Friday, May 15, 2009

Friday's Special Is...Bunco Babes Tell All!

BUNCO BABES TELL ALL by Maria Geraci

Visit Maria's website.


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Meet the Bunco Babes of Whispering Bay. Every Thursday night they roll dice, drink frozen margaritas, and catch up on all the gossip in their small north Florida town. Kitty Burke is the only Bunco Babe who is still single—which is okay—but she’s thirty-five and may need to face that her image of Mr. Right is all wrong.

Take Steve. Very sexy—but on paper, with three failed marriages and a shady career, maybe not great husband material. And yes, his ring tone is “Freebird.” Certainly fellow Babes Shea and Pilar vote thumbs down. But maybe there’s more to Steve than meets the eye? Is it time for Kitty to take a chance and hope that she can be as lucky in love as she is in Bunco?



Excerpt of BUNCO BABES TELL ALL

It was all Kevin Costner’s fault. If he hadn’t been so sexy in Bull Durham, Kitty Burke wouldn’t still be single on the eve of her thirty-fifth birthday.

For her grandmother, it had been Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind. For her mother, it had been both Paul Newman and Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. At some point, almost every woman fell in love, or at least in lust, with a character from the big screen. But most other women got over it and went on to marry normal men.

Not Kitty.

Eighteen years ago, she fell in love with Crash Davis, the character Kevin had played so brilliantly in the film. Which wouldn’t have been that big a deal. Except that no flesh and blood, real, live man had ever come close to giving her the spine-tingling, mind-melting, heart-stopping sensation she got from watching Crash.

It’s not that she hadn’t tried to find a guy who made her feel all that. But after half a lifetime of dating the Ebby Calvin ‘Nuke’ LaLaooshes of the world, it was time to face facts. As her best friend Pilar had said, time and time again, “Crash Davis is a fahottie. He doesn’t exist.” Despite Pilar’s irritating habit of making up words you couldn’t find in Webster’s Dictionary, Kitty had come to the depressing conclusion that, as usual, Pilar was right. Crash Davis was nothing more than a fantasy hottie.

But that was okay. Because as of today, Kitty was officially over it.

So what if she was the only one of her friends not married? The rest of her life was perfect. She had a great job selling real estate, a fantastic income (well, maybe not so fantastic in the last couple of years, but things had to start picking up soon) and she had recently moved into her grandmother’s old place just two blocks from the beach. In north Florida, life didn’t get much better than that.

But what made Kitty’s life really special was her Bunco group. The Bunco Babes of Whispering Bay had been established ten years ago by what Pilar referred to as the “the nucleus”. The nucleus consisted of the three founding members; Kitty Burke, Pilar Diaz-Rothman, and their other best friend, Shea Masterson. Exactly who the protons or the neutrons were, Kitty wasn’t sure, although she was fairly certain Pilar did. But whoever was what, one thing was indisputable. Admission into the Bunco Babes was exclusive. No one got in without the unanimous consent of the nucleus. There were nine other members (the electrons, so to speak), for a total of twelve Babes. For the past ten years they had been there for each other through boyfriends, marriages, babies, spreading hips and sagging boobs.

With friends like the Babes, who needed a man?

If Susan Sarandon could worship at the Church of Baseball, then Kitty could worship at the Church of Bunco. It was every Thursday night while rolling the dice and chugging frozen margaritas that Kitty found her true salvation. It was the friendship of those eleven other women that provided the balance in her life. The yin to her yang. The cherry on top of her hot fudge sundae.

Tonight however, a perfectly nasty imbalance was taking shape in the form of an overflowing toilet.
****************************************************************

Please answer the following question for a chance to win a free copy of BUNCO BABES TELL ALL! Or, drop by and say hi to Maria!!
:-)


Who is your big-screen crush? You may have more than one...

29 comments:

Chris Eldin said...

Good Morning All!

I'm posting this early to claim dibs on Johnny. And most of you laydies know which Johnny I'm talking about...
:-)

Welcome Maria!! Love your excerpt! Sounds like a fun and fast read!

Whirlochre said...

Sad to say, but when Son of Whirl was kneehigh to a grasshopper twice the size of kids his own age, we regularly tuned in to Milkshake on the UK's Channel 5 (five whole channels, I know), not so he could catch up on the exploits of Jay Jay the Jet Plane or Bear in the Big Blue House, but so his Dad could savour the delightful cheeriness of Naomi Wilkinson.

However, for the raw heat of big screen passion, it's hard to top the guy who played Gimli in LOTR.

