#CoverReveal: The Best Kept Secret by Wendi Nunnery
Sending a big congratulations to Wendi Nunnery today on her cover reveal of her debut novel The Best Kept Secret! About the Book In high school,…
Release Day: Hard Hats and Doormats by Laura Chapman
Today, Marching Ink released its fifth title. Huge congratulations to Laura Chapman and her debut novel Hard Hats and Doormats. I met Laura online via…
Book Review: Prior Engagements by Sarah Goodwin
I received a copy of PRIOR ENGAGEMENTS by Sarah Goodwin in exchange for an honest review.
Prior Engagements begins with Annie, who isn’t really enjoying her time in the twenties as much as she expected. She was left at the alter by Stephen and is currently in the process of paying down the gargantuan mountain of debt leftover from the wedding that never happened. Then one day, she meets a man who is in need of a favor – to accompany him to the wedding of his ex. She decides on a whim to accompany him and then next thing she knows, she is getting married in Vegas to Dorian. But, that makes things complicated as she returns home and realizes that her best friend, who also happens to be her boss, has been working up the courage to pop the question himself. Will is not happy at all about the new discovery and wants nothing more than to get Dorian out of the way. Like I said, things are complicated and it gets worse as we are introduced to Dorian’s sister, his ex-bride and Annie’s dear old mother. Fun times ensue as some Annie tries to figure out just how her life ended up so complicated.
I really enjoyed PRIOR ENGAGEMENTS and thought that it was a really good read. At first I wasn’t quite too sure what to think about Annie but after a little hesitation on my part, I soon fell in love with her character. Sarah does an amazing job at crafting flawed characters who are also very realistic. On numerous occasions I felt that Annie and I would make great friends. I knew instantly that Stephen was a douche bag and ironically, am glad that she got left at the alter because she was so much better off without him. I must also admit that I was quite surprised when she married Dorian in Vegas … I definitely didn’t see that one coming. Overall though, this book is a really great read from a debut author. I think that if you are looking for a hilarious book with a lot of wit and heart, then this book is for you.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Guest Post by Samantha March: When I Grow Up
I found an old memory book a few weeks ago and let myself get submerged in my past. Big bangs, neon scrunchies, and shirts that said “Princess in Training” dominated the photos. I saw old class photos where I had drawn big red X’s over my enemies and photos with a big red heart over my crush. Some had both. I thought it was interesting that each grade year came accompanied with a fact sheet. I had dutifully filled in who my best friend was, my favorite movie and song, a few other random details about my life, and finally – what I wanted to be when I grew up. From second grade on, my answer remained the same – “author.” Sometimes a more glamorous position would be written in – actress, supermodel, ballet dancer – even the occasionally “mommy” made it on the page, but “author” never disappeared.
Since those dream filled sheets have been filled out, I have worked many different jobs. My first real employment was making pizzas at a Papa Murphy’s. They were not impressed with my acrylic nails. Then there was dressing room “recovery” at a department store during the holidays. I have since learned to loath a messy dressing room. Then my favorite job – working in a concession stand at an event center. I worked with my best friend, my mom, a cousin, and made some great friends at that job. And I met a bunch of hot hockey players, bands, and comedians. And got to eat free food. Then I had my college jobs, where I often worked at multiple places in an effort to not bury myself in student loans. The college gym – terrific job. I could do my homework, work out, and again I worked with some amazing people. A hotel clerk – another awesome job.
I loved my work there and meeting so many different people. A hospital, a restaurant, a bank. I did time as a travel agent, on my own and for a company (I have my AA in travel and hospitality). I managed a massage clinic at only twenty years old, where I had over twenty employees reporting to me and it was my responsibility to make the store run smoothly. Then there was my internship with a wedding planner. Super long hours, my weekends were full and my arms ached from carrying chairs, tables, and other equipment around, but it was incredible to see a wedding start with a seed of an idea and end so beautifully and with such joy. And now, after all the jobs, resumes, interviews, crappy shifts, uptight bosses…I can call myself an author.
