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Scroll down two blog posts and enter the Spooktacular Blog Hop ... you have until midnight tonight, Halloween!

Darkspell Launches Today!

You know, I'm just really in the mood for a good book launch today. Have you ever had that mood where you're just sitting there, minding your own business, when all of a sudden out of the clear blue sky you get slapped upside the head with the thought, "Man! I want a book launch!" Well, that's exactly what happened to me.

And it turns out, I'm in luck. My good friend Elizabeth Mueller's long-awaited novel Darkspell is being released today, just in time to put me out of my book-launch-needing angst. I'm so happy, I've decided to help spread the word.

You can order your signed copy of Darkspell by clicking here.

You can visit Elizabeth here.

And because it's Halloween, the day of magic, let's have a little fun. Elizabeth wants to know ... if you had all the magic in the world, what would you do with it?

Hmmm ... lots to choose from, but I think I would create a self-cleaning house, except for my children's bedrooms. They need to learn responsibility, and I wouldn't take that away from them by making things too easy. But the rest of the house? Definitely.

What about you? What magic would you work if you had the ability?

Happy Halloween, everyone, and Elizabeth, congratulations on the book launch!!

Book Review: The Alias by Mandi Tucker Slack

What would you do if you learned your husband was wanted by the FBI, and they wanted you, too? And what would you be willing to do to save your son?

These are the questions posed by new author Mandi Tucker Slack's novel, The Alias.

From GoodReads: After a long and difficult divorce, Jacey thinks the worst is over. Little does she know she’ll soon be forced to go undercover to protect her family, and in the process, she’ll risk losing her identity, her future, and her heart. With a lightning pace, a good dose of humor, and a plot that’s full of suspense, this thrilling novel is an edge-of-your-seat read.

Hoping to give her son a better life than what he's had, being in constant fear of his father, Jacey takes him to live with the family of her roommate. The only way to avoid the detection of the FBI is to pretend to be her roommate, Melissa. Taking on someone else's identity is hard, and she doesn't want to be a liar, but she feels it's her only choice. The move from Chicago to a rural town in Utah is certainly an eye-opener and a culture shock for her. There are actually wide-open spaces in Utah, and you can drive for a little while without seeing anyone else. Perhaps the biggest culture shock? Melissa's family - her pretend family - are Mormons.

In the end, Jacey must confront her past in order to put it behind her for good.

I teased Mandi a little bit and said, "If I were going to hide out, I would definitely go hide with Mormons."

This book has all the elements that make for a great read. A person on the run, their determination to protect those they love and yet, their vulnerability, and of course, a little romance thrown in to the mix, all add up to keeping the reader highly entertained. There were some rough spots that I felt could have been smoothed out, but these are things authors learn in time, and for a first novel, it was well done.

You can purchase The Alias here, visit Mandi Tucker Slack here, and buy the Kindle version for only $3.99 here.

FTC: I received a free copy of this book, and I was not hunted by the FBI or forced to change my name or ride a horse in exchange for my review.

Spooktacular Blog Hop

Hey, everyone!

Welcome to the Spooktacular Blog Hop, where you can win prizes from 400 blogs! It's so fun, it's scary! Follow the list below, enter the contests, and you could become a big, big winner!

What's my prize, and what do you have to do to get it?

I'm so glad you asked!

Your prize is a ...

$10.00 Amazon Gift Card

To win, all you have to do is become a follower in the "People Who Think I'm Cool" box on my left-hand sidebar, and then leave me a comment. If your e-mail address isn't connected to your Blogger profile, please leave it in the comment trail - I can't tell you if you won if I can't find you!

And that's it! You're entered. Now go visit all my bloggy friends and see what they're offering!

*Winner will be chosen using Random.org. Winner will be notified via e-mail on November 1st. You may enter until midnight October 31st MST.

Oh, and by the way, if you'd like to be part of a giveaway hop like this one, just click here! There's another one coming up soon!

Editor Cat ...

