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Top Ten Reasons to Take That Crazy Perfect Someday by Michael Mazza to the Beach

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For today’s stop on the Irish Banana Blog Tour, author Michael Mazza shares with us his top ten reasons to take his novel That Crazy Perfect Someday to the beach. Before I get too carried away, let me give you a little more information about the book.

That Crazy Perfect Someday by Michael MazzaThat Crazy Perfect Someday
Michael Mazza
Turtle Point Press
Published June 13, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About That Crazy Perfect Someday
The year is 2024. Climate change has altered the world’s wave patterns. Drones crisscross the sky, cars drive themselves, and surfing is a new Olympic sport. Mafuri Long, UCSD marine biology grad, champion surfer, and only female to dominate a record eighty-foot wave, still has something to prove. Having achieved Internet fame, along with sponsorship from Google and Nike, she’s intent on winning Olympic gold. But when her father, a clinically depressed former Navy captain and widower, learns that his beloved supercarrier, the USS Hillary Rodham Clinton, is to be sunk, he draws Mafuri into a powerful undertow. Conflicts compound as Mafuri’s personal life comes undone via social media, and a vicious Aussie competitor levels bogus doping charges against her.

Mafuri forms an unlikely friendship with an awkward teen, a Ferrari-driving professional gamer who will prove to be her support and ballast. Authentic, brutal, and at times funny, Mafuri lays it all out in a sprightly, hot-wired voice. From San Diego to Sydney, Key West, and Manila, That Crazy Perfect Someday goes beyond the sports/surf cliché to explore the depths of sorrow and hope, yearning and family bonds, and the bootstrap power of a bold young woman climbing back into the light.

Top Ten Reasons to Take That Crazy Perfect Someday to the Beach
by Michael Mazza

  1. Booklist calls it a “[A] beach-bag must-have.”
  2. Many of the scenes take place on a beach!
  3. Read it on a beach. With the sand fleas, stinky kelp odor, and sea spray, you’ll have a truly interactive experience.
  4. It’s a conversation starter for that hunky, tropical resort bartender fixin’ up your fourth Mai Tai.
  5. It’s a story with drones, sharks, Aussie surf thugs, monster waves, bonobo apes, a Louis the XIV wedding, and celebrity wipe-outs. Who doesn’t like celebrity wipe-outs?
  6. Your mom would approve of it—wait, scratch that.
  7. It makes a great sunshade when not in use.
  8. Word is that fish love it! Sea mollusks too!
  9. It goes great with a refreshing umbrella drink.
  10. The sun gods will shine their heavenly goodness upon you for reading it. And isn’t that reason enough?

Finally, always wear sunscreen, never drop in on another surfer, and support your local indie bookstore.

About Michael Mazza

Website | Twitter | Instagram

Michael Mazza is a San Francisco Bay Area fiction writer whose stories have appeared in Other Voices, WORDS, Blue Mesa Review, TINGE, and ZYZZYVA. He is also an internationally acclaimed art and creative director working in the advertising industry. That Crazy Perfect Someday is his first novel.

Visit the Other Stops on the Tour!

6/19: Never Too Many To Read: Photo Collage

6/20: The Story Sanctuary: Guest Post (you are here!)

6/21: Here’s to Happy Endings: Q&A 

6/22: Reading Is Better With Cupcakes: Review

6/23: Quarzfeather: Review

 

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The Blessing of Books with Colleen Shine Phillips

News and Fun, , , , , ,

Appreciating the Little Things

While thinking about how to start this blog post, something popped into my mind: how it’s so part of our nature to take things for granted. We expect the sun to rise every morning. If we have running water, we expect it to come out of the pipe when we open the spigot. If you live in the Western World, you might add driving to work every day, obtaining the latest technology, or ordering anything you want from Amazon. But after living in Chile for thirty-seven years, I’ve learned to be grateful for little things. Amazing as it might sound, one of those little things is books.

What if New Books Weren’t a Few Clicks Away?

Here, having a book is a commodity. It seems to be especially true for young people. Native authors don’t target that audience, so books are imported. The tax factored into the price of a book is twenty-five percent. That’s on top of shipping. Given that reality, street vendors have taken to pirating obligatory reading books or the whole class photocopies the one tome available in the library.(Toss to the wind any copyright laws!) Of course this messes with supply and demand, thus fostering continued high prices. The epitome of a vicious cycle.

Even more tragic, kids here in Chile don’t read except what is absolutely mandatory and even at that look for a way to get around it. Perhaps that would change books were more attainable. Or if authors would write quality, value-infused books for our young people. Or that students would be encouraged to seek writing as a viable career.

Hope for the Future

It’s my dream to change this reality in our schools. A law to eradicate tax on books is in the making. If it passes, will things change? I don’t know that, either. I believe it’s a thing of attitude, of education.

Colleen, her husband Steve and their three children.

So, never take anything as simple as a book for granted. It is a jewel, a thing to be treasured. A true blessing.

Thanks so much for inviting me, Kasey. I pray that someday we will need a blog like yours in Spanish to review all the books pouring in for our young people.

Colleen Shine Phillips
Colleen and her husband Steve have lived and served God in Chile for over 37 years in church and school ministries. Colleen’s short stories have appeared in Clubhouse Magazine.

It’s Kasey Again
Thanks, Colleen, for sharing your heart with us!

How We Can Help

For two more days, the four book boxes are available for bidding on eBay. Remember – each bid equals one entry for a free $50 Amazon gift card! All proceeds will go to the Christian World Mission in Chile to buy much-needed materials for students.

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