NEW RELEASE
This Morning I Woke Up Dead
by Mindy Larson
To celebrate the re-release of This Morning I Woke Up Dead, during the months of November and December, 1% of the gross sales of this novel and all other novels with Lavish Publishing, LLC will be donated to the Lupus Foundation of America. The donation will be made in May 2014 in honor of author A. A. Pencil and National Lupus Awareness Month.
Please visit all of the other stops on this book tour brought to you by Reading Addiction Book Tours.
Description
What would you do? What rules would you break to be with your soul mate? This morning Hadley Christensen and Dominic Morris woke up living their dream lives. They are engaged and each has promising careers in the medical field. They are happier and more fulfilled than they have ever been, and they are ready to begin their happily ever after.
Sadly, on her way to work, Hadley is in an accident. Before taking her last breath, she realizes she is already dead - and everyone on Earth is too. Now Hadley and Dominic must each find a way to live without one another. How do they continue when they are two parts of one flame?
Hadley is given permission by the Masters to contact Dominic in the hopes he will also realize he is already dead. If Dominic can open his mind to hear Hadley they can be together forever. Is Dominic ready to give up life the way he knows it?
Excerpt - 20 Favorite Quotes
1. “So, you're probably wondering how did I die? Well, the better question might be: when did I realize that I was never alive?”
2. “Think of Earth as one enormous waiting room. On Earth, we can do all the things needed to learn and grow for the next cycle of life. Life on Earth is a practice run. A dress rehearsal. While we're on Earth we can play. Love. Find our talents. Those who are smart, use them. It's a pity that not near enough of the population do. Most waste their time on Earth gossiping, arguing, spending too much money, worrying about anything and everything. We cause pain. To ourselves and others. The opposite of living. Why? I don't know. What I do know is that love, being happy, and feeling gratitude for everyone and everything is all its really about.”
3. “Logan steps over and around the bugs but through the kids, making the red head shiver. Seems sort of backwards to me, avoiding bugs in favor of passing through children. But who am I to judge?”
4. “I feel like I’m living in a science fiction book where every one hundred and nine minutes I must push a button or the Earth will explode. But that button is pushing a bottle or some other kind of baby food into Ruby's mouth.”
5. “A chill passes over me. I physically wince, wondering what is going on. Why does this keep happening? Maybe there is an air conditioning vent above me. I look up and there isn't one that I can see.”
6. “With my next few steps towards the Disneyland gates, I decide that my name is now, Scott, Scott Salisbury. I am an art teacher. I nod a couple of times, pleased with my choice. It's relaxing and low key being an art teacher. I play Jack Johnson in the classroom and blow bubbles over the student’s heads. Pass out candies. The kids adore me. They even come to me with their silly high school problems and I guide them through it. Scott doesn’t see crazy old guys. No one tells Scott that he is already dead. Scott isn’t mourning anyone.”
7. “The point of life. Or death,” he adds sarcastically. “Is to be loving, grateful, peaceful, and do what you love to do, to find fulfillment. You love Dominic. You are grateful for his presence. You found fulfillment with him. So,” Logan draws out the o sound. “It would appear, Hadley,” his tone changes slightly. He is jealous, I think. “That you get to interfere. You get to help him discover the truth: that he is dead, too. And if it goes well.” Logan pauses, cocks an eye brow and says, “They are willing to consider allowing you to help others realize this as well.”
8. Dominic shakes his head again. He can't see me. Not exactly. He can't hear me. Not exactly. He can't feel me. Not exactly. But he knows, on some level, that I am here. I know he knows.”
9. “Learn a word. Lose a memory. As time passes, some begin to remember things with a feeling of déjà vu or through dreams. Memories are forever cemented to your soul. They cannot make you forget.”
10. “I actually had vague gossamer thin memories of my Pre-Earth life. Thanks to my dreams and the assistance of some rather reoccurring kooky Déjà vu I was able to remember. Most people dismiss both but not me. I always loved the bone chilling apprehension that I experienced whenever recalling my dreams, whenever I had déjà vu, I immediately tried to understand why and what I was remembering exactly.”