As an editor, this really made me laugh.

Getting Off the Sugar

Ever since I posted this blog, I've gotten a ton of comments and e-mails and Facebook messages asking, "How did you get off the sugar?" Well, let me tell you a little story.

I grew up in a household where sugar was not allowed. My mom had worked for a chiropractor and had a firm belief in the badness of sugar. Now, don't get me wrong - she was doing the right thing here. But because it was such a no-no, whenever I'd go to a friend's house, I'd eat as much as I was offered. When I got a little money of my own, I'd spend it on candy. Treats just didn't happen. We'd have birthday cake, or we'd have one candy bar at Christmas, and that was it. I found myself really looking forward to going to friends' houses or any other opportunity I could find to have a treat. And because I have an addictive nature anyway, and because sugar is, by its nature, addictive, it was like a match to a stick of dynamite.

Something else to know - when your brain doesn't create the proper chemicals, you don't feel emotions like you should. We've all heard of seratonin uptake inhibitors and the like. Well, picture a brain that doesn't produce happy chemicals. And then picture eating some sugar, which mimics the happy chemicals. Suddenly, we've taken a stressed-out Tristi and made her feel better. I felt genuinely better when I ate sugar.

So here we have:

Tristi doesn't get treats, so Tristi hunts them down.

Tristi is an addictive person, and sugar is addictive.

Tristi's brain doesn't tell her to be happy, so Tristi feels better when she eats sugar.

Add to this the fact that I also didn't grow up eating very much protein, and that let the sugar wreak even more havoc than it would have normally.

Put those components together, and you have the circumstances surrounding how I grew up and how I got this way. Or, I should say, the way I used to be.

By the time I got in for treatment, I had tried going off sugar a number of times. But because I wasn't getting system support to buoy up all the reasons why I was on sugar in the first place, I would fail miserably. After a while, I wondered if I was going to have to just give up. And you know what, I kind of wanted to. I love sugar. I wanted to spend the rest of my life eating sugar. Going off it would be hard. It would be stripping out my emotional crutches. I honestly did not think I could survive the stresses of my life without it.

When I got in to the doctor, my pancreas (the organ in charge of taking care of your sugar) was so enlarged, when I lay on my back and he looked at my stomach, he could see the pancreas through my skin. That is seriously enlarged. He showed it to my husband, and my husband could see it plain as day, too. But I had no idea. See, I'd had my blood sugar taken not too long previously, and it was just fine. My triglycerides were way high, but I got those down to less than half of what they were previously. I didn't think I needed to worry about my sugar. But when you've got an organ so enlarged that you can see it through your skin - and keep in mind, back then I had a lot more skin than I do now - that is serious.

I didn't want to go off sugar. But I had to. It was a matter of my entire quality of life. I didn't want to end up with diabetes or some major pancreatic dysfunction. So I stopped eating it ... with one exception. I had to break my Cherry Coke addiction.

Now, I have never been a caffeine drinker. Never. But I started getting headaches about three years ago, and they were so severe that the only way I could kick them was with two Ibuprofen and a glass of Coke. Well, that started something I wish had never started. I got to the point where I could not function without the Coke. My adrenal glands were shot, and the Coke was taking the place of my adrenalin. I couldn't work without Coke. Just couldn't do it.

But did you know that 20 ounces of soda has seventeen teaspoons of sugar? (I learned that on The Biggest Loser) Yes, I know there's diet stuff, whatever. But I was drinking the real stuff because fake sugar makes me even sicker. So if you do some math here, I was drinking about a liter of Coke a day ... and holy crap. Okay. I haven't done the math until just this minute, but check this out. One liter has 33.81 ounces in it, and the sugar breaks down to 1.17 teaspoons per ounce. 33.81 x 17 ... I was drinking the equivalent of 39.5 teaspoons of sugar a day without even knowing it. That's over 13 tablespoons. Every single day. And I had no clue until just this second. Why didn't anyone tell me???

