{"id":2259,"date":"2013-02-24T11:45:50","date_gmt":"2013-02-24T16:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/?p=2259"},"modified":"2013-02-24T11:45:50","modified_gmt":"2013-02-24T16:45:50","slug":"the-next-big-thing-blog-hop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/?p=2259","title":{"rendered":"The Next Big Thing ‘Blog Hop’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2012-08-01<\/a><\/p>\n

Some time ago, the wonderful\u00a0Nina Sankovitch<\/a>, author of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair<\/em><\/a> tagged me to participate in an online ‘blog-hop’ or ‘blog-tour’. If this were a relay race, my teammates would be wondering where the hell I was. Well, huffing and puffing, I am finally catching up to answer some questions and pass the torch on to 5 more writers.<\/p>\n

The Next Big Thing, as this online ‘blog tour’ is called, is a great way to find out what some of your favorite writers are working on and, discover new ones.<\/p>\n

More about the next fab-five writers:\u00a0Gabi Coatstworth<\/a>, Lea Sylvestro<\/a>, Jessica Speart<\/a> and Linda Urbach<\/a>, \u00a0Jennifer Wilson<\/a>,\u00a0later. First,\u00a0\u00a0I must answer the 10 questions…<\/p>\n

\u2028What is the working title of your book?<\/strong>\u2028 The Things We Cannot Change: Loving an Addict Until Death<\/em><\/p>\n

Where did the idea come from for the book?<\/strong>\u2028 I don’t think I ever had an idea as much as a compulsion to write down the sometimes thrilling, often crazy story of my marriage.<\/p>\n

What genre does your book fall under?\u2028<\/strong> Memoir with cross-over into addiction and grieving.<\/p>\n

Which actors would you choose to play you in a movie rendition?<\/strong>\u2028 I thought about waiting to post until after I scrutinized every actress at tonight’s Oscar awards with this question in mind, but instead, I solicited my daughter\u2019s advice. She suggested Anne Hathaway \u2013 who she (sweetly) says I resemble. Maybe once-upon-a-time this was true \u2026but in any case, she would be brilliant, especially in the scenes of misery of which (spoiler alert!) there are a few.<\/p>\n

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?<\/strong> A love story between an American and British humanitarian relief worker launches hopefully in wartime Sarajevo, but turns into a tragedy of addiction and suicide in the suburbs of Connecticut.<\/p>\n

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?<\/strong>\u2028 I\u2019m holding out for the traditional route. I work in a bookstore and would like to see it on the shelves. I have an army of friends and colleagues in the business who could help hand-sell it.<\/p>\n

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?<\/strong>\u2028 One year, but I\u2019ve written many drafts since.<\/p>\n

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?\u2028<\/strong> Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by David Sheff<\/a>. Honestly, there’s not much else on the Barnes & Noble shelves from the point of view of the sober, so I believe there is room for mine.<\/p>\n

Who or What inspired you to write this book?<\/strong> I\u2019ve been hosting authors for signings at B&N for years and I’ve learned from them that writing isn\u2019t some kind of crazy alchemy (well, maybe a little) but rather demands discipline and time – so I mustered some of both and got cracking. I wanted my daughter to know that our story is nothing to be ashamed of. She\u2019s read and okayed my manuscript otherwise, I would not put it out there.<\/p>\n

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?<\/strong> I\u2019ve yet to find anyone who has not been affected by a loved-one\u2019s addiction or suicide. Survivors of tragedies find comfort in knowing we are not so alone and that life can get better again. There are also chapters set in exotic places – including Croatia, Italy and Kyoto – for the armchair traveler.<\/p>\n

That’s it! Now let me introduce to you…<\/p>\n

Gabi Coatsworth<\/strong>, a British-born writer who has spent half her life living in the United States. Gabi has been published in Perspectives<\/i>, a Connecticut literary journal, and the Rio Grande Review<\/i> (University of Texas at El Paso), online at TheSisterProject.com<\/i> and in Mused<\/i>, an online and print publication. Gabi is a prolific blogger. \u00a0She blogs regularly on local items of interest in the Fairfield Patch and The WriteConnexion \u2013 a writer\u2019s life in Fairfield County CT. In 2012, she was featured in an anthology of women writers, Tangerine Tango<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0She is currently working on her first novel.<\/p>\n

