 What a fun night.
Imagine making up a bunch of characters in your head. Then imagine bringing them to life, giving them faces and personalities and hopes and fears and quirks. Then imagine sitting with a group of friends who all know these made-up characters, have met each of them, and know their deep dark secrets and who they really are. Imagine getting to spend two hours talking about them like they are real people. I'm SO grateful to my little book club for reading THE FALL OF OUR SECRETS, and so appreciative for the insightful, thoughtful questions and comments. Some favorite moments and questions of the evening for me:
So interesting to learn how each person perceives each of the characters differently. Had lots of fun pulling up photos of actresses and actors on our smart phones, looking for the right fit. Overall, tonight was something I went into with some trepidation, but had a great time. I'm so pleased at everything readers are taking from the book, it is definitely a dream come true. Thank you ladies!
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 FIVE DAYS until the blog tour starts!
I'm so fortunate to have such great book bloggers and websites signed up to host me and THE FALL OF OUR SECRETS the next couple weeks. Listed below are the dates that something -- an interview, guest post, excerpt, or review -- will appear online. And if you click the picture to the left, you can enter to win a $20 Amazon gift card! October 20 – Relatively Yours – Guest Post October 22 – Fiction Zeal – Guest Post & Excerpt October 23 – Brenda Corey Dunne – Review & Guest Post October 24 – Chick Lit Plus – Review October 27 – Keep Calm and Blog On – Review & Excerpt October 28 – Ski-Wee’s Book Corner – Excerpt October 30 – Storm Goddess Book Reviews – Review & Guest Post October 31 – The Little Reading Cabin – Review November 3 – Jersey Girl Book Reviews – Review, Guest Post & Excerpt November 3 – Mrs. Mommy Booknerd’s Book Reviews – Guest Post & Q&A **Comment on the tour page to win a $20 Amazon gift card! The winner will be drawn November 4. Get 10 extras bonus entries if you purchase your copy of the book and send the receipt to Samantha @ ChickLitPlus (Dot) com!  Next Week!
In case you missed the Opera House book party, I'll be at BLUE FROG BOOKS in Howell, MI on Saturday October 25th from 12:30 - 2:30. Stop by and check out this great book store, they carry just about everything, the owner is super helpful and the atmosphere is unique and inviting!  I'll soon be stopping in at several fantastic book blog sites to chat about THE FALL OF OUR SECRETS.
Click the CLP tour button to see dates and itinerary. And enter to win an Amazon gift card! Many thanks to the bloggers who will be posting interviews, reviews and excerpts from the book. I can't wait to get started!  Part 3 of 3:
Longview is more than just a Green Day song. My books are full of strong female characters. Some are strong from the beginning and have to find a way to use that strength to improve their circumstances. Others have lost their strength under the weight of life, all the stressful, bad things that happen to us as we move from childhood to adulthood. Or even from idealistic young adulthood to middle age. Our strength can get buried under the debris of "shit happens." Finding our longview can help uncover our lost strength. I believe it's there in each of us, even if we haven't seen it in a long time. Most of us can identify at least one person who believed in us as kids, one person who saw what we might accomplish if we stayed the course. That was Part 1. Staying the course involves drive. Drive is vital to any kind of goal achievement. Drive is that voice at the end of the day, no matter our failures and shortcomings, that says, "It's okay. Try again tomorrow. And tomorrow after that." That was Part 2. Both those qualities only take us so far without the longview. Longview is what keeps on course. Longview isn't so much picking one goal and sticking to it no matter what. We all know that things change. Life changes us, and sometimes we needed to be changed. We often don't realize it at the time, but many changes we weather end up being exactly what we need in order to become the people we were meant to be. Longview is simply believing that our future is bright. That our aspirations aren't for nothing, that there are several destinations along our journey and we WILL make it to the ones that reward us for our great efforts to get there. This might sound pretty vague. Longview is looking forward, constantly moving forward, toward whatever it is we know we want--not some material, concrete thing, but a place in our life when we can look back, just for a moment, and realize that it was all worth it. Climbing out from underneath the obstacles that tried to crush our goals and dreams, continuing to focus on one thing. Just this: the life we imagined, as children, we could one day live. No specifics here. No "but I always wanted to be an astronaut." I'm talking about becoming the kind of person we want to be, no matter what profession, what role, what label we put on ourselves. As long as we possess the fortitude to do it, we should. How sad if we lose the ability to imagine that point in the future, lose the longview, and accept that this--this here and now, if it is not where we wish to stay--is our end destination, and that we are done trying to move forward toward a future we could once see. I'll go back to Garth Stein's book, The Art of Racing in The Rain. Yes, I'm using a dog as my point of reference. Enzo knew what he wanted. He had Denny Swift, his person who believed in him. He had drive, that compelling need to work toward the future he wanted. And Enzo had the longview. He knew that somehow, some way, he would one day achieve his goal. He believed it wholeheartedly. Sure, Enzo had dark days, he got discouraged, just like every one of us. Those are moments. We can let them drown us, or we can see them for what they are: moments. Moments pass. And then we open our eyes and find that point in the future, one of our hallowed destinations, and we get back on course, moving forward once again. "Your car goes where your eyes go"--the lasting lesson I learned from Enzo, probably one of the greatest lessons in life (more on that in an earlier blog post). A last thought: having the longview does not equate with being miserable in the here and now. The here and now is precious. The here and now, this spot in which we stand this very moment, used to be a bright point in our future that we were striving toward, even with the negatives that may come with it. We are here, now, living this moment. We must savor it. Embrace it. And look forward while we do. Life is short. But life is also long, with so many opportunities to really live. We should never underestimate what we are capable of. What would be the point in that? I hope I never lose the longview, no matter how far down the road I get. After all, it's a vital tool I'll need for this journey that is life.  Just the facts:
See you tomorrow! 
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