Okay, back to what I was saying. I couldn't seem to get off the Coke. I was off everything else, but not that. And then I had a wake-up call. The caffeine and the sugar were taking a toll on my heart. I'm not going to go into details here, but I had to get off it now.

And so I did.

When you ask me, "How did you get off the sugar?" my initial response is going to be, "Kicking and screaming." It was not easy. It has been miserable. I'm not going to lie to you. But I had to. I was killing myself, and because my blood tests seemed normal, I had no idea the damage I was doing. I have had withdrawals. I have had moments where it was all I could do not to run down the store and get a whole triple chocolate layer cake and eat the whole thing myself. But let me tell you something. I am so proud of myself. I'm doing things I never thought I could do. I'm now officially down 50 pounds - picture coming soon - and I have faced six months of really horrible life circumstances without relying on my emotional crutches. I can't even tell you how that feels.

I'm not saying all this to brag, although hey, I am proud of myself. I'm saying this to help you all understand that while getting off sugar is hard, it can be done. If this girl, who used to eat Zingers for breakfast and drink 39.5 teaspoons of sugar a day, can get off sugar, you can get off sugar. You really, really can.

PS: Let me just throw in a little note here. This eating plan is something that has been recommended for me, personally, and it's not to say that every single person in the world should do it this way. I do believe that as many people as possible should get off sugar or really limit their sugar - the stuff will kill you if you overdo it. But the fact that I'm not eating fruit right now doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't, etc. I'm just sharing what I'm doing, not saying that it's the "right" thing for everyone to do. Because everyone's body is different, and everyone's health concerns are different, we need to have different eating plans in order to be as healthy as possible.

Guest Blog - Kristy Tate

Today my guest blogger is Kristy Tate, author of the new novel Stealing Mercy.

Mercy Goes to College

A huge THANK YOU to Tristi for inviting me to meet her blogging friends. I’m very happy for this chance to chat about my book, Stealing Mercy. I want to share a funny experience that I had shortly after I’d completed its first draft.

A friend who wanted to read my book asked her husband to print it out for her. He took it to his chiropractic school where he could print it out for free. But, about a third of the way through the printing, the machine ran out of paper. He had hundred pages printed and he figured he’d do the rest later--when there was paper.

The next day he goes to school and finds that people are passing around a two hundred page novel printed on pink paper. He tells a friend that he has to get it back. Friend replies, “That’s yours? People are reading that.”

This is what I think happened-- a medical student turned on a printer. It says no paper, he loads it with the only paper he can find… pink. And then the printer proceeds to shoot out the remainder of my novel. And of course, all the kissing happens in the remainder. Suddenly, all these students of anatomy have something less clinical to read.

My friend said, “My husband got it back, but I think there are pages missing.” (I wonder which ones. )

So, I learned that sometimes readers happen by design and sometimes by accident. Either way, if my novel provides an entertaining respite from a rigorous study program or a breather during a baby’s naptime, I’ve done the world a small service.

Today, more than just bored anatomy students are reading my novel. It’s no longer a pile of pink papers, but an actual book you can hold in your hands. It’s available on Amazon and most e-readers.

After a night of terror, Mercy Faye flees New York. Disguised as a boy, she sets sail for a new life in Seattle, but her nightmare, Mr. Steele, follows close behind. Armed with only her chocolates, laced tarts and wits, Mercy sets out to destroy Mr. Steele and his Lucky Island brothel.

Trent Michaels is searching for his missing cousin. He can’t afford complications--or romance--yet, at every turn he finds Mercy Faye. The night before the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, flames spark between Mercy and Trent leaving the life they know and the city they love in ashes.

Their story reaches forward through time to Bette Michaels, a genealogist, struggling with grief after the sudden death of her husband. Although generations apart, as Bette unravels Mercy’s story, she learns that a life can be rebuilt--even after everything is lost.

Through Mercy, Bette learns that sometimes the only way to find happiness is to steal it.

You can visit Kristy's blog here, and purchase her book here.

