Spotlight & Giveaway: Confeesions of a Forty-Something F**K Up by Alexandra Potter

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Alexandra Potter to HJ!

Hi Alexandra Potter and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Confeesions of a Forty-Something F**K Up!

 
Hi, great to meet you!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Confessions of a Forty-Something F**K Up is the book for every woman who wonders how the hell she got here and why life isn’t going quite how she imagined. On a daily basis I think most of us wonder WTF AM I DOING? In this hilarious, warm, relatable rom com we meet Nell. Her life is a mess. When her business goes bust and her fiancé with it, Nell’s happy ever after in California falls apart and she moves back to London to start over. But a lot has changed since she left London. All her single friends are now married with children, a sky-high real estate market forces her to rent a room in a stranger’s house, and in a world where everyone seems to have perfect Instagram-ready lives, she feels like f**K up. Even worse, a forty-something f**K up.
But when she lands a job writing obituaries and forms an unlikely friendship with Cricket, an eighty-something widow, things begin to change. Nell starts a secret podcast and together with Cricket they begin to heal their aching hearts and discover new adventures and joy. Because Nell is determined. This time next year things will be very different.
First, though, she has a confession…
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

‘People always talk about happy endings, but I think it should be happy beginnings.’

‘I’ve fallen in love… it’s with my life. Not the one I had imagined or planned, but the one that was always there waiting for me when I was brave enough to embrace it. My messy, flawed, perfectly imperfect life.’

‘Because feeling like a fuck-up isn’t about being a failure, it’s about being made to feel like one. It’s the pressure and the panic to tick all the boxes and reach all the goals… and what happens when you don’t. When you find yourself on the outside. Because on some level, in some aspect of your life, it’s so easy to feel like you’re failing when everyone around you appears to be succeeding.
So if there’s anyone out there that feels any of this too, this podcast will hopefully make you feel less alone.
Because now there’s two of us. And two of us makes a tribe.”

“I’m eighty-one years old and Ive learned if there’s one gift you can give yourself in life, it’s the freedom and courage to say “I don’t know”. Because I’ll let you into a secret – you don’t have to know.’

‘Sometimes when I go with Clementine to feed the ducks, I look at them on the pond and think we’re all just like them. We’re gliding along on the surface, but underneath our legs are paddling furiously, trying to stay afloat.”

“Don’t worry about becoming older, worry about becoming dull.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

1. My novel is the inspiration for ABC’s popular TV series Not Dead Yet starring actress Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin), with Hannah Simone (New Girl), and Lauren Ash (Superstore) – the network’s “Most Watched Comedy Debut in More Than Four Years” (Deadline).

2. The book is set over the course of a year so it’s divided into twelve months and written almost like a diary. I wanted to make the chapters short as I know my readers lead busy lives and this way you can you can easily read one or two whenever you have a few minutes to spare!

3. The audible version of this novel is hilariously read by Sally Phillips, star of Smack the Pony, Bridget Jones Diary and Miranda.

4. In my novel, Nell & Cricket are best friends and they have a forty-year age gap. This was inspired by my own inter-generational friendships – I have friends in their 70s & 80s and also friends in their 20s – and you can find so much joy in these friendships. Age shouldn’t be a barrier to anything, least of all your friendships and that’s something I wanted to write about.

6. The Gratitude Lists are very important in the novel – you’ll often find them at the end of a chapter. Nell, my heroine, is having a bit of a tough time, but she is determined to always try to count her blessings, however small. Some of things she puts on her gratitude lists are very funny and I had such fun thinking of them. One day I spilled red wine all over a white shirt, but instead of feeling annoyed, I felt grateful that I had the correct stain remover in my cupboard. See! There is always something to be grateful for!

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot – but I will say that kindness, and being there for someone when they are in a dark place, is important for all my characters and particularly Nell, my heroine.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

I laughed and cried so much when writing this novel! One of the funniest scenes was when Nell is walking her roommate’s dog and he takes a poop on someone’s driveway and she has to pick it up. She is wearing her new cashmere gloves, which are a Christmas gift and… well, let’s just say, things get a little messy. I laughed so hard writing that scene!

Later, there is a scene where Nell’s dad is in the hospital. I sobbed when I was writing it, because although these are imaginary characters who only live in my imagination, they become real to me and it was as if it was happening to real people.

Readers should read this book….

