Introducing Laina Turner-Molaski

Laina Turner-Molaski

Laina Turner-Molaski is a business woman, mom, author, Professor, and a major supporter of shopping. She has an undying love for shoes and coffee, which is why she created her main character and alter-ego Presley Thurman.

With a lot of letters after her name and a ton of student loan debt, she is always working to pay the bills. While she enjoys her day job, her passion is writing, and she uses a lot of company time writing her fiction or working on her social website for women, Chiczofrenic.com. She is hoping to sell her book before she gets fired from her day job for goofing off.

Laina is currently living in Indiana, with her family, and is always writing something, whether it’s blogs, articles, business journals and books or ideas for her next novel. She is continuously doing what she loves which is writing or drinking coffee.

You can check out her ramblings at www.lainaturner.com.

Chiczofrenic is the term for the woman who is purposeful and intentional in how crazy their life may be. The goal with this book is to recognize many women drive themselves crazy, intentionally, by trying to be all they can. I firmly believe we can have it all. A great relationship, be a great mom, keep a good house (if that’s important to you), be a career woman, follow our dreams, work out, eat right, and many more. Women seem to have the knack of how to manage it all and not go crazy. Women seem to always take on more and more…and are successful at it.

Women have tried forever to pretend they fit in the norm even when the norm wasn’t what they wanted. I want women to embrace that more - without caring what anyone thinks. Learn to laugh at your own craziness and be cool at the same time. Be the strong individual you want to be while looking like a million bucks.

Being a woman is difficult and is a constant journey and evolution of self discovery. It’s not always an easy journey and through the process you realize everyone has her own issues. Her own brand of crazy which is my own kind of normal. Crazy but embracing it.

AVAILABLE at www.lainaturner.com/store and get a FREE copy of Stilettos & Scoundrels with purchase through November 15^th, 2010

CHAPTER 1 – opening stuff

Shhhh…mommy’s crazy but don’t tell.

“Each of us is something of a schizophrenic personality, tragically divided against ourselves.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love

My daughter started saying that phrase when she was about three. Now to be fair, she used it interchangeably with her father and me, so it’s not as if she singled me out to be the crazy one. She would go to her dad and whisper in his ear “Shhhh…mommy’s crazy but don’t tell,” and then giggle. She would say the same to me “Shhhh…daddy’s crazy but don’t tell,” but would then tell him she only said he was handsome (yes, she was manipulative even at three) and giggle in her adorable way making it very difficult to stay mad at her. She never tried to fool me…hmmm? Out of the mouth of babes they say.

The textbook definition of crazy can be insane, fantastic, strange, ridiculous, extremely fond of, or very good or excellent. I think most of us can be any one or more of those things at any given time. When someone calls you crazy it may mean they think you’re a bit off balance. I say embrace it. If someone calls you crazy say ‘thank you’. It takes a lot of skill and talent to be crazy. Crazy is an art form and we all have an artist within us wanting to get out, if it’s not already.

I used to have a rainbows and marshmallow life. Well, I thought I did. I think now, looking back, that I just wanted it to be that way, and I was in denial of reality because life is never rainbows and marshmallows. I had high expectations of what I felt my life should be and didn’t allow any thoughts that didn’t coincide with those expectations to surface, thinking I could control all outcomes. Now that worked pretty well for thirty-six years and then my perfect world started to crumble. I realized I couldn’t control everything. How could that be? Silly as it seems, I was somewhat shocked at my fallibility. I hadn’t ever really experienced something beyond my control.

My life didn’t start to change in one huge Hiroshima type bang, which would’ve probably been easier, but rather it was like termites working on eating away the wood structures at your house. Where you know there’s damage and there’s going to be ruin at some point but because it’s gradual, you’re able to keep yourself positive on the outcome (denial) until one day your house falls over. And you’re like “Oh, Shit! Now what do I do?” Regardless of the cheesy analogy, the point I’m trying to make is that the realization that your life is a fucking mess and you have no idea how to fix it doesn’t happen overnight. Most of us have been there at one time or another.

I’ve been asked by friends if writing this book was therapy for me and I guess it probably has been in a way. But, when I started writing, that wasn’t my intent. I was thinking more along the lines of being able to share my story, my version of crazy, with people who might be encouraged by knowing that they aren’t the only ones going through this. I know for a long time I thought I was the only one who was losing it and didn’t know where to turn. I’ve learned everyone has baggage, and issues, and their own brand of crazy. No one is perfect, even if they appear to be. I think life is about identifying your brand of crazy and embracing who you are, knowing none of us have it all together all the time. Which when you think about it isn’t all that unusual. Life is ever-changing and you must roll with it.

Contest Prize – weekly drawing on Monday for the previous Monday-Friday - all 3 places

a. 1^st place – The books Chiczofrenia – crazy is an art form, Stilettos & Scoundrels, and But It’s my Business – FREE (choice of e-book or paperback)…PLUS a $20 Visa giftcard

b. 2nd place – The books Chiczofrenia – crazy is an art form, Stilettos & Scoundrels, and But It’s my Business – FREE (choice of e-book or paperback)

c. 3rd place – The book Chiczofrenia – crazy is an art form FREE (choice of e-book or paperback)

10. Contest Rules – each activity below will gain you one contest entry. The person with the highest number of entries will win each week and in the event of a tie, a winner will be randomly drawn.

a. Become a fan on facebook

i. L. Turner the author

ii. Chiczofrenic

b. Follow me on twitter

i. @lturnermolaski

ii. @chiczofrenic

c. Follow me on networked blogs

d. Become a member of Chiczofrenic (worth 3 entries)

e. Subscribe to my feed (worth 5 entries)

f. Post a comment to any blog post

And a HAPPY RELEASE DAY to Linda Kage, whose latest book, Hot Commodity, is out today! Click here for details!