Holidays... and Back-of-the-Book Blurb # 90

A couple of days ago I got together with my son and daughter-in-law for dinner. (It was my last day of work; I was beginning my holiday break.) It was delightful because it was relaxed, someone else cooked (we met at a restaurant down the street from my school), and we got to laugh and chat without any time constraints.

I think this should be the start of a family tradition--a dinner right before the holiday gets underway (right before things get crazy). And since I won't be able to make the family get-together on Saturday (I'll be doing dog rescue stuff), perhaps we need to plan an after-holiday meal after things have calmed down?

I'm going to have to think on it. Until then, here is my story from last week:

Nobody Knows Where Gladys' Nose Goes

Gladys raised three boys and her boys were not unfamiliar with soap and water. All three of them were clean and always smelled clean, to boot.

But they didn’t start out clean. At first they were smelly and sweaty creatures… until Gladys had smell-inspections every day. Once their mother started sniffing their armpits every morning and every night, her sons learned the value of soap and deodorant.

Once her boys left her nest empty, Gladys felt life was no longer worth living… until she snagged a job as a deodorant tester. Does the man-scent mask the man-sweat? Once the hunks worked out, did they then smell like hunks of poop when their deodorant surrendered? Gladys’ sniffer could tell her.

Now Gladys has a reason to jump out of bed every morning. And will her nose lead her heart to love? Will she fall in love with one of her sniffees?

      So you wonder what this back-of-the-book blurb stuff is? Look at the photo below. That is the cover of your book. You choose the genre. Is it a coffee table book of fashion trends? Is it a photo collection of mentally-ill patients and their clothing choices? You decide.

        Write an enticing blurb--150 words or less. (The title doesn't count in the word count.) Blurbs are those enticing bits that prod you into buying the book. Sometimes they're on the back cover of the book. Sometimes they're on the inside front cover. What they always try to do is lure you into purchasing the book. 

          Lisa Ricard Claro was the original creator of this writing challenge. She moved to Florida, and is too busy to host a weekly book blurb. Her first romance novel, Love Built to Last, just came out as an audio book.  She's quite busy these days. She even has a brand new book out called The Write Man. If you'd like to read my review of The Write Man, you read it here.

     

          Include your blurb in a blog post. Include a link to this post. Also, link your post to Mr. Linky. Mr. Linky is easy. If you've never done it, you'll be impressed with how simple he is. And then, check out the other blurb(s). It's interesting to see the different directions writers take, given the same photo.

           Here's the book cover, along with my blurb:

A few of Sioux’s colleagues wore heels to work. They’d prance down the hall in chic,
fashionable shoes. Real leather. Real brass buckles. Real shoes.

The rest of the staff wore leather mules. Or strappy flats. Whatever they chose to
cover their human hooves with looked cute.

Not so when it came to Sioux. She chose comfort over anything else. If her
shoes couldn’t be hosed off, she didn’t want ‘em. If they weren’t made of
rubber, she’d toss them aside.

Unfortunately, her students zeroed in on her shoes and were unmerciless.
They gave her Eddie Haskell compliments about how chic her Crocs were.
They taunted her with jokes about Crocs.

So far, Sioux has stood firm in her unfirm shoes… but will it continue?
Will she keep wearing her comfortable shoes of choice? Or, will she
change to make her middle-schoolers happy?

Read to find out….

And for those who'd like to play along next week, here is the photo for next week's blurb:

Sickness, Sickness Everywhere

Pardon my not posting. I've had the flu/a horrendous cold. Chills. Horrible, nonstop coughing. Exhaustion. I felt bad enough that I went to Urgent Care last night, after dealing with this for 2 1/2 weeks, and I'm thrilled to be on some steroids and some cough suppressant pills. Leave it to to me to wait until I was starting to feel a bit better before seeking medical attention.

Have I missed a day of work? Nope.

Have I missed working two solid days volunteering at Half Price Books for my dog rescue group? Again, no.

What has slid aside, neglected, is my blog.

I promise I will post on Friday with two back-of-the-book blurbs (because I love the one from last week) along with this week's.

And Val, I'm sorry. You've probably given up on me. Unfortunately, I am still alive, and unfortunately, you only have a few days to prepare a blog and hilarious reviews.


Here is the book cover for this week's blurb. I know it might lack imagination, but amidst the coughing and the snorting, it's the best I could do.