wanda-lynne-young-bookalicious

May

2012

Murder Mystery Meets Tragic History

Confined Space by Deryn Collier

French Canadian Bern Fortin is a young retiree at 45. Bern cut short his military career as a Canadian Forces commander to become the coroner for a small mountain town in BC. Bern's history in war-torn counties still haunt his everyday, but he escapes his symptoms of PTSD by burying himself in his gardening hobby. Evie Chapelle just turned 40 and buries herself in her job as the safety manager for Kootenay Landing's main employer Bugaboo Brewery. She prides herself on the brewery's recent safety record and award for 500 accident-free days, that is until a worker finds a disintegrating body floating in the bottle-washing tank. The workplace "accident" investigation takes a turn when the victim's girlfriend turns up dead in a nearby field. Bern and Evie are thrown into solving a mystery that will bring up their own painful personal memories. They both risk their safety and sanity in search of the killer in their community.

Confined Space is a superbly written novel by Deryn Collier. The suspenseful story will grab you right from the get-go with well-crafted characters and a richly layered plot. To learn more about Confined Space you can check out an excerpt of Chapter One and view the gripping book trailer below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Deryn Collier grew up in Ottawa and Montreal and now resides in British Columbia with her family. Her first novel Confined Space was shortlisted for the Authur Ellis Award for best unpublished first crime novel by the Crime Writers of Canada. You can learn more about Deryn and her novel Confined Space by visiting her website: www.deryncollier.com. Social media aficionados can follow @DerynCollier on Twitter, find Deryn Collier on Facebook and look her up on GoodReads: Confined Space.

AUTHOR EVENT

Deryn Collier will be attending the Bloody Words Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award 2012 in Toronto from June 1st-3rd. For more details on this event visit www.bloodywords2012.com.

YUMMY MUMMY BOOK CLUB

The #YMBC will be reading Confined Space and having a Twitter chat with our special guest author Deryn Collier! Save the date Wednesday, June 27th for what promises to be a thrilling discussion! Use the hashtag #ConfinedSpace during the chat and follow the #YMBC Twitter chat updates here: www.bookalicious.ca.

BOOKALICIOUS BOOK GRAB GIVEAWAY

Simon & Schuster Canada is giving away copies of Confined Space to 2 lucky Bookalicious readers! To enter the draw all you have to do is leave a comment below. For more Simon & Schuster Canada books and author information visit their website simonandschuster.ca, follow @SimonSchusterCA on Twitter and find Simon & Schuster Canada on Facebook.

Yummy Mummy Club Rules and Regs

You must be a Yummy Mummy Club member to win. Click to sign up! It's free and filled with perks. One comment per member. Entries accepted until June 13, 2012. Contest open to Canadian residents. Winners will be picked using www.random.org. Please mark the email [email protected] as a "safe sender" when you enter a Bookalicious giveaway and respond within 1 week to claim your prize. For more details on upcoming book news sign up for the Bookalicious Newsletter!

Relish reading,

Wanda Lynne Young

Photo credit: Natalie Santano

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Culture - Books

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Bookalicious

Wanda Lynne Young

Simon & Schuster Canada

May

2012

IDOL HANDS

by: Wanda Lynne Young

Guest Blogger Gets Her Hands on Cynthia Hill's Novel

Bookalicious Guest Blogger Tara Wagg had the opportunity to enjoy the novel Idol Hands and interview the author Cynthia Hill. You can find out Tara's take on Cynthia's character "Tara". Read on to see what I mean!

Idol Hands is the first novel by Cynthia Hill. As a teenager, Tara could have been the envy of every girl as the secret girlfriend of Aidan Forrest, teen idol and member of boy band Idol Hands. Now, Tara is a college drop out in a dead-end retail sales job, living in an apartment she cannot wait to get out of and married to a washed up high school athlete who spent their savings on a large screen TV dashing any hope of buying a house. Sleepless and completely disillusioned with her life, Tara is up late one night when she catches a clip of Aidan Forrest on a television show. Throwing caution to the wind, Tara decides to leave her life behind and find Aidan.

