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Friday, August 14, 2015

Book Review & Giveaway for Jennifer Roland's 10 Takes: Pacific Northwest Writers - Perspectives on Writing

Thank you WOW! Women on Writing for bringing Jennifer Roland's Book Blog Tour to Bring on Lemons!

In 10 Takes: Pacific Northwest Writers—Perspectives on Writing (Glad Eye Press, August 2015), Jennifer Roland sits down with some of her favorite authors and talks about writing.

From novelists to poets to playwrights, Jennifer interviews a variety of authors who have one thing in common—they have all chosen to make the Pacific Northwest their home. Covering a diversity of disciplines—from comics, fantasy, and detective novels to long-form poetry and illustrated children's series—10 distinguished authors provide unique perspectives about their craft, provide helpful writing advice and tips for success, and share their passion for living and writing in the Pacific Northwest.

Sit in on their conversations in this Q&A book!

10 Takes: Pacific Northwest Writers is available for pre-order at Glad Eye Press.

Book Giveaway Contest:
To win a copy of Ten Takes: Pacific Northwest Writers please enter by leaving a comment on this post. The giveaway contest closes next Monday, August 17th at 12:00 AM EST. We will announce the winner the same day in the comments. Good luck!

About the Author:

Jennifer Roland is a freelance and marketing writer with more than 20 years experience in newspaper, magazine, and marketing environments. Jennifer also works as a virtual assistant to writers, helping them build their online presence and connect with readers so they can focus on what they love—writing.

She loves fiction and writes that under the name Jennifer C. Rodland. She hopes to put all of the lessons she learned writing this book into getting more of that published.

Jennifer can be found online at:

10 Takes website and blog: http://10takesonwriting.com

Ed Tech Copywriter, Blogger, and Content Strategist: http://edtechcopywriter.com

Jennifer Roland author website: http://jennifer-roland.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jenroland

Instagram: http://instagram.com/thejenroland

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117768158798644275895/posts

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferroland

----- Review by Crystal J. Otto

10 Takes is a fabulous book for writers and non-writers alike. I found myself drawn into the stories and the way Roland wrote the book is very enjoyable. This is less of a formal interview and more of a collection of thoughts from coffee with a friend. The interviews are very conversational and they flow comfortably. Roland did a very nice job bringing everything together into a lovely book. It's interesting to hear from the authors themselves and to gain perspective and insight about their craft. 

Don't miss these other great tour stops coming up!!!

Friday, August 14 @ Ava Louise
Recently touring WOW! author Ava Louise hosts author Jennifer Roland who writes today’s guest post “Tidbits Around the Pacific Northwest”. Find out more about Jennifer, her thoughts on the Pacific Northwest, and her latest book series Ten Takes on Writing.
http://avalouise.net/


Saturday, August 15 @ Hott Books
The lovely Gina Hott of Hott Books is hosting author Jennifer Roland who writes today’s guest post titled “Interviewing Tips and Lessons Learned”. Find out more about Jennifer, her thoughts, and her latest book Ten Takes: Pacific Northwest Writers and participate in the giveaway to win your very own copy of this unique book!
http://www.hottbooks.com/

Tuesday, August 18 @ All Things Audry
Audry Fryer hosts today’s guest post “Writing Around a Day Job” by Jennifer Roland. Don’t miss this insightful post and opportunity to learn more about Roland’s latest book Ten Takes: Pacific Northwest Writers  In addition, a giveaway will also be offered.
http://allthingsaudry.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, August 19 @ M.C.Simon Writes
M.C. Simon reviews “Ten Takes on Writing” by author Jennifer Roland. Read Simon’s thoughts and get in on the giveaway to win a copy of this book for your own library!
http://www.mcsimonwrites.com/

Wednesday, August 19 @ I’d So Rather Be Reading
Jennifer Roland is today's spotlight author at I'd So Rather Be Reading
http://www.idsoratherbereading.com/

Thursday, August 20 @ Renee’s Pages
Renee Roberson offers readers an opportunity to hear from Jennifer Roland on the topic of “Time Management for Writers”. Learn more about this invaluable topic and get in on the giveaway for a copy of Roland’s latest book Ten Takes: Pacific Northwest Writers.
http://reneespages.blogspot.com/