I Love to See the Temple ...

This temple is more than the iconic symbol of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, although it certainly is shown in more documentaries about the Church than any other. It's more than a beautiful building. More than a place where tourists stop to take pictures. More than an image for people to hang on their walls.

This is the place where, sixteen years ago, I put on a beautiful white dress and married Matt Pinkston. This is the place where I began to catch a glimpse of eternity, where I started to understand what marriage really means. Sixteen years later, I now understand that this is the place where I not only was started on a life-long journey, but it's the place to go to carry me through the tough parts of that journey.

The temple is a constant source of renewal and strength. It's a place of holiness, of reverence, of worship, a place where we can sit and ponder and think about Heavenly Father's will in our lives.

And it's the place where my beautiful niece will get married soon and start on her journey. I hope she knows how proud I am of her for the choices she's making and for her decision to start out her marriage in these sacred walls. I hope she knows that I have a testimony of this gospel and that I not only believe in Heavenly Father and in Jesus Christ, but that I deeply love them, and I hope that as she prepares for her special day, she will feel the Spirit and know how very much she is loved as well.

And it was very cool of her to pick my temple. Yes, I'll share it.

Book Review: My Girlfriend's Boyfriend by Elodia Strain

Earlier this year, I watched the film My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, and I really enjoyed it. It was a sweet romance with a cliffhanger ending that I never saw coming, and I love it when a book or a movie can catch me off guard like that. When I was asked if I'd like to review the book that was written after the movie came out, I was delighted. I was also curious.

There are certain aspects of film making that don't translate well into a book. And there are certain aspects of book writing that don't translate well into film. How would author Elodia Strain keep the spirit of the movie while putting it down on paper, where we can't see the actors' facial expressions or hear their tones of voice?

In a nutshell, she did very well.

First, the premise.

Jesse works as a waitress in a coffee shop, not her dream job but it gets her by.

Ethan is a struggling actor, trying his best to sell a screenplay, but is told that he needs to write something more real. While shaking off his disappointment, he stops in at the coffee shop and meets Jesse. Sparks immediately fly, and she gives him her phone number. She has cheered him up and given him a reason to keep writing.

But then just minutes later, in walks Troy, the most amazing-looking man she's ever seen. He meets every criteria on her "dream guy" list, and he wants her number too.

As we move through the book, we see Jesse establishing a relationship with both of these men. One thing I really enjoyed about the book as opposed to the movie is the great narrative voice the author creates for Jesse. She's funny, she's insecure, she's creative, and we see that more clearly in the book. I think this narrative voice made Jesse a much more sympathetic character for me, whereas in the film, I didn't like her much until the last five minutes.

I don't want to give anything away here. We'll just say that as we move through the book, we see both men desire to spend the rest of their lives with Jesse, and she doesn't know what to do. And then we get knocked on the head, and we're laughing because it's so clever. I do have to say that I liked the cliffhanger better in the movie - in the book, it's a little harder to grasp, and the author takes the extra precaution of explaining it, which to me, sort of diminished it. But that's not to say it wasn't well done. If I hadn't seen the movie first, I don't think that would have bothered me at all.

This book is fun, clean, romantic, humorous, and I give the author two huge thumbs up for giving us these insights into the characters we could only guess at in the movie.

I received this book for free from the publisher and was in no other way compensated for my review. However, I rented the movie through Netflix before they raised their prices.

October Blog Hop Sign-Up

This might get a little confusing. So I'm going to explain it.

This post is a sign-up for the October Blog Hop, which is taking place this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The Mr. Linky to sign up is below.

My previous post is a sign-up for the November Giveaway Hop, co-hosted by myself and I Am a Reader, Not a Writer. That hop takes place November 8th - 11. If you'd like to join both, awesome! If you can only join one or the other, that works too! We're happy for your participation however it works best for you.

For all the information on the November Giveaway Hop, click here.

Okay, now we're getting back to the reason for this post - the October Blog Hop.