I remember just a few years ago feeling so frustrated with myself. I couldn’t find a job I was truly happy with. I loved traveling – I thought a travel agent was for me. I loved going to spas – running a massage clinic should have been my calling. I have an obsession with weddings and love watching all the wedding shows – why wouldn’t I want to be a wedding planner? But nothing stuck. Nothing gave me that sense of satisfaction, that contentment that I thought should come with my career. But now, I have finally figured out why I put myself through so many jobs. Experience. Sure, I have real-world experience and job interviews are helpful to go on, but I have writing experience. I can write books with the main character as a wedding planner. I can write books with the MC as a travel agent or a personal banker or a hotel executive. I can take what I learned and observed from all those jobs and write stories about them. Some true events might find themselves published (all carefully fictionalized, of course). Instead of having to do hours of research on the job background, I can pull what I learned from hands-on experience.
I’m grateful for all those past jobs. I took something away from each one – a friendship, a funny story, and a lesson. I can’t to wait to incorporate more of these into my books. My second novel is due out around April/May of 2012, and the main character is the owner of a salon and spa. Do you think I pulled some of my experiences as being a massage clinic manager and put those into this book? Of course. I feel really lucky that I never gave up on what my second-grade self wanted, and I’m happy to finally say I love what I’m doing.
Interview with Chandra Hoffman
Where did the inspiration for Chosen come from?
CHOSEN was influenced and shaped by a trail of experiences and opportunities. It wasn’t as though I chose the adventures so I could write about them, but the stories shaped my life, and subsequently, a novel.
In 1995 I was a senior at Cornell University when I connected with a professor who wanted an aide worker to go into a Romanian orphanage and hospital where her own adoption was stalled. I volunteered, flying to Bucharest alone, not knowing the language or the social complexities that had created a country where most orphans were not without parents, just abandoned to a state-run foster care. I only knew I loved babies and travel, adventure. It was overwhelming, (I was given fifty infants my first day) and heartbreaking, nearly impossible for me to leave Bucharest to finish my degree at last I did. (You can read more about Romania here: http://www.chandrahoffman.com/blog/2010/7/23/digging-up-the-past-part-1-of-2.html)
After college, I couldn’t stop thinking about adoption, about the circumstances surrounding new life that will shape it forever. At the end of several years abroad, I applied for a position at an international adoption agency and ended up as the director of their US program, the sole caseworker juggling birthmothers and waiting families. I fell in love with both the city of Portland and the heady allure of a job so full of promise.
Like Chloe Pinter, I went into it with the intention of creating happy endings. Similar to when I stepped off the plane in Romania, I quickly scrambled to learn a new language and subculture; the business side of adoption. But as the months passed, I got too attached. I cried and raged at some adoptions that fell apart, and just as painfully for some that went through. I left not because I no longer believed in adoption, but because the potential for joy and heartache walking the razor’s edge was no longer something I was able to agent — my skin had become too thin.
Faced with our own pregnancy and an unexpected diagnosis at our first son’s birth, I pondered some of the deeper issues that formed the backbone of this novel. How does parenthood change you? How will the challenges you face shape you as a couple? What happens when your expectations of parenthood are so far from the reality? What makes a good parent? A good person? What happens when you get what you thought you wanted?
All of these courageous people whose lives had touched mine so intimately rattled around with me as I adjusted to that first year of new parenthood. Driving home from a pre-dawn airport run, exhausted from getting up to hang bottles for my newborn’s feeding tube, I stopped to get gas at a filling station not far from the very place where a child was abducted in my hometown twenty years earlier. Knowing this, I still fantasized about not lugging the car seat and its precious cargo out with me just to run in for a bottle of water… But what if I didn’t?
The idea for this novel was born out of that single scene. A mother so exhausted her judgment lapses; a grief-stricken, empty-armed father who takes advantage of this. The story is fiction—characters and settings and scenarios are as though I took a handful of experiences, marinated them in a childhood paranoia of abduction, seasoned them with the salt of my vivid imagination, put the whole thing in a bag and shook it up—but the themes are real, from my own life and from those I have been privileged to witness.
