Archive for August, 2007

August 31, 2007 • 20 Comments

MySpace Glitters

My final guest today is the wonderfully witty Eileen Cook. Check out an excerpt of Eileen’s book on her website. It really is laugh outloud funny.

 

I like the idea of getting a “fresh start.”  It reminds me of laundry detergent. People who know me are already aware I have serious Bounce dryer sheet addiction issues. You know in advertisements where they show women having near orgasmic love for their fresh from the dryer laundry and you think “who acts like that?”  the answer is me. I love those dryer sheets more than some people love their family. (Although depending on your family this may or may not be impressive.)

 

Things you might not know about dryer sheets:

 

• They repel ants, mice, mosquitoes and yellow jackets. So if you hate these creatures you can just create a necklace of dryer sheets and wear it around. Or you could sew them all together and make an outfit. You won’t be stylish- but you also won’t be bothered by vermin.  Life is all about choices people.

 

• Gets soap scum off shower doors. (Yes, I know if I cleaned the shower more often I wouldn’t have soap scum issues, but I’m busy doing things like writing this information filled blog.)

 

• They’re great at picking up cat hair or saw dust.

 

• Rub them on your pantyhose and you won’t get that nasty skirt creep that can happen. No one needs that- no one.

 

• They are extremely flammable. This may be an issue if you went with idea under the first point of making an outfit out of dryer sheets. Although you may be ant free, if anyone smokes around you there is the very real chance you will go up in flames. (although your charred bits will have a lovely smell.)

 

So if dryer sheets can be used so many different ways- it seems to me that people should have the same advantage.  (most of us being a bit more evolved than dryer sheets- although of few of the guys I dated in college are a bit iffy on this subject. )  Too often we think there is only one way we can go, one direction in life, one set of rules. We have to be the “smart one,”  the “pretty one” or the “sporty kid.”  We forget that we can do so much more, we can be so much more.  Who knows what you might excel at if you just gave it a chance?  If the dryer sheet can do it- so can you.

 

 

For a chance to win a prize from Eileen, tell us what is the one new thing you would like to learn?

 

Eileen Cook lives and works in Vancouver Canada. Her day job is as a counselor for individuals with disabilities. Since this provides her with too much reality, she turned to writing where she can control the ending. Her work has been published with CBC Radio, Woman’s World Magazine, First Line Magazine, The National Post and The North Shore News.

 

Eileen’s first novel was bought by Penguin/Berkely and will be coming out in February 2008. She anticipates that this will provide sufficient opportunity to celebrate multiple times with copious amounts of champagne. She is hard at work at figuring out how many times she can fit in the terms my agent, my editor or my soon to published novel, into unrelated conversations.

 

 

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My second guest today is the fabulous Linda Gerber. Check out the photo above. Linda spotted the cherries dangling in a car and snapped them! Are they cute, or what?

 

 

Hi! Welcome to the party! In case you’re new or just now dropping in, we’re celebrating the release of Sara’s new book, The Second Virginity of Suzy Green. Grab a drink, snag some hors d’œvures and mingle! Then come on back and let’s chat.

Now, because we’re in a party mood and my guard is down, I’ll let you in on a little secret: Suzy Green lived my fantasy. No, not the pretend virginity part, thank you. The new persona part. I seriously used to wish that I could move to a different school and do the whole start-over thing.

It all began back in junior high when Amy Stanton (name changed to protect the more fortunate) moved to our school. Amy had gone to elementary school with our group and had been mildly popular. Then her family moved away for about three years. When she returned, it was like she was a different person. Cooler. More stylish. Definitely more popular with the boys. I was just sure that if only I had the chance to move to a different place (whether or not I came back,) I would get to be cool and stylish like Amy. People (boys) would be impressed.

Well, I never got to move away while I was in school, so I had to come up with a suitable alternative. I lived in a college town, and every summer the university ran sports camps for high school athletes. You guessed it – my friends and I crashed the camp dances and we became someone new every two weeks when the sports camps rotated. Same location, different us. I think we were cheerleaders, artists, models, top athletes at our school, you name it. (I’ll save the moral of the story for Sara’s book!)

