Month: June 2014

A Natives Tongue by Michael D. Dennis Excerpt

native book cover

About The Book

In Michael D. Dennis’s touching new novel, A Native’s Tongue, a young man, torn between two women, struggles to find his way in the world.

As I walked out under the Los Angeles sky, the possibility of becoming something more than a short order cook, living in the valley, and resenting my dysfunctional family occurred to me…

Charlie Winters has never been an overachiever. He is used to just getting by while living with his single mother and working a dead-end job at a cheesesteak stand. Meanwhile, he’s constantly grappling with the voice of his sister, who died in a tragic car accident years earlier, echoing in his head.

So when Violet, an older woman, sets her sights on Charlie and refuses to let go, he follows along. He soon finds himself immersed in a destructive relationship that still fails to fill the void within him.

But then he meets Jennifer, a mystical young woman whose energy and life convinces Charlie to pursue her, even through the darkest corners of Los Angeles, and sets their lives upon a path that can’t be stopped.

Escaping to the California coast, Charlie and Jennifer finally find what they’ve always needed. But a sudden illness quickly pulls them both back to LA. It is there, amid the sex, drugs, and split-second decisions that pulse through the city, that tragedy strikes—threatening to tear Charlie and Jennifer apart forever.

Love and tragedy collide in Michael D. Dennis’s poignant new novel, A Native’s Tongue.

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About The Author

Michael D. Dennis is an author and playwright who earned a degree in English literature from Loyola Marymount University. Winner of a LMU Playwriting Award for his play Death of a Watchdog, Michael also had his play, Hen in the Field, produced at the Whitefire Theatre in 2012. His highly anticipated debut novel, A Native’s Tongue, will be released in June 2014. Michael currently lives in Santa Monica, California with his girlfriend and two dogs, Jack and Aurora. To learn more, go to http://www.michaelddennis.com/ or connect with Michael on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/michaeldaviddennis) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/MichaelDDennis).

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Mortimer Adler-Quote Of The Week

Quote Of The Week

This week’s quote is by Mortimer Adler.  Like always read the quote and I will give you my thoughts on it below.

Mortimer Adler

I saw this quote and I knew I wanted to use it.  It made me smile and figured why not use it and hopefully give you a reason to smile as well.  Even now as I think about this quote I can’t help but smile because it is true & yet funny all at the same time.

What do you think of this quote???  As always please let me know what quotes you love right now & maybe I will use them in the coming weeks.

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

Adoption Thoughts: Things People Say

Adoption Thoughts

This week I am going to write another post in my adoption thoughts series.  This post is going to be about my current thoughts on people telling me “I could never do what you did” and “You are so strong”.  There are times when hearing these things don’t really bother me and I will just say thank you to them but then there are times like right now when hearing both of these things just get on my nerves.

When people say “I could never do what you did” it usually leaves me just staring at them because how do you really respond to something like that.  Up until recently I haven’t really said things back to anyone but now I almost always say “unless you have been in the same situation you don’t know what you would be able to do”.  I know people just say this because they don’t think they could do it but I didn’t think I could do it either until I was in the situation.  I never thought that placing a baby for adoption was something I could handle but once I was pregnant with her I knew without a doubt that it was something that I had to do.  I mean who grows up thinking that they are going to give birth to a child and then place that child for adoption.

Now when people tell me I am so strong this quote always pops into my head:

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Being strong is always relative to the person.  Like the quote says you won’t know what you can do or how strong you are until you have to face it and deal with whatever is happening to you.

I guess the whole thing for me is that I just did what I had to do in the situation that I found myself in.  I know in parts of this post I sound harsh but this is how I feel some days and I don’t want to sugarcoat things or make is seem like these things don’t really bother me.  I have spent many years not talking about how things make me feel and I don’t want to do that anymore.  For the first time I want to be honest with others and even myself.

If there is anything about adoption that you would like me to talk about please let me know and I will work on it for you.

