Hi, lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Nino
Gugunishvili and her new book, “You Will Have a Black Labrador”! For other stops on her Goddess Fish
Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in
this post.
Be sure to make it to the
end of this post to enter to win a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with Nino
and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping
by! Wishing you lots of luck in this
fabulous giveaway!
You Will Have a Black Labrador
by Nino
Gugunishvili
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GENRE: Non-Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction, Essays, Short Stories
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BLURB:
Love, memories, family, enduring friendships, cooking, movies,
dogs, travels, hairstyles, and saying Yes to many No’s in a witty, yet often
sentimental, journey of self-discovery…
You
Will Have a Black Labrador is a collection of semiautobiographical essays
forming a narrative about a modern Georgian woman. Her stories range from the
search for a perfect romantic partner to exploring food as an integral part of
the Georgian culture. Many of the vignettes center on childhood memories or
weird family traditions, such as the way family members stay connected no
matter if they’re deceased or alive. One essay reveals how making a simple
omelette can change your life; and that No can be the most powerful word in any
language. She shows us, too, that a haircut can be a tribute to the movies you
love as well as a path to your freedom; and how owning a dog always brings
unexpected experiences. In this poignantly humourous collection, reality mixes
and interferes with an imaginative world in so many surprising ways.
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EXCERPT ONE:
For
my first-ever cooking fiasco, I blame my brother and the day he asked me to
make two boiled eggs. I threw myself into the task unaware of the consequences
it would have on my life.
‘Don’t
forget to salt them, okay?’ he told me nonchalantly, and that detail of adding
salt completely ruined my teenager years. The dish I prepared after an hour of
struggle resembled boiled eggs like a giraffe resembles a cat. I had no idea
how to boil and salt the eggs simultaneously, so I decided to simply smash them
into the hot water. By the end of my first-ever culinary attempt, we had no
more eggs in the house and I had to clean every surface in our kitchen,
accompanied by my brother’s hysterical laughter.
This
story became an anecdote. My family members would tell it over and over to
their friends and to friends of friends. It mercilessly followed me everywhere
I went, and resurfaced when I least expected it. Two boiled eggs—the
embarrassment of my life.
That’s
why, from the age of eleven or twelve, I was willing to have a go at any new
challenge except, well, cooking. But—I have to add a huge but here—in my
family, cooking and serving a meal always was, and still is, quintessential.
The most important question you’d hear at our house is either ‘Are you hungry?’
or ‘Have you eaten?’ presuming that as long as you were not hungry, everything
else was secondary.
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GUEST POST:
Putting Yourself on a Page: What It’s Like to Share Your Most
Personal Words with the World
As
much as writing is undeniably fulfilling, enjoyable and fun, it can also be
scary to the point that it might hold you back from continuing to write.
Strangely though, there are stories that no matter how much you resist, need to
be put on paper and so you surrender. You write them and slowly switch off the
inner critic within you, shouting, that the story is boring, full of clichés
and unreadable. What I’ve learned from writing so far is that I have to kill
that inner critic with no regrets, until at least the first draft is done.
Writing
resembles a battle you deliberately started, bringing into the light all your
vulnerabilities, insecurities and fears. It shatters your self-confidence, and
many times while writing, you’ll probably wonder why are you doing this after
all? Why did you choose to write? Why did you selfishly think that anybody out
there would care about your story?
I
don’t have answers to these questions, I have discovered only recently that
writing nonfiction is harder, especially when some biographical elements are
involved. You’re more exposed while your past, your memories, your childhood,
your family and friends are transforming into characters of the story.
When your book is finally
published you realize that sharing your story is even more terrifying. In a
way, the book doesn’t belong to you anymore. Who’s going to read it? Will they
like it? Will they not? You’re
desperately imagining the process, trying to put yourself into a reader’s seat,
your head is spinning from excitement and anticipation. And then, you receive a
sudden call from your long time friend saying: “Tell me, who’s that guy, that Peter, you wrote about?” She asks,
and it makes you smile, it appears you just found your first reader! The magic
has begun!
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AUTHOR BIO:
"You
Will Have a Black Labrador" is Nino
Gugunishvili’s recently
released collection of short essays. She
is also the author of a women’s fiction novel, Friday Evening, Eight O’Clock,
published in English and Russian. She resides in Tbilisi, Georgia.
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CONNECT WITH NINO:
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BookBub Author Page:
BookBub Book Page:
Goodreads Author Page:
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
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AMAZON BOOK BUY
LINKS:
Amazon Kindle eBook:
Amazon Paperback:
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
Nino will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to
a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase is made, I may receive a small commission to help support this
blog. This does not cost you anything,
it just helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**
This contest is sponsored
by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish
Promotions. Prizes are given away by the
sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish
Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
