Sasee Magazine

Check out my essay "Boomer Exercise / Memory Program" featured in the February issue of Sasee Magazine -- both online and in print. Here's the link: BEMP


~ Sandy Nachlinger

Teaser Tuesday - The Same Sweet Girls

I'm stretching the two-sentence limit to four today, but this excerpt from The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King was just too good to abbreviate! Let me know if you agree.

"I think I've figured it out. Long as I can remember, I've been addicted to junk food, stuff like potato chips and soft drinks and candy bars. It's caused me problems all my life, cavities and stomachaches and acne, not to mention a big ass that I have to jog every day to keep under control. It's taken me a long time to see the connection, but here it is: The way I'm drawn to junk food is the same way I can't resist a man who's no good for me." (page 168)

Don't you just love that?


Synopsis of The Same Sweet Girls from Cassandra King's website:

     None of the Same Sweet Girls are really girls anymore and none of them have actually ever been sweet. But this spirited group of Southern women, who have been holding biannual reunions ever since they were together in college, are nothing short of compelling.

     There’s Julia Stovall, the First Lady of Alabama, who despite her public veneer, is a down-to-earth gal who only wants to know who her husband is sneaking out with late at night. There’s Lanier Sanders, whose husband won custody of their children after he found out about her fling with a colleague. Then there’s Astor Deveaux, a former Broadway showgirl who simply can’t keep her flirtations in check. And Corrine Cooper, whose incredible story comes to light as the novel unfolds.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others.)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

To find more Teasers, click here: Teasers

Boomers and Books

Check out the latest post on the Boomers and Books blog:

Hyperbole on Boomers and Books

~ Sandy Nachlinger

Sweet Saturday Sample - Jan 28

A big thank you to everyone who visits our blog each week for Sweet Saturday Samples. We hope you’re enjoying excerpts from I.O.U. Sex. 

Last week we left our friend June thinking back to the days of drive-in movies with her first love, Denny. But the real question is whether or not she’s going to try to find him after all these years. In this excerpt, you’ll see that June has not only tracked Denny down, she’s actually talking to him on the phone!

A deep voice came through the telephone after the second ring. "Reid's Automotive."

June held back a gasp.

Oh, my God. That's Denny.

She took a deep breath before speaking, her nerves gyrating like the ceiling fan above her. "Uh, yes. I'd like to make an appointment to get my oil changed."

"You don't need an appointment, ma'am. Just bring your car by. We'll have time to take care of that this afternoon."

With every word Denny spoke, June's heart pounded harder.

"Oh, no. That's too soon." She clutched the phone so hard her knuckles turned white. "I mean ... I can't today."

"Well, just bring it on by whenever it's convenient. We're open Monday through Saturday, nine to five." The familiar voice hesitated. "Excuse me, but have you brought your car in before?"

Oh, this is a bad idea. What was I thinking?

No, wait. It's just a phone call. I can handle this.

She smiled, curiosity overcoming her doubts.

Could he have recognized my voice? I wonder what he looks like now?

What had happened to the confident young woman she'd been at eighteen? The answer came at once—life, that's what, plus years of putdowns from her ex-husband Stan.

"No, I ...thank you." June replaced the receiver with shaking hands. She definitely wasn't ready for a face-to-face meeting with him just yet.

After days of pep talks in front of her mirror, June finally found the courage to face Denny. Just as she'd done for years, she made a list of positive and negative outcomes

Negative: Doesn't recognize me. Won't let me explain. Completely indifferent.

This last thought made her pause.

Or maybe he'll even hate me.

Positive: Happy to see me. Wants to be friends. Forgives me.

So what will it be? Will June decide that the positives outweigh the negatives for meeting Denny again, face-to-face? And what will happen if she does?

For more Sweet Saturday Samples, click here:
Sweet Stuff

Teaser Tuesday - Jan 24

Today's Teaser is from One For The Road by Lynne Marshall. In this story, recently widowed (and financially strapped) D'Anne decides to earn some cash by offering her deluxe RV for hire -- and she's included in the deal as cook and driver. Her goal is to get back home to Los Angeles from Nashville. A country western singer responds to her advertisement. In this snippet, D'Anne gets her first glimpse of Tyler White. (At 3% on my Kindle.)