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

Happy To Be Alive, Because by Chelsea Jacobs

Book Review Graphic

Happy To Be Alive, Because by Chelsea Jacobs’ was a great book to read.  This actually made me want to start to keep a journal where I say what is making me happy that day or even right at that moment.  This book was a super easy read for me but it was also a book that I didn’t want to put down until it was done.  I loved this book so much and I can’t even really give you reasons because I really loved everything about this book.  If you love young adult fiction than I know you will love this book.  I am usually not a fan of YA books but I am glad I received this one to review because I loved everything about this book.

Happy

About The Book

Avery is a seventeen-year-old girl whose reality has just been shattered by the death of her mother. Feeling a desperate need to flee from what has become her life, she follows a travel plan meant for her mom and her that leads her to the little beach town where her mom grew up. It’s there that she meets a group of three adventurous friends who adopt her into their circle, allowing her to experience a summer she never thought would be possible after suffering such a great loss. Unfortunately, her summer full of experiences threatens to end abruptly when she realizes that one of the three has a secret that causes her to question everything about the new life she has been building.
Avery must learn to balance her grief and her desire for a future in order to achieve her mother’s final wish for her: That she would be happy to be alive.

Chelsea

About The Author

Chelsea grew up with an immense love for words—both reading them and writing them. She obtained her degree in English and has spent the time since then getting married to her high school sweetheart and chasing adventure so she’ll have something to write about. When she’s not drinking copious amounts of coffee while writing, she spends her time reading, playing with her puppy named Gatsby, and dreaming, always dreaming.

Chelsea can be found at: website, Twitter

Find More Information & Reviews Here

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

Chaperoning Paris

 

Chaperoning Paris – Promo Blitz
By Victoria Pinder
Contemporary Romance
Date Published: June 11, 2014

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Gigi Dumont never forgot how she walked away from the only man she ever loved.
She’s a teacher who has led her students to the finals of an international French competition to be help in Paris. The night before the trip, the Principal tries to cancel the trip before he, in turn, loses his job to her high school boyfriend, Sean Collins.
Sean Collins has survived cancer, a divorce , and Gigi having aborted their child back in high school. He assumed he’d hate her, if they ever crossed paths again. But he discovers she’s exactly what he wants.
When Gigi and Sean are stuck together for a week in Paris, Gigi feels she has lost all her control. How can she survive her attraction to Sean? The man’s sexier now than he was back in the day, and once upon a time, he’d had her heart. She finds herself falling for him, even knowing forever is impossible.
EXCERPT

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret

Summertime & Multiple Sclerosis

Summertime

I am going to write about what summertime is like for me having Multiple Sclerosis (MS).  For those that are new or don’t know I live in Utah so it does get hot here in the summer and super cold in the wintertime.  We usually get into the upper 90’s slash low 100’s during the months of July & August and sometimes it can hot earlier than that.

Anyways now back to the topic at hand.  Those of us that have MS don’t do well in the heat.  The heat makes any MS symptoms we may be suffering from even worse than they usually are.  We also get super weak so we have to try and avoid overheating.    In this post I am going to give you some tips that I use when I am out shopping or at work to try and stay cool during the summer months.

The first thing  I do during the summer is try and not go out in the afternoon or early evening because that is when it is the hottest.  If I have shopping to do I try and get it done first thing in the morning so that I am not out during the hottest parts of the day.

The second thing that I do when I have to go out during the afternoon is try and park and close to the building so that I do not have to walk super far.  If I am with someone else and they are driving I will try and have them drop me off at the door and avoid walking through the parking lot.

The third thing I do is keep ice packs in the freezer so that when I am leaving work in the afternoons I can have it to keep myself cool.  My grandma thought of this one and I have to say that I loved it.  The exterior and interior of my car is dark in color so the inside of my car is always super hot after it has been sitting out all day so having an ice pack to put behind my neck while I am driving is a great way to keep my cool until my air conditioning in my car to cool the car down.

The forth thing that I do is leave my sun roof & windows cracked so that there is some air flow through the car.  This one can’t be done all the time because of the wind and things like that but I do try and do this one everyday because it also helps keep the inside of my car cooler on the super hot days.

Those are the top 4 tips I have for keeping cool in the summertime.  If you do anything different please let me know because I am always looking for other things to try.   Also if there is something about MS that you would like to know please let me know in the comments and I will make sure to write another post about it in the future.

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2014 Margaret Margaret