Claire Cook's Blog, page 15
May 25, 2018
May 22, 2018
Glad for Glads
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Purple gladiolus in bloom in my new garden. So much fun to see what comes up!
The post Glad for Glads appeared first on Claire Cook.
May 16, 2018
As We Let Our Light Shine
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“As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”—Marianne Williamson
The post As We Let Our Light Shine appeared first on Claire Cook.
May 13, 2018
Mother’s Day Love and Loss
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As the mother of two awesome adult children, Mother’s Day fills me with joy and gratitude. But the sadness of losing my own mother never goes away. In case you or someone you know might be feeling a little bit of the same thing, here’s an excerpt from my book Never Too Late: Your Roadmap to Reinvention:
DEFINING SADNESS
On a Saturday morning when I am almost eleven, I knock at my best friend’s front door.
“My mother died,” I say when she opens it.
“No sir,” she says, though since this is a Boston suburb, it sounds more like, “No, suh.” Today, she would have said, “No way.”
“Swear to gawd,” I say. Way.
“Liar,” she says. “You’re making it up.”
I’m not. The day before, my mother’s flu had turned into sepsis. She slipped into a coma at the hospital and never came out, leaving five children under the age of twelve motherless. Neighbors met us in our driveway after school and brought us home with them. They didn’t say much, but I knew my first pajama party, scheduled for that evening, was definitely canceled.
The funeral takes place on Valentine’s Day, also my birthday. Back at the house, someone sticks candles on a dull chocolate cake, so unlike the heart-shaped, candy-studded pink ones my mother had baked for my other ten birthdays, and mourners sing “Happy Birthday” to me. After that, people start tucking bills—mostly ones and fives, and one hundred-dollar bill—into the pocket of my dress, as if I were a prepubescent stripper-in-training. My mother would have found the whole thing incredibly tacky.
Over the years, I’ve met other women who lost their mom at an age when she was still the sun and the moon and their favorite hula hoop all rolled into one, yet they were also on the cusp of needing her to walk them through that first period and bra. Time heals most wounds, but not this one. Eventually, you learn to compartmentalize it, but this loss becomes the defining sadness of your life.
By the time I come out of my posttraumatic fog and really want to know what my mother was like—as a person, a woman, a friend—the people who could have told me about her are either dead or long gone.
Then one summer I have a book event near my mother’s hometown on the other side of the state. A woman about my age, give or take, waits in line with an elderly lady in a wheelchair. The younger woman tells me her mother has something to say to me. I lean over the wheelchair and smile.
“Your mother was the most generous friend in the world. I went into labor with my son, Jimmy, in the middle of a blizzard,” she says.
Even though it’s a hot August night, a chill runs down my spine.
“The snow came so fast, my husband couldn’t get home. I called the ambulance. I called the police. Nobody came. I called your mother. ‘Put your coat on,’ she said. ‘It will be the adventure of a lifetime.'”
All these years later, sitting in her wheelchair, she giggles. “Your mother walked me all the way to the hospital in the snow, laughing and joking the whole time.”
I reach out to hold her cool, dry hand, and it feels lighter than air.
“She was Jimmy’s godmother, you know. Your mother had more godchildren than you could shake a stick at.”
I’d been old enough to know my mother was big-hearted and smart and generous, to remember the huge pile of cards, with family photos tucked in, at Christmastime. But at that moment I feel her spirit again, as if it has lived on for decades in the heart of her friend, who is now bequeathing it to me.
My mother’s death is still the defining sadness of my life, and though it’s been many, many years since it happened, my eyes tear up as I type this. Her death is also the place my best writing comes from, even when I’m writing about other things. That raw place that will never heal over, the place that’s so blindingly, painfully real that it triggers Technicolor images and feelings.
I think we all have that place. For me, at least, allowing myself to access it again after hiding from it for so many years has resulted in some of my best work.
If you have an extra minute, you can read another excerpt of Never Too Late right here.
You can buy your copy of the Never Too Late ebook or paperback at these links:
Kindle
Paperback
Nook
Kobo
iBooks
Claire Cook wrote her first novel in her minivan when she was 45. At 50, she walked the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of the adaptation of her second novel, Must Love Dogs, starring Diane Lane and John Cusack, which has become a 6-book series. Claire is the now the New York Times, USA Today, and #1 Amazon bestselling author of 18 books, as well as a sought after reinvention speaker. Read excerpts and find out more at ClaireCook.com. Stay in the loop for new releases, giveaways and insider extras at ClaireCook.com/newsletter.
The post Mother’s Day Love and Loss appeared first on Claire Cook.
May 11, 2018
May 2, 2018
And the winners are!