… because this book will make you laugh and lift your spirits and show you you’re not alone. It’s filled with so many wonderful messages about life, it’s full of wit and wisdom, it’s uplifting and heartbreaking, it’s relatable and tells it like it is and I think everyone who reads this book – whether you are twenty-something, thirty-something, forty-something or eighty-something, will enjoy this warm and funny read.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m currently promoting my new book, ONE GOOD THING, in the UK and I also have the sequel to Confessions of a Forty-Something F**K Up coming out this summer – it’s called MORE Confessions of a Forty-Something F**K Up, so I’m super excited about that.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 3 Print copies of CONFESSIONS OF A FORTY-SOMETHING F**K UP

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What would be on your gratitude list?

 
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Excerpt from Confeesions of a Forty-Something F**K Up:

[**** PLEASE NOTE THIS IS FROM AN ADVANCED UNCORRECTED PROOF AS THE FINAL TEXT IS NOT UNTIL JULY***]

Prologue
Hi and welcome to Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k-Up, the podcast for any woman who wonders how the hell she got here, and why life isn’t quite how she imagined it was going to be.
It’s for anyone who has ever looked around at their life and thought this was never part of The Plan. Who has ever felt like they dropped a ball, or missed a boat, and is still desperately trying to figure it all out while everyone around them is making gluten-free brownies.
But first a disclaimer: I don’t pretend to be an expert in anything. I’m not a lifestyle guru, or an influencer, whatever that is, and I’m not here to sell a brand. Or flog a product. Or tell you what you should be doing, because frankly, I haven’t a clue either. I’m just someone struggling to recognize their messy life in a world of perfect Instagram ones and feeling like a bit of a fuck-up. Even worse, a forty-something fuck-up. Someone who reads a life-affirming quote and feels exhausted, not inspired. Who isn’t trying to achieve new goals, or set more challenges, because life is enough of a challenge as it is. And who does not feel #blessed and #winningatlife but mostly #noideawhatthefuckIamdoing and #canIgoogleit?
Which is why I started this podcast . . . to tell it like it is, for me anyway. Because Confessions is a show about the daily trials and tribulations of what it feels like to find yourself on the wrong side of forty, only to discover things haven’t worked out how you expected. It’s about what happens when shit happens and still being able to laugh in the face of it all. It’s about being honest and telling the truth. About friendship and love and disappointment. About asking the big questions and not getting any of the answers. About starting over, when you thought you would be finished already.
In these episodes, which will take the form of confessions, I’ll be sharing with you all the sad bits and the funny bits. I’ll be talking about feeling flawed and confused and lonely and scared, about finding hope and joy in the unlikeliest of places, and how no amount of celebrity cookbooks and smashed avocados are going to save you.
Because feeling like a fuck-up isn’t about being a failure, it’s about being made to feel like one. It’s the pressure and the panic to tick all the boxes and reach all the goals . . . and what happens when you don’t. When you find yourself on the outside. Because on some level, in some aspect of your life, it’s so easy to feel like you’re failing when everyone around you appears to be succeeding.
So if there’s anyone out there that feels any of this too, this podcast will hopefully make you feel less alone.
Because now there’s two of us. And two of us makes a tribe.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

A funny and heartfelt novel for any woman who wonders how the hell she got here and why life isn’t quite how she imagined it was going to be.

Meet Nell. Her life is a mess.

When her business goes bust and her fiancé with it, Nell’s happy ever after in California falls apart and she moves back to London to start over. But a lot has changed since she’s been gone. All her single friends are now married with children, a sky-high real estate market forces her to rent a room in a stranger’s house, and everyone has seemingly perfect Instagram-ready lives. Starting from scratch she feels like a f**k up . . . a forty-something f**k up.

Landing a job writing obituaries, Nell meets the fabulous Cricket, an 80-something widow with challenges of her own. Together they begin to help each other heal their aching hearts, cope with the loss of the lives they had planned, and push each other into new adventures and joy. With Cricket’s help, Nell is determined to turn her life around. First, though, she has a confession . . .

Laugh-out-loud funny and painfully relatable, Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up is a celebration of friendship and a reminder that while life doesn’t always go according to plan, it doesn’t mean you can’t find happiness.
Book Links: Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Alexandra Potter is the best-selling author of numerous romantic comedy fiction novels including Confessions of a Forty-Something F##K Up (which is now the basis of a major TV show) and One Good Thing. These titles have sold in twenty-five territories and achieved worldwide sales of more than one million copies (making the bestseller charts in the UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Serbia).

Yorkshire born and raised, Alexandra lives in London with her Californian husband and their Bosnian rescue dog. When she’s not writing or travelling, she’s getting out into nature, trying not to look at her phone and navigating this thing called mid-life.
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