Book Review: Obitchuary by Stephanie Hayes
Reviewer: Samantha I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Summary: Penny Perkins, journalist, upstanding citizen, dutiful bridesmaid, just killed…
In My Mailbox: Week of October 13
Title: Casey’s Quest
Author: Tamara Lee Dorris
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: At her father’s death, Casey Anderson discovers she was adopted at age four. Not able to remember anything, she sets out on a quest to discover why her birth mother gave her up and, and why her adopted parent kept it such a secret. She embarks on a dangerous and spiritually enlightening journey that proves to her, nothing is what it seems.
Title: A Medical Affair
Author: Anne McCarthy Strauss
Received: Booktrope Publishing
Synopsis: While under the care of her pulmonologist after a life-threatening asthma attack, Heather Morrison enters into an affair with her doctor. This affair violates the state’s code of conduct and his medical treatment violates the Hippocratic oath. Heather’s life is shattered as a result. After the doctor terminates the relationship, Heather begins research for her own healing, and armed with this information, she initiates a civil lawsuit. Although it is a work of fiction, A Medical Affair was extensively researched. A Medical Affair is a critical book for women who want to make educated decisions regarding their relationships with their doctors.
Title: Obitchuary
Author: Stephanie Hayes
Received: Stephanie Hayes
Synopsis: Penny Perkins, journalist, upstanding citizen, dutiful bridesmaid, just killed her date. Smashed him on the head with a bottle of Misty Mangoberry Merlot.
She is tipsy and panicked. She is wearing a heinous pink bridesmaid dress that makes her irrational. Penny knows she should call the cops and explain her date’s grabby hands, his crazy eyes. She should cry self-defense. She should do a lot of things she doesn’t do.
Things are about to get real complicated for Penny, as her dead date’s life unravels into a mystery the deeper she investigates. Death just happens to be her job.
She’s the newspaper’s obituary writer.
Title: Coming Home For Christmas
Author: Jenny Hale
Received: Bookouture
Synopsis: Coming Home for Christmas is a beautifully observed story about the importance of family, themagic of Christmas, and falling in love one snowflake at a time.
Fans of Trisha Ashley, Susan Wiggs, Carole Matthews and Susan Mallery – and anyone who loves the sound of carols and the twinkling of lights on the Christmas tree – will adore Jenny Hale’s feel-good debut.
Christmas is a time for family… isn’t it?
Allie Richfield loves Christmas, so when she lands a job as House Manager for the amazing Ashford Estate—which includes organizing the Marley family festivities—she is in her element. With a budget bigger than her life savings and a team of staff, how hard can it be?
As one-by-one she meets the Marleys, she’s about to find out…
Allie’s new boss, Robert, might be gorgeous, but he’s also colder than the snow outside and refuses to come home for Christmas. Robert’s playboy brother, Kip, flirts with her relentlessly; and his sister, Sloane, arrives home with baggage—both the divorce-kind and the Louis Vuitton kind. Their ninety-two year old grandmother, Pippa, spends her day grumbling at them all from her mobility scooter.
With Robert intending to sell Ashford, it’s the Marley’s last chance to create some happy memories in their family home—and Allie is determined to make it happen… even if it takes a little Christmas magic! With the festive spirit in full swing, she might even discover a little happiness of her own…
Title: Hunting With Lawn Darts
Author: Geoffrey McKeel
Received: Geoffrey McKeel
Synopsis: Chad Jordan is a nice guy. Just one day removed from a split with his longtime girlfriend, Stephanie, he now must venture back into the obscenely unforgiving world of modern dating. Having spent the last four years sequestered from the single life and with an outlook on courtship that expired about half a century ago, Chad soon finds out that being such a gentle soul, with a preternatural connection to his emotional side, does not necessarily supply him an advantage in finding compatibility. Only the most unlikely of refuges may be guiding his monumental struggle to find that special someone…
Title: The Drake Equation
Author: Heather Walsh
Received: Heather Walsh
Synopsis: She’s a Democrat, he’s a Republican. She spends her days fighting global warming at an environmental non-profit, he makes his living doing PR for Bell Motors and their fleet of SUVs. But as soon as they meet, Emily Crossley and Robert Drake realize they have encountered their intellectual match. You’re never challenged, he tells her.
You’ve surrounded yourself in a cocoon of people who think exactly the same way you do. She hurls the same accusation back at him, and the fiery debates begin.
Despite both of their attempts to derail it, there is no denying that they are falling in love. But their relationship is threatened by political differences, Robert’s excessive work hours, and Emily’s fear of losing her identity as she falls deeper in love.
Can their love survive? The Drake Equation is a tale of modern love and all its complexities.
Guest Post by Stephanie Hayes
Blog (title): Can you video-blog a whole novel? Stephanie Hayes is trying.
The internet is a vast and terrifying place full of foot fetishists and corgi pictures, plus potential for people who are creative.
Some people. If you’re a singer, you can croon soul runs into the camera while your mom makes Hamburger Helper behind you. If you’re a budding stylist, you can unload your latest shopping haul for all of YouTube. If you’re an author you can…
What, exactly?
You can blog and tweet and make a video trailer, but how do you tell your actual tale? Are the only two choices to publish traditionally or self-publish? If you tried to read 95,000 words at a coffee shop open mic, you’d get stoned to death with biscotti.
But maybe online…
I wanted to find out. I’m video-blogging a whole novel, one chapter at a time.
My book is called OBITCHUARY. It’s about a newspaper obit writer who kills her date and has to write his story. She learns all kinds of delicious stuff about him in the process.
I was fortunate enough to land an agent at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, and they gave me the thumbs-up on the video idea while we figure out how to publish. My book is a bit out there. It doesn’t neatly fit into any category. It’s not cozy. It’s fast and a little satirical, which made me think Foot Fetish Central might enjoy it. And, I hope, the rest of you.
I’ve read enough to know most new authors don’t make a ton of money, if any. I wasn’t worried about throwing away imaginary book sales. I was more excited about the prospect of building an audience who might stick around for more.
Here were my criteria:
1. I didn’t want to just sit in a chair and read. The last time I watched someone sit in a chair and read, it was first grade reading circle and it bored me then. I wanted it to feel like my character, Penny Perkins, was coming home after a crappy day of murdering, then plopping down on her bed and telling you everything.
2. I wanted illustrations. Looking at my just face for too long would make anybody’s contact lenses dry out. I value your eyes.
3. I wanted them to be somewhat short. People have little slivers of online time while they’re hoovering Lean Cuisine at work or cleaning up dog pee at home. They won’t sit for too long.
My challenges:
1. I have approximately zero technology skills. I do have an iPhone 4S with video and some very basic Windows editing software. So, that’s what I use. I kind of like the rough look. Again, Penny Perkins has no skills, either.
2. I have no artistic talent. So, I draw stick figures in Microsoft Paint. I’m getting pretty nimble with the mouse finger brush, if I can say so. I also use free clipart and public images, etc., etc.
3. Some chapters are too long. I try not to make any videos go over 12 minutes. If they do, I try to chop them down. It’s not always perfect, but I wrote a book, not a minuet.
I upload the videos to my YouTube Channel, then post them to my blog at stephinfections.com, plus Facebook and Twitter. I’m waiting to see how well the idea works, but I want to make it to the end of the book no matter what. I think it’s worth it the extra time. Even if I never sell a single copy, I can at least say I did something creative and followed through. I just want to tell a story. And that is kind of the point of this thing, isn’t it?
Stephanie Hayes is a journalist and author living in Clearwater, Florida. Follow her on Facebook and YouTube and Twitter and watch OBITCHUARY at stephinfections.com.
