Sugar Milk: What One Dad Drinks When He Can’t Afford Vodka, Ron Mattocks – Review
By all appearances, Ron Mattocks was leading a successful life. As he drove a fast car to and from his downtown loft and his executive job, he considered himself a good father, even transferring across the country to live closer to his three sons after his divorce. But after an unexpected economic downturn, Ron suddenly began to question everything he knew about success and fatherhood.
After surviving the ups and downs of Internet dating, Ron shares how he remarried, inherited two stepdaughters, and then lost his job, subsequently becoming a stay-at-home dad. In this hilarious and touching account of his daily battles against subversive Care Bears, fire-belching demons, the pancake mafia, and his own masculinity-all while struggling to reunite with his children-Ron provides a glimpse into how he took lemons and created not only lemonade, but a lifetime of memories with his family.
From his highest highs to his lowest lows, Ron Mattocks shares the compelling story of how, without a parenting manual in sight, he learned to fumble his way through fatherhood with modesty, courage, and a whole lot of humor. - FROM AMAZON
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Ron Mattocks is a father of five who, after stints in the Army and corporate America, became a stay-at-home dad. He has a degree in English Literature from St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas, and has been published in several magazines as well as on-line. He and his wife reside in Houston, Texas.
Find Ron...TWITTER - BLOG - FACEBOOK
FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS...Ron will have you laughing hysterically as you envision the scenes of his dating experiences after his first marriage, employment and unemployment, step-parenting, and 2nd marriage in his book Sugar Milk. One of my favorite moments he talks about? So many funny ones! His first taste of internet dating, strawberry pancakes and the beheaded My Little Pony smeared with strawberry jam he discovered the next morning, stuffed animals held hostage, and of course sugar milk...after telling my own husband about Ron recycling cereal milk and his internet dating incidents, he too couldn't help but laugh. Great book that will leave you doubled over!
Let me now leave you with what Ron wrote in my book...
"Life is sweet like sugar in milk!" ABSOLUTELY!!
Dear Lilly, Peter Greyson – Review
TITLE: Dear Lilly
AUTHOR: Peter Greyson
PUBLISHER: iUniverse
PUBLICATION DATE: April 21, 2009
PAPERBACK PAGES: 268
GENRE: Non-Fiction, Parenting Resource, Memoir
A father offers his advice, opinions, and the many useful stories gleaned from his past experiences in order to help his beloved daughter not only survive, but thrive in the dangerous and unpredictable world of young adulthood.
From the pen of a former abused child, drug addict, womanizing frat boy, and suicidal depressive, comes forth the emotionally stirring account of a young man's battle with crippling inner demons and his eventual road to enlightenment. Peter Greyson calls upon his wisdom as both father and school teacher to gently lead teenage girls through a maze of truth, deception, and adolescent uncertainty. Greyson's literary style sparkles with a youthful enthusiasm that will capture your heart and provide boundless inspiration.
Dear Lilly is a survival guide that offers the brutally honest male perspective to young women struggling for answers to life's deepest questions. Topics include:
- Boys lie
- What every guy wants from his girlfriend
- Everybody hurts
- High school exposed
FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS...Reading this book made me miss my own dad who passed away in 1993 when I was 15. If only more dad's were this honest and open to share things about life perhaps our girls wouldn't fall into too much trouble or feel closer to their own dad's. I found this book to be an easy read, informational and even gave me ideas on how to talk to my children about different things in life such as friendships, drugs and alcohol, depression, safety, hope, body image - all things that touch a person's life.
Accidental Lessons, David Berner – Author Guest Post
Accidental Lessons is a remarkable memoir by successful Chicago journalist David W. Berner. Berner takes the reader inside his own personal journey; a heart wrenching and inspirational account of self-discovery. After a series of personal upheavals – his marriage falls apart, his father becomes terminally ill, and his career crumbles – this respected reporter makes a difficult decision that changes his life forever. Berner takes a job in a public school outside Chicago where the students are facing traumatic obstacles – dysfunctional families, gangs, and drugs. What he learns from them teaches him invaluable lessons about himself, who he is, and why he became a journalist in the first place – to seek out the truth and give voice to those who need their story told. You can visit his website at www.davidwberner.com or www.accidentallessons.com.
