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Author, Tess Woods, Writes To Her 18 y.o Self #giveaway

So Tess,

You’re eighteen – finally old enough to go out clubbing after five months of university purgatory where you were the youngest. Here’s some life pointers from your forty-three year old self:

  • That guy you’re in love with? Babe, he’s just not that into you, he never will be and he’s actually a bit of a tool. Let it go! Now that guy who is your great friend but you don’t want to risk the friendship by taking it to the next level? Yeah, him. I’m here to tell you the friendship dies anyway, so go for it – when he tries to kiss you in a few months at The Metro, let him!
  • Stop freaking out about your hair. They’re about to invent this thing called GHD – it’s a ceramic hair straightener. Sit tight, it’s coming and it will solve all your problems.
  • Ignore your dad when he tells you that no man will want you because you’re too opinionated and strong willed. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The relationships you have will be with men who love you for your strength of character so don’t question that for a minute. Also God is sending you a daughter called Lara as karma for your strong willed nature, just you wait!
  • Some serious stuff is going to go down between your mum and dad. Hang in there, I promise it will all be okay in the end and the fears and worries you’ve been carrying around like a lead weight in your gut for your whole life about the situation at home will all be resolved in the next few years. It’s going to get really ugly first, but you’ll all come out the other side just fine.
  • Take your Ventolin inhaler everywhere, don’t be lazy with it.
  • Don’t waste any time worrying that you won’t get married and have children, I know this is the main thing you want in life, so let me tell you, it happens okay? Now go and live it up, you’re young, go have fun with your friends and forget about finding Mr Right! Btw, the first two guys you think are Mr Right are actually your practice runs. The third one is the keeper!
  • You’ll still be super close to your childhood bestie when you’re in your forties. I know you’re worried now because you’ve gone to different universities and she’s hanging out with actors while you hang out physios and doctors but through thick and thin, she’s going stick with you forever and she’ll be right beside you in your darkest moments.
  • Eat less crap. You’re forming bad habits and I’m paying the price here!
  • When you fail your first year of university and are completely devastated, don’t be, you’re about to have the most amazing year ever and you’ll be really glad you failed.
  • Guess what, you still love Sting and Pat Cash at forty-three! And they are both still HOT!
  • When your friend Jess tells you that she feels like her life is pointless and then goes to get in her car – DO NOT let her get in that car. Take her for a coffee or you’ll be heartbroken forever.
  • Brad Pitt doesn’t marry Gwyneth Paltrow, I think you should be prepared for this.
  • That passion you have for human rights will only get stronger with time. You do great stuff here, you should be proud! And they free Nelson Mandela, he becomes the leader of South Africa – no shit!
  • Stop aiming for perfect, it’s never going to happen. You will continue to make monumental stuff ups, lots of them. It’s always okay in the end.
  • Finally, don’t throw anything out. All your old crap will become retro this and retro that. Hang onto everything and wait for eBay to get invented.

Love from your much-older-ever-so-slightly-wiser-still-mostly-hasn’t-got-her-shit-together-yet-self!

Tess Woods- smaller photoLove at First Flight Print CoverAbout Tess Woods:

Tess Woods is a physiotherapist who lives in Perth, Australia with one husband, two children, one dog and one cat wo rules over all of them. Her debut novel, Love at First Flight, first released as an eBook in April 2015, received worldwide critical acclaim, hit the best-seller charts in Australia and was voted Book of the Year in the AusRom Today Reader’s Choice Awards 2015. Tess was also top ten nominated as Best New Author. Love at First Flight is the first HarperCollins Australia digital book acquisition to be given a print release in August 2016. Tess’s short story, Destiny in a Day was released in the anthology Hot Stuff: Surfing Love and she is currently putting the finishing touches her second full-length novel, Beautiful Messy Love. When she isn’t working or being a personal assistant to her kids, Tess enjoys reading and all kinds of grannyish pleasures like knitting, baking, drinking tea, watching Downton Abbey and tending to the veggie patch.

You can learn more about Tess on her website www.tesswoods.com.au or you can connect with her on Facebook or Twitter.

WIN! A signed copy is up for grabs.

Leave a comment or share online to go into the draw.

[bctt tweet=”What advice does @tesswoodsauthor give her 18 y.o self? #LetterToMyself https://www.jennjmcleod.com/blog/a-letter-to-myself-author-list” username=”jennjmcleod”]

Wanting to honour the lost art of letter writing through this blog series, I also opened my fourth novel with a character writing a letter. And not just any letter. It’s a story — perhaps the most important he’ll ever tell.

The Other Side of the SeasonReady for a sea change

Life is simple on top of the mountain for David, Matthew and Tilly until the winter of 1979 when tragedy strikes, starting a chain reaction that will ruin lives for years to come. Those who can, escape the Greenhill banana plantation on the outskirts of Coffs Harbour. One stays—trapped for the next thirty years on the mountain and haunted by memories and lost dreams. That is until the arrival of a curious young woman, named Sidney, whose love of family shows everyone the truth can heal, what’s wrong can be righted, the lost can be found, and . . . there’s another side to every story.

CLICK for more or leave a comment below for Tess.