He wore a brown Stetson propped on top of his head, tight faded jeans, and scuffed boots. One word popped into her head. Big.
Synopsis from Amazon:
Tyler White was a "one-hit-wonder" ten years ago. At a crossroads, he decides to attempt a comeback. He's hoping the three-week tour he's put together with reignite his career. All he needs now is some cheap transportation, and the widow with the RV might just fit the bill. 
D'Anne and Tyler discover a lot about themselves - and each other - as they journey from Nashville to Las Vegas, via Texas, with the band and Tyler's dog. Can close quarters really help a has-been singer on the comeback trail and a widow from California find love?

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others.)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

To find more Teasers, click here: Teasers

Sweet Saturday Samples - Jan 21

Today’s Sweet Saturday Sample continues June’s story from I.O.U. Sex. When June reads her old high school diary with friends Kiki and Peggy, her thoughts travel back to the 1960s. In this scene she relives memories of Denny, her former high school steady, and remembers their dates at the local drive-in theater. (This excerpt has been edited so that it’s PG-13.)

That evening, June lay in bed listening to the wind whistle outside her bedroom window. She yawned and tugged the quilt up to her chin, her body exhausted from the previous night and her mind as unsettled as the wintry weather. She turned on her side, then her stomach, but thoughts of her pact with Kiki and Peggy kept tumbling through her brain. At two in the morning, she gave up and threw back the covers, then crept to the living room, feeling her way along the shadowed hallway.

          She lit a lavender-scented candle, placed it on the coffee table, and slid into the lotus position on the floor. She closed her eyes.

          Breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth.

          Let the breath flow freely.

          In.

          Out.

          High school. Dating. Dennis James Reid.

          Hair the color of dark chocolate. Dark eyes. Big gentle hands.

          Breathe in. Breathe out.

          Denny on the football field. Denny in his letter jacket. Denny in the back seat at the drive-in.  

***

          “Mmmm, Junie. You drive me wild.” Denny reached across the vinyl-covered seat and pulled June closer.

          She snuggled against him and stretched up to whisper in his ear. “Wild, huh?” She inhaled his unique scent—Brut aftershave mixed with the faint aroma of Lava soap and motor oil from his dad’s garage.

          Denny’s laugh sounded nervous. When he shivered, June giggled and stroked his wavy hair, then tickled his earlobe with her tongue, making him gasp. 

          “Whoa, baby. You better slow down or you’ll get more than you bargained for.” He turned and grasped her shoulders, staring into her blue eyes. “Or have you changed your mind?”

          June scooted away, her warm feelings cooled by Denny’s question. She pushed her long blonde hair off her face and anchored it behind her ears. “You know how I feel about going all the way. Why can’t we just have some fun?”

          Denny groaned.  “Junie, baby, you really don’t understand, do you?”

          Of course, good girls didn’t go all the way. She’d had long discussions with Kiki and Peggy on the subject of how far to go without getting a bad reputation. Peggy said once you did something, boys seemed to expect it every time. And Kiki sure had a lot of information for someone who claimed virginity.

          June smiled and unbuttoned Denny’s shirt.

What do you think? When June’s mind comes back to the present, will she contact Denny? And if she does, will she find the courage to tell him the secret she has kept for so many years?

               

You’ll find more Sweet Saturday Samples here: Sweet Samples

Photo source:  http://www.seeing-stars.com/locations/grease.shtml

Teaser Tuesday - The Love Songs Murders

Welcome to another Teaser Tuesday - the meme where participants post two sentences from books they're reading. Mine today is from The Love Songs Murders by Kelly Marshall. It's a sexy mystery filled with lots of humor and plenty of action.

Nick slammed to the earth with searing pain in his shoulder. He looked up to see Jasmine staring down at him. (approx Page 37)

Synopsis from Amazon:

Seattle homicide detectives Nick Winston and Pat Strom dig working together. Their lively banter gets them through the daily dark side of their business. After all, dead bodies dominate their workload.

He's straight, she's gay. In politically liberal Seattle, that's not a problem until ... they both find the same woman irresistible. Suddenly their wonderful working relationship is intolerable.

