Tag: psychology

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Poughkeepsie by Debra Anastasia: Review and Interview

jenlanebooks

Today for the Insecure Writers Support Group, I’m supporting an author friend from Omnific Publishing.

I love an emotional read, and my pub sister Debra Anastasia has written a story that will make you howl with laughter and tears!

Poughkeepsie is a New Adult story about a psychology graduate student falling in love with a kind, sensitive homeless man. It’s about growing up in a harsh world when love and friendship are the only things to keep you going.

Following my review is an interview with the kooky authoress and a giveaway!

Poughkeepsie (Poughkeepsie, #1)Poughkeepsie by Debra Anastasia
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Deeply Touching

I’ve been wanting to read this story for some time due to the many elements that appeal to me: healing, redemption, crime, a psychology graduate student character (Livia), a homeless character (Blake), and a story full of emotion. Wow! I got all that and more.

Livia is one of the kindest people around. She smiles at everyone, including the quiet homeless man who frequents the shadows of the Poughkeepsie train station. One morning when some thugs threaten the man Livia’s come to known as “Green Eyes”, Livia stands up for him. Their first words are adorable:

“You might want to find another place to sit,” Livia said. “Those idiots could cook up a plan for revenge.”
Instead of being the friendly advice Livia intended, her words seem to slice into him.
Why is he in such pain?
“I can’t leave.” Green Eyes took a huge breath. “This is the only place where I get to see you.”

I fell for the sensitive soul Blake from the start, especially after learning that he counts each of Livia’s smiles. His foster brother Cole explains:

“He counts. You’ve smiled at him four hundred and forty-six times as of a few minutes ago.”

How cute is that?

Blake might have a chance with Livia because her boyfriend Chris is a total CAD. I mean, he calls psychology “the study of psychos”! Grr.

There are fantastic secondary characters in this novel:

* Livia’s younger sister Kyle. What a potty mouth! Blake says “Pretty sure Kyle lacks any kind of editing mechanism”. Their mother took off shortly after Kyle was born, and Kyle blames herself for not being worthy enough to make their mother stay. Kyle’s low self-worth leads her to promiscuity. But perhaps she can find a love match in one of Blake’s foster bros?

* Cole is Blake’s foster brother who’s studying to be a priest. He has a violent past he’s running from.

* Beckett is a wildly colorful foster brother who aged out of the system before Cole and Blake, determined to pave the road for his brothers by committing all sorts of sins so they wouldn’t have to. He’s pretty much become a crime boss, with a muscled assistant named Mouse. Kyle refers to Beckett as “the human steroid.” He doesn’t believe in following rules, like parking in between the lines:

“I’m telling you, Cole, that’s how it all gets started. The government’s beating us down, and it all begins with those goddamn lines in the parking lot. Set yourself free, my brother. If you see a line, ignore it.

Eve and Mouse were also wonderful characters, along with Livia and Kyle’s police officer father.

The flashbacks to the boys getting beaten by their foster dad, and the intensity between Beckett and Eve made me cry so hard.

There are also so many freaking funny lines in the story, but I won’t share all the off-color words here ha ha. But one chapter title “My Penis Rules the World” gives you a good flavor! And this excerpt when Kyle berates Livia and Blake at a religious ceremony is priceless (naughty language alert!)

“Will you get your asses up here? People are waiting. I mean Beckett here has maybe a few hours before he’s bent over a metal toilet getting it up the ass from a guy named Bubba. Do you want him to have fun now or not?”
The streetlight illuminated Beckett as he appeared next to Kyle. “Why would I be the bitch? I don’t think that’s a fair f*cking assumption.”
Kyle refused to look at him and crossed her arms. “Of course you’d be the bitch. You have dimples. Bitches have dimples. And I bet your ass is soft like two pillows.”

Debra, I love your screwballs sense of humor 😉 And I love even more that your story made me laugh and cry. An EXCELLENT read!

View all my reviews

And now onto the interview!

