Darlene's Book Nook: Saving Ben Blog Tour: Guest Post and Giveaway with Ashley Farley

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Saving Ben Blog Tour: Guest Post and Giveaway with Ashley Farley

Hi, everyone!

I am pleased to participate in the Blog Tour hosted by Xpresso Book Tours for Ashley Farley's Saving Ben.

About Ashley:

I wrote a novel, SAVING BEN, in honor of my brother, the boy I worshipped, the man I could not save. It’s not a memoir, but a story about the special bond between siblings.

I'm a wife and mother of two teenagers. I have lived in Richmond, Virginia, for seventeen years, a city I love for its history and traditions. Personal experience with my brother inspired me to become involved with the leadership symposium in my son’s school where I’ve helped bring in speakers to raise parents’ awareness of the alcohol and drug problems children face. When I’m not steering volunteer committees or working on my next novel, I can be found swimming laps or playing tennis.

CONNECT ONLINE WITH ASHLEY:

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

Welcome to Darlene's Book Nook, Ashley!

Ashley has written a guest post, so I will now turn the floor over to her.

Why Writing is a Form of Personal Therapy
by Ashley Farley

Everyone communicates in his or her own unique way. Some are adept at articulating their feelings. They can tell stories off-the-cuff to those gathered around the dinner table or they can wing it when called up to speak to a large audience. To be a good verbal communicator takes talent, whether inherent or learned. And I am seriously deprived of such a talent.

Words never come out of my mouth the way I want them to, even when I am engaged in a simple conversation with my husband. Maybe it stems from shyness or impatience. Maybe I lack the vital neurotransmitter that generates messages from my brain to my tongue. Maybe I feel things too passionately to adequately express them without choking up. Regardless, I have adapted quite well to my ineptitude by learning to communicate through my writing. I have always been partial to letter writing, especially when I have something really important I want to say. Feelings get hurt and relationships are ruined with simple slips of the tongue. Written communication, on the other hand, affords you the opportunity to edit. Writing down your feelings is therapeutic, but sometimes those emotions are too charged to share. Sleeping on your words before you deliver them allows you the chance to change, add, or delete.

After my brother died of a drug overdose in 1999, I wanted to keep his memory alive by sharing his life with others, both the good parts and the bad. I knew my brother would want me to help others avoid the path of destruction he chose. But, even years after his death, every time I tried to talk about him, my eyes filled with tears and my voice shook. So I turned to writing. Writing enables me to say the things I want to say the way I want to say them. I always feel a great sense of relief in getting them off my chest.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Ashley!

About the Book:

TITLE: Saving Ben
AUTHOR: Ashley Farley

PUBLISHER: CreateSpace
PUBLICATION DATE: January 31, 2013

FORMAT: Paperback, 240 pages

GENRE: New Adult Contemporary Mystery
ISBN: 9781481960878

Life is sweet for Katherine Langley. A freshman at the University of Virginia, she is free from the drama of her parents’ dysfunctional marriage and ready to focus on studying to become a nurse. Her brother, Ben, belongs to the hottest fraternity on campus, and her new roommate, Emma, is beautiful and charming, a party girl whose answer for a hangover is happy hour. She is also a psychopath.

When Katherine’s obsessive-compulsive overprotective brother succumbs to Emma’s charms and falls dangerously off-track, Katherine must save Ben from himself. Lives are threatened and someone disappears on New Year’s Day. The only evidence left: a single set of footprints in the snow.

From the university campus to a cozy cottage on Carter’s Creek, Virginia, Saving Ben is a haunting tale of love and loyalty, anger management, substance abuse, and betrayal.

Buy Links:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble