Just a quick Update :)

 

Hello everyone. I hope all is well with you. I have to apologize. I have been neglecting my blog for the last month due to health issues. Boo!  I’m starting chemotherapy in a few weeks so I imagine I’ll be slowing down on posting. However, I will continue to try and post something of interest when I’m up to it.

 

I have to do chemo for 4 months and then I’m cured. Those are the words from my Oncologist. I will have to take an estrogen blocker for the next five years, but I can handle that.

 

I thought I would let you all know. I appreciate you following my blog and hopefully I’ll be touching base with you as often as I can. 🙂

 

Tribute to Monique O’Connor James

Hello everyone. I hope all is well with you. I would like to celebrate an author friend who has passed away over the weekend. Our paths crossed because we were both published through the same publishing house for our books. That publisher was Astraea Press. This publisher has a facebook group and many of us authors get on-line to chat, share marketing information, or ask for advice. Monique always had something fun to share and she always offered great advice. So today this post is a tribute to her. 🙂

 

The most important people in Monique’s life were her family, but this beloved author didn’t stop there. She was always there for friends, acquaintances, fans, other writers. She gave of herself through her writing, through helping others with their writing, through just listening and offering a shoulder to cry on.

Please join us in honoring Monique O’Connor James. She was a talented author, wife, mother, and friend, and the world is short an angel walking among us with her passing. We invite you to share your favorite Monique O’Connor James book(s) and/or your favorite Monique Moment to pay tribute to her. If you coul also add the link to raise money for her children and funeral expenses, that would be wonderful: http://www.gofundme.com/d4nlkk

 

Thanks so much for stopping by and reading our tribute to Monique. Here are a few of her books.

 

 

RIP Robin Williams. You were one of my all time favorite actors

Hello everyone. I hope all is well with you. I’m back today with a tribute to one of my favorite actors in the world. I’m sure you know who I mean. Yep. You guessed it Robin Williams.

 

I have been in awe of his awesome talent since I watched him as a young girl on the Mork and Mindy show. I loved watching his comedy acts and the one thing that I always noticed is that Robin Williams didn’t have to swear to be funny. Now I don’t care what anyone says, that takes talent my friends. Because sometimes there’s nothing better than a good old swear word to finish off a joke. But he never had to do it.

I also loved watching the movies where he was one of the feature actors. If he was starring in a movie, that movie was one I was definitely going to see. And the reason I loved his acting is because when he was playing a character, let’s say Sean the Psychiatrist from “Goodwill Hunting,” I felt like I was seeing the real Robin Williams. I didn’t feel like he was acting, I felt like I was seeing another facet of his personality. Every movie I saw him in, I felt like a new the real Robin Williams just a little bit better. There are very few actors I feel that way about and in my humble opinion that is true talent my friends.

I was so saddened to learn of his battle with depression and his addiction problems. It’s unfortunate but these two issues seem to go hand in hand quite often. And the thing with depression is that it sneaks up on you. One day you’re feeling bad about yourself and you’re not sure why and a couple of drinks or a couple of pills make you feel better. It’s self medication. Then suddenly you’re addicted and you really didn’t know you had something called clinical depression because you were just kind of feeling bad. Now you have to deal with the depression and the addiction. See how easy this can get out of hand. Especially, if you’re an actor who’s on a tight schedule, you don’t have time to investigate what your problem might be.

So, to all the people who’re saying negative things to the Williams family. Shut up. You’re ignorance is showing and no one wants to hear what you have to say.

Thanks for reading my post today and I hope you can say a prayer for the Williams family in their time of grief.

Health Update :)

Hello everyone! I hope all is well with you. It has been a while since I’ve posted on my blog and I must apologize because I had every intention of keeping up with it, but the joke was on me because I had no ambition what so ever. All I wanted to do was sleep. I forgot how tired your body is after surgery and couple that with pain meds and well there isn’t much time to put a coherent thought together, let alone type it in sentence form. 🙂

It has been about two weeks since my surgery, so I thought I’d give you an update. My sentinel node was clear. This is incredibly good news because it means the cancer has not spread to my lymphatic system. So naturally I was jumping up and down, in an understated way of course, I don’t want to jiggle anything that still needs to mend.