Jessica Speart <\/strong>is a\u00a0freelance journalist specializing in wildlife enforcement issues, Jessica Speart has been published in the\u00a0New York Times Sunday Magazine, OMNI, Travel & Leisure, Audubon,<\/em>and many other publications. She is\u00a0the author of ten books in the Rachel Porter mystery series. In her eleventh book, Jessica chronicles her real-life sleuthing in the narrative non-fiction thriller WINGED OBSESSION:\u00a0The Pursuit of the World’s Most Notorious Butterfly Smuggler<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Lea Sylvestro’s<\/b><\/span> subjects range from woodchucks to witches, cancer to colonoscopies, travel, beach walks, birds, and beloved cars. Her essays explore the heart and humor in life\u2019s big and little bits.\u00a0 She writes from her eighteenth century house in the woods of Easton, where she lives with her husband of thirty-seven years.\u00a0Lea’s day job is at Eagle Hill, a school for children with learning disabilities, and she still \u00a0finds time to be a women\u2019s literacy volunteer in Bridgeport.\u00a0 Her essays have appeared in newsletters for Save the Sound, The Aspetuck Land Trust, and Citizens for Easton as well as the\u00a0Connecticut Post, Stamford Advocate, Danbury News Times\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0Minuteman\u00a0<\/i>newspapers.<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0She has two travel memoirs in progress.<\/p>\n

Linda Howard Urbach’s\u00a0<\/strong>most recent novel is\u00a0Madame Bovary’s Daughte<\/i>r<\/a> (Random House).\u00a0Her first book,\u00a0Expecting Miracles<\/a><\/em>, was published by Putnam in the U.S (under the name Linda U. Howard) as well as England and France where it won the French Family Book Award. The book later sold to Paramount Pictures. Her second novel,\u00a0The Money Honey<\/a><\/em>, was also published by Putnam.\u00a0Linda is the originator of \u201cMoMoirs -The Umbilical Cord Stops Here!<\/a><\/em>\u201d performed by members of the Theatre Artists Workshop. It premiered at the Zipper Theater in NYC. She created and runs\u00a0www.MoMoirs .com<\/a>. Writing Workshops For & About Moms and was also an award winning advertising copywriter. (CLIO: \u201cMy Girdle\u2019s Killing Me\u201d)<\/p>\n

Jennifer Wilson<\/strong> has been writing for 15 years for folks like\u00a0Esquire<\/em>,\u00a0National Geographic Traveler<\/em>,\u00a0Better Homes & Gardens<\/em>,\u00a0Budget Travel<\/em>,\u00a0Bon Appetit<\/em>,\u00a0Parents<\/em>,\u00a0Midwest Living<\/em>,\u00a0Iowa Outdoors<\/em>, the\u00a0Chicago Tribune<\/em>, the\u00a0St. Paul Pioneer-Press<\/em>,\u00a0St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/em>, and (the dearly departed)\u00a0Gourmet<\/em>\u00a0and many others.\u00a0She’s the travel maven for\u00a0Traditional Home<\/em>\u00a0magazine and Midwest expert at\u00a0AAA Living.\u00a0Her first book,\u00a0Running Away to Home<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>received the Best Nonfiction of 2011 Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Emerging Iowa Author Award in 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some time ago, the wonderful\u00a0Nina Sankovitch, author of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair tagged me to participate in an online ‘blog-hop’ or ‘blog-tour’. If this were a relay race, my teammates would be wondering where the hell I was. Well, huffing and puffing, I am finally catching up to answer some questions and pass the … Continue reading The Next Big Thing ‘Blog Hop’<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,10,13,20,22,4,11,5,6,63,26,23,18,28,7],"class_list":["post-2259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-books","tag-bosnian-war","tag-cancer","tag-grief","tag-japan","tag-living-with-addiction","tag-love","tag-memoir","tag-suicide","tag-the-next-big-thing-blog-tour","tag-travel","tag-united-nations","tag-war","tag-work","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPzTS-Ar","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2259"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2289,"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259\/revisions\/2289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/triciatierneyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}