Guest Author Irene Woodbury

Once again, another author has given me the greatest compliment by visiting my blog.  To this day, it still amazes me to think that an author would take the time to stop by and read my reviews.  Today's guest did just that and then sent me a lovely email asking if I would review her book.  I read the synopsis and thought it would be something I would definitely enjoy and thought you would too.  So I invited her to visit again, but this time as my guest.  Please help me welcome Ms. Irene Woodbury !!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis, Irene Woodbury’s first novel, was inspired by her love of travel writing. Between 2000 and 2006, her stories appeared in many newspapers, including the Washington Post, London Daily Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Toronto Star, and Nevada and The Affluent Traveler magazines.

One of the author’s favorite destinations was Las Vegas; she always believed Sin City would be the perfect setting for a novel. In 2006, she came up with the idea for Slot, and, four-and-a-half years, and many visits later, it was finished.

Irene is convinced her book wouldn’t work nearly as well in any other city. “Las Vegas has a frenetic energy to it,” she says, “and there’s plenty of chaos and confusion to go around. Is there a better place for a midlife crisis? I don’t think so.”

The author has lived in two of the locations featured in her novel: Los Angeles, where she worked at the Los Angeles Times, IBM, and Time Magazine, and Houston, where she graduated from the University of Houston in 1993. She also got married in Houston. (Yes, like Wendy, her lead character, but Irene insists the similarities end there!) Her husband, Richard, a retired Time Magazine correspondent, edited her novel.

Since 1994, the couple have called Denver home. As for midlife crises -- his, hers, yours, mine -- Irene believes it’s a time for asking questions. “Where am I? Where have I been? Where am I going? That’s it in a nutshell,” she says. “Writing this novel has been my midlife crisis. And it’s not over yet!”

You can visit her website here.

A few thoughts on A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis from author Irene Woodbury

        

My novel is an irreverent account of a 45-year old woman having a midlife crisis in Las Vegas. It’s Wendy’s story, told in first person, but it also explores and illuminates the concept of midlife crises. Women of previous generations didn’t have many options or resources when they went through theirs. As a result, they often retreated into traditional roles that put them in the background.

Wendy, however, has too many options and resources. Money, an impressive resume, a recent marriage to a successful man, good looks, health, talent. She goes through the requisite period of confusion, then finds herself through new career opportunities and relationships. She is neither a victim nor a vixen, but, ultimately, the heroine of her own life.

Midlife women in today’s world are no longer as limited as our mothers or grandmothers were, but they also don’t have the abundance of options Wendy has. Most of us fall somewhere in between. So this novel is a comical exaggeration, but, still, it makes some points in the evolution of over-40 female characters in fiction. And it does it with humor, warmth and a certain amount of outrageousness--in the city of Las Vegas, between 2005 and 2007. That’s pre-recession Vegas. A giddy, gaudy setting that distracts my lead character, but also soothes her.

ABOUT THE BOOK

This darkly funny novel describes Wendy Sinclair’s spin-crazy life in Las Vegas after she impulsively decides to not return to Houston following a bizarre girls’ weekend in 2005.

The confused, unhappy 45-year-old newlywed soon rents a ramshackle apartment in a building filled with misfits; wallows in a blur of spas, malls and buffets, and, ultimately, becomes a designer of cocktail waitress uniforms and an Ann-Margret impersonator in a casino show with Elvis.

She also hangs with some pretty colorful characters. Paula’s her bold, brassy glamazon BFF who’s looser than a Casino Royale slot. Maxine’s her saucy former-Tropicana-showgirl boss. Paige and Serena are two twenty-something blackjack dealers she shops, gambles, and clubs up a storm with. Major crushes on a hunky pilot and sexy former rock star are also part of the mix.

And then there are the phone fights with Roger, Wendy’s workaholic husband waiting impatiently in Houston. 

Their clashes are louder and more raucous than a hot craps table at Caesar’s! Does she go back to him, or does her midlife crisis become a midlife makeover? 

Now available on: Amazon Kindle, WHSmithbooks.com, BooksonBoard.com,Mobipocket.com,

eBooks.com, Barnes & Noble, and Fictionwise

THANKS TO THE GENEROSITY OF 

AUTHOR, IRENE WOODBURY, I HAVE 

THREE (3) KINDLE EDITIONS TO GIVE AWAY.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO

THE GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE.

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