The Life List by Chrissy Anderson - Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Chrissy will be awarding a $50 Victoria’s Secret Gift Card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Hi Guys,

Thanks so much for hosting me on your fabulous blog! I’m so happy to be here and even happier to share 5 things you’d probably NEVER guess about me, Chrissy Anderson, author of The Life List,(part I of The List Trilogy). To be honest, I share so much about myself in my real life love story that it’s challenging to come up with some secret stuff, but here’s my attempt….

1) The Bridges of Madison Country is the scariest movie I’ve EVER seen. If you’re an ounce of the truly, madly, deeply gal I am, you understand why.

2) I really did buy my first house when I was 23. (Had to! It was on the list!) It was a shack in the middle of the woods and for a short time my neighbor was Richard Allen Davis. Scary!

3) I never considered jogging until I needed to run away from my own thoughts and fears. Now I’m addicted and get in about twenty miles a week. (You might actually be able to tell if I didn’t drink so much wine.)

4) Two of my best friends were actually diagnosed with cancer and on the exact same day. (One friend with pancreatic cancer and the other with breast cancer.) The Life List was originally written to reflect this sad truth. The breast cancer storyline was later edited out because focus groups found the coincidence to be too unbelievable.

5) I have a reccurring dream and it goes like this…:

Buriiiiiing, buriiiiing, buriiiiing…
“Hello?”

“Hi, is this Chrissy Anderson?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Hi, hunny, this is Rita Wilson. It’s an honor to speak to you.”

(Long dubious pause on my end of the receiver)

“Hunny…are you there?”

“Rita Wilson? The Rita Wilson…as in Mrs. Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson?”

“Yep! Hey, listen, I read The Life List and I have to tell you I was blown away. It’s not your average chick-lit read and Chrissy’s not your average chick-lit heroine; she’s opinionated, judgmental…snarky. I found her personality hysterical, clever and totally relatable!”

“You did?”

“Are you surprised?”

“Well, no, not surprised with what you said. It was my intention to write about myself as an authentic person that women of all kinds-twenty-somethings, housewives and super woman wanna-bes- could relate to. I think all of us can connect to the pressure of constructing the ideal life, only to fall short. I guess…I’m surprised the book found its way to you. I’ve been trying to get a copy of it in your hands for over a year. I think the closest it got was to your agent’s assistant’s assistant.”

“Are you kidding? I found my way to your book! Everyone in Hollywood is reading it. You’ve created something really special and I want to help you take it to the next level. It’s got to be a movie.”

“That’s exactly what I think!”

“You know what I love the most about it…well, beside the fact that the role of Chrissy’s therapist, Dr. Maria, is made for me!”

(OMIGOD, OMIGOD, OMIGOD! I’ve been blogging about that for over a year!)

“I love that The Life List is part I of a trilogy. This whole project has the shelf life of a can a soup! It’s going to last forever. And the whole love triangle thing happening between Kurt and Leo, and how you took two men who are polar opposites, sexy and compelling in their own right, and made them both these guys that Chrissy could easily fall in love with…it makes me giddy with excitement! I went to your website and voted for my choice. Love how you have the ability to do that there! It’s so cool to see how the votes are split between the two guys, isn’t it?”

(OMIGOD, OMIGOD, OMIGOD! Rita Wilson went to my website!)

“I go crazy thinking about the marketability of your work, Chrissy!”

“I know, right? Show me one woman who can’t identify with something I went through in this book, and I’ll show you a woman who is either very young, very much in denial, or the very luckiest woman on earth.”

“Well, hunny, I hope right now you feel like the luckiest woman on earth, because we’re about to make all of your dreams come true. Your convoluted and chaotic real life love story is about to become the American version of Bridget Jones’s Diary. Are you ready?”

Aaaaaaand this is where I usually jolt awake with a huge smile on my face.

Thanks again for hosting me guys! Hope I made you laugh a little and I hope even harder a few of your readers check out my reviews on Amazon (260 reviews/4.8 star!) and get started with the first two books in the trilogy, The Life List and The Unexpected List. The last book, The Hope List, will be released in the next few months. It’s all very exciting stuff! Next up is a test pilot for a TV series. Yep…I’ve been contacted by a screenwriter to begin this exciting journey. Can’t wait to get started.

When she was just sixteen, Chrissy Anderson made a life list…

…The outcome is a dream husband, a career to envy, and the kind of best friends every girl wants. Then out of nowhere…an affair. What would you do if you realized the life you created wasn’t right for you? You think you know the answer? Think again. Follow Chrissy as she lies and cheats and ultimately learns to tell the truth to herself and those that she loves.

At twenty-eight, Chrissy has been steadily checking off the boxes on her life list as she mocks the style and life choices of everyone around her. She’s got it all—or so everyone thinks. Her life begins to fall apart when she unexpectedly meets a much younger man, Leo, who makes her question just how perfect her “perfect life” really is. With the help of her no-nonsense therapist, Dr. Maria, Chrissy learns more about herself than she anticipates. But it isn’t until she stares an untimely death in the face that Chrissy is catapulted into an overdue reality check. Only then does she scramble to correct the mistakes of her past…trying to figure out if it’s her husband Kurt, her lover Leo, or both that she has to leave behind to make everything right.

Women of all kinds will be able to relate to the pressure of constructing the ideal life, only to fall short. Not everyone will agree with Chrissy Anderson’s decisions, but all will pause as they follow along on her journey to ask, “What would I do if I were her?”

The Life List, book ONE of The List Trilogy, will take you on a rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows as Chrissy makes mistakes on her bumpy road to happiness. Come along for the ride and you’ll be left breathless and ready to find out what she does next in book TWO, The Unexpected List.

About the Author: CHRISSY ANDERSON spends her life doing exactly what she always wanted: doting on those she loves. A former fashion executive, she is a writer, wife, and mother whose own life events inspired The Life List. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with the love of her life and her beautiful daughter.

www.askchrissy.net
www.facebook.com/chrissyandersonbooks

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