Monday, August 24 @ Create Write Now
Jennifer Roland partners with Mari McCarthy of Create Write Now to offer readers a guest blog about “Making a Living Writing”. This is a great opportunity to learn from Roland as well as participating in a giveaway to win her latest book Ten Takes: Pacific Northwest Writers!
http://www.createwritenow.com/

Thursday, August 27 @ Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews
Today on Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews blogs readers can learn more about Jennifer Roland and her latest book Ten Takes: Pacific Northwest Writers and participate in a giveaway where one lucky winner will take home this fabulous book for their own collection. Jennifer Roland also offers a guest blog post about "Writers Conferences" so don't miss this great stop!
http://lisahaseltonsreviewsandinterviews.blogspot.com/

Friday, August 28 @ Memoir Writers Journey with Kathleen Pooler
Jennifer Roland visits Memoir Writers Journey with Kathleen Pooler and writes today’s guest post titled “Lessons Learned from Authors I’ve Interviewed”. This is a great opportunity to learn from Roland and find out more about her latest work Ten Takes: Pacific Northwest Writers!
http://krpooler.com/

Get Involved! If you have a website or blog and would like to host a WOW! Women on Writing touring author or schedule a tour of your own, please email me at: crystal@wow-womenonwriting.com

*****BOOK GIVEAWAY*****

Enter to win a copy of 10 Takes: Pacific Northwest Writers—Perspectives on Writing by Jennifer Roland! Just leave a comment below!



Monday, August 3, 2015

WOW! Women on Writing blog tour of "Fling!" by Lily Iona MacKenzie (review by Linda Juul) and GIVEAWAY

Thank you to WOW! Women on Writing for asking us to participate in this awesome tour!


REVIEW by guest blogger Linda Juul

This book has scatterings of Scottish and Indian superstitions woven throughout it.

Feather (who changed her name from a family name of Heather) is an old hippie. At one time she lived in a commune and named her son Weed. Now she leads a more conventional life, although she still dresses in somewhat of a hippie style.

One day her mother, Bubbles, gets a letter saying that after 70 years someone has found her mothers’ ashes and they want to return them to her. So Feather and Bubbles embark on a journey from Canada to Mexico City to claim the long lost ashes of Bubbles’ mother who ran away when Bubbles was a young girl. She can’t wait to be reunited with her mother. Bubbles will be celebrating her 90th birthday, she may be 90 but she certainly doesn’t think like a 90 year old woman. She has a boyfriend at her senior living center but he’s rather boring. She’s excited for the trip to Mexico with her daughter.

On one of their sightseeing adventures Bubbles steals a large urn from a museum because she knows it will be perfect for her mother’s ashes. At one point she adds some water to the dry ashes and her (younger) mother breaks out of the urn. The next thing I know Bubbles’ grandparents are traveling with them also. Feather enjoys getting to know her grandparents and great grandparents and learns some more understanding of her mother.

Feather searches for a shaman and finds one that she is very attracted to…he can change from an animal to human, but not at his will. Feather spends several days/night with him and gets separated from the rest of her family. While Bubbles and her ancestors travel about Bubbles gets some much loved attention from the Mexican men. The grandma keeps chickens in their hotel room. These are just some of their adventures.
The author is described as using magical realism at the heart of her writings. I give her great credit for use of her imagination.


About today's guest blogger: Linda is a grandma to 9 (& lovin' it)!!! In 2014/2015 she battled breast cancer and won! It has changed her outlook on life. Sometimes Linda forgets that she is over 60 (until looking in the mirror or when having one of those 'my aching body' days). She has many interests and looks forward to the time when she can try more. Currently Linda enjoys stamping, scrapbooking, reading, flea markets/thrift stores, sunshine, friends in the Royal Purple Belles (Red Hat society group), and some peace & quiet every now and then.

You can find Linda blogging at: http://lindaloveschocolate.blogspot.com/

Book Summary: Lily Iona MacKenzie’s debut novel Fling!, a wildly comic romp on mothers, daughters, art, and travel, will be published by Pen-L Publishing in July 2015. The book should appeal to a broad range of readers. While the main characters are middle-aged and older, their zest for life would draw readers of all ages, male or female, attracting the youthful adventurer in most people. The heart of the book is how they approach their aging selves and are open to new experiences.

About Fling!: When ninety-year-old Bubbles receives a letter from Mexico City asking her to pick up her mother’s ashes, lost there seventy years earlier and only now surfacing, she hatches a plan. A woman with a mission, Bubbles convinces her hippie daughter Feather to accompany her on the quest. Both women have recently shed husbands and have a secondary agenda: they’d like a little action. And they get it.