So, tell me… has anyone else ever wished they could reinvent themselves? Have you moved or gone on vacation or returned from a long absence and been someone completely new – even for a little while? Have you had a Suzy Green experience? We want to hear about it!

Here’s the deal – reply to this post. On September 3, three randomly-selected participants will win a copy of my upcoming SASS novel, The Finnish Line, about a Nordic ski jumper who tries to leave her family name behind when she goes to Finland on an athlete exchange. Oh, and she falls for a seriously cute gypsy jumper along the way…

Meanwhile, enjoy the party! Don’t forget to tip the valet. And grab your copy of The Second Virginity of Suzy Green on the way home!

Linda Gerber finally realized her fantasy after college when she moved to Finland and more recently to Japan. Her experiences led to her first two SASS novels, NOW AND ZEN and THE FINNISH LINE. Time in Hawaii inspired her upcoming 2008 release, DEATH BY BIKINI. Her reinvented self currently lives and writes in Ohio.

 

 

 

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MySpace Glitters

 

Welcome to day 2 of the party. Yesterday was totally amazing. Thanks so much for stopping by.

 

Today I have yet another fabulous line up. We start with my very good friend and extremely talented author Wendy Toliver. I’ve already ordered her book from Amazon, and am hanging out ‘til December when I can read it.

 

Hello! My name is Wendy Toliver, and I’m proud to be one of Sara Hantz’s very favorite people in the whole wide world. Had to get that “wide” part in because she lives in New Zealand and I live in … Utah. Anyway, I’m honored to be a part of this awesome Book Launch Blog Party, so thank you, Sara, for inviting me here.  

 

In Sara Hantz’s brilliant debut, THE SECOND VIRGINITY OF SUZY GREEN, Suzy has to wear a school uniform of a long, green and gray checked skirt. (Ewww!) It seems like these days, school uniforms are getting more and more popular in private and public schools alike. I’m curious how many of you lovely readers out there have to (or had to) wear a school uniform. And what do you think about it? Do you enjoy the fact that you don’t have to spend twenty minutes every morning thrashing through your closet for something to wear every morning? Do you think the pea green vest brings out the hazel specks in your eyes? Does the skirt makes your legs look longer? Are the guys’ butts lookin’ good in those navy chinos? Do you save hundreds of hard-earned dollars each year not having to buy quite as many clothes?

 

OR … Do you think it’s a blatant infraction of your rights to be denied the choice of your attire? Are you allergic to conformity? Do you hate that you can’t showcase your amazing and inspired sense of fashion? Is your uniform totally hideous and scratchy, and you can’t wait to peel out of it the second the last bell rings?

 

Comment for a prize! Tell me a story or your opinion about school uniforms, whether you have (had) to wear one or not, and the comment I find the funniest, most mortifying, most inspired, most interesting – you get the gist – will win a super cool, super fashionable Marcel Schurman Collection notepad set. Good luck!

 

Wendy Toliver

THE SECRET LIFE OF A TEENAGE SIREN

Simon Pulse Dec. 2007

WendyToliver.com

 

 

August 30, 2007 • Comments

Check out my blog and join the party. Lots of prizes to be won from now until 7th September!!

36 Comments

MySpace Glitters

I have to keep pinching myself, because I can’t believe how lucky I am. Not only do I have Alyson joining me today but also the absolutely amazing Lauren Baratz-Logsted

MY FRESH START

It was November 1994, when I left my day job to take a chance on myself as a writer. I was 32 years old and for 11 years had been a buyer for what was then the biggest independent bookstore in the Northeast. My job, which I did mostly love, came with a decent salary, full medical benefits and four weeks’ paid vacation a year. That’s a lot to walk away from, when you’re walking into nothing, and many people thought I was nuts. But I’d promised myself that I wasn’t going to let one more New Year’s Eve go by where I vowed to write a novel that year…and then didn’t. There was just no way, if I kept a job that took me away from home 55 hours a week door to door, and sucked out all of my brain cells, that I’d ever fulfill my dream.

So I quit. Just like that.

Much of my story has been well-documented elsewhere on the Web, so I won’t go into all the gories, but suffice it to say it took me nearly eight years - during which I wrote several books, went through several agents, and worked several part-time jobs - before I finally sold a book. Now I’ve had seven books published since 2003, with at least five more coming in 2008. You could say my dreams have come true.

