BLOG TOUR: Love is in the Air with Buddhapuss Ink and Author Mariam Kobras

Hi there!

Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers....the place to be when you're looking for your next read and you need that spark of inspiration.  Speaking of sparks....today we have a special guest!  Author Mariam Kobras is making the rounds through the blogosphere to celebrate her newly published book, The Distant Shore.  From the publisher....

There's nothing like finding a letter on your breakfast table informing you have a teenage son you knew nothing about, but that's what happens to international rock star, Jonathon Stone. He drops everything to find the boy, and his mother-Naomi, the girl he loved so many years ago, who left him when his rock n roll life became too much for her to bear. Seeing her is like falling in love all over again, and everything seems perfect, until someone sets out to destroy their idyllic life.

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Intriguing, right?

It's being toted as a combination chick lit with a dash of suspense....which sounds like it just might fit the bill perfectly....and it's the first of a planned trilogy.  Thus far, it's been received rather well by the reading world and I for one am certainly curious to see just where this road might take us but alas, my reading schedule is full at the present time, so my review will have to wait for a bit....HOWEVER, that doesn't mean this potential jewel should be kept in the dark, away from you til that day comes.  No siree.  That's why when I heard about the tour, I jumped at the chance to host a stop and asked if the author would be so kind as to share a little of herself with my fellow readers.  Hence, this guest post was born.

What follows is a look at how one person turned a shared childhood past time into a creative outlet that would quite possibly take the world by storm.  It's unexpected.  It's touching.  It's real...and I most definitely want to say THANK YOU to the author for sharing this personal story with us.  Without further adieu, please welcome author Mariam Kobras as she explores...."The Spark"....

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GUEST POST:

Author Mariam Kobras

'The Spark'

I talked to a friend yesterday. We were best buddies in high school, during grades eight to ten. We did everything together, all the time. There wasn’t one weekend when we didn’t sleep over at each other’s houses, not one day when we didn’t spend hours on the phone after school, no lunch break we didn’t hang out together.


We had the same hobbies, shared the same passions…well, almost.


Carol always loved horses and dogs, and I’m scared of horses (they are so HUGE!) and I’m more of a cat person.


She preferred rock music, while I was (in the early 70s) more of a Neil Diamond, Albert Hammond and Simon & Garfunkel girl, with some Joan Baez and Janis Ian thrown in. There may or may not have been a Barbra Streisand album or two thrown in.


I remember learning some English words from Neil Diamond that were definitely not in my text books, like “transcend” and “overhear”. It must have been around that time when I decided I wanted to know every English word there was.

Carol and I wrote stories.


Like most teenage girls, we had our secret loves, TV stars, pop stars, and we made up stories about them. Well, Carol made up the stories. I designed the “covers” and came up with the titles. And I watched her write.


I helped her make up the plots, and I did write a bit myself, but generally I was too lazy.


I didn’t see myself as a writer. Carol was the writer. She was the one soaring in her imagination. She was the one who brought wonderful sentences to paper.


Her novels had a plot, they had a beginning, a middle, and an ending, there were characters in them that seemed alive and real. Normal, living people, while the heroes I made up were always some kind of celebrities, famous, rich, and carefree.


You see, there was enough dreariness in my real life to want to keep it out of my dream world. I wanted to escape to nicer, happier places, like California with its eternal sunshine. The music business, creativity, those were my subjects, while Carol wrote about a family living on a ranch, with horses and dogs.


My people had to struggle with their creativity, with their loves, but never with money, and certainly not with animals. They didn’t even have time for a potted plant, let alone a pet, they were that busy creating and loving.

I lost Carol when we were in 11th grade.


She drifted off into the drug scene, and I went to Canada for the summer. When I got back, she was in a clinic, and I changed schools.


We met once more, about ten years later. I was married by then, my first son in pre-school. My husband and I stopped for a brief visit with her.


She was married too, had three babies, and was living in an apartment overlooking a factory yard, as far away from that ranch and the horses as you can imagine.






We never reconnected after that, until yesterday. She had found me on Facebook.


I called her on the phone, and we talked.


She told me she is a widow now, her husband died of a brain tumor six years ago. There were four kids, she had to raise them on her own, and it wasn’t easy.


The family lives out in the country, in an old farm house, with horses and dogs and cats. Carol doesn’t have a lot of money, but, she told me, she’s happy.






When she asked me about my life, I told her about my just published book, about the new contract I’ve just signed with Buddhapuss Ink, about last year’s book tour, and the one coming up next year.






“I’ll be going to LA,” I told her, “And, as always, to New York. And Salt Lake City, and Phoenix. Some other places.”


There was a long pause.


“Wow,” Carol said, “I’ve never left my home town. We went on vacation once, but that’s it. I’m still here.”


She could hardly believe my life. She could hardly believe it when I told her I was a published author now, and my book was selling and getting good reviews.






“You lived our dream,” she said, “You’re going to all those places we were dreaming about, you are a published author! How did you do it? Where did you get the spark?”

The spark?


There was no spark. There was only a lingering dream, a constant, soft pull I had ignored for most of my life.


It almost felt like the dolphin of my heart’s desire playing in the ocean of my life, sometimes breaking through the surface, but never long enough to make much of an impact.


I don’t know what changed.


All I know is that, on a gloomy day in November of 2008, I woke up and knew the time had come. Suddenly, with every fiber of my soul, I knew I had to write that book.


My hubby bought me a laptop, and I sank into The Distant Shore, forgetting everything else. Often enough, there was no lunch for the family, and no ironed shirts for my husband.


I was too busy writing.


And I didn’t stop until the book was finished. I had left the surface, and I was dancing with the dolphin. The moment I put that first sentence on paper was like jumping from a cliff into that ocean where the dolphins were waiting, and I was free.






I’m still down there, frolicking in the freedom of the sun-dappled water.


And I’m never coming back.

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This was the fourteenth stop on Mariam’s The Distant Shore “Love is in the Air” Blog Hop & Giveaway. We hope you enjoyed this post and will join us tomorrow on the next stop at The Dudley’s for a post on Choosing Character Names.

Buddhapuss Ink is giving away copies of Mariam’s book, along with some pretty terrific (and very romantic) gifts, as we count down to that most romantic day of the year—Valentine’s Day!

Want to enter the giveaway?

Leave a comment for this post for one entry. We also encourage you to “Like” this blog and follow it! Tweet a link to this blog including the hashtag #TDSBlogHop for another chance to win.

Want more chances to win? CLICK HERE for all the info!

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Inspiring was it not?

I know I was moved and that only leads me to believe the book must hold some rare gems worthy of discovery.  So, take chance...enter for your chance to win and spread the word on the new author making waves in the literary world.

Special thanks to MaryChris at Buddhapuss Ink for the chance to host a stop on this tour.  (THANKS!)  For more information on this title as well as their full catalog, feel free to visit them online, 'like' them on Facebook, or follow along on Twitter.

Until next time...good luck...and happy reading!