Sarina Bowen's Blog, page 40

Sarina's Top 5 Favorite Non-Fiction

I'm a novel girl! So I don't read as much non-fiction as I should. But there are a few non-fiction gems that I'd recommend to anyone needing a good story. These won't disappoint!

Rock & Roll Will Save Your Life by Steve Almond. God, I love this book so hard, and I can't believe it's out of print. But you can buy a used copy for almost nothing. IT'S SO FUNNY. Like, laugh on every page funny. He's incredibly irreverent an insightful about music, and how deeply we experience it. And did I mention FUNNY? Read it, but not with a very full bladder.

A Fish Caught in Time by Samantha Weinberg. This is the story of the discovery of the coelacanth, a species with a rare contribution to the understanding of evolution. And it's such a great tale!

Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival by Bernd Heinrich. Or any of this nature-writer's work! He's such a cool dude and he doesn't just lecture about nature, he lives it. He makes his observations by sitting deep in the Maine woods and just watching. 

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. This man transformed my understanding of our food system, and he proves there's another way.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. I would read this woman on any topic. This is a book about punctuation for crap's sake and it's fricking BRILLIANT. I need to order another copy and make my kids read it. They won't even mind. 

Well, those are my top 5. What are yours?

More Terrific Male/Male Romances

Since My Favorite Smart Male/Male Novels of last year is one of my most popular blog posts, I'm back with more! These lists aren't definitive because I am a forgetful person. But lately I've enjoyed:

Unraveling Josh by Edie Danford. It's a college romance with great presence and excellent writing. 

Strong Signal by Megan Erickson and Santino Hassel. Fabulous! It took me a while to read this one because I don't give a fig about video games. But I shouldn't have waiting! It's so, so good.

Doubleback by Lissa Ford. This is a romantic suspense MM with well-drawn characters in a New York State setting.

Sutphin Boulevard by Santino Hassell. More excellent writing and a sort of New York City grittiness that feels really true to me. And there are more in this series! 

Faith & Fidelity. This love story about two cops finding love in the last place they looked was on my radar for a long time before I finally read it. Lovely story.

 

 

The Ivy Years on Audible.com! Giveaway to celebrate.

Six winning winners will win!

Did you hear? The Ivy Years books are slowly making their way onto Audible.com and iTunes. The Year We Fell Down and The Fifteenth Minute are the first to arrive.

Enter to win below. And in the meantime, don't forget to read Bittersweet (True North #1) which just came out this week!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The True North Series: Your Questions Answered

Thanks for an awesome launch week! I'm getting some questions about STEADFAST (True North #2), which is coming in less than a month! So here goes:

Q: Will Griff & Audrey and the rest of the Shipleys be there?

A: They sure will! Even if it feels far to Jude, his hometown is only about twenty miles from the Shipley farm. And he's going to need his friends' help to get through all the things in store for him. (My editor wrote me an email about how the tension in his story was making her crazy, so maybe I did something right.)

Q: Who is the star of KEEPSAKE, book III?

A: That book belongs to Zach. You're welcome. :-)

Q: Who is the woman on the cover of KEEPSAKE?

A: Nice try, but you're going to have to wait a little longer to find out.

Q: Will there be more books? And what's the deal with Zara's situation?

A: I hope there will! Zara is pretty kickass, but she's not ready to reveal her secrets.

Quick Goodreads Giveaway!

You can enter to win one of 3 paperback copies between now and June 14! 



Goodreads Book Giveaway








Bittersweet


by Sarina Bowen

Giveaway ends June 14, 2016.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Launching a series is like growing a crop.

Today I'm feeling a lot of empathy for the apple grower and cidermaker in BITTERSWEET (True North #1) which launches in just ten days. I follow some farmers on Twitter (big surprise, I know!) and one of them recently said: "I always wonder--will this be the year that nothing comes up?"

For some reason I didn't imagine farmers would feel that way. I don't know why I imagined my own anxieties were unique to me. But why should I be special, right? :-)

Bringing a new series out is a nerve wracking experience. I've spent the last week drinking too much coffee and asking myself: there's no hockey in it. What was I thinking?

In my saner moments I realize that innovation is always scary! And risks can only pay off with a major investment of my time and energy. I'm just like the farmer sweating out there, hoping it isn't all for nothing. 

And just in case I was tempted to forget the lesson, a whole bunch of tentative plants and fruits are cropping up on my own property. See those tiny apples? They look adorable and optimistic today. But it will take months of sunshine and rain until they're good to eat. And many things could go wrong. But they're out of my control, so there's really no point in sitting up nights worrying about it.