It was a long struggle, and the struggle when you’re a writer never really ends, but I’ve never once been sorry. Not to tread on anyone else’s religious beliefs, but the only life I’m absolutely certain I’ll ever have is this one. I intend on spending it pursuing my dreams.

And, one nice thing about being a novelist: every time you write a new book, it’s a fresh start.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted is the author of many adult novels. Her first book for Young Adults, ANGEL’S CHOICE, was published in 2006. In 2008, Lauren will see five more books published, including another YA, SECRETS OF MY SUBURBAN LIFE, and her first tween novel, ME, IN BETWEEN. You can read more about Lauren’s books as www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com

 

For a chance to win a signed copy of Angel’s Choice post a comment!!

31 Comments

MySpace Glitters

Welcome to day one of my launch party, and man have I got a party for you.

I have loads of guests over the next 9 days and some amazing prizes. Not only will all my guests offer a prize but there will be some giveaways from me too, including 2 autographed copies of The Second Virginity of Suzy Green.

Seeing as Suzy makes a fresh start in the book, I’ve asked all my guests to blog about their fresh starts.

And what better way to start than with the totally fabulous Alyson Noel:

 

Starting Over

I’m so excited to be taking part in Sara’s blog party to celebrate her debut novel, THE SECOND VIRGINITY OF SUZY GREEN, because not only is that one great title, (with a really great cover as well!), but I’ve heard such good things about it that I can hardly wait to get my own copy and dig in!

And in the odd, often unexplainable synchronicity of the universe, my next teen novel, SAVING ZOË, will also be released in September, and like Sara’s, mine is also about how one goes about starting over after experiencing a devastating loss.

And since both our books are about new beginnings, it got me thinking about my own new beginnings, all the times I’ve made a fresh start, some of them voluntary—like the time I moved to Mykonos, where I lived for several years until the charm of island life ran its course and I returned home, and some of them not—like the time my family moved to a new town, back when I was in third grade, and how every day I showed up at school with the most awful stomach ache I feared would never go away (it did).

But third grade nerves aside, I’m usually one who embraces change and looks forward to the challenge of anything new. And I’ll never forget the day I was hired as a flight attendant, specifically for the NYC base, and how the supervisor gave me the news, regretfully adding, “Don’t worry, it’s not all bad in New York. Just try to hang in there and get through it, and who knows? Maybe in a couple years you can transfer back to L.A.”

Back to L.A? I looked at her as though she was crazy. I couldn’t wait to get to the Big Apple. Couldn’t wait to inhabit a place that promised to be the exact opposite of everything I’d experienced on that tiny Greek Island—chaos instead of calm, grime in place of pristine, anonymity over familiarity. Bring it on, I thought. The sooner the better!

I like seeing new places, meeting new people, and trying new things. I donate old clothes whenever I buy something new, and I’ve experimented with my hair so many times now, that, to quote an old Talking Heads song, “I no longer know what I look like.”

Of course not all change is welcome, and it certainly doesn’t always result in something good. In the last two years I’ve experienced both the serious illnesses and the tragic loss of several people I held dear, resulting in days when just being able to take a shower and get dressed felt like I’d accomplished something big.

And yet, out of all of that sadness and loss came SAVING ZOË, a book I’m especially proud of, a book where the writing came so fast and furious it felt almost like a fever dream—the end result of so much grief, so much questioning, so much wondering why?

And though I still may not know why, the one thing I did learn is this: Whether you’re a person who embraces change, or one who fights to keep things the same, sometimes it just has a way of sneaking up on you, bringing the opportunity for either joy or growth. And sometimes, when you’re really lucky, you get both.

What about you? What are some of the changes you’ve made (or that were made for you) that impacted your life?

LEAVE A COMMENT FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF SAVING ZOE!

Alyson Noël is an OC native and the author of the teen novels, FAKING 19, ART GEEKS AND PROM QUEENS, LAGUNA COVE, KISS & BLOG, and SAVING ZOË, as well as the adult novel FLY ME TO THE MOON.

You can visit her at- www.alysonnoel.com