Jennifer Lane (JL): Welcome to the blog, Debra. Obviously, I loved Poughkeepsie! The drama and humor are wonderful. Where does your whacky sense of humor come from?
Debra Anastasia (DA): I love to laugh and I was raised with a bunch of pranksters. We really tried to laugh our butts off everyday. I hope my kids are able to say the same someday.
JL: Why did you make Livia a psychology graduate student? What would be Livia’s dream job?
DA: I wanted Livia to really have to show her kindness and lack of preconceived notions. And I also wanted her to have a need to help people work through difficult situations. I think her dream job would be working in a shelter, helping people get back on their feet.
JL: Hard question: Which brother would you most like to date? Which brother would you want to marry?
DA: I already married Blake. (Well, he was never homeless, but his manners and beautiful soul is the same.) And I would date Blake as well. Those bad boys can’t always be changed, when I entered something as permanent as marriage, I wanted to know who I was dealing with.
JL: I hear some of your devoted fans actually got tattoos like the one the brothers have (see the book cover). What an amazing tribute! How do you feel about that?
DA: I think it rocks. And they have more guts than I do. I’m glad the story touches them because I certainly wanted it to convey love and loyalty. 

~*~

Sound awesome? Debra’s giving away an ebook of Poughkeepsie to a lucky commenter on this post. To enter, leave a comment including your email address before 3-13-13.

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The Ebb and Flow of Two Careers

jenlanebooks

Time for the Insecure Writers Support Group. One insecurity is that I’m three days late on my post! Thank you to Alex Cavanaugh for hosting this awesome meme.

Since it’s rare to make a living as an author, I’m sure many of us have day jobs. I’m a psychologist, and I’ve been wrapped up in writing and delivering two big presentations the past week (hence the delay in my post). I traveled all the way to Big Sky, Montana for my first presentation.

Isn’t it gorgeous? A big sky indeed. I teamed up with four other psychologists to present on gender issues in my field. I mentioned how I didn’t get one job because I wasn’t “a guy’s guy”. Yep, I’m not!

I’m not much of a skier, but I did decide to try cross country skiing with two psych buddies. I felt like I was about to fall every second, even on flat ground, but at least it was a sunny day. It was great to see friends and mentors.

When I returned home I scrambled to prepare another presentation, and this one went well too. I’m glad to be done with presentations for a while!

Writing has been at a standstill since I FINISHED my fourth novel! Yahoo. On Best Behavior (The Conduct Series #3) is on submission with my publisher.

And finally, I’m excited about the approach of Valentine’s Day (aka Singles Awareness Day) because it’s my birthday AND Omnific Publishing will give away three loaded Kindles to celebrate their third anniversary. Stop back on the 14th to enter the giveaway.




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Insecure Writers Support Group: Politics

jenlanebooks

I HOPE the Presidential election has been decided by the time this post goes live. The last thing we need in America is more hanging chads!

Today I want to talk about political beliefs and the extent to which you share them.

I live in Ohio, the state that COULD DECIDE THE ELECTION dun dun dun. I’d much rather frolic on the beach than listen to the endless political commercials.

But I am passionate about politics. I have strong opinions about who I want to win this election. Yet I stifle myself from sharing my political views in both careers as a psychologist and author (psycho author). Why?

1. Therapy is about the client, not the therapist. My political views don’t really matter. The only times I self-disclose are when those disclosures could benefit the client, and my opinion about politics probably isn’t central to our therapy goals. So I listen, nod with understanding, and sometimes *grr* inside.

2. Marketing my books is not about me spouting political beliefs, mostly because I don’t want to alienate half of my readership or author buddies. I believe our personal philosophies shine through in our work, but I don’t want to be too overt about it. Frankly, I’ve hidden quite a few Facebook friends who post their political agenda non-stop.

Thank goodness my swimming buddy Eric and I vent about politics all the time, or I’d explode!

Authors: How passionate are YOU about politics? To what extent do you share your views? Why?

And now to continue with “The Next Best Thing”. Author Darcia Helle challenged me to answer questions about my work in progress On Best Behavior (The Conduct Series #3).

* How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I started writing On Best Behavior about a year ago and I’m still not done (though at 84,000 words I’m getting closer to the finish!) However, in the past year I completed a HUGE edit on my YA novel Streamline, which launched in March, 2012. I also tend to edit as I go, extending the first draft time-frame.

* What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

The genre is romantic suspense. I’ve received reader comments about how unique this series is, so it’s hard to compare it to other stories. Maybe the Black Ops, Inc. series by Cindy Gerard? But her heroes are more alpha than Grant Madsen. I don’t know many books featuring a psychologist heroine either. If you do, please tell me.

To those of you doing NaNo, best of luck to you! And to the rest of us, keep trucking.