We’re so pleased to have author ZA Maxfield joining us today on the tour for her latest release, Plummet to Soar, from Dreamspinner Press. ZAM is here to talk a little bit about why we should all remember to decompress and laugh a little bit when we can, and there’s also a giveaway so be sure to check out those details below.

Welcome, ZAM!

Hi Lisa! Hello everyone at The Novel Approach, thank you so much for letting me share my news today!

Plummet to Soar is a stand-alone, but it’s also loosely tied to two other books I’m working on, Hawai’i Five Uh-Oh, and Three Vlog Night. What ties them together is the imaginary book, “Plummet to Soar,” written by the main character of Plummet, Kenzie Detweiler. I modeled Kenzie on my favorite person, my husband, who is made entirely of fun and kindness and patience. And me, because, I’m made of utter nonsense, anxiety, and pride.

When I think back on the last couple years, I’ve done a lot more mindful breathing, yoga, meditation, and alcohol drinking than I remember doing in my ENTIRE LIFE. Without going into any reasons *cough*orangeapocalypse*cough* I’ve been finding it tough to de-stress. 

My theory is we can all use a laugh at ourselves, and I think a little bit of this book was therapeutic for me. I love quirky characters and lots of goofy dialogue. You guys know me, and if you don’t, you’re going to find out that I zig when better people zag.

One thing I wanted to do with each of these books is embed a tiny Easter Egg of help from me to you in an often painful world. In Plummet, I describe a technique that I’ve used in the past few months to get a grip on my roiling emotions, or my anger or my depression. It occurs when JD remembers back to a time when he and Kenzie breathed together, online: They inhale to the count of four, hold to the count of four, and exhale to the count of eight. For me this is a terrific way to center myself, and you will probably find me in un-trafficked corners of RT, just before I’m forced to interact with people-y people, doing exactly this.

I keep the practice of meditation wherever I go but this last two years it has been essential, and at RT, the Romantic Times Booklover’s Convention, I invite anyone inclined to do it with me to let me know. We can form a meditation group or join an ongoing one.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to use meditation or some other kind of crutch in the last year, while watching the news—or even after I turn it off—or each time I hear some new and more egregious piece of nonsense from some thoughtless person with an opinion to share or a new way to bully.

Please join me in mindful breathing, staying present, and winning the day. I promise, you will find it useful. Unlike some things in this world, when it comes to Mindfulness the neurological science is sound. You can learn more about it HERE in the book Full Catastrophe Living, by Jon Kabat-Zinn. This book is the first one I read about Mindfulness outside of Buddhist texts. I am pretty sure I bought the book when it first came out. After all, back then I had four kids under ten years old and I was hanging on to my sanity by my toenails…

Because it’s you guys, and because I love you, leave a comment here at The Novel Approach, and we’ll pick one lucky winner, and gift you with the ebook of Full Catastrohe Living, by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Thanks so much for being here!

About the Book

Feckless, luckless, and charming, Mackenzie Detweiler is the author of a self-help book one reviewer calls “the most misbegotten motivational tool since Mein Kampf.” He’s maneuvered himself into a career as a life coach, but more often than not, his advice is bad. Really bad.

It’s even getting people hurt… and Mackenzie sued.

It falls to Mackenzie’s long-suffering editor, JD Chambers, to deliver the bad news. He chooses to do so face-to-face—to see if the spark he senses between them is real when they’re together in the flesh. Unfortunately, a snowstorm, a case of nerves, a case of mistaken identity, and finally a murder get in the way of a potential enemies-to-lovers romance.

There are many, many people who have good reason to want Mackenzie dead. JD must find out which one is acting on it before it’s too late for both of them.

Buy the Book: Dreamspinner Press || 3rd Party Vendors

Tour Excerpt

Despite the white noise generated by the heater and the hum of someone’s television, silence threatened to overwhelm JD after Mac left. The room was nice—super-dated decor, traditional furniture. The linens, though, had that “international chain hotel” look—white on white with a colorful runner and fancy round bolsters to go with ample standard-size lumps for sleeping on. And right next door, lying on his back, among all those many pillows….

JD,

You can call me anything you want. You contracted the book, man. People have called me everything—Mac, Mackenzie, Z, and shit-for-brains.

I’ve never let anyone call me Kenzie.

Mac

Why’s that? Breathlessly curious about the odd new writer—the goofball his colleagues laughed at and jokingly called Humpty Dumbass behind his back—he switched to text.

Mac texted back, Dunno. I think I’ve been saving that one for someone who loves me.

JD thumbed, I love being inside your head during the journal entries. A long hesitation. Oh, God, was that too much? He always gave away too much, goddammit. He typed like lightning—I mean that’s how I felt when I first read it. I love these ideas, finding resilience. It resonates with me in a way I can’t really explain. I loved being in your head, reading words as you thought them. Wrote them.

My book is me, distilled. Maximum me. Call me Kenzie.

Like whisky, the words, the book, the man went to his head. All right, then, Kenzie.

JD loved their secret nicknames, loved knowing what it meant. He connected with Kenzie daily, over the minutiae of publishing his book and well beyond that, into late-night emails and intimate text conversations about the meaning of life. But while he coyly obscured all but a few details and kept his face, even his voice, hidden for no reason but his fear that if he broke the fantasy, he’d lose it, Kenzie was transparent. Since Kenzie Detweiler had become the single most important thing in his life, and since JD had nothing in his life to compare the experience to, he was ill equipped to handle such a thing.

Kenzie was made of minutiae, it turned out. He’d spent endless, generous time explaining how he saw the world and why he saw it that way and what it all meant.

Chambers Lighthouse Publishing published books by authors with whom JD had never spoken a single word. His name was on the door, but he had people for interacting with the authors. But the Lamplight line was his sole purview. He was its acquisitions editor and its executive editor.

Lamplight, started by his grandfather, put out almanacs, books of prayerful sentiment, and the journals of thoughtful, barely known but highly influential men. He’d kept his output to three or four titles per year. The authors were thought-provoking but never controversial—Norman Mailer and Truman Capote and Joan Didion need not apply.

His father changed all that, publishing astonishingly sexy memoirs and books by people who really set society’s hair on fire, becoming the enfant terrible of the legacy publishing world for about five minutes. And now, no matter how many pairs he tried, JD could fill neither man’s two-tone, lace-up, wing-tipped oxfords. Shortly after he took over, he vowed to publish books he liked, and people called him sir, or Mr. Chambers, or they got out of his way.

But not Kenzie, who called him JD.

Somewhere between the contract and the first marketing campaign, Douglas—oh, who was he kidding with the fake name and this ridiculous trip—Jacob Douglas Chambers IV—fell in love.

About the Author

Z.A. Maxfield started writing in 2007 on a dare from her children and never looked back. Pathologically disorganized, and perennially optimistic, she writes as much as she can, reads as much as she dares, and enjoys her time with family and friends. Three things reverberate throughout all her stories: Unconditional love, redemption, and the belief that miracles happen when we least expect them.

If anyone asks her how a wife and mother of four can find time for a writing career, she’ll answer, “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you give up housework.”

Readers can visit ZAM at her Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon

The Giveaway

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Tour coordinated by Enchantress Design and Promo