Are you currently working on another novel?
Last year on book tour in Santa Monica I was sleeping with the windows open to hear the ocean, and I dreamed the plot of my next novel–a love story set in the steamy Caribbean summer where the tragedies are not what they seem to be, and a hint of mystery. I’m so excited to share it with readers soon!
What are some books that you have read recently and really enjoyed?
When I’m actively writing a novel, I tend to read more nonfiction and memoir so that I can stay consistent in my own narrative voice. As a gardener, I’ve been on a locavore food movement kick. Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Vegetable Miracle was an inspiration, and Kristin Kimball’s The Dirty Life a fascinating account of following your heart. I love the idea of being more connected to what we eat and creating a more sustainable lifestyle. I’ve been campaigning hard for chickens and recently had a little foray into goats… You can read about that here: http://www.chandrahoffman.com/essays/in-over-my-caprine-head.html
I love gardening beside my kids and creating an appreciation for food and the miracle of life, the return of spring after our icy winters. I know there is more of this in my future.
How did you become first involved in working with orphanages?
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What are some hobbies outside of writing?
There’s a joke that my family of origin bred for brains, so it’s a wonder that sports take up so much of my hobby time, since I’m not a natural athlete. I’ve been running for years, see link: http://www.chandrahoffman.com/essays/running-for-my-life.html
which keeps me sane, and I play field hockey from March to November in a Philly sports league. After moving from the Caribbean where we mostly enjoyed water sports, my husband suggested we had better take up ice hockey in the Pennsylvania winter or we’d go nuts cooped up indoors with three little kids. I didn’t know how to skate but it turned out to be brilliant! We all play–even my littlest is putting on the pads–and I love that our town has an outdoor skating pavilion, so that I’m getting exercise and my critical time outdoors even in the long gray winter months. Ten years ago I never would have thought we’d be a hockey family, with my husband building a backyard rink and the Flyers obsession and our winter weekends having as many as twelve games, but it does keep us occupied, active and sane.
How important do you think social media is for authors?
Where would be your dream vacation?
I’ve heard that you’re either a mountain person or a beach person. I’ve lived in the Caribbean and that breathtaking point where the Atlantic and Mediterranean meet in Tarifa, Spain, and I’ve lived in the mountains of Breckenridge, Colorado. While I can appreciate the beauty of mountains and enjoy hiking and snowboarding, I know for sure I’m an ocean girl. Relaxing and swimming and playing on the beach with my family and a pile of books and an umbrella drink is where it’s at for me.
Interview with Ella Slayne
Author Q&A for Samantha Robey
What made you want to write High-Heels and Slippers?
I had always liked the idea of writing a full length novel but I completely lacked the courage to do it. When my Uncle Alan passed away suddenly, it was the catalyst I needed to get started. It was a sharp reminder that life can be short and I decided not to waste anymore time.
How long did it take you to write the book?
Nearly four years. Of course I thought I’d finished after a year and half which shows how little I knew!
What was the hardest part in the writing process for you?
I think one of the hardest parts of the writing process for me was learning how to take negative feedback in a constructive way and not let letting it send me into the depths of depression! At first I found it very hard to move on from a critique but actually I found that my book improved after I worked through feedback. Now, I find that negative criticism is often the most valuable because it helps me improve as a writer.
What were some of your favorite scenes to write?
Well I like a bit of romance, and I was always rooting for Josie and Callum to get together, so it was fun writing scenes between their characters. I also enjoyed writing the scenes with Tom in England, even though they were emotional. It was cathartic in a way and my intention was always to write a chick-lit story with a poignant twist; I wanted Josie’s character to have layers. I hope I managed that!
What made you decide to give Josie her own blog?
Starting Josie’s blog was a huge learning curve for me. I was completely new to the blog world but I wanted to test the market and see if there was an audience for a character like Josie. Besides I felt she had a lot more to say than just what was in the book so the blog was a good outlet for her! I’m so glad I did it, even though I was petrified at first.