With that great news hubby and I decided to take the kids up north. At first, I was concerned because the way I’ve been able to sleep is kind of sitting up. It was extremely painful for me to rise from lying flat on my back and we didn’t think there was a place for me to sleep comfortably in an upright position. Nevertheless, hubby figured it out and I was able to sleep quite comfortably.

The weather was perfect, nice, and breezy and lots of sun. In addition, I have to confess that I wore my pajama pants all weekend. Even during the day. I decided I’m recovering from Cancer; I don’t have to dress for anyone. So I didn’t. 🙂 However, I did put on a pair of capri pants when I went to the store. I’ll only take my rebellion so far, after all, I’m setting an example for my boys! 😉 I know I’m living on the edge.

So while we’re celebrating the sentinel node being clear, there’s one more test that has to be conducted and it takes about 2 weeks. This test, I have no idea what the name of it is, but what it determines is whether or not chemo therapy will be beneficial for you. We’re hoping that the results state that chemo would not be beneficial.

The reason I feel this way is that chemo is very hard on the body. And the way I figure it, I’ve eliminated the chance for the cancer to come back by having a double mastectomy. Now it can come back to another part of my body that’s true. But my type of cancer needs Estrogen to survive. So, I figure I’ll just take an estrogen blocker for the rest of my life and no more cancer. 🙂

I’ll have to wait and see what the doctors say about that. So if you could send some positive vibes/prayers asking that I don’t have to do chemo, I’d really appreciate it!  Speaking about my doctors, I’d like to say a huge thank you to them for diagnosing my problem and answering all my questions. I had a lot of them. 🙂

So, there you have it. My health update. If you’ve had similar issues, leave a comment, we’d love to hear from you!

Please Welcome Iris Blobel and her New Release “Fresh Begininngs!”

Hello everyone! I’ve got Iris here today and she’s sharing her new release with us! So without further ado, take it away Iris!

 

FRESH BEGINNINGS

By Iris Blobel

 

Blurb:

The small town of Hobart in Tasmania has witnessed many beginnings in recent years. At yet one more beginning, the wedding of a friend, Jared Fraser decides it’s time for some fresh beginnings to come his way… And he sets out for a holiday to the US to travel along the Route 66 in a motorhome.

Ivy Bennett thought leaving her boyfriend would be the hard part. It doesn’t take long to figure out how wrong she was. As she struggles with making a new start in her life, the last person she expects to lead her to happiness is a laid-back Australian on holiday.

Then the arrival of family friend Mia Levesque and her boyfriend, Josh, turns Jared’s holidays upside-down when he’s forced to play arbitrator between the two teenagers.

Author:

Iris Blobel was born and raised in Germany and only immigrated to Australia in the late 1990s. Having had the travel bug most of her life, Iris spent quite some time living in Scotland, London as well as Canada where she actually had met her future husband. Her love for putting her stories onto paper has only recently emerged, but now her laptop is a constant companion. Iris resides west of Melbourne with her husband and her beautiful two daughters as well as her dog. Next to her job at a private school she also presents a German Program at the local Community Radio.

Buy Links:

Amazon Australia: http://bit.ly/1y0N4bo

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1s7xTiq

Where to Find Me:

My Blog: www.iris-b.blogspot.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/irisblobel

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4067254.Iris_Blobel

Twitter: @_iris_b

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/iblobel/

Google+:  https://plus.google.com/107759085454255573026/posts

Excerpt:

 

“G’day!” He stared at her and for some reason something tugged at his heart. Not that he wanted that. He had no room for women, let alone American ones. They all were on earth to make life complicated. Mark was constantly running around for Sophie or Hope, even though Mark’s wife was one in a million and little Hope was simply adorable, especially when she was asleep.

