Author Bio:
Naomi Rabinowitz is a writer, musician,
jewelry designer and author of the YA novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK
GONE BAD. She lives in New York City with her husband, Jonathan. Like
her F#@! BOMB narrator, Sadie, Naomi is currently training for a
long-distance walking event – and will be participating in Avon’s
39.3 mile Walk To End Breast Cancer this October.
Author Links -
Twitter: @NaomiRDesigns
Book Genre: New Adult/Women’s
Fiction/LGBT Fiction
Publisher: Amazon
Release Date: March 30. 2015
Book Description:
Fatty. Freak. Friendless. Failure.
Sadie Abramowitz is used to being alone. The morbidly obese college
freshman literally doesn’t fit in anywhere and was constantly