The best use of my time right now isn't worrying. It's writing another book! So pass the coffee and I'll see you in the orchard on June 14th!

You can read more about BITTERSWEET here.

 

I'd like to introduce you to Griff, Jude and Zach. They can't wait to meet you.

If I'm lucky I'll be picking blueberries soon in the front yard.

These apples are just a little larger than my thumbnail.

Vermont foodies are cray cray! (Or: Why SArina set her new foodie series in Vermont)

Vermont is famous for its Green Mountains, for skiing and liberalism and for an obsessive foodie culture, not necessarily in that order.

Take Heady Topper. This micro brew scored a rare (really rare!) perfect 100 rating from a couple of national publications. And now people trek from all over the place just to try to get their hands on some. It isn't easy.

Exhibit A: Elle Kennedy tried to send us some as a Christmas present last year. She found some dude on Craigslist selling it on the black market. Then she was outbid! He got all nervous about it, too, because a couple of people have been arrested for reselling it. He actually wrote to Elle "DELETE THIS EMAIL." Dude. The NSA is going to find you anyway.

Exhibit B: If you want to buy some, you need to know 1) which food co-ops they sell to and 2) on which days, and when the drop-off is. The Hunger Mountain co-op gets its delivery on Thursday at 9AM. The line begins forming around 7:30.

This is Heady Topper, the holy grail of beers.

Last week at a family dinner the husband said, "I'm taking Mom out to brunch Thursday for her birthday. In Montpelier."

To which his brother replied. "Interesting timing. When does Heady Topper deliver to Montpelier?" (Note: We do not live in Montpelier. It's an hour's drive away.)

The husband scored two (two!) cases of this gem by using his mother (on her birthday) to stand in line with him. That's more than he managed to score while chaperoning my son's class trip to the state capital building a couple of years ago. ("Be good on the tour, kids! I'll be back in a jif!") He only got one case that time. 

So if you're wondering why BITTERSWEET and the other True North novels belong in Vermont, now you know. Vermont foodies are cray cray. (And adorable. If obsessive.)

BITTERSWEET (True North #1) can be pre-ordered on Amazon | iBooks | Nook | Kobo.

 

Bittersweet is live for Pre-Order!

It's (almost) here!

Triple Cover Reveal!

Guys! I can share my three True North covers today! Aren't they pretty?

This series is going to be so much fun, and it's coming to you on June 14th. Vermont foodie farmers. Lumbersexuals. Flannel and wood piles. Fair trade coffee. Beards and tats optional but encouraged. Just your average day in Vermont.

You can pre-order the first one, BITTERSWEET on iBooks, with more vendors coming soon! And read more about Bittersweet here.

Teaser Excerpt for STEADFAST (True North #2)

I just cannot WAIT to bring you this book on July 12th! The hero is really unusual--a recovering addict. He's not your typical bad boy, because being that guy didn't work out so well...

November, Colebury VTJude

The last time I drove through Colebury, Vermont, I sat behind the wheel of a 1972 Porsche 911 restored to mint condition, with a sweet new paint job in Aubergine.

Compare and contrast: three years later, I rattled down Main Street in a tattered 1996 Dodge Avenger I’d just bought for nine hundred bucks. The front fender was held together with duct tape.

None of that would have bothered me if the Avenger and I didn’t have so fucking much in common. We’d both ended up in the gutter, broken in body and spirit. The car’s muffler was shot. Exposed wires hanging out from under the dashboard were a perfect proxy for my jangled nerves. I was five months out of rehab and I still couldn’t sleep more than three hours in a row.

My arrogant teenage self would never have driven this heap, but that punk’s opinion didn’t matter anymore. I hated that guy. And while we’re marking all the contradictions, I should also add that the last time I drove through Colebury, Vermont, I was high as a kite on opiates.

Today I was stone cold sober. So at least I had that going for me.

In the minus column, I was now a convicted felon. I served thirty-six months for possession and vehicular manslaughter. I had very little money, and even fewer friends. The one lucky thing in my life — a live-saving job at an orchard in the next county — had just ended. It was November, and there were no more apples to pick or sell. So heading home was my only option.

There was, as usual, no traffic in Colebury. The little town where I grew up didn’t have a rush hour. It was more like a rush minute, and that hadn’t started yet...

More soon! :-)