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Patricia Sands

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The Bridge Club

2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards

May 10, 2011 by Patricia Sands

Well, this was a great start to my day! I opened my e-mail to discover the following message from Indie Book Awards.

“Congratulations! Your book has been named a Finalist in the First Novel (over 80,000 words) category of the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Congratulations! Your achievement will be published at www.IndieBookAwards.com along with the other Finalists and Winners in the next few weeks. Also, we will be sending out a press release within the next month announcing the Grand Prize Winners and advising media and others where they can see a complete list of Winners and Finalists.

Additionally, The Bridge Club will be listed as a Finalist in the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards catalog which will be distributed at Book Expo America (“BEA”) in New York later this month to thousands of attendees including book buyers, library representatives, media, industry professionals, and others. Our intention is to promote the Winners and Finalists to as many people as possible.”

Being notified last month about The Bridge Club being a Finalist in the ForeWord 2010 Awards, this is more icing on the cake. I’m thrilled and delighted and wanted to share my good news! Thanks to all of you who continue to give me such great support and feedback for The Bridge Club. On we go!

Filed Under: Blog, News, Writing Tagged With: 2011 Indie Book Awards Finalist, adoption issues, alcohol rehab. Alzheimer’s, breast cancer support, coping with grief, cosmetic surgery, follow your dreams, ForeWord 2010 Book Of The Year Finalist, friendship, honesty between friends, internet porn addiction, iUniverse, lifelong friendship, self-deliverance, The Bridge Club, the power of friendship, women's support group

My guest blog on Girlfriendology

May 1, 2011 by Patricia Sands

You can never have too much to say about the special girlfriends in your life. Click here to read my guest blog on Girlfriendology’s website in honour of the great ladies in my Bridge Club!

Filed Under: Blog, Writing Tagged With: facing problems, follow your dreams, friendship, Girlfriendology, honesty between friends, lifelong friendship, Patricia Sands, The Bridge Club, women's support group

Girlfriendology – what friendship is all about!

April 13, 2011 by Patricia Sands

Here’s another great website. Girlfriendology celebrates the meaningful friendships women share. Their posts are informative, entertaining, and important, supported by relevant links. The interaction of their thousands of followers speaks to the popularity of Girlfriendology. They have just begun a Wednesday page where women can send in photos of their girlfriend groups and I’m sharing the wonderful women of my “bridge club” this week. Rock on, ladies!

Read below or click here to go directly to the page.

Wordless Wednesday: Patricia’s Bridge Club / Girlfriend Group

Well, it’s not completely WORDLESS Wednesday, but it is a great reason to feature the beauty of girlfriends!
We’re started a new feature on Girlfriendology on Wednesdays to feature YOU and YOUR GIRLFRIENDS. Every Wednesday we’ll share a photo of a girlfriend group and tell you a little about them. We’re hoping it inspires you to spend some beautiful moments with your girlfriends and to share with Girlfriendology. (To submit your girlfriend photo, check out Wordless Wednesday/Girlfriendology.)

Author, PATRICIA SANDS shared this about her girlfriend group:

This is my “bridge club” during a one-week reunion on Vancouver Island last September. Friends for over 45 years! My recently published novel, The Bridge Club, is based on this amazing friendship that has never faltered. Friends forever is our motto.

Here’s what Amazon has to say about her friendship novel:

Where can you find a story about friendship, laughter and the good things in life that also touches on alcoholism, infidelity, porn addiction, terminal illness and grief? For most women, it’s often within their own circle of friends. Patricia Sands reminds us of the complexities of women’s friendships in The Bridge Club, a moving tale of eight women whose lives intersect once a month initially to play the game of bridge. What began as one night turns into four decades that span the segments of a woman’s journey from youthful optimism to embracing the challenges and opportunities presented in life’s later years.
For more than forty years, the mantra of these women has been “one for all and all for one.” Beginning their monthly soiree in the psychedelic Sixties, unpredicted twists of fate weave through the good times and strong friendship they share as the years pass. The constant from one decade to the next is loyal and nonjudgmental support, even when agreeing to disagree is the final solution. From the exhilarating cultural changes of their early times together through the “zoomer” years, their connection never falters. As they celebrate turning sixty at a group birthday weekend, each woman recalls a time in her life when the Bridge Club came to the rescue. After tossing around ideas mixed with a generous helping of common sense and a large dose of laughter they decide to refer to that time as their “SOS”. Eight chapters document each one’s story.
Everything is put into perspective and the strength of their friendship is tested when one of these women faces a life-altering decision. Her choice profoundly affects all of the group, pushing the limits of their beliefs and values. The unique alliance they share is confronted with an unimaginable crisis.

Based loosely on her own bridge club, Sands weaves the reader through a maze of life’s inevitable scenarios as the club bears the death of a member’s spouse, one woman’s meeting with her biological mother, the inevitable marital and health issues, and another’s final chance at freedom from the painful addiction to alcohol through rehab.

Although she has taken liberties with the actual events and it is truly a work of fiction, most issues faced by the characters in the book were experienced in her own bridge club. The bottom line of the story is a testament to friendship and hope.

Filed Under: Author Promotion, Blog, Writing Tagged With: adoption issues, alcohol rehab. Alzheimer’s, breast cancer support, coping with grief, cosmetic surgery, divorce, facing problems, follow your dreams, friendship, honesty between friends, The Bridge Club, the game of bridge, the power of friendship, women's support group

The writing community as I see it

March 29, 2011 by Patricia Sands

One of the best parts of being involved with the writing community is meeting the engaging and dedicated people who participate in and contribute to it – both online and off.  Experienced or novice, young or not so young, every genre imaginable from steampunk to romance to whatever, everyone is in the mix. Honestly, the amount and variety of information-sharing is impossible to categorize or quantify. It is simply amazing. The same might be said for the people themselves. One thing I have found is that the great majority are good-humoured (downright zany, in some wonderful cases), bright, energetic, and interested in sharing experiences and knowledge. Information overload is a chronic condition of the writer while sorting, storing, and retrieving take time away from the precious moments we actually find to write. The learning curve is steep for those of us just beginning to test the waters. It’s a journey I wouldn’t want to have missed!

One example of the type of person to which I refer is Kathy Scott, creator of an impressive website. Click here to read the Q&A about The Bridge Club on Me and My 1000 Girlfriends, That’s Who!

Filed Under: Blog, Writing Tagged With: Kathy Scott, Me and My 1000 Girlfriends, Patricia Sands, self-publishing, The Bridge Club, writing

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