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#WriteRoundOz w/ Tess Woods (book giveaway)

Tess Woods from the beautiful Indian Ocean shores of WA tells a great yarn and has a beautiful real life love story…Love at First Flight by Tess  WoodsTess Woods- smaller photo

Tess, congratulations on your debut novel. It is a fabulous read and one lucky person will win a copy by just commenting below.

And thank you for letting my park my rig next to your veggie patch

 

Now… What’s that I see written on your ‘welcome mat’?

“Friends Always Welcome, Family by Invitation Only.”

If I looked in your refrigerator right now, what would I find?

Two fridges and more food than you could poke a stick at. I’m Egyptian. We eat big. There is enough food crammed in there to survive a zombie apocalypse. My hubby thinks the six large bags of mozzarella in there are overkill. I think “but what if we have 35 people show up unexpectedly and they all want toasted sandwiches?” Common Egyptian thought process…

Downsizing my life into a 24 ft caravan meant leaving lots of things behind in boxes. What (or who!!) would you have trouble leaving behind if you took off in a caravan?

The two big fridges…

Whose home would you like to visit in your van and why?

George Clooney’s chalet in Lake Como. I don’t really care about the chalet. Or Lake Como.

Do you REALLY have room at your house to park a fifth wheeler caravan and do you mind visitors? Oh, sorry, you don’t have to answer that one!! 🙂

Haha! No definitely do not have the room, but what the hell, come anyway, the neighbours have a huge drive. 

Country curiosities…

My latest novel, Season of Shadow and Light, has a strong horse theme. (I love what horses can teach us). If you were an animal what would you be?

I would be my cat. My cat has the life one can only dream about. 

You’re cooking and your food going up against the best cooks from the CWA (Country Women’s Association). What would be your winning dish?

This is on my bucket list, for real. I want to take my lemon pie to them and I want a ribbon. I want this very, very badly. 

About you…

What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Research, I hate it. I know some authors love it, but my wish is to be able to just write whatever I want and have nobody question its validity! I so wish I could get away with that and not have to research AT ALL.

If someone was to write your biography, what do you think the title should be?

She’s Good with her Fingers! 🙂 (I’m a physio, I knit, I cross-stitch, I bake and I write.)

What question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview? How would you answer that question?

“How did you and your husband meet?”

I love my own love story with my hubby and I’ve always wanted an excuse to share it. So, yay, thanks for asking!!

I saw him for the first time standing over the photocopier in the library at university, and it was an instant phwoar moment for me. I thought he was the hottest guy I had seen on campus. I drooled from afar but I didn’t approach him. He was older than I was and we had no common classes and I didn’t see him again for a while. A few months later though, a friend of mine introduced him to me as her boyfriend. Doh! I saw him out and about socially for a while then and I continued to drool over him from afar. But they broke up and I didn’t see him again for two years. Then I was at a university ball and out of nowhere he appeared and said he remembered me from before and asked me to dance. After we had a dance, he told me I looked beautiful in my ball gown and invited me to have a drink. I declined, because I had a boyfriend at the time. Doh!! He disappeared again. Cut to two years later, once again, and I happened to see him by chance at a crowded bar in Geelong. We were both there for a mutual friend’s party. Quite literally across a crowded bar our eyes met. He walked over and his first words were “so did you lose the boyfriend?” We celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary this year.

Favourite four…

Favourite place in Australia: Scarborough Beach, Perth at sunset.

Favourite holiday destination: Venice.

Favourite movie: Dirty Dancing

Favourite quote: “Throw me to the wolves and I shall return leader of the pack.”

 If I said to you, “Just entertain me for five minutes, I’m not going to talk,” what would you do?

Belly Dance!

About: Love at First Flight 

A family is threatened by an irresistible attraction in this compelling debut that will appeal to fans of Liane Moriarty and Anita Shreve.

Looking back on it now, I can see it was instant. The second we locked eyes. Boom. Just like that. The me I had spent a lifetime perfecting began its disintegration from that moment. And despite the carnage it brought to all our lives, I still don’t regret it. 

What would you risk to be with the love of your life? And what if your soul mate is the one who will destroy you?

Mel is living the dream. She’s a successful GP, married to a charming anaesthetist and raising a beautiful family in their plush home in Perth. But when she boards a flight to Melbourne, she meets Matt and her picture perfect Stepford life unravels as she falls in love for the first time ever.

What begins as a flirty conversation between strangers quickly develops into a hot and obsessive affair with disastrous consequences neither Mel nor Matt could have ever seen coming. Mel’s dream life turns into her worst nightmare.

Love at First Flight will take everything you believe about what true love is and spin it on its head.

Jenn J’s review on Amazon 

Links:

Author website: http://www.tesswoods.com.au/

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Amazon

iBooks

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About the author: Tess Woods

Tess Woods is a health professional who lives in Perth, Australia with one husband, two children, one dog and one cat who rules over all of them. Love at First Flight is her first novel for HarperCollins. When she isn’t working or being a personal assistant to her kids, Tess enjoys reading and all kinds of grannyish pleasures like knitting, baking, drinking tea, watching Downton Abbey and tending to the veggie patch.

WIN a ebook of Love at First Flight

Leave a comment to go into a draw. Open to all. Winner announced here end June.