[image error]Drumroll please! Fair and square via random drawing, the winners of signed and personalized copies of the original hardcover collector’s edition of Best Staged Plans are:
Julie Seedorf
Patricia Castaldini
Joanne Ferguson
Laura Harvey
Barbara Khan
Congratulations, all! To claim your signed book, send an email with your snail mail address and WINNER in the subject line to ClaireATClaireCook.com by Friday.
If you didn’t win this time around, no worries—I promise I’ll do another giveaway soon. Make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter list at http://clairecook.com/newsletter/ so you don’t miss it!
If you haven’t read Best Staged Plans yet, you can order your copy of the Best Staged Plans ebook or the paperback at these links:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
iBooks
Kobo
GooglePlay
About Best Staged Plans
Library Journal named Best Staged Plans one of the best Women’s Fiction Books of the year when it came out. Here’s a little bit more about the book:
“Fans of HGTV and of Cook’s previous charming fiction (Seven Year Switch; Must Love Dogs) will adore this light, funny read.”—★ STARRED Library Journal review
Sandy Sullivan is a professional home stager who lives and works in the Boston suburbs. So getting rid of her own house and downsizing should be a breeze, right?
Well, best staged plans and all, Sandy’s husband, Greg, is dragging his feet and their son, Luke, has returned home and moved into the “bat cave” in the basement.
Sandy reads them both the riot act and takes a job staging a boutique hotel recently acquired by her best friend’s boyfriend. The good news is that she can spend time in Atlanta with her recently married daughter, Shannon. The bad news is that Shannon soon receives a promotion and heads back up to Boston for training, leaving Sandy and her Southern son-in-law, Chance, as reluctant roommates. And Sandy finds herself in another delicate situation when she suspects her best friend’s boyfriend may be seeing another woman on the side. Fixing up houses may turn out to be easier than fixing up lives.
“Conflict between happy family memories and the need to move forward is tempered by a great running gag about reading glasses, realistic relationships with friends and children, and much needed perspective from a stranger in need… Addicts to HGTV marathons will drool over Sandra’s tips for paint samples and thrift-store bargains. Cook’s likable heroine is charming without being silly, and her story is very well paced all the way to a genuinely delightful conclusion.”—Booklist
“Midlife craziness…crowd-pleaser for empty nesters…charmer…Cook knows the territory of secret longing and snappy dialog.” —Publishers Weekly
Talk to you soon, everybody! Shine On!
xxxxxClaire
Claire Cook wrote her first novel in her minivan when she was 45. At 50, she walked the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of the adaptation of her second novel, Must Love Dogs, starring Diane Lane and John Cusack, which has become a 6-book series. Claire is the now the New York Times, USA Today, and #1 Amazon bestselling author of 18 books, as well as a sought after reinvention speaker. Read excerpts and find out more at ClaireCook.com.
The post And the winners are! appeared first on Claire Cook.
April 29, 2018
Big News! Your Stories! Giveaway! House Pictures!
Hi Everybody,
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I hope you’re well! My big news is that I’ve just moved to gorgeous St. Simons Island, GA, south of Savannah. Atlanta was filled with friendly people and I’m so grateful to have met so many of them at reinvention workshops and book events and the grocery store, but my husband Jake and I never stopped missing the beach.
So here we are, walking the beach and riding our beach cruiser bikes (mine’s turquoise!) every day. St. Simons reminds me so much of our much-loved Scituate, Massachusetts hometown, minus the snow and with lots of pelicans. (Like the two above who were checking me out while I walked this morning.)
The move has me thinking a lot about home and place and the trajectory of our lives. And what interesting stories we all have. It has me wondering how we can best capture these stories and make them a part of our legacy. Maybe for our kids or grandkids or nieces and nephews or friends. Or even for a perfect stranger to discover tucked away in an attic one day in the distant future just when she really needs the inspiration.
I truly believe that we each have something unique and irreplaceable inside us, and that we’re often so close to it that we don’t always appreciate or even recognize that thing. And how great it can feel to find it and use it to share our story with the world. Writing is my way, but your paintbrush might be different. Maybe you’d create a photo series, or a found-object collage, or a comic strip, or a video, or a gathering of letters or blog posts, or a children’s picture book, or a collection of old family recipes.
So I’m cooking up some ideas about how I can share what I’ve learned on my journey to help you chronicle your own story in your own way. (Once a teacher, always a teacher, I guess!) A book definitely. Maybe online and/or in-person workshops. I’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime, if you have any ideas or stories to share with me, I hope you’ll email them to me at Claire@ClaireCook.com and put STORY in the subject line so I don’t miss it. Thanks so much!
