Smorgasbord Free Book Promotions 2023- Share an Excerpt from one of your published books #Marriage #Memoir – My Checkered Life by Marian Beaman – Illustrator Cliff Beaman

In this series beginning in August 2023, you are invited to share an excerpt of 500 words from any of your published books .

This feature is for any author who has been promoted on Smorgasbord previously.

Please read full details of how to participate at the end of the post.

The aim of the series

1. 1. To showcase your book and sell some more copies.
   2. Gain more reviews for the book.
   3. Promote a selection of your other books that are available

Today I am joined by Marian Beaman with an excerpt from her recent release My Checkered Life: A Marriage Memoir – Illustrated by Cliff Beaman

About the book

Take an intimate look into one couple’s fifty-plus-year marriage in author Marian Beaman’s My Checkered Life: A Marriage Memoir. Using a quilt motif, the author stitches together stories that make up the fabric of their daily lives: the clash of cultures, crisis in a travel trailer, surviving a robbery, and enduring financial hardship.

Discover how the author and her husband learn the art of the argument with explosions both literal and metaphorical. Observe how they find common ground through their shared faith and commitment.

This volume contains excerpts from autograph books and diaries of the early 1900s, treasured family recipes, original artwork, and restored photographs—the legacy of multiple generations as two American families merge, one from the East, the other from the West. The author connects the dots of her life backwards, with detailed reverse engineering of events to discover meaning in her life as a wife.

Readers of Marian’s first memoir, Mennonite Daughter: The Story of a Plain Girl can especially relate to her insider narrative, a closeup of one couple’s companionable union.

An excerpt from Chapter 2 “Meet Me Under the Bougainvillea” from My Checkered Life: A Marriage Memoir

On another trip abroad, the clash of cultures occurred between Cliff and me when we visited Italy a few years later in 1999. We were vacationing along the southern coast of the boot-shaped country, enjoying the ambiance of the Amalfi coast, a more relaxing pace than we had experienced earlier in Rome.

Quaint Positano, a terraced town poised on a peninsula along the coast on a vertiginous slope to the sea rises up, up, up to houses crouched in cozy rows and leans down, down, down to the snug little village below. We have left the charming hotel, Villa Rosa, to check out the sights and go shopping. Positano itself is dripping with bellissimo: lemons the size of grapefruit, grapes a million, shiny red peppers, elegant shoppes, delikatessens, the Italian word for shops offering cooked cold meats, cheese, and salads for a quick meal. Cliff wanted to check out the sights first and I preferred the shopping, so we decided to meet at a certain time and place “under the bougainvillea” after we went our separate ways.

A host of pergolas of bougainvillea adorned the village, each pergola with blooms that cascaded like crimson waterfalls. I think: He must mean the one on the way down the steep street leading into the village.

Soon it would be noon, the time we agreed to meet before lunch. I left the shops and meandered back up to the brilliant bougainvillea to people-watch and wait for my prince. I waited and waited. No Cliff in sight! That’s just like him, losing track of time when he’s snapping photos, I thought. The minutes pass and I’m starting to get mad. The temperature on my “mad” gauge rises even higher as the sun beat down furiously on my head. “Why didn’t I wear a straw hat? Where is that man?”

Mad turns slowly to sad as I realized he must have fallen over from heat exhaustion and lay at the foot of the Duomo, his camera case splayed beside his prostrate body. “Oh, my[…]”

“M. “Well, I could ask the same thing. I have been waiting ages under this pergola for you. I thought you might have keeled over from the heat. Where in the world were you?”
C. “Don’t you remember? The last thing we talked about was the bougainvillea by the Duomo, so I thought that was the place we were supposed to meet!”

In 1999, we didn’t have cellphones, though we noticed many Italians did, especially in large cities like Rome. With electronic connection at our disposal, this blow-up would probably have never happened.

We rehearsed the scenario far too long and tried to resolve the mix-up by arguing our own points of view, an exercise in futility. What we did agree on is a cool place for lunch which for us was a tomato-drenched pasta (larvae-shaped noodles) entrée and an omelet. I exchanged a pile of eggplant “aubergine” for an “ensalada mista,” garden salad.
Bellissimo!