AUTHOR GUEST POST...The Tough Work of Memoir
I am frequently asked these questions: How tough is it to write about your own life? Is writing memoir cathartic, therapeutic? And, when do you know not to go too far and turn meaningful memoir into insufferable drool?
My memoir, Accidental Lessons – A Memoir of a Rookie Teacher and a Life Renewed, took six years of my life to write. And because much of my recent writing work is memoir or creative nonfiction based on personal experience, I find that time can reveal whether the material is worthy of sharing. If it resonates with others, letting the story sit for a time, ferment and seep into itself is an essential step. And that’s why these questions are not so easily answered.
Writing a personal memoir is packed with anxiety. For a memoir to be successful, the author cannot compromise on honesty. He opens himself up to the world for all to see, analyze, and judge. If the reader doesn’t like the story, some might consider that an indictment of one’s life. Philip Gerard, in his book Creative Nonfiction, insists that in memoir the narrator must “put himself on the line.” He writes that the author of memoir “has no buffer, no illusion of narrative distance, between himself and his subject.” Clearly, writing memoir takes guts.
But like the fiction writer, the author of personal memoir must also develop convincing and compelling characters, and that means the memoir’s narrator must also be a believable character. To accomplish this the writer must illuminate the persona of the narrator. This means revealing the narrator’s personality, his joys and fears, his motivations, his attributes, and his faults. In fiction, writers develop characters they hope the reader can see as authentic, but they can make up details of a life to meet the needs of the narrative, change entire personas to make the storyline work. In memoir the writer still must reveal elements of the narrator’s character and present them in ways that engage the reader and make the narrator compelling, but it must be done in the framework of reality and truth. The writer can’t make it up. And for the memoir to be successful the reader needs more than the facts. He needs intimate details about the narrator’s persona. I had to be willing to do all this to make the story work.
Lee Gutkind, in The Art of Creative Nonfiction, writes about authoring first-person narratives and asks, even demands, that the writer dig deep. Gutkind writes,“Tear yourself inside out. Unearth, dramatize, relive bad memories, frightening and life shaping-experiences. Tell humorous anecdotes about growing up on a farm or in the inner city.” In writing memoir, digging deep is part of the process. It’s dirty, backbreaking work. And yes, it’s tough, therapeutic, and, if the writer is not careful, can be insufferable drool. And goodness knows, you don’t want insufferable drool. The writer certainly doesn’t and the reader doesn’t either.
So, is it tough, therapeutic? Yes. Both. But when it’s over and it resonates, memoir writing may be an author’s most rewarding work.
Buckley’s Story, Ingrid King – Author Guest Post
"Buckley’s Story" is the story of how one small cat changed the author’s life in ways she never could have imagined. In this warm-hearted memoir, Ingrid King shares the story of Buckley, a joyful, enthusiastic and affectionate tortoiseshell cat she meets while managing a veterinary hospital. Buckley challenges Ingrid to overcome long-held emotional patterns and teaches both the author and the reader universal lessons about opening the heart, following intuition, and living a life filled with joy. When Ingrid leaves her job at the veterinary hospital to start her own business, Buckley comes home to live with her and Amber, another tortoiseshell cat who had adopted the author several years earlier.
Buckley is diagnosed with heart disease after only two years of living with Ingrid, and caring for Buckley through her illness only deepens the bond between cat and human. Interspersed with well-researched information about cat health in general, and heart disease in particular, the author describes the challenges and rewards of managing illness in a feline companion, and ultimately helping her through the final transition. Ingrid shares both the day-to-day joys of living with a special cat as well as the profound grief that comes with losing a beloved animal companion.
"Buckley’s Story" is a celebration of the soul connection between animals and humans, a connection that is eternal and transcends the physical dimension. - FROM THE AUTHOR SITE
AUTHOR GUEST POST...Animals as Teachers
I have always believed that animals come into our lives to teach us. First and foremost, they teach us about unconditional love. But they also teach us to stretch and grow, to reach beyond our self-imposed limits, and to expand our consciousness. They take us to places we did not think were possible for us to go. I’ve been fortunate to have a number of these animals in my life.