Maria Geraci said...

Hi Chris, thanks for having me!

Louisa Edwards said...

Hmm. My biggest movie crush at the moment might be Zachary Quinto, but my perennial favorites are George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, and Clive Owen.

laughingwolf said...

welcome maria... smooth move, chris ;)

i have to go with sigourney weaver, beauty and brains always get to me :)

Chris Eldin said...

Hi Whirl,

I remember Jay Jay!! Now that tune is in my head!
:-)

Some nice selections, Louisa!
:-)

Hi Maria, top of the morning!!
:-)


LW wants the complete package..
;-)

Anonymous said...

Welcome Maria! Great to have you!!

Chris, I didn't know you have a thing for Johnny Appleseed. That's kind of cute. :)

Maria Geraci said...

Whirl, Gimli is definitely intense, I'll give you that:)

Louisa, Clive is the yummiest (smacking lips together now)

And as for Sigourney, I love the brains/beauty combo!

Maria Geraci said...

Hi Jason,
It's great to be here. I LOVE talking about movie crushes! Speaking of which, I need to go see the new Star Trek...

Kristen Painter said...

Right now? Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. But don't put me in the drawing - I already have the book!

Chris Eldin said...

Jason!

(You caught me...)

But I also like Survivorman, though he's not big screen. One day...

:-)

Metonia said...

My age will show here.. HI Maria, great post. I can't remember his name but my first love was the boy in the OLD show "HR Puff'n Stuff". Next I found myself almost kissing the TV with West Side Story's Toni .... then I met my husband as a senior in high school. Now I just lust after all the young bucks out here... *sigh*

Riva said...

Hmmm . . . favorite movie crush here would probably be Sean Connery (I'm from the older crowd!). I swear, that man could read the phone book and I'd pay good money to watch and listen.

Bunco Babes sounds like fun. Can't wait to read it.

Marnie said...

I have two on screen crushes ---- Gerard Butler and Ryan Reynolds (did you all see him in Wolverine -yummy)

laughingwolf said...

best way to be, chris and maria...

one likes to chat intelligently, before, during... and after :O lol

laughingwolf said...

maria, DO see the new 'trek', my daughter loved it and she's not even a trek fan ;)

Unknown said...

Robert Pattinson. Chris Evans. Wentworth Miller. Justin Timberlake. I could go on all day!

Maureen McGowan said...

Oh, I have to say I share the Crash Davis lust. And just about any character played by Johnny Depp.

Maria Geraci said...

Hey Kristen, I have to admit Hugh Jackman has never done it for me. UNTIL I saw him host the Oscars. He was fab- funny, sharp and he can sing. I just wish the chemistry I felt on the small screen translated to the big one;)

Riva- Sean does it for everyone I think- young, old and in between!

Marnie- LOVE both Gerard and Ryan. They were in Wolverine??

Maria Geraci said...

Bridget- Wasn't Chris Evans in The Nanny Diaries? Love him too.

And Maureen, I always knew you had fab taste!

Maria Geraci said...

Metonia,

I totally remember HR Puffenstuff! Man, what memories:)

Anonymous said...

As a kid, I was kind of smitten with Nefretiri from The Ten Commandments. So sacrilegious....

Sarah Hina said...

Maria, this sounds like a great premise! I love the exploration of dream man vs. reality. :)

I've always had weaknesses for Daniel Day Lewis and Ralph Fiennes.

(Not as Amon Goeth or Voldemort for the latter, though. ;))

Maria Geraci said...

Hi Sarah,

Daniel DL in "The Last of the Mohicans" There's no better hero in my book!

Chris Eldin said...

Hi Maria,

You've given me good cause to daydream today!!

How about it folks? An easy question for a chance to win a fabulous book!
:-) Three more hours...

Chris Eldin said...

Hi Everyone,

Well, it's 9:00 and time to close the contest. I want to thank everyone for dropping by, and a special thanks to Maria for sharing her work with us!!! All best wishes!!

Maria will choose a winner at any time now.

Thanks all!!
:-)

Amber Green said...

Gerard Butler

But I'd like him to have Sean Connery's voice.

Maria Geraci said...

There were so many good responses, so to be fair I drew out of a hat. Bridget3420 is the winner!
Please email me at mariageraci1@gmail.com with your address so I can put your book in the mail.

Thanks Chris and Jason and everyone here for having me today and especially to everyone who responded.
It was fun!

laughingwolf said...

grats bridget... and thx maria :)