Are you currently working on another novel?
Yes I am and I hope to release it in the Spring of 2012! It’s called “Holding Me Up – A Life Without Jasmine” and it’s about Trisha Miller, a bereaved mother, trying to find a way to move on from the grief of losing her daughter. It’s starts off in a dark place but I pull her out to somewhere good in the end!
You also do voiceover work. How did you become involved in this?
Back in England my plan, since I was a child, was to become an actress. I studied Drama at Manchester University and then trained as an actress at the Webber Douglas Academy in London. However everything was put on hold when I started having kids and moved to Belgium! A few years ago I made the decision to move forward with a voice-over career because I thought it would be flexible enough to fit around my family life. I am proud to say that I’ve recently become a volunteer reader to the Dallas Reading Resource center which provides a huge variety of audio material for those people who can’t read. It’s a fantastic facility, they reach out to so many people, and it feels good to be using my training for such a good cause.
If you could be on any reality show, which one would you choose?
That is so easy! I am a HUGE fan of American Idol and The X Factor so I would have to be on one of those. Although I’d prefer to be a judge if possible because it must be absolutely nerve-wracking to be a contestant!
Where would be your dream vacation?
I would be alone in an old stone cottage, half-way up a hill somewhere with a view of the sea, there would be a log fire, a steaming coffee pot, a tray set with jam and scones and a bookshelf crammed with books. The only sounds would be the crackling fire, waves crashing back and forth and rain lashing against the windows. I would be wearing cozy jeans, a pair of fleece slippers and a huge, but stylish, baggy jumper and I wouldn’t wash my hair for days! Ooh when can I go?
What is your advice to aspiring writers?
My advice to anyone wanting to start writing is the same advice I tell myself all the time (and it’s also the title of a FAB book by Susan Jeffers which I always recommend because you can apply it to all aspects of life): “Feel the fear – and do it anyway!” Just get started and don’t delete ANYTHING at first. Let the story come out; there’ll be plenty of time to edit your work later.
Debut Author Spotlight: Aidan Donnelley Rowley
Debut Author: Aidan Donnelley Rowley
Debut Novel: Life After Yes
I met Aidan because her debut novel, Life After Yes, was the final selection for the fabulous book club I belong to- SheKnows. The SheKnows bloggers got to vote on our last book, and I am sure glad we chose Life After Yes. Here is a clip of my five star review:
“Life After Yes was one of my favorite reads of 2010. I commend Aidan Donnelley Rowley for writing such a truthful story, with real characters and real problems. I almost feel this novel should come with a warning label: Will you risk asking yourself the questions Quinn is asking of herself? Are you brave enough to face the answers? I recommend everyone to read this book, chick lit fan or not. I think we can all identify with a piece of Quinn, and take away a lesson on true happiness.”
After our selection was chosen, I hopped online to find out more about Aidan Donnelley Rowley, and was pleasantly surprised to find that she has a pretty unique blog going. Aidan tackles numerous subjects, ranging from pregnancy and parenthood, health and happiness, and of course- writing. Her blog is titled “Ivy League Insecurities” which I found interesting. Like her main character Quinn in Life After Yes, Aidan is Ivy League educated, and attended Yale College and Columbia Law School. She worked as a lawyer for a hot second, but now has focused on her family- who includes her two young daughters- and her writing. Aidan blogs about her daily life, her struggles as a writer, and her insecurities. I like her blog because she feels like a real person. Yeah, she has an Ivy League education. And yes, she has published a fantastic novel. But she isn’t afraid to admit her insecurities. I find her writing refreshing, meaningful, and inspiring.
So please take some time out to swing by Ivy League Insecurities and drop a line to Aidan, or visit her on Twitter or Facebook. If you haven’t picked up your copy yet of Life After Yes, you will want to get that on your Christmas list. I gave Aidan’s debut a five star review, and I’m sure many other readers will agree!
