A Look At Alana Cash & 'How You Leave Texas' ( @GoddessFish )

Today we have author Alana Cash visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Alana Cash is an adventurer. She’s trekked alone through war-torn Serbia and has slept in a KGB interrogation room in Prague. She’s been to a gypsy fair in rural England, a bullfight in Laredo, and parasailing in Acapulco. She’s been inside the New York Stock Exchange and eaten in J. Pierpont Morgan’s home dining room. She's gone on a ride-along in a New York City patrol car and kissed a man inside the Norman Bates Psycho house at Universal Studios. She’s been a lifeguard, legal secretary, accountant, writer, teacher, filmmaker and artist.
* Her experiences are inspiration for her work as an acclaimed writer and filmmaker.
~~ She was one of 60 US teachers profiled on the PBS series, "A Writer's Exchange," for her talent as a teacher at the University of Texas Informal Classes - many of her students published and won writing awards.
~~ Her feature film, "Tom's Wife," based on her novel of the same name, won awards all over the world.
~~ Her documentary "Anna Freud: Under Analysis," part of documentary trilogy on women in science, was translated into German for broadcast in Austria, Germany & Switzerland.

What are you going to tell us about today?
* How You Leave Texas. Alana Cash and How You Leave Texas placed first place in the Short Story category of the GLOBAL BOOK CONTEST 2013!

A look into...

How You Leave Texas is a volume of three short stories and a novella about four young women who leave Midland, Austin, Fort Worth and Mayville, Texas for New York, California, Jakarta, and in one instance, jail. They seek escape from boredom and sorrow and find it. The stories are hilarious, tragic, revelatory.

~ Blurb for Dam Broke ~ * On the night of their high school graduation, Annabelle and Mickey ride a scooter in pouring rain as they reveal closely held secrets. (6 pages).
~~ In sixth grade, I abandoned the reading glasses for a blond wig and a fake mole above my top lip. Mickey started wearing sunglasses indoors and carrying business cards. ~~

~ Blurb for Camille’s Net Worth ~ * On the day she turns 40, Camille's life goes from bored to worse in uncontrolled demolition. She accepts an exciting job opportunity and travels back and forth to Indonesia. The job isn't what is appears, but the irony of how things turn out causes Camille to laugh until she has tears rolling down her face. (42 pages).
~~ "I’m not going to spend much time repeating myself," Camille said, "I want you to remove whatever you want to keep from this house. You can store your stuff in a rental truck if you need to until you find a new home, but you will be gone from here by midnight and never return." ~~
~~ "You can’t do that!" ~~
~~ "If you are not gone by midnight, I will set fire to the house." ~~

~ Blurb for Krystal’s Wedding ~ * Krystal leaves her seriously flawed family in Midland, heading for New York City, where she takes a few slippery steps. Krystal's mother encourages her to find a husband in order to escape her loud roommate in Hell's Kitchen and her boring job. However, Krystal actually gets her footing in New York and in life when she is offered a new, fulfilling direction. (21 pages).
~~ Krystal felt safe with Hudson there, but it must be as clear to him and his family as it was to her that theirs was a match of china and paper plates. As Krystal faked a sip of the champagne with a name she couldn’t read because it was printed in twirly letters in French, she wondered how hard his mother would try to prevent Hudson from getting too serious... ~~

~ Blurb for Frying Your Burger ~ * Nicky and three irreverent friends spend mornings at a coffee shop tossing repartee on love, sex, and religion. Then, Nicky gets caught up with a Hollywood player, becoming a pawn in the battle of egos between two movie directors trying to ruin each others careers. (108 pages).
~~ I went into the room marked Cashier and got into a long line. And there he was. Grinning that grin. He should have had a license for it. It was that bright. I stood next to him in my white t-shirt and white pants looking like someone straight out of the "hospital orderly fashion catalogue." It was all I had clean that day. ~~

~ Excerpt from Camille's Net Worth ~ * She was late to work at Fastbinder’s Mortgage Company, and when she arrived, the atmosphere in the office felt charged. Something was up. The top managers were in an unscheduled conference call and no one knew why. No one was working, so Camille called her mother to thank her for the flowers that were already sitting on her desk.
* “What do you and Walker have planned for tonight?” Elaine Morgan asked her daughter.
* Camille explained about the dinner.
* “What is he getting you as a gift?”
* “I don’t know, Mom. I’ve looked everywhere.”
* “Well, have a wonderful time, honey,” her mom said.
* It was ten o’clock when Camille got off the phone. The accounting department surprised her with a birthday cake, sang to her, and gave her the card they had all signed. Five minutes later, the managers were out of their meeting and everyone got canned by one loud announcement from the District Manager.
* “We’re sorry to have to tell you that you are all let go.” That is all that Camille would ever clearly remember.
* The mortgage company was belly-up. Those few employees who were retained were being transferred to the Las Vegas branch. Everyone was in shock and had no time to express outrage or disappointment because they were told to pack up all of their personal belongings and exit the building immediately. Camille took the elevator down the four floors, amid grumblings from secretaries and mortgage brokers. What about our benefits? I didn’t take all my vacation this year. Someone ought to blow up the building. I stole a printer.

Buy How You Leave Texas here...
Amazon

Find Alana Cash here...
Website | Blog

Thank you for joining us here today, Alana! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! Alana will be awarding a screen printed camisole (What Happens in the Bedroom Stays in the Bedroom) to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour as well as a screen printed Brass Nuts t-shirt to another commenter! So be sure to leave your name and email with your comment and visit other tour stops (find them here: goddessfishpromotions-book-tour-how-you-leave-texas) for a greater chance of winning!