11. “They are all lost to me. I must make peace with that, and yet I will forever be knitted to them. I am gray colored yarn. Dominic is chocolate brown. Harper is light blue. My mother is emerald. My father is sapphire. Together, we make a beautiful tapestry. Apart we are loose ends, waiting, hoping to be woven together again.”
12. “I like not knowing the time. It’s so nice to just enjoy a moment or two without worrying about the time, whether I need to be somewhere or to do something.”
13. “Hearts do no beat. Lungs do not need oxygen. If one listens, they can hear the gentleness of thumping, thumping, thumping of a heart, and the whooshing of air being passed in and out of their lungs. It’s all relative. Each individual will, at some point, come to the realization that nothing is as it seems.”
14. “She laughs again and this time it’s so sexy. She has a million laughs. Different keys to different parts of our song.”
15. “Hours later, we're all exhausted and in bed, drifting off to sleep. My body remembers the gentle rocking of the waves and quickly lulls me into sleep. Just before I finally give in, I feel a familiar cool presence against my backside, chilling my raging sunburn so much so that I can sleep. Sleepily, I smile all knowingly that she is with me.”
16. “He lost his fiancée recently. And I lost mine. But,” Em pauses and laughs high pitched and loud and very manically. “And, sometimes,” her eyes widen, “We still see them.”
17. “Alone I can keep it real. As real as I choose to. My mind takes me back and forth. I saw her. I dreamed of her. I saw her. I dreamed of her. A see-saw. Unfortunately, I am not ready to get off this ride. Not yet. For now, no decision has been made as to whether or not I saw her. I can cling to the sea-saw for a while.”
18. “Hot water runs down my back, scorching me. I grab the soap and lather up my body. Turning the dial all the way to cold, I shiver as goose bumps assault me, reminding me that I can feel. If you're dead, you cannot feel such things. I don't think. There is no nervous system in place. No working brain to receive the messages even if there was. I settle on warm. Luke warm. Not alive. Not dead. That's exactly how I feel, somewhere in between life and death.”
19. “Those few gentle spirits, we all know at least one -who avoid stepping on any and all bugs, and instead, they carefully catch those that had wandered innocently into their homes to dispose of them in the out of doors- had been right to not torture a living thing.”
20. “Dominic Morris,” I tell her. Suddenly I am smiling. Out of embarrassment, I cover my lips with my hands. I think about how he's such a good kisser and my lips tingle. He does things to me. Even when we're not together, I react. When I realize that I am still grinning like an idiot, I attempt to stop. But I just can't.”
Book Trailer
Review
By Troy Gilly
This Morning I Woke Up Dead is an extremely interesting read. The title alone intrigued me greatly. The description of a young woman named "Hadley" who loses her life in the beginning of the book, only to have found out or realized that she had been dead all along piqued my interest greatly. I am usually drawn to books that deal with the afterlife and spirituality and other's views on what takes place when we all "die".
This book is a very interesting perspective of life on a different realm and one I thoroughly enjoyed and would highly recommend. It is an easy read that flows smoothly and becomes increasingly more difficult to put down with each passing chapter. The thorough and detailed personalities of every character drew me in and left me wanting to know more about them and what they were constantly up to.
All of us who have lost loved ones know how traumatic and difficult it is to continue on without them. This book depicts these heart breaking situations from the perspective of the deceased, an outlook I have yet to see portrayed before.
I'm not one to usually lean toward a book that has a love story at the center of it but the two main characters' connection, (Dominic and Hadley) is one of intense passion that was not overly mushy and won me over. This isn't a "chick book". This is a book that I feel a wide range of ages from late teens on up through the elderly would find interesting and one that will leave each reader thinking about and even questioning their beliefs of what "life" is like when we take our last breath.
About the Author
Mindy Larson has always had a vivid imagination that has only improved with her love of reading and writing. She spent much of her childhood entertaining her three younger brothers with her stories and today she is bringing her imagination to life in books.
When not writing, Mindy enjoys spending time with the love of her life and four children while playing disc golf, cooking, baking, traveling and exploring.
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