Alternating narratives weave together Feather and Bubbles’ odyssey. The two women travel south from Canada to Mexico where Bubbles’ long-dead mother, grandmother, and grandfather turn up, enlivening the narrative with their hilarious antics.

In Mexico, where reality and magic co-exist, Feather gets a new sense of her mother, and Bubbles’ quest for her mother’s ashes—and a new man—increases her zest for life. Unlike most women her age, fun-loving Bubbles takes risks, believing she’s immortal. She doesn’t hold back in any way, eating heartily and lusting after strangers, exulting in her youthful spirit.

Readers will believe they’ve found the fountain of youth themselves in this character. At ninety, Bubbles comes into her own, coming to age, proving it’s never too late to fulfill one’s dreams.




Buy links: Amazon



Paperback: 272 pages
Genre: Comedy and Family
Publisher: Pen-L Publishing (July 1, 2015)
ISBN-10: 1942428294
Twitter hashtag: # FlingMac

Fling is available as an e-book and paperback at Amazon


Book Giveaway Contest:
To win a copy of Fling please enter using the Rafflecopter form at the bottom of this post. The giveaway contest closes August 6th 2015. We will announce the winner the same day in the Rafflecopter widget. Good luck!


About the Author: A Canadian by birth, a high school dropout, and a mother at 17, in her early years, Lily Iona MacKenzie supported herself as a stock girl in the Hudson’s Bay Company, as a long distance operator for the former Alberta Government Telephones, and as a secretary (Bechtel Corp sponsored her into the States). She also was a cocktail waitress at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, briefly broke into the male-dominated world of the docks as a longshoreman (and almost got her legs broken), founded and managed a homeless shelter in Marin County, and eventually earned two Master’s degrees (one in Creative writing and one in the Humanities). She has published reviews, interviews, short fiction, poetry, travel pieces, essays, and memoir in over 140 American and Canadian venues. Fling, one of her novels, will be published in July 2015 by Pen-L Publishing. Bone Songs, another novel, will be published in 2016. Her poetry collection All This was published in 2011. She also teaches writing at the University of San Francisco, is vice-president of USF's part-time faculty union, paints, and travels widely with her husband. Visit her blog at:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lily-Iona-MacKenzie/829244327113557

@lilyionamac

lilyionamackenzie.wordpress.com


----------Remaining Blog Tour Dates


Tuesday, August 4 @ All Things Audry
Join fellow author Audry Fryer as she reviews "Fling" by Lily Iona MacKenzie.

http://allthingsaudry.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, August 5 @ MC Simon
Lily Iona MacKenzie shares insight about "Writing Like an Architect" as she writes the guest post for Mc Simon Writes. Find out more about this topic as well as MacKenzie's debut novel "Fling"

http://www.mcsimonwrites.com/

Thursday, August 6 @ Kathleen Pooler
Join Lily Iona MacKenzie as she writes about ""Timing and the Creative Process" as the guest author at Kathleen Pooler's Memoir Writer's Journey today. Learn more about MacKenzie and her debut novel "Fling"

http://krpooler.com/

Saturday, August 8 @ Hott Books
Today's guest author at Hott Books is Lily Iona MacKenzie with a guest post about revising your writing. Learn more about this topic as well as MacKenzie's debut novel "Fling".

http://www.hottbooks.com/

Monday, August 10 @ Create Write Now
Don't miss today's guest post at Mari McCarthy's Create Write Now. The topic is: "Writing as a Spiritual Path and an Exercise in Trust" written by Lily Iona MacKenzie as part of her book blog tour for her debut novel "Fling"

http://www.createwritenow.com/

Tuesday, August 11 @ Lisa Haselton
Lily Iona MacKenzie authors today's guest post at Lisa Hasleton's blog. Don't miss this topic of "Blogging" and find out more about MacKenzie's debut novel "Fling"

http://lisahaseltonsreviewsandinterviews.blogspot.com/

Friday, August 14 @ Slay the Writer
Fellow author Trisha Slay reviews the debut novel "Fling" by Lily Iona MacKenzie

http://trishaslay.com/




*****BOOK GIVEAWAY*****

Enter to win a copy of Fling by Lily Iona MacKenzie! Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. The winner will be announced on August 6th