At the center of their attention is radio announcer, Jasmine James. Beautiful and sultry, James has a sexual appetite big enough to satisfy both detectives. The two officers are not the only ones obsessed with the Love Songs host. A crazed fan kidnaps Jasmine James while four of her male listeners are discovered dead with a single bullet to their ear as her Love Songs program plays softly in the background. The pressure is on the Seattle cops to find the murderer and locate James before her air runs out.
Amazon Link
Kelly Marshall Website Link

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others.)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

To find more Teasers, click here: Teasers

Sweet Saturday Samples - Jan 14

During the past few months of Sweet Saturday Samples, we followed our friend Peggy, one of the three protagonists—June, Kiki, & Peggy—from our book, I.O.U. Sex.  Today we’re introducing you to June, whose old high school diary inspired a pact between the three friends. They’ve vowed to find their former steadies and pay them back for all those sexual refusals when they were teens. In this excerpt, June, with her dog Daisy for company, considers what she wants to do.

        By the time Peggy and Kiki left that morning they'd read most of June's diary entries from their Rayburn High senior year. The diary brought back memories of how much fun they'd had as Rayettes, dancing during halftimes at football games and marching in the Dallas Cotton Bowl Parade--"a big honor," according to her January 2nd entry. The everyday details revealed in the pages made them realize how different their lives were then. Pay phones, sleeping in curlers, driving to the DQ with their boyfriends, just to buy a cherry coke. And woven through it all were their high school loves--Denny, Greg, and Mark.

        Then June's thoughts jumped to Kiki's crazy idea. She wondered if her friend was serious about this boyfriend search. Would she really go looking for Greg? Knowing Kiki, she probably would.

        What about Peggy? Yeah, she agreed to the search, but it was probably the booze talking instead of her sane brain. She'd be surprised if Peg really went hunting for Mark.

        Her thoughts sobered and she snuggled Daisy in her arms.

        More importantly, what about me and Denny? It's not the same situation for me as it is for Kiki and Peg--not so simple.

        She'd thought of her old boyfriend a lot since moving back to Dallas, wondering what she'd say if they should accidentally meet. The last June had heard, Denny was running his dad's garage in their same old Dallas neighborhood, but that was years ago. She wondered if the business still existed. Maybe she'd look in the phone book later, when she wasn't so tired.

        "It's time I talked to him, Daisy," she said aloud. "Past time. Maybe this crazy idea of Kiki's is just the encouragement I need."

Are you wondering what makes June's situation different from that of her friends? What does she need to talk to Denny about after all these years? In the coming weeks, we'll reveal more of her story.

You'll find more Sweet Saturday Samples here: Sweets

The Mountain Is Out

          I live in the Pacific Northwest, a little south of Seattle. As you may have heard, we have rain here. A lot. During a typical winter, we may not see the sun for a couple of weeks at a time. So when the gift of a nice day comes along and we venture out into the countryside, it's a thrill to see The Mountain on the horizon. In case you haven't guessed, "The Mountain" is what people up here call Mount Rainier. 
          Today my friend Nan and I drove to Enumclaw, a little town in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, to have lunch. Here's the view we saw along the way. Although I already have dozens of photos of The Mountain, I just had to stop and take a few more because it may be a while before I can say ...
          The Mountain is out!

~ Sandy N.

More Info on Mount Rainier

Tuesday Teaser - Torn

Short of hitting the woman with the kettle, or engaging in some kind of unseemly wrestling match and treading on Tubs in the process, there was nowhere to go. Sheila took hold of her face.
[FYI: Tubs is the cat.] 


This week's Tuesday Teaser is from Torn by Gilli Allan. My two sentences are at about 70% on my Kindle.

Synopsis from Amazon: By escaping London, ex-city trader, Jessica, believes she has put the turmoil of her old life behind her. From now on her young son, Rory, is her number one priority. But living in the country is not the untroubled idyll she dreamt of. Nothing is as it first appears. There are challenges to face and hard choices to be made. And, in the face of temptation, old habits die hard. She is torn between the suitable man and the unsuitable boy.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others.)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

To find more Teasers, click here: Teasers

A Taste of Honey - Boomers & Books

Check out the post about my honey tasting experience on Boomers & Books ~ Sandy N.


Here's the link:  A Taste of Honey

Teaser Tuesday - South Beach Cinderella

In South Beach Cinderella, Realtor Frankie Wunder is desperate to have a child, and she has a list of men who she has “prequalified” for the job of father and husband. Things don’t go as planned. This funny teaser takes place after an encounter with Fernando, one of the gorgeous, successful, wealthy men on her list. It's at about 61% on my Kindle.

“How do you like your eggs?” he asked.

Fertilized, I thought, but I settled for, “Over easy.”


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading. To connect with all the Teaser Tuesday participants, click here: January 3 Teasers