Win a Signed Copy of She Likes It Rough!

 Just be one of the first 15 people to write a review of 

She Likes It Rough on Goodreads and/or Amazon! 

1. Download She Likes It Rough, FREE now through December 26, by clicking HERE. 

2. Read the book and compose an honest review.

3.Before you post your She Likes It Rough review on Goodreads and/or Amazon, contact me on the Meet Me page of my website or by commenting on this blog, telling me under what name you will post the review.*   

4. Once the review is posted, contact me again via the Meet Me page on my website or in the comments below. Make sure you contact me using the same email address you used when you contacted me the first time.*  If your review is one of the first 15 to be posted on 12/23/2013 or later, you will win a signed copy of the book. When you contact me, let me know where to send the signed copy and whether you want me to sign the book to anyone specific.

*These steps are to insure that you are no cheeky monkey trying to take credit for someone else's review.

Good Luck and Happy Reading!

Happy Holidays!

-GVR Corcillo

It's That Time of Year...

Chestnuts crackling over a toasty fire, a snowy sleigh ride through a field of firs, peace on Earth...Mmmrrh!

But most of us never actually experience the stuff of the most iconic images Winter Wonderland. Still, we giddily trip into season after season of poinsettias and carols dreaming of silver bells and reindeer and miracles. And that's oaky. In fact, It's Wonderful. Holiday magic isn't about expecting to actually get the ideal. That just leads to waking up on the 26th in your own bed under your own cracked ceiling to realize that, once again, nothing magical happened.

Holiday Magic is about everybody essentially agreeing to be a little happier for a few weeks. We allow ourselves, for one month, to tap into the dreams that make us recognize the flurries of crystalline beauty in our own lives.

I love watching It's a Wonderful Life every year not because I expect my whole town to rally round me and tell me how amazing I am, but because I revel in the joy of having friends who love me and who I love right back.

Twinkling lights all down my block fill me with joy because people are simply deciding to make life a little brighter, a little more special than usual. Because we can do that – we can make our lives better by simply deciding to celebrate every day.

I jump out of bed on Christmas morning not to open gift-wrapped bling under the tree, but to roll up my sleeves along side my husband as we start preparing a feast for those we love most. Mmmrrh... No one dresses up, no gifts are exchanged – we simply enjoy each other's company on a day when life takes a breath and we all just relax. Well, relax...and cook, and arrange chairs and tables, and clean up – but we all do it together so it's cool. (Hint: If you are not the Mom of a family, get off your ass and help Mom this Christmas! The magic doesn't happen all by itself, you know!)

A Christmas Story isn't about Ralphie getting the Red Ryder BB Gun. It's about his Dad giving it to him - his irascible, foul-mouthed Dad who doesn't seem very dialed in to his kids' lives unless they are in trouble. But his Dad really was paying attention and does understand Ralphie's dreams.

Holiday Magic isn't about what you want or what you get – it's about realizing and appreciating what you have. Mmmrh...

...to Fall in Love with Your World

GVR Corcillo

books available 

at Amazon

Mmmrrh...

Mmmrrh.... . . you know, that sound you make when biting into the most succulent piece of peanut buttery chocolate, or when you see an incredibly hot guy and you know you’ll never have him, or when you see the totally cutest little dog ever.

Mmmrrh . . . I live for that sound. More precisely, I live for those moments that create that sound – those drops of life that land on my skin and make me hurt, make me cry, make me tingle, make me feel. They pull me down and touch a core of pure sensation, if only for a few seconds.  But these seconds are too often scattered by the whirlwind pace of frenetic life. 

Moments of mmmrrh... flutter all around us everyday.  We just need to stop, notice, and appreciate.

-Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...

-Crashing into someone's cart at Big Lots 2 weeks before Christmas. Could have turned into a macing or knifing, right? But we just  just apologized and smiled at each other with a sense of rueful conspiracy, a la Laverne and Shirley. 

-Seeing the bottom half of the moon. It was late, I was exhausted, and my car was chugging down the freeway. And there it was. The golden orange bottom half of the moon. I guess cloud cover made it look that way, but it really was the coolest view of the moon.

-Forgiving the NY Giants  for their phoned-in season all because punter Steve Weatherford tweeted Happy Birthday to a fan just because that fan asked him to in a tweet of his own.

 These are random drops of mmmruh... Moments that cut right to the essence of love, trust, compassion, understanding, nobility. Moments that I savor in life. Moments that I crave when I’m reading. Moments that I strive to evoke in my writing.

If I can recognize these moments, find these moments, access these moments, re-create these moments – but most of all, remember these moments and the way they make me feel – mmmrrh... what a wonderful world it can be.