWAY ENDS AUGUST 5th AT 6PM EST*

WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN BY RANDOM.ORG AND NOTIFIED

VIA EMAIL AND WILL HAVE 48 HOURS TO RESPOND

OR ANOTHER NAME WILL BE CHOSEN

DISCLAIMER / RULES

Giveaway copies are supplied and shipped to winners via publisher,

agent and/or author. This blog hosts the giveaway on behalf of the

above. 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.

I am not responsible for lost or damaged books that are shipped

from agents. I reserve the right to disqualify/delete any entries

if rules of giveaway are not followed

Monday Memes

CMash July 25, 2011 15 Comments

Hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading

Today’s question:

Do you need to have your owned books out where you can see them, or are you okay with them being stored away?

My answer:
I definitely need to be surrounded by my books. In my reading room, I have a bookcase filled with my personally signed and tbr books and another bookcase with my recently read books. Being a self proclaimed book addict, there is such a feeling of “comfort” of being among the items that I enjoy and bring me pleasure and entertainment.

July is being hosted by Gwen from A Sea of Books

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of A girl and her books and is now on tour.

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.”

Hachette Book Group Doubleday Booking With Bingo

Sunday's Shining Star

Sunday’s Shining Star

CMash July 24, 2011 Leave a Comment

I would like to explain how this came to fruition. Hubby and I were having a discussion about the old days, (for the young’ens reading this..a little history lesson) but before the dark age. When Sundays were special and had traditions and rituals. Sunday mornings Church, come home to a big gravy (sauce) cooking on the stove, a big Sunday dinner, then either off to visit relatives/friends or wait for relatives/friends to drop by. We would spend the afternoon sitting around the table, talking, catching up, having coffee, pizza, calzones, etc etc, dessert. And now, how sad, all those traditions are gone. And then I got to thinking, why not have something similar here on my blog. This past year, I have met so many amazing and wonderful people (some I now call friends) through blogging, and how I am in awe of what they do and accomplish. How much respect I have for them, for their honesty, integrity, credibility and so enjoy when a bit of their personality shines through. So every Sunday, here at my place, the coffee will be on, the dessert is on the table and friends will be stopping by. And I will be rolling out the red carpet for my Sunday Shining Star Blogger guest.

I was told when I first found this community of book blogging that “book bloggers were the nicest bloggers there are” and I have never forgotten those words. And over the past year, I have truly met the nicest people. I also believe, even though we live behind a screen, a bit of our personality shines through. That is one of the reasons I am having so much fun with this weekly event, and hoping you are too, because we are getting to know those “nicest bloggers” around and about bloggyland a little bit better.

Last week’s trip to India was fun, wasn’t it? Except for the two, which will remain nameless, that complained the whole time about the luggage, complained about how long the flight was, on and on and on….MEN!!!! We learned a lot about our blogging friend Guatami and she was the perfect host. This week, with the heat affecting all of us, I thought we would stay by or in my pool, having another cook out and a few frozen drinks. Unfortunately, we have the same wait staff…..again no names mentioned…just ignore them lol…Men!!!!

Today, we have another special guest, one I’m sure many will know. However, I am also sure you are going to find out things that may surprise you. Today’s special guest is YVONNE from SOCRATE’S BOOK REVIEWS

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*When and why did you start blogging?
I started in May 2008. I began because I love books and thought this would be a great way to meet others with the same passion for reading that I have.

*How and what made you decide on the name of your blog?
Socrates is the name of one of my cats and it sounded intellectual. LOL

*What would you say is the main content of your blog?
Book reviews of different genres.

*If books, what genres do you mostly read?
Romantic suspense, cozy mysteries, romance, suspense and thrillers.

*How often do you post?
I try to do everyday, but that doesn’t always work out. At least 5-6 times a week.

*What are some of the things that you love about blogging?
Meeting new people.

*What are some of the negatives?
Can’t think of any negatives. I have had fun doing this.

*Name 1-3 favorite items/postings that you have/do on your blog?
Reviews, author interviews and memes.

*Any advice you would give to new bloggers?
Make the blog yours…design it the way that pleases you and make the posts about things that are on your mind.

*What draws you to follow someone’s blog?
Interesting topics.

*Do you have any “pet peeves” that other bloggers do?
No, not really. I hate spammers, but they aren’t bloggers…they are just people spamming us.

*Would you please share 5-7 things about the person behind the screen so that we get to know the “real” you!!
I love to read (big surprise)

I not only love cats, but I love all animals.

I’m an aspiring author – I completed 4 romance manuscripts but only have rejections to show for my troubles.

I’m a TV addict

I love to collect dolls and teddy bears.

*Any other info you would like to share.
I have a TBR that’s way too big for me to finish in this lifetime, but I’m having fun blogging. I’ve met some great people out there and hope to meet many more in the future.

Yvonne, thank you for being my guest today and allowing us the chance to get to know you better. I have been following her blog for quite a while, if my memory serves me correctly, from around the time I first went public. I will admit, I was a bit hesitant at first, because of the name of her blog. I honestly thought she might be a PhD or college professor of English History/Literature. True!! Until one day when I spent some time checking everything out and could let out a breath of relief lol. You can see by her answers, as I say in my introduction, book bloggers are the kindest bloggers there are. No negatives with Yvonne, just positive thoughts. Even about her tbr list. She has accepted that it is too large but continues to add to it because she is having fun. I was so impressed to see her answer that she is an aspiring author and has 4 romance novels. My wish for you Yvonne, is to have your dream come true. I am sure that everyone here today would love to read and review your galleys. A blogger since 2008, an aspiring author, a kind person, a SHINING STAR!!.

Sunday's Shining Star

Sunday’s Shining Star

CMash July 24, 2011 12 Comments