©Marian Beaman 2023

One of the reviews for the book

Susan G. Weidener 5.0 out of 5 stars The Life and Times of Family and Marriage  Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸

Marian Beaman’s new memoir, My Checkered Life, A Marriage Memoir, is a delightful romp into the life and times of a very special couple…Marian and her husband, Cliff. This, her second memoir—the first being Mennonite Daughter: The Story of a Plain Girl about her upbringing and the challenges growing up in a religious community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania—“connects the dots” as she takes the reader into all that comprises the intricate fabric of family and marriage over half a century.

Although full disclosure requires me to say that I played a part as her developmental editor for these memoirs, it was Marian’s consummate skill as a writer and her keen sense of attention to detail and people’s idiosyncrasies that shine through in many stories and reflections, some added after my initial read of the manuscript.

In My Checkered Life, writing prompts for writers to pen their thoughts after reading vignettes about growing up, witnessing changes in neighborhoods, and sharing stories with younger generations fill the pages. For that reason alone, I recommend this book as a sort of “tutorial” if you will for memoir and those interested in preserving a family legacy who want to jumpstart writing of their own.

The book is divided into four parts: Heritage and Home, Marital Happiness and Hassles, Hilarity and High Emotion and Harmony in Marriage and in Life. Each section contains numerous reflections and stories, many culled over the years from Marian’s hugely popular blog, Plain and Fancy. The humor and the pathos shine through from placing a lighted candle in a glass curio cabinet for a romantic ambiance (you might guess what happens) to reflecting on her “down” periods as a young wife and mother. Lessons learned are shared by the older Marian: “Fortunately, I have never had to be hospitalized for the “down” feeling but I sympathize with those who have …. Nowadays when I fall into a negative mood, I galvanize myself into action and go into a housecleaning or cooking spree. Sometimes, I take a long walk or catch lunch with friends. Doing for others is also a good tonic. Sending a greeting card or chatting with a friend takes the focus off myself.”

As in their marriage, the book is a collaborative effort with whimsical and clever original drawings by professional artist husband, Cliff, interspersed throughout as well as his book cover design. So, sit back with a cup of coffee or tea and savor the pages as a writer looks back on her life, her family, her heritage as a Mennonite woman, the challenges of marriage, and, of course, her love for Cliff. 

Head over to read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK

Also by Marian Beaman

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon US –  And: Amazon UK – Follow Marian: Goodreads –  Website/Blog: Marian Beaman –  Facebook: Marian Beaman – LinkedIn: Marian Beaman – Twitter: @beaman_marian

About Marian Beaman

Award-winning teacher-turned-storyteller, Marian Beaman is enjoying her encore career as a writer. A former college professor, the author records the charms and challenges of growing up plain in mid-twentieth century Pennsylvania in her first memoir, Mennonite Daughter: The Story of a Plain Girl (2019). The sequel, My Checkered Life: A Marriage Memoir (2023) takes an intimate look into one couple’s fifty-plus-year marriage. Using a quilt motif, the author stitches together stories that make up the fabric of their daily lives. Readers can observe how they find common ground through their shared faith and commitment. The author blogs regularly at  Marian Beaman

What will be in the post and how to get in touch

• • • • I will top and tail the post in the usual way with your other books and links, bio, photo and social media.
      • I will also select a review from Amazon or Goodreads that I feel has the best selling pitch for the book.
      • Please share a book that has reviews to select from.
        
      • This series is open to all authors who have previously been featured in the promotions on Smorgasbord.
      • I do have a younger readership for the book posts so please consider that when selecting your excerpt.
      • I suggest an excerpt of 500 words that you feel would encourage a reader to buy the book, or a poem that you feel best reflects the theme of your collection.
      • No need to send the cover as I will have that or will access from Amazon.
      • Please send your excerpt to sally.cronin@moyhill.com
      • I only ask that authors share the link to their social media and respond to each comment individually as a matter of courtesy.

 

Thank you for dropping in today and I hope you will be leaving with some books.. Sally.