What ensues is a cross-country adventure with many stops along the way, a plethora of interesting characters and situations that makes the book absolutely impossible to put down. Tara shares her hunt for her true love through her diary entries, leading the reader through emotions, doubts and a twist that is never seen coming.

By Tara Wagg

Excerpt From Idol Hands

June 17, 2008 10:52am

I did go to sleep. I don’t even remember Steve leaving for work. It turns out that I do have to work, and I only have a few hours until I have to go, but now that I’m awake again, I’m just as confused as ever.

I couldn’t sleep… again. Steve had been in bed snoring away for hours and I ended up in the living room watching that stupid TV. I flipped channels for a while, and then I came across “Real Hollywood Story”. It was about Idol Hands.

I had to watch, I mean, how could I NOT watch? It was the weirdest thing – so surreal. My eyes were glued to the screen the whole time. It brought back so many memories. Things I haven’t thought of in YEARS.

So I’m watching, and I’m feeling all nostalgic, and a little sad, and then it just happens. I had to use the DVR to rewind because I couldn’t believe what I’d heard.

Aidan said he still loves me.

It was all so long ago. It feels like another lifetime. It can’t POSSIBLY have been me, can it? How does someone go from being the girlfriend of a member of one of the biggest boy bands ever, to living in a rat hole apartment with a husband so STUPID that he buys a TV instead of a house?

I must be delusional again. Maybe exhaustion is causing me to hallucinate? I know it’s not, though: I watched that same damned 30 seconds on the DVR about 50 times already. It really did happen, and he really did say it.

Memories are just… my whole mind is jumbled up right now.

Interview With Idol Hands Author Cynthia Hill

By Tara Wagg

How would you describe “Idol Hands” in one sentence?

That's hard to do: I have a hard time describing it at all! Idol Hands is the story of a woman trying to reclaim her life, and find her first love.

You provided a lot of information about being on the road with a ‘boy band’, where did you information and inspiration come from?

I'm obviously a long-term fan of a certain late 80s boy band, but since I've never actually spent any time on the road with them (darn it!) I had to use a combination of information from interviews that I've seen and read, stories from people who have been backstage, and a part of that kind of madness, and my own imagination. I think most former teen idols have the same sort of story: that kind of stifling "you're never alone but you're ALWAYS alone" kind of feeling.

Without giving anything away, the ending of Idol Hands was such a twist, did you know that was the way Tara was going to end her story? Or, did the ending surprise even you?

It started out as sort of a writing exercise for me, based on something that one of my high school teachers had said (many, MANY years ago). I can't say what that was, because it would give everything away, but I had always wanted the chance to play with that kind of a story. So yes, I knew right from the start that was how it was going to end. What HAS been a surprise to me has been the readers' reactions: I love getting messages from people after they've finished reading the book!

As a mother of four children, when do you find time and inspiration to write?

The inspiration isn't hard to find: I'm an observer, and I've constantly got some idea in my head that I'd like to play with. It's the motivation and time that can be hard to come by. "Idol Hands" was actually three years in the making, because I started it as part of the National Novel Writing Month competition, or "NaNoWriMo" as it's otherwise known. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in a month. I had the basic framework of the story, and a first draft, after that was over in November of 2008. I was already pregnant with my fourth child by then, and writing dropped off my radar for quite a while after that. When I finally picked it back up and finished the final draft, it was the summer of 2011. I'm hoping that future books won't take quite so long, though!

I read that you are now writing “What Lies Behind”. Can you tell us a little about the story?

I definitely don't want to get pegged as "that boy band writer." I'm very proud of Idol Hands, but it's definitely not fan fic, so I'm making sure that my next few books have nothing to do with the entertainment industry! As well, the new book is still dramatic, but not nearly as dark as Idol Hands. "What Lies Behind" is about an adult granddaughter (Lisa), trying to understand how her grandmother (Lillian) - now living in the final stages of Altzheimer's - became the hard woman that Lisa knew as a child. Lillian tells her story from the past, and Lisa tells hers from the present.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cynthia Hill is the mom to four, and a wife to one. Read Cynthia's bio for a few more details and a lot more fun. You can find out more about Cynthia Hill's novels by visiting her website www.cynthiahillbooks.com, follow her on Twitter: @IdolHandsbook and @8thcyn and find her Facebook Page Idol Hands.