“Ya know it’s dangerous to hitch a ride,” he finally said when she was still quiet.

She stared at him for a moment, but then replied with the typical American twang in her voice. “I know you said something, but I have no idea what.”

He chuckled. “It is dangerous to hitchhike,” he repeated with exaggerated pronunciation.

The woman stepped a bit closer to the window. “Are you from Austria?”

He laughed aloud.

“Australia, I meant,” she added, seemingly embarrassed by the mistake.

“I am indeed.” He watched her looking ahead towards the horizon. “So you wanna hitch a ride?”

Jared had a feeling she didn’t want to, but her current situation didn’t give her many choices. There they were in the middle of nowhere, with the next place a fair few miles away.

“Name’s Jared,” he said and then he opened the door and walked around the motorhome. Leaning against the vehicle, he looked at her. She was pretty. Thin, but pretty. When her brown eyes met his, he experienced another one of those heart tugs and wasn’t impressed at all. He tried to look right past her. It wasn’t happening though. They were like magnets.

“Jared,” he repeated and held out his hand.

Her look went right past him into the distance, and he assumed she was fighting with herself, part of her wanting to get off the road, the other part being worried.

“Anybody else travelling with you?” she asked quietly.

He shook his head. “Nope.”

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and, after a brief moment, reached for his hand. “Nice meeting you.”

Acknowledging that she wasn’t much into sharing details like her name, he opened the door for her. “Where are ya headin’?” he asked.

A smile started in her eyes and played with the corner of her lips. He felt himself smiling back. There was an appreciation in her smile.

“Could you drop me off at the next stop?” she asked hesitantly.

“Most certainly, but where are ya headin?”

She shrugged. “Kingman?”

“Is that on this road?”

Nodding, she said. “Yes, it is. It should be less than a hundred miles along this highway.”

“Then hop in.”

She turned to get into the motorhome, and he took in her small stature and the narrow shoulders which seemed even smaller in her tight, red T-shirt. Jared noticed her cargoes were just hanging onto her hips. A nice steak wouldn’t go astray on these hips. Suddenly she stopped and moved to look at him. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“No worries mate.”

Jared held her gaze and wasn’t sure what to say or do. She simply stood in front of him like frozen.

“My name is Ivy,” she said after a long moment.

“Hedera. An evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plant in the family Araliaceae.”

With a frown, she stared at him. “I really didn’t understand that one.”

He laughed. “Sorry, mate. I got carried away. I’m a landscaper. Ivy is a climbing plant.” Scratching the back of his head, he added, slightly self-conscious, “And, of course, a beautiful name.”

There was a small laugh as she stepped into the motorhome. He went around and slid behind the wheel before driving back onto the road. There was a long silence, and Jared wasn’t really sure what to do or say. Usually, he was good with silence. Actually, he loved it. But at that moment, the silence made him uncomfortable.

“So, what brings ya out into the middle of the sticks?”

When there was no reply, he turned and looked at her. There was a big frown on her face, and he sighed.

“I thought you all speak English as well?”

“We do,” she said with a slight giggle. “But I’m not so sure about you Australians.”

With a grin he replied, “Now, don’t be cheeky, Ivy.”

“Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, my mom always said.” She laughed. “No way would I make fun of you.”

“So, you’re expectin’ a meal as well?”

There was a moment of silence again, and he glanced over. The smile was gone and panic was written all over her face.

“I… I didn’t—”

Quickly he reached out for her hand. “I’m pulling your leg.” And when she didn’t reply again, he muttered, “This thing with you Americans not understanding English is turning into a problem. I was kiddin’.”

“Pulling your leg?” She shook her head. “Never heard of it.”

A bark of laughter filled the small space. “Anyway. Talkin’ about food. There’s a small place ahead. Want some lunch?”