Semi-Autobiographical?

Have you heard the latest about I.O.U. Sex? Philippe Matthews just posted a great review of our book on his blog. As you can tell from his name, Philippe is a guy, and his male perspective on our novel really made our day, starting with his first sentence:

I.O.U. Sex, by Sandy Nachlinger and Sandra Allen, is an awesome read and super awesome promise!

We took that to mean he thinks the promise of payback sex from an old girlfriend would be “super awesome.” That statement made us laugh out loud! It’s nice to know a man thinks it’s a fun idea.

But Philippe’s next insight made us both look at each other and raise our eyebrows—and that’s not an easy thing to do when we live 2,000 miles apart. Philippe wrote:

In this semi-autobiographical hot read, I.O.U. Sex, by Sandy Nachlinger and Sandra Allen, is about best friends June, Kiki, and Peggy, who graduated from Dallas's Rayburn High School – all of them still virgins.

Semi-autobiographical? Oh, my! Does Philippe think the two of us really did go looking for our old steadies to offer them payback sex? Does he believe the characters in I.O.U. Sex are really us in disguise? After a laugh-filled phone conversation, the two of us realized that probably wasn't what he thought at all. We both grew up in Dallas, we're life-long friends, we used places and themes from our high school years in our book, and the whole thing started when we read Sandy's old diary. So the term “semi-autobiographical” could be somewhat accurate, couldn't it? But that's as far as it goes, honest! I.O.U. Sex is pure fiction, and it comes to you straight from our quirky, warped minds.

So, to Philippe Matthews we send a great big “thanks” for posting such a nice review and for making us see our story in a new light.

Here’s the link to Philippe’s review: The Philippe Matthews Show

~ Miss Pickles (alias Sandra Allen)

*If you're new to our blog and would like to know why I call myself “Miss Pickles”, go to the Blog Archives on the left side of our blog and click on 2011. Then click on March, scroll down to the bottom, and read the posts from bottom to top. You will also see some photos of Sandy and I "back in the day" if you look carefully!

To connect to I.O.U. Sex on Amazon, click on the book’s cover on the left, underneath our smiling faces.

Two Old Women

I like to read a variety of books--romance, women's fiction, general fiction, western, mystery, humor, and so on. But I've never read a book quite like Two Old Women. It's the legend of two native American women who were abandoned by their tribe and forced to fend for themselves during a harsh Alaska winter. It's a great story with lots of important lessons -- for children as well as adults.

Here's my review of the book on the Boomers & Books blog.


By the way, just because our picture is to the left of this post, doesn't mean the book's title in any way refers to us!!

~ Sandy N.

NEW REVIEW OF I.O.U. SEX

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We're tickled pink! Today "The Romance Writer's Reads" posted a glowing review of I.O.U. SEX. 


"I'm just going to get right into it and tell you that I adored this book. It was witty, smart, and unique in a way that kept me hooked right up until the end." 


Check out the entire review here:  The Romance Writer's Reads

Praise for I.O.U. SEX

I.O.U. SEX received another really nice review recently. This one was posted on the "Boomer Women Speak" blog by Anne Holmes, Boomer in Chief of the National Association of Baby Boomer Women. She wrote:

"I just minutes ago finished reading your novel, "I.O.U. Sex," and I thoroughly enjoyed the way you and co-author Sandy Allen wove together the three women's stories into one satisfying novel."

"And to everyone on the forum reading this post, I urge you to check out Sandy's hilarious book about three lifelong friends who've stuck together over the many decades since high school, and make a pact over drinks one night to look up their old high school boyfriends -- and "make amends" for the sexual frustration their virginal behavior caused."

You can read all of Anne's comments here: Boomer Women Speak

Click on the "Buy I.O.U. Sex" tab above for ordering information.

BOOK REVIEW: Off Season

Briefly, Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons is the story of Lilly who returns to her family's cottage on the Maine shore after the death of her husband. Alone, she revisits her memories of summers spent there as a child and young adolescent and reevaluates her life.

This book is a beautiful read. By that, I mean that in addition to believable characters and a compelling plot that kept me entertained, the book contains beautiful, almost poetic descriptions throughout. For example:

Summer bicycle rides: "We rode everywhere. We spent hours on the twisting dirt tracks off Reach Road toward the west, most of which ended in ramshackle, unpainted, falling-down houses with high-piled firewood and corpses of long-dead cars and abandoned lobster traps and buoys. Only occasionally did we see anyone around them, and the ones we did see were dark and almost feral looking, not offering the one-lifted-finger wave that is the traditional acknowledgement of another in Maine. We did not linger around these houses."

First impression of a girl nicknamed Peaches: "The first thing you noticed was her hair. It looked like a fire on her head, a conflagration of strawberry blond—dark gold in the morning sun."

Setting: "We got to Edgewater after dark, just as the huge blind eye of the Harvest Moon slid from behind Mr. Carl Forshee's towering promontory and flooded the bay and surrounding islands with molten silver, as far out as Great Owls Head Island. It was as if someone had thrown a switch and turned the world on; …."

I've enjoyed other novels by Siddons, all of them set in the South, but I believe this novel is my favorite. In it the author explores a girl's coming of age, first love, the effects of illness and death on families, and marriage. All in all, this was a satisfying book and one I'd definitely recommend.