Friday, May 31, 2013

TVBT: GEODUCKS ARE FOR LOVERS: Guest Post with Daisy Prescott, Review and Enter to win a KINDLE E-READER


Giveaway
Daisy is hosting a Tour Wide Giveaway of
A KINDLE E-READER ($69.00 Value)
Enter Below
 
 
A Tasty Read is THRILLED to have Daisy Prescott as a Guest Today, where she is talking about the AGE-old question.....


Forty is the New Twenty... or is it better?

 

            “The last time I felt totally in control of my life, and also the first time I felt like I was a real adult, was at twenty-seven.” Maggie muses. “I had a husband, a career, a NYC life. Recent grads were young and silly. Anyone over thirty was stuck. Forty was ancient. Little did I realize how fleeting the feeling would be. How fleeting that life would be.”

            “Would you go back?” Selah asks.

            “Me?” Maggie confirms. Taking a minute to think about it, she shakes her head. “No, I don’t think I would. Would any of you?”

 ~ Geoducks Are for Lovers

 

            The media loves to tell us that forty is the new twenty as if everyone on the far side of their twenties is desperate to do the impossible and return to being a twenty-something.

 
            Not me. Maybe in theory, but the reality of being a twenty-something wasn't all that fun.

 
            My novel, Geoducks Are for Lovers, focuses on a group of forty-something friends who get together for a summer weekend at the beach. As with any group of old friends, they spend some of the weekend reminiscing about their younger selves as well as catching up on their lives today. There's a lot of talk about the fun of twenty and the realities of being forty. When you're twenty, forty sounds like old age. When you are forty, twenty seems like another lifetime. Or yesterday. Sometimes both.

 
            In a positive light, if forty is the new twenty, that just means there are lots of adventures still to experience.  You don't have to go quietly into the night of “middle age” and mom jeans.

 
            Forty is freedom

In your twenties, there's a freedom with being out on your own, being in charge of your life, and your direction. But there is also the feeling that every decision will be set in stone. At forty you know yourself better and learn that life is fluid and ever-changing. You know what you won't put up with in jobs and relationships, what matters more than getting into the new, cool club or having the latest “it” bag/shoe/makeup/jeans, and what you makes you happy. You can still eat cookie dough for dinner or an entire box of pizza rolls dipped in blue cheese dressing (guilty), but you know the difference between indulging and doing the better thing for yourself.

 
            Forty is forgiveness

Our inner voices of “you can't do that” get quieter in our forties. Or maybe we just don't listen to them as much as we do in our twenties. My friends and I are more comfortable owning our lives/mistakes/triumphs/waistlines in our forties than in our twenties. The twists and turns, opportunities taken and missed, relationships made and broken in the journey from twenty to forty have made us who we are. And we're pretty amazing, if we say so ourselves.

 
            Forty is fun

Or it can be. Make yourself a priority like you did in your twenties. Spend time with friends who make you laugh until you pee. Find something to be passionate about like you were in your twenties or teen years. Be a fangirl of something. Be ridiculous. Don't care with others think and have fun!

           
Meet Daisy
 
 

Before writing full time, Daisy Prescott worked in the world of art, auctions, antiques, and home decor. She earned her degree in Art History and endured a brief stint as a film theory graduate student. Baker, art educator, antiques dealer, blue ribbon pie maker, blogger, content wrangler, freelance writer, fangirl, gardener, wife, and pet mom are a few of the other titles she’s acquired over the years.
Born and raised in San Diego, Daisy and her husband (aka SO) currently live in a real life Stars Hollow in the Boston suburbs with their dog, Hubbell, and an imaginary house goat. Geoducks Are for Lovers is her debut novel. She is busy researching her second novel.
daisyprescott.com
@daisy_prescott (Twitter)
 
~~~~~
 

Food writer Maggie Marrion is just getting back on her feet after a horrible year, or two, or three. With their twentieth reunion approaching, she invites four of her closest friends from college for a weekend at her beach cabin. What she doesn’t expect is her best friends, artist Quinn Dayton and part-time erotica novelist, Selah Elmore, to play matchmaker. The two plot a surprise that will make the weekend, and her life, a lot more interesting.
Gil Morrow, former grunge musician turned history professor, joins them as Selah’s date for the weekend. After coming face to face with the one who got away, he decides he's waited long enough to get the girl. With the support of old friends, a few wishing rocks, the world’s largest burrowing clam, and a hot lumberjack thrown into the mix, Gil reminds Maggie that forty-something isn’t too old for second chances.
Can we learn to love the life we have and let go of who we expected to be? What happens when the generation from The Breakfast Club and Reality Bites meets The Big Chill? Come spend a weekend with these Generation X-ers as they share laughter, tears, life’s ups and downs, old stories, and new beginnings.

 

Everything happens for a reason…

 
After Maggie loses her mother to a long illness, she retreats to her mother’s Pacific Northwest island home.  She becomes nestled in the island lifestyle.  Being content in living as a local girl, she is free to do her work on-line as a food blogger, she rarely has a need to leave the island. 
 
With an upcoming college reunion, she invites her college gang over for a long summer weekend.  The gang is fun loving and complete with the power couple, Ben and Joe, Quinn the flamboyant gay artist and his new husband and Selah the single girl and bestselling erotica author.  When Selah asks to bring a friend, Maggie expects it to be one of her boy toys.  She does not expect it to be Gil, her first love.  Will Maggie be able to leave her safe and secure world and take a second chance at love nearly two decades later?
 
This is wonderful story about friendships and first loves and taking chances.  I enjoyed this story and was sad when it was over, feeling like I had left my friends back at the beach.

 
Looking around at everyone, she realizes, they’ve known each other more than half their lives. Decades. Their friendships now measured in blocks of years instead of weeks, months of even days.  The fact they are drinking cans of ‘Oly’ might be adding to the nostalgia. 

 
Maggie and Gil are the heart of the story.  The undying love and friendship they have is a wonderful tale that is woven through the nostalgia and present day.  Sparks fly and rekindle after all the years.


“Oh, Maggie, what do you do to me?  I feel like I’m twenty and you have really snuck me into your room.” She giggles.  It’s kind of funny that we’re sneaking around twenty-two years later.”


 
But, Maggie struggles with letting go of her comfortable island lifestyle.  She is bound to make the same mistakes again.
 
A great love story. It has beautiful settings, witty humor and a bit of sexual tension. A great debut!

Enjoy and Happy Reading!
 
~ Nikki
 


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11 comments:

Unknown said...

Spend time with old college friends all the time

Quilt Lady said...

I didn't go to college when I was young but did in my forties. I do get together with those girls from time to time and with some old friends from high school. I will be entering under the name of Virginia.

Leni said...

I've stayed close to one of my college friends and we've stayed in contact with each other.

lenikaye@yahoo.com

Jane said...

Some of the friends I met in college are still my closest friends.

Unknown said...

No I havent. I never went to college. Thanks for the giveaway.

Unknown said...

I went to college as an adult and didn't bond with my classmates in that manner, but one of the best things I ever did was reconnect with high school friends a couple of years ago.

TCuevas@iccable.com

bn100 said...

sometimes

Steve Finnell said...

you are invited to follow my blog

Alison said...

i didn't attend college but I still have High School friends I'm close to.

Sharlene said...

I had one friend I kept in touch with, but it has been a couple of years. We did go to our 25th college reunion, though!

Sharlene said...

Not sure if my comment went through before - I had a college friend that I saw up until a couple of years ago. Long story. We did actually go to our 25th reunion!