Blog hops are a lot of fun. I'm finding them a great way to meet new bloggers and introduce people to my blog content. I'm also making a lot of new friends. If you're a blogger, I would love to have your participation, and it's really simple. All you need to do is this:

1. Sign up on the Mr. Linky below.

2. Send me an email at tristipinkston AT gmail.com and tell me you signed up. Sometimes a participant will think their registration came through on the Mr. Linky, but it really didn't, so I need to double check.

3. Do both of these things before midnight MST on Tuesday, October 11th.

4. You will receive an e-mail with the information to post on your blog either late Tuesday night or on Wednesday morning. It will be really easy - just copy and paste what I send you into the text field of your blog, and you're good to go. Do this so it appears at 4 am MST Thursday morning, October the 13th - and yes, I will send instructions for how to schedule the blog so you don't have to get up at 4 am to post the blog.

5. You will also post a prize that you would like to offer to the one lucky winner on your blog. It doesn't have to be expensive - in fact, it's best if it's not. Just something fun that visitors to your blog would like to win.

I will send you all the instructions on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, and you can send me over your questions if you have any. In the meantime, please sign up below, and I look forward to having you on board!

November Giveaway Hop

November Giveaway Hop - Nov. 8th to 11th - Co-hosted by I am a Reader, Not a Writer and Tristi Pinkston

What is a giveaway hop?
Simple - Each participating blog hosts a giveaway and then we link up together allowing our followers & blog readers to hop easily from one giveaway to another.
For blog readers this means lots of chances to win.
For blogs hosting a giveaway it means lots of new visitors.
It's a win-win!

Each participating blog will host their own giveaway. There is no requirement on the minimum or maximum value of your giveaway. It's up to you to decide. You can giveaway anything you would like. It does not have to be a book or gift card but should be something a reader, blogger or author would enjoy.

All participating blogs will be linked up through a Giveaway linky.
Please keep the process to enter your giveaway as simple as possible.
This hop has a limit of 3 entries per person. 1 mandatory entry and up to 2 optional entries.

As you prepare your giveaway post please remember the following:

1. The November Giveaway Hop Images needs to be part of your post.
2. Include the linky list with all the participating blogs at the end of your post OR link to this giveaway hop page or the post on Tristi's Site.
3. Keep It Simple!! Keep the way to enter your giveaway as simple as possible. 1 Mandatory entry and no more than 2 optional extra entries. All entries must be able to be done on one visit to your blog - Entries such as tweet once a day are NOT allowed (tweeting once is fine).
4. This must be a giveaway specifically for this hop and must run only the 4 days this hop is scheduled.
6. Keep your giveaway easy to find for the 4 days this hop is open. If you post often and your post does not stay near the top of your main blog page then please post a link to your giveaway at the top of your blog or sidebar. If we can't easily find your giveaway you will be deleted from the linky.

Please mark your calendars. A reminder email will be sent out a few days before the hops starts.

Questions can be emailed to: toobusyreading at gmail dot com

To Sign Up To Host A Giveaway:
Add your blog to the linky! Be sure to include your shipping info in parenthesis after your blog name.

Tristi's Weight Loss Journey

Me in January of this year.

Me as of last week.

At the time of this writing, I've lost 40 pounds in just over three months. I still have a little over a hundred to go, but I have every reason to believe that it will come off too.

Isn't it human nature that when we see a friend who's lost weight, we ask, "How did you do it?" And isn't it also human nature that if they talk about miracle pills, we're all ears, but if they talk about diet, exercise, water, and sleep, we zone out?

The fact is, we all know what it takes to lose weight. We all know that if we keep eating junk food, we'll never meet those goals, and yet ... it's hard to give up the junk food. It's hard to exercise. It's hard to make consistently positive choices all day long. For some of us, it's flat-out impossible to turn our lives upside down in this way. After all, it was really easy to get fat … seems unfair that it should be so hard to get un-fat.