And, no worries—writing Book 7 of the Must Love Dogs series and Book 3 of The Wildwater Walking Club series are also on the horizon, so I hope you’ll jump right in if you haven’t started reading them yet. (You can read free excerpts of all 18 of my books at http://clairecook.com/read/.) I’ve got some ideas percolating for a novel, or a series of novels, set on St. Simons, too.
GIVEAWAY!
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The move happened really quickly, and our old house sold before it even hit the market. The heroine of my novel Best Staged Plans is a home stager, and I like to think rereading that novel helped make it happen.
So I’m giving away 5 signed and personalized copies of Best Staged Plans (the original hardcover collector’s edition, no less!) to celebrate.
If you’re subscribed to my newsletter, you’re automatically entered. (If somebody forwarded this newsletter to you, you can subscribe at http://ClaireCook.com/newsletter/.)
I’ll announce the lucky winners on my blog on Wednesday.
For a second chance to win the Best Staged Plans giveaway, head over to my Facebook author page (http://facebook.com/ClaireCookauthorpage) and enter there.
Good luck, everybody!!
If you haven’t read Best Staged Plans yet and don’t want to wait that long, you can read an excerpt as well as find questions for your book club right here. You can also order the Best Staged Plans ebook or the paperback at these links:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
iBooks
Kobo
GooglePlay
About Best Staged Plans
Library Journal named Best Staged Plans one of the best Women’s Fiction Books of the year when it came out. Here’s a little bit more about the book:
“Fans of HGTV and of Cook’s previous charming fiction (Seven Year Switch; Must Love Dogs) will adore this light, funny read.”—★ STARRED Library Journal review
Sandy Sullivan is a professional home stager who lives and works in the Boston suburbs. So getting rid of her own house and downsizing should be a breeze, right?
Well, best staged plans and all, Sandy’s husband, Greg, is dragging his feet and their son, Luke, has returned home and moved into the “bat cave” in the basement.
Sandy reads them both the riot act and takes a job staging a boutique hotel recently acquired by her best friend’s boyfriend. The good news is that she can spend time in Atlanta with her recently married daughter, Shannon. The bad news is that Shannon soon receives a promotion and heads back up to Boston for training, leaving Sandy and her Southern son-in-law, Chance, as reluctant roommates. And Sandy finds herself in another delicate situation when she suspects her best friend’s boyfriend may be seeing another woman on the side. Fixing up houses may turn out to be easier than fixing up lives.
“Conflict between happy family memories and the need to move forward is tempered by a great running gag about reading glasses, realistic relationships with friends and children, and much needed perspective from a stranger in need… Addicts to HGTV marathons will drool over Sandra’s tips for paint samples and thrift-store bargains. Cook’s likable heroine is charming without being silly, and her story is very well paced all the way to a genuinely delightful conclusion.”—Booklist
“Midlife craziness…crowd-pleaser for empty nesters…charmer…Cook knows the territory of secret longing and snappy dialog.” —Publishers Weekly
MORE FROM MY BLOG
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Goodbye house. You were such a fun and creative place to live. (Keep reading and see lots more house pictures here.)
First Sunrise on St. Simons Island
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Have a fabulous day, everybody. Shine On!
xxxxxClaire
Claire Cook wrote her first novel in her minivan when she was 45. At 50, she walked the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of the adaptation of her second novel, Must Love Dogs, starring Diane Lane and John Cusack, which has become a 6-book series. Claire is the now the New York Times, USA Today, and #1 Amazon bestselling author of 18 books, as well as a sought after reinvention speaker. Read excerpts and find out more at ClaireCook.com.
The post Big News! Your Stories! Giveaway! House Pictures! appeared first on Claire Cook.
April 2, 2018
Goodbye House!
Goodbye house. You were such a fun and creative place to live. On to new adventures. (Which I’ll be writing about, of course!!)
P.S. It was only this clean right before we sold it, and I even reread my novel Best Staged Plans for staging tips!
(Read more blog posts at http://clairecook.com/claireblog/.)
The post Goodbye House! appeared first on Claire Cook.
January 28, 2018
Never Too Late Reinvention Workshop
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The non-camera-shy participants at yesterday’s Never Too Late Reinvention Workshop at Emory Continuing Ed in Atlanta. Such a great group—I can’t wait to follow their stories!
The post Never Too Late Reinvention Workshop appeared first on Claire Cook.
January 20, 2018
Must Love Dogs Books 1-3 for 99 cents!
Chase those winter blues away! If you haven’t started reading the Must Love Dogs series yet, curl up with the first 3 books for just 99 cents! Total! This price won’t last long, so grab them while you can!