I got my first cat when I was in my twenties. Feebee was a grey tabby cat who was born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to a cat named Blue, who belonged to a childhood friend of my former husband. Walt and I were living in Germany at the time, but we would be moving back to the Washington , DC area shortly, so Walt’s friend saved one of the kittens in Blue’s litter for us. Meeting Feebee was love at first sight for me. We took him home as soon as we had moved into our new house in Northern Virginia , and for the next fifteen and a half years, Feebee was the love of my life. He saw me through my divorce as well as the death of my mother. He was my primary emotional support during those dark days. If it wasn’t for him, you might not be reading these words.
He was also instrumental in guiding me toward a new career. I was increasingly unhappy with my corporate job but had no clear sense of what I was meant to be doing with my life. Then Feebee took matters into his own paws, so to speak, and developed bladder stones. The time we then spent at veterinary hospitals for diagnosis, treatment, and surgery led me to change careers. I started volunteering and then working part time at veterinary hospitals, which eventually led to a full-time position managing an animal hospital—a position that came with an office cat with a very distinct personality. Virginia , a beautiful tortoiseshell cat, loved me fiercely, and made my dream of a fulfilling career complete. Whenever I had visualized my perfect job, that dream had always included a cat sleeping in a sunny spot on my desk. One of Virginia ’s favorite sleeping places was the spot right next to my computer, in front of a sunny window.
Several years later, Feebee lost his battle with lymphoma. Three months after he passed away, Amber came into my life. She was a stray who was brought to the animal hospital with her five kittens. She was emaciated and scrawny, but even then, her eventual beauty was evident. She is a dark tortoiseshell color, with an amber-colored, heart-shaped spot on top of her head, which became the reason for her name. Her kittens were adopted out to new homes in fairly rapid succession, but nobody was interested in the beautiful mommy cat. I did not think I was ready for another cat yet. The wound from Feebee’s passing was still very fresh and raw, but coming home to an empty house was becoming increasingly difficult, so I took Amber home, “just for the weekend.” She never returned to the animal hospital, and for the past nine years, her gentle, loving, wise presence, not to mention her almost constant purr, has been bringing love and affection into my life every day. She is also the inspiration behind my blog The Conscious Cat (www.consciouscat.net.
Virginia passed away two years after Feebee, and my office felt empty. For the next three years, I did not have an office cat. And then, in the spring of 2005, Buckley entered my life. She changed my life in ways I never could have imagined, and as I looked back over her life, I found that her lessons were universal lessons about opening the heart and living a joyful life, and I decided to share her story with the world in Buckley’s Story – Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Ingrid King is the author of Buckley’s Story – Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher. A former veterinary hospital manager turned writer, Ingrid publishes the online magazine News for You and Your Pet, covering topics ranging from conscious living to holistic and alternative health. She shares her experiences with consciously creating a joyful, happy and healthy life for pets and people on her popular blog, The Conscious Cat. Ingrid lives in Northern Virginia with her tortoiseshell cat Amber. For more information, please visit Ingrid’s website at www.ingridking.com. You can also find Ingrid on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ingrid.king) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/consciouscats).
Beyond Blue, Therese Borchard – Book Giveaway
Therese Borchard may be one of the frankest, funniest people on the planet. That, combined with her keen writing abilities has made her Beliefnet blog, Beyond Blue, one of the most trafficked blogs on the site.
BEYOND BLUE, the book, is part memoir/part self-help. It describes Borchard's experience of living with manic depression as well as providing cutting-edge research and information on dealing with mood disorders. By exposing her vulnerability, she endears herself immediately to the reader and then reduces even the most depressed to laughter as she provides a companion on the journey to recovery and the knowledge that the reader is not alone.
Comprised of four sections and twenty-one chapters, BEYOND BLUE covers a wide range of topics from codependency to addiction, poor body image to postpartum depression, from alternative medicine to psychopharmacology, managing anxiety to applying lessons from therapy. Because of her laser wit and Erma Bombeck sense of humor, every chapter is entertaining as well as serious. - FROM HACHETTE BOOKS
Visit ThereseBorchard.com
And check out Therese Borchard's daily blog on Beliefnet.com and the HuffingtonPost.com
Follow @ThereseBorchard on Twitter
FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS...Thanks to Hachette Books I'm giving away FIVE copies of Beyond Blue. This giveaway will run for 2 weeks (11/30-12/14). Commenters will be randomly selected and notified via e-mail. Winners will have 48 hours to reply back with their mailing address (US/Canada, No P.O. Box) or it goes to the next person.
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