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Everything I Never Wanted to Be Virtual Book Tour November ’10

Everything I Never Wanted to Be

Join Dina Kucera, author of the memoir, Everything I Never Wanted to Be (Dream of Things) as she virtually tours the blogosphere in November ‘10 on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

About Dina Kucera

Dina Kucera Dina Kucera was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After completing a project to collect and identify fifty insects, she graduated from the ninth grade and left school for good. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Her first job was a paper route, and she has worked as a maid, bartender, waitress, and grocery store checker. Dina has also been a stand-up comic for twenty years, for which she receives payment ranging from a small amount of money to a very, very small amount of money. When it comes to awards and recognition, she was once nominated for a Girl Scout sugar cookie award, but she never actually received the award because her father decided to stop at a bar instead of going to the award ceremony. Dina waited on the curb outside the bar, repeatedly saying to panhandlers, “Sorry. I don’t have any money. I’m seven.” Dina is married with three daughters, one stepson, and one grandson. She currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

Her latest book is Everything I Never Wanted to Be.

You can find out more about her book at www.everythinginever.com or visit her personal website at www.dinakucera.com.

About Everything I Never Wanted to Be

Everything I Never Wanted to Be Everything I Never Wanted to Be is the true story of a family’s battle with alcoholism and drug addiction. Dina’s grandfather and father were alcoholics. Her grandmother was a pill addict. Dina is an alcoholic and pill addict, and all three of her daughters struggle with alcohol and drug addiction—including her youngest daughter, who started using heroin at age fourteen. Dina’s household also includes her husband and his unemployed identical twin, her mother who has Parkinson’s Disease, and her grandson who has cerebral palsy. On top of all that, Dina is trying to make it as a stand-up comic and author so she can quit her crummy job as a grocery store clerk. Through it all, Dina does her best to hold her family together, keep her faith, and maintain her sense of humor.

Everything I Never Wanted to Be includes a number of horrific events. But in the end, it is an uplifting story with valuable lessons for parents and teens alike, and a strong message about the need to address the epidemic of teen drug addiction in our nation.

It’s a book that can change behavior and save lives—and make you laugh along the way.

Read the Excerpt!

High on Life (from Chapter 7)

Carly and Andy moved into their own apartment. I had a feeling something was wrong because we hadn’t heard from them in a while, and when we went to the apartment, they didn’t answer the door.
Then on Mother’s Day, I got a phone call from Carly.

Carly: “Hurry and come pick me up. Hurry.” Then she hangs up.

I get to the apartment, walk around the corner to their building, and I see Andy sitting in the dirt, covered with blood and crying. There are people from other apartments standing on their balconies looking down at him.

I run to him and say, “My God! What happened?”

He stands up, still crying, and says, “Happy Mother’s Day.” And walks away.

I think, Holy shit, and run up to the apartment. Carly is standing there, intact, no blood, but the entire apartment is destroyed. Every single thing is broken. There is glass everywhere. All the furniture tipped over, broken, like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

I put Carly and her dog in the car and take them to my house. On the way, she explains that she and Andy have been using meth to get off heroin. Andy thinks that Carly is a police officer and she is setting him up, so he destroyed the apartment. He actually thought the dog had a recording device planted under its skin somewhere.

We get home and no more than four hours later, Andy calls. Carly talks to him and then hangs up the phone and says she has to go back with Andy. I know enough to know this means that she’s beginning to withdraw, therefore she has to get back to the apartment. Carly says Andy is really sorry and she loves him and they are going to get clean together.

Andy comes to pick her up, and because Carly is now legally an adult, there’s nothing John or I can do. Of course, we scream at her the entire time it takes Andy to come to pick her up, and then we scream at him. Then we watch them drive away.

Over the next week, I convince both of them to go into separate rehabs. I make arrangements for Carly, and Andy’s family makes arrangements for him. We move them out of the apartment, and they both go into treatment.
___

The decision-making part of the brain of an individual who has been using crystal meth is very interesting. When Carly and Andy were in their apartment, they ran out of drugs. They sold every single thing they had except two things: a couch and a blow torch.

They had to make a decision because something had to be sold to buy more drugs. A normal person would automatically think, Sell the blow torch. But Andy and Carly sat on the couch, looking at the couch and looking at the blow torch, and the choice brought intense confusion. The couch? The blow torch? I mean, we may not need the blow torch today, but what about tomorrow? If we sell the couch, we can still sit wherever we want. If we move some of this glass, we could sit on the floor, or on the kitchen counter, or on the window ledge. But the blow torch? A blow torch is a very specific item. If you’re doing a project and you need a blow torch, you can’t substitute something else for it. You would have to have a blow torch, right?

In the end, they sold the couch. So when we moved them out, that was it: a blow torch. Although moving someone when all they have is a blow torch makes for an easy move.

Here’s what critics are saying about Everything I Never Wanted to Be!

(coming soon)

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Everything I Never Wanted to Be Virtual Book Tour Schedule

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books kk Monday, November 1
Book reviewed at Rundpinne

Tuesday, November 2
Interviewed at Pump Up Your Book

Wednesday, November 3
Book reviewed at Taming the Bookshelf

Thursday, November 4
Interviewed at Blogcritics

Monday, November 8
Interviewed at The Hot Author Report

Tuesday, November 9
Interviewed at The Writer’s Life

Wednesday, November 10
Guest blogging at As I Turn the Pages

Thursday, November 11
Book reviewed at As I Turn the Pages

Monday, November 15
Book reviewed at In the Next Room

Tuesday, November 16
Book reviewed at Freda’s Voice

Wednesday, November 17
Interviewed at Literarily Speaking

Thursday, November 18
Guest blogging at The Story Behind the Book
Book reviewed at A Fanatic’s Book Blog

Friday, November 19
Interviewed at Review From Here

Tuesday, November 23
Book reviewed at Colloquium

Wednesday, November 24
Book reviewed at Readaholic

Thursday, November 25
CLOSED FOR THANKSGIVING

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Dina Kucera’s EVERYTHING I NEVER WANTED TO BE VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘10 will officially begin on November 1 and end on November 26, ‘10. Please contact Dorothy Thompson at thewriterslife@yahoo.com if you are interested in hosting and/or reviewing his book or click here to use the form. Thank you!

UPDATE!  Dina  Kucera’s EVERYTHING I NEVER WANTED TO BE VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR is now full.  Thanks to all participating blog hosts and reviewers!

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