Here are the links to buy the Must Love Dogs Boxed Set for just 99 cents:
Kindle: http://amzn.to/2B4r2RA
Nook: http://bit.ly/2ArEZJS
iBooks: http://bit.ly/2ArEZJS
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2iNW1Gy
GooglePlay:http://bit.ly/2B30hwR
If you don’t have an ereader, you can download this free app to read the Must Love Dogs Boxed Set on your computer, phone, or tablet: http://amzn.to/1r0LubW.
Must Love Dogs Boxed Set – Books 1-3 of the bestselling series (turned romantic comedy movie starring Diane Lane and John Cusack) by New York Times Bestselling Author Claire Cook. Dogs, dating, adorable preschoolers, and meddling family in every book. This special boxed set offers the first three full-length novels in the Must Love Dogs series. Each book is filled with Claire Cook’s unique blend of humor and heart-unforgettable, page-turning stories to make you laugh out loud and believe in your own second chances.
MUST LOVE DOGS (#1):
“Voluptuous, sensuous, alluring and fun. Barely 40 DWF seeks special man to share starlit nights. Must love dogs.”
Divorced preschool teacher Sarah Hurlihy’s first mistake is letting her bossy big sister write her personal ad. Her second mistake is showing up to meet her first date in more than a decade. Now she’s juggling her teaching job, her big, rollicking, interfering south-of-Boston Irish family, and more men than she knows what to do with. And what’s up with all these dogs that are suddenly galloping into her life?
MUST LOVE DOGS: NEW LEASH ON LIFE (#2) :
Life after divorce for Sarah Hurlihy used to consist of juggling her job as a preschool teacher with the demands of her interfering family. But after a rocky start, Sarah and John Anderson have shared six months of dating bliss. Now their relationship is basically on hold because Sarah’s brother Michael and his dog are staying with her. And John’s new puppy Horatio hates Sarah. With a passion.
MUST LOVE DOGS: FETCH YOU LATER (#3)
Sarah Hurlihy knows how to move on to the next guy. But she really, really doesn’t want to do that anymore. What she wants to figure out is how to stick around and make things work with John Anderson. But John’s suggestion for a romantic trip to canine camp before Sarah’s job as a preschool teacher gears up for another year is sounding anything but romantic, and Sarah and her sisters are worried about their father’s new girlfriend, Sweepstakes Sally. And there’s a hot new male teacher at Bayberry Preschool. Could it be that what Sarah wants and what she needs are two entirely different things?
Also available in the MUST LOVE DOGS series:
MUST LOVE DOGS: BARK & ROLL FOREVER (#4)
MUST LOVE DOGS: WHO LET THE CATS IN? (#5)
MUST LOVE DOGS: A HOWLIDAY TAIL (#6)
Praise for MUST LOVE DOGS:
“Must Love Dogs has already been a major motion picture, and now New York Times bestselling author Claire Cook’s hilarious and heartwarming series is begging to hit the screen again as a miniseries or a sitcom.” -Nancy Lepri, New York Journal of Books
“Every time I get my paws on a new Must Love Dogs book, I feel like my pup on the verge of getting a favorite treat. I jump, I squeal, and I promptly devour the whole thing. Claire Cook’s characters are like family at this point.”-Book Perfume
“Her close-knit family, including her very Irish and very funny father, complicate the story in the way that only family can. -Pamela Kramer
“Reading Must Love Dogs is like having lunch with your best friend-fun, breezy, and full of laughs.” -Lorna Landvik
“Funny and quirky and honest.” -Jane Heller
“Funny and pitch perfect.” -Chicago Tribune
“Wildly witty” -USA Today
“Cook dishes up plenty of charm.” -San Francisco Chronicle
“A hoot.” -The Boston Globe
“A hilariously original tale about dating and its place in a modern woman’s life.” -BookPage
“a light and lively read for anyone who has ever tried to re-enter the dating scene or tried to ‘fix up’ anyone else.” -Boston Herald
“Claire Cook (Must Love Dogs) has built a brand writing light-hearted women’s fiction blending kernels of the absurd and comedic in compulsively readable combinations.” -Shelf Awareness
“The exuberant and charming Claire Cook is one of the sassiest and funniest creators of contemporary women’s fiction.” -The Times-Picayune
The 99 cents price won’t last long so get Must Love Dogs Books 1-3 while you can!
Kindle: http://amzn.to/2B4r2RA
Nook: http://bit.ly/2ArEZJS
iBooks: http://bit.ly/2ArEZJS
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2iNW1Gy
GooglePlay:http://bit.ly/2B30hwR
Be the first to hear about new releases, giveaways, and insider extras at http://ClaireCook.com/newsletter/.
The post Must Love Dogs Books 1-3 for 99 cents! appeared first on Claire Cook.