To read more from Idol Hands check out this excerpt. Idol Hands is available in paperback and in many ebook formats. Check out where you can get your hands on Idol Hands by clicking here.

ABOUT THE GUEST BLOGGER

Bookalicious Guest Blogger Tara Wagg is the mom of two wonderful children, Special Education teacher, voracious reader and friend. Check out Tara's book blog Boomda’s Little Corner and follow her on Twitter: @boomda181.

BOOKALICIOUS BOOK GRAB GIVEAWAY

Cynthia Hill has a copy of Idol Hands to give to one lucky Bookalicious reader! To enter the draw just leave a comment in the "click here to spill it" bubble below. Good luck!

Yummy Rules and Regulations

You must be a Yummy Mummy Club member to win. Click here to sign up. It's free and filled with perks! One comment per member. Entries accepted until June 1st, 2012. Contest open to Canadian residents. Winners will be picked using www.random.org. Please mark the email [email protected] as a "safe sender" when you enter a Bookalicious giveaway and respond within 1 week to claim your prize. For more details on upcoming book news sign up for the Bookalicious Newsletter!

Relish reading,

Wanda Lynne Young

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May

2012

Happy Mother's Day From Bookalicious and Simon & Schuster Canada

by: Wanda Lynne Young

Chicken Soup For Moms

Mother's Day 2009 was a pivotal day for me, not just because my husband and two boys were spoiling me that day, but this was the day when Erica Ehm called to offer me the book blogger position with YMC. It's been 3 years and what a wild ride it has been! I've had the privilege to work along side so many fabulous bloggers, terrific YMC staff members, and wonderful Canadian publishers. It's like a dream come true for a book blogger to have the opportunity to work with awesome authors and help them promote their work!

To help celebrate my 3 year blog anniversary and Mother's Day I have 3 prize packs to offer to my Bookalicious readers. These awesome prize packs include Chicken Soup For The Soul: Stay-At-Home Moms and Chicken Soup For The Soul: The Magic Of Mothers And Daughters.

Chicken Soup For The Soul: Stay-At-Home Moms is a reissue of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms. This collection contains 101 inspiring stories that will speak to the multi-tasking mothers who have made the choice to be a stay-at-home, or a work-from-home parent. Included are musings from famous moms; Jane Green, Melora Hardin, Liz Lange, Jodi Picoult, and Jill Kargman.

Chicken Soup For The Soul: The Magic Of Mothers And Daughters celebrates the special bond between mother and daughter. Moms and daughters alike will delight in this selection of heartwarming, and poignant stories. Both of these books would make great gifts for Mother’s Day!

For a little fun and inspiration, check out this entertaining video of famous authors answering the question, "What is your mother famous for saying?"

SIMON & SCHUSTER CANADA MOTHER'S DAY SWEEPSTAKES

Simon & Schuster Canada is having a marvelous Mother's Day sweepstakes! Click on the image to enter pick-your-own-prize sweeps with selection of 5 books for Mom!

BOOKALICIOUS BOOK GRAB GIVEAWAY

Simons & Schuster Canada is giving away 3 prize packs containing Chicken Soup For The Soul: Stay-At-Home Moms and Chicken Soup For The Soul: The Magic Of Mothers And Daughters. To enter the draw all you have to do is leave a comment below. For more Simon & Schuster Canada books and author information visit their website simonandschuster.ca, follow @SimonSchusterCA on Twitter and find Simon & Schuster Canada on Facebook.

Yummy Mummy Club Rules and Regs

You must be a Yummy Mummy Club member to win. Click to sign up! It's free and filled with perks. One comment per member. Entries accepted until May 13, 2012. Contest open to Canadian residents. Winners will be picked using www.random.org. Please mark the email [email protected] as a "safe sender" when you enter a Bookalicious giveaway and respond within 1 week to claim your prize. For more details on upcoming book news sign up for the Bookalicious Newsletter!

Relish reading,

Wanda Lynne Young