Corky Kouture™ Blog: 2012 Holiday Rafflecopter Giveaway Particapant

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

2012 Holiday Rafflecopter Giveaway Particapant - Irene Woodbury

The next several blogs will be highlighting the Participants of the 2012 Holiday Raflecopter Giveaway!

This blog we will introduce you to Irene Woodbury, author of A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis. Irene was kind enough to contribute a Slot Tee Shirt into the drawing for the lucky winner! It is adorable and a perfect reflection of women having fun at Las Vegas! See the graphic below and tell me you don’t agree! ;-)

“A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis” was Irene’s first novel and was a combined inspiration from her love to travel and write. 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 Irene’s favorite destinations is 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.”

Irene 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!” (From Irene Woodbury's Wesite)

“The Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis” is a darkly funny novel that shares 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?” (From Irene Woodbury's Facebook Fanpage)

You can pick up a copy of this great book at any of the following locations! Make sure to get yours today! It would make a great holiday gift and watch for the Holiday Rafflecopter Giveaway being hosted right here starting Black Friday 11/23/2012!!