October – A Fabulous Month
I hope everyone is enjoying the month of October. For me, it’s soup weather here in Georgia! In fact, I made vegetable soup in the crock pot just the other day. Yum! I’m not much into corn mazes or festivals, but I do like to decorate my home with the touch of Autumn and for the 31st. Halloween has always been one of my favorite celebrations.
Toward the end of the month, my husband, Mike, Bella (our mini-Australian Shepherd), and I will drive up to North Georgia to spend a few days in the mountains to buy apples, soak up the atmosphere, and hopefully see the leaves in their glory.
As we move towards the end of the month, Halloween lurks. We see our neighbors’ front porches and lawns adorned with pumpkins and blow-up Frankensteins, witches, ghosts, and scary creatures. I love this time of year! I get excited just dragging out all my bins of Halloween decorations. Can’t wait for the adorable, costumed kids to trick-or-treat at my front door.
When my kids were young, I was a Girl Scout Troop Leader for a time. One Halloween, I enlisted my family in the creation of a “Garage” Haunted House in anticipation of the neighborhood kids creeping through it. My husband played Dracula and rose and down in a wooden coffin; my teenage son handled the eerie music, lights, and visual effects. We even had a spooky rocking chair that rocked on its own or by the “ghost” who sag in it. The kids who came through my kitchen to enter the Haunted Garage had to take off their shoes before venturing inside into darkness. They had to step through “monster guts” as they entered. Of course, the guts were nothing more than cooked, wet noodles scattered on the concrete floor. It was so very cool!!
For me, October evokes good memories and makes me smile. It’s a good time to nest, cuddle up under a throw, drink hot tea, and read a cozy mystery. In addition, October kick starts the holidays, gives a mini-fresh start before the year comes to a gradual close. Yes, the leaves will drop, and the trees will eventually become bare, but the beauty of the seasonal changes uplifts me somehow. During this time, I feel the change in me. I want to be outside more, breathe the cool air, and appreciate nature. I become refreshed, supercharged with energy, and motivated to get more things done.
Lately, I’ve made lots of headway on my new book. No more excuses for me! I won’t let myself miss my writing deadline again. It can get scary! Yikes!
One thing that I must do this month is to get my yearly mammogram! As we all know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Welcome My Guest
Cara Bertoia just launched her novel, The Perfect Breasts, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The author grew up in a strait-laced Southern family, but she was always fascinated with casinos. In her twenties on a summer hiatus from teaching in North Carolina, she drove to California and became a dealer at Caesars in Lake Tahoe. She discovered that after teaching high school, handling an unruly gambler was a piece of cake. Her mother highly disapproved of her working in a casino, “a place so bad it has ‘sin’ in the middle.”
Eventually, she succumbed to pressure from the family and returned east to take a hi-tech job in Boston. She also began working on her MFA in writing at Emerson. Her goal was to write the first realistic novel about casino life from the perspective of an experienced table games dealer. She is always amazed that normal and sometimes quite intelligent players become absolutely clueless in the casino. They repeat superstitious nonsense, and no amount of logic can change their position; maybe her novel will.
While in Boston she was offered the opportunity to join Princess Cruises as a croupier. Jumping at the chance, she spent the next five years circling the globe. Sometimes life exceeds your dreams. She was awed by the wonders of Venice, the fjords of Norway, and the Northern Lights in St. Petersburg. Cara returned from ships with a very special souvenir, her Scottish husband Ray. They went to work at the Spa Casino in Palm Springs, and now live in Hollywood, Florida, where she writes about her casino years while wistfully gazing out at the ocean.
The Perfect Breasts
Growing up Jewish in the South, Hannah Clein considered herself an ordinary child who loved challah bread, reading, and her family – often in that order. She didn’t appreciate how normal her life was. She would take breaks from reading to criticize her physical appearance in the mirror, her brown hair was mousy colored, and her hazel eyes were too small. She would always remember the day she went to a department store with her slightly irritating mother to buy her first bra as her last best day, “B.C.” before the cancer.
With a normal life in the rear-view mirror, we follow Hannah over three decades, as she navigates the tricky transition from girlhood to womanhood. All her life, she just wants to belong. Be normal.
In a tale that explores a women’s complicated relationships with her body, and the love of her life, we learn the psyche is a funny thing. What are The Perfect Breasts? And how does the loss of a loved one affect those left behind?
The Perfect Breasts mixes family lore with imagination in a compelling tale of loss, longing, and love. It is a personal and raw short story about boobs. I always write about strong women and in this case a young girl who will become a strong woman. Not because she wants to but because she has to. Because when her mother becomes ill, she becomes the caregiver for her mother.
In college, she sets out to make up for lost time. She wants to be footloose and fancy-free. She could get drunk if she wanted to, smoke pot, have sex, be a regular teenager, or could she? But it is not so easy to forget that you are the member of the sad club. Memories can pop up at unexpected times, especially when you are trying to start over. The great thing about Hannah is the strength she must deal with her demons and not lose herself.
The inspiration for writing The Perfect Breasts was the death of my father at a young age. He dropped dead on the tennis courts at the Jewish Community Center. I just remember how badly it hurt and still hurts. It was a pivotal moment that forever changed my life. The pain is for what can never be. I also grew up Jewish in Charlotte, North Carolina. I think it is those memories that made the story so raw. I cried for Hannah because I remembered what losing a parent at a young age felt like. That is why I am donating all my proceeds to breast cancer research.
**Cara Bertoia loves to connect with her readers. Please send her a picture with any or her work. She will post those pictures to social media. You can follow Cara on the following links: carabertoia@yahoo.com, TIKTOK, Cara Bertoia’s Blog, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, BookBub, Facebook, Women Writers Women’s Books — Cara Bertoia, The Big Thrill Online Magazine
Don’t forget you can find my novel, RELATIVE CONSEQUENCES on the following:
BookShop – https://bit.ly/3IMV1Nk
Amazon – https://amzn.to/3GN4l1M
Barnes & Noble – https://bit.ly/35BMdLW
Kobo – https://bit.ly/3IStGKl
BooksAMillion – https://bit.ly/3OifwDp
Next month, my guest will be Author Patricia Qaiyyim.
Have a Happy Halloween, and I’ll see you in November – just about Turkey Time!
Stay safe and well,
Jody
Jody Herpin 