I used to think it was flat-out impossible for me. I’d exercise my brains out and lose one pound in a month. I tried all kinds of eating plans and would lose a pound a week, which isn’t shabby, but then I’d gain it back while still following the plan. I’d up my thyroid prescription. Somewhat helpful, but not entirely.


I decided that I would need to just accept the fact that I am a large woman. There are a lot of beautiful, talented, wonderful, compassionate women of size in this world—I’d just be one of them. I know that true beauty and worth doesn’t come from the way you look, but I still wasn’t happy with this decision—I wanted to be healthy, and I knew it would never happen carrying so much weight.

Earlier this year, I was very concerned about my second son. He was losing weight, was pale, had no energy, and was having outrageous temper tantrums. We didn't know what to do, and traditional methods weren't helping. Finally we got him in to see my mom's doctor, and we learned that among various other health problems, he had severe allergies. We immediately put him on a limited diet, supplements, and regular visits, and it wasn't long at all before he was a brand-new kid. He'll be able to add some things back into his diet—he’s already added some—but we're doing it gradually and with a doctor's care.

It turns out we all needed to be put on this diet. At first, I honestly thought I was in hell. I'm not talking about the swear word—I’m talking about the geographical location. I suddenly had to figure out what to eat, how to eat it, what supplements to take with it ... for our entire family. Overload!! It was hard enough to do it for one person, but now ... for five? (Yes, I did make my husband figure out his own.) I didn't think I'd survive.

But I lost six pounds that first week.

Wow.

So I kept on, and we're slowly developing some habits that will make this all easier. We're getting into the groove. We want to be healthy. We want to overcome these illnesses that have held us back for so long.

When someone asks me, "How are you doing it?" here's my answer:

1. I am totally 100% off sugar.

2. I am totally 100% off caffeine.

3. I eat no grain or fruit of any kind. My body does not metabolize sugar, and so fruit is a no-no right now. And all carbs over our body's initial needs turn into fat - we only need 60 grams of carbs a day.

4. I eat meat, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and some raw dairy.

5. I drink 3 qts. of water every day (at least).

6. I take the supplements I've been told to take. I'm suffering from malnutrition—a lifetime of not knowing what to eat, or caring what I ate—and I need to nourish myself.

This is not easy. In fact, I've thrown at least a couple of fits, but never in my children's hearing, because I'm trying to set an example for them. There are times when I want pizza so badly I can hardly see straight. I would commit a crime for some Cherry Coke right now. But you know what? I'm not going to get some. I'm finally on the right track, and I don't want to mess it up.

I've been battling my weight my entire life. I've had some successes, and lots of failures. I never had the self-control to stay away from my favorite foods. I also needed someone to supervise me and tell me what I needed to do. I need the help of the supplements—if you're starving yourself to death because of malnutrition, and then you starve yourself to death because you're on a diet, what good are you doing? I need nutrients, and that's what I'm finally getting.

40 pounds since June 13th. It's working. It hasn’t been easy, but it's working.

Interestingly enough, we aren't approaching me from a weight-loss angle, even though by looking at me, that's clearly a need. We are approaching this from a "Let's get Tristi healthy" angle, and the things we're doing to build up my nutrition and heal my organs are, in turn, helping me lose the unhealthy weight. It's a side benefit, one I can't even tell you how glad I am to be experiencing.

I don't know how long I'll be on this tight regimen. My body was worse off than I first suspected, and we've got a lot of organ systems left to heal. But I'm going to keep at it until I'm well. I've never been so close before, and I'm certainly not giving up now.

"How are you losing your weight, Tristi?" I'm losing it by turning my entire life upside down, getting rid of old habits, creating new ones, throwing away my emotional crutches and learning to stand on my own two feet. And when I reach my goal weight and look in the mirror, I'll know that I'm a winner inside and out.

And yes, I’ll refer you to my doctor. I warn you—he’ll make you change your life. But I promise you—he’ll make you change your life. Think about it.

If you’d like me to send you his contact information, pop me an e-mail.