Blog Tour: Guest Post & Giveaway - Any Color But Beige

Today, we welcome author, Cat Larose, who is promoting her book: Any Color But Beige.  Welcome Cat!

Giveaway details:  I have been authorized to give away 1 copy of Any Color But Beige.  Paperback will go to a US or Canada winner, e-copy to international.  Just leave a comment with a valid e-mail address.  Tweet or post on Facebook and leave the link for an extra entry.  This contest will run until Dec. 15th.
Check out details of Cat's own giveaway at the end of the post.

After years of living a beige existence, Cat Larose, international color marketing expert, finally added a little color to her own life. All it took was a Paris sunset and a little red suitcase.

Everyone wanted Cat’s life. She had a handsome husband, a stylish home and a fascinating career as an international color-marketing consultant. Work took Cat to some of the world’s most beautiful cities but something was missing: ironically, it was color. One day she found herself in Paris watching a sunset and, in a moment of clarity, she caught a glimpse of her sepia-toned future.

When Cat got home, she did what she’d longed to do for years. She decided to paint her bedroom a magnificent Bordeaux red and put an end to her beige existence and her marriage. That was the beginning of a new life.

My thoughts:
 Any Color But Beige is a well written memoir of a woman who finally finds the courage to walk away from a 20 year loveless marriage and begin to find herself.   Her journey takes her to some interesting places and brings some colorful people into her life.  Worth a read if you like memoirs.

Cat writes:

Baring Your Soul for a Memoir – Cat Uncovered

The secret is out. Now that my life is officially an open book, the world (I have friends on six continents) knows that I am not Wonder Woman. It is an image I struggled for a long time to preserve, but with the publication of Any Color but Beige: Living Life in Color I have given up that struggle. And I feel the lighter for it.

I didn’t intend to write a memoir and I certainly didn’t mean to bare my soul to strangers. Because up until recently, I have often said that I would rather chew broken glass than admit to any vulnerability. Ah, vanity!

On the surface I was calm, cool and confident as I shrugged off life’s slings and arrows, like some superhero in a movie. I’ve travel the world for my job, lived abroad in some very nice cities and had a romantic life that was ripped from the pages of a Harlequin romance novel. It made for some sparkling conversation over cocktails with the girls with whom I put on my game face and pretended that my life was perfect.

But it wasn’t. The truth was I was in a blue funk nursing a broken heart and I didn’t know what to do about it. So I started to write. I poured my heart onto the page because I wouldn’t allow myself to cry. All of the emotion I felt went into my writing, and slowly I began to get my bearings.

Before I knew it, I had 200 pages of perspective. Having gone that far, I sent it off to a freelance editor for an evaluation. The minute I pushed “Send,” I felt a rush of embarrassment. What did I just do? I asked. I’ve sent 200 pages of total nonsense to a complete stranger. I was mortified. It took a month before I heard back from her and each time I thought about it, I’d squirm a little bit in my skin.

Much to my surprise, the evaluation came back positive and with it a long list of recommendations, one of which was to create a blog based on my experiences. The blog helped me build an audience for my book and hone my voice. It also helped me to get over some of the awkwardness I felt when writing about my experiences. I soon learned that what I had to say resonated with readers.

The blog was good practice for writing the final version of the book. Through it, I got used to gradually exposing me and my life. Because the blog preceded the publication of my memoir, and chronicled my life, it felt a lot like the gradual opening of rose – one petal at a time. At its core lay the sweet essence of my book.

Now when I think about the book, I think about the authenticity of its story. Now, rather than feel embarrassed, I feel relieved at having shared it. I used to think I was alone in my experiences. So many people have told me that they have found themselves on its pages

that I realize the feelings of love and loss, happiness and disappointment and, most importantly, optimism are universal. And feelings are always better when they’re shared.

In the words of Terence, “I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence

About the author:

Catherine Larose is the author of the popular Café Girl Chronicles blog. In her day job, Cat sells color-marketing tools to paint, cosmetic, automotive and textile industries in Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa and Australia. When she isn’t traveling, Cat enjoys life in Montreal, Canada.

Any Color but Beige is her first book, and she is busy working on two more books that focus on color and its effect on peoples’ lives.

On Monday,December 19 at the end of her WOW Blog Tour, Cat Larose will be awarding a special Book Club Prize ! The prize includes 10 copies of her memoir Any Color But Beige, a guide on how your book club can enjoy Any Color But Beige, a virtual visit from Cat Larose, and several other surprises. If you want to enter this contest just leave a comment after this post with the words “Book Club Contest” in the message. You can enter to win both the individual contest for one copy of Any Color But Beige and the Book Club Contest but you have to leave two different comments. Don't forget to tell everyone who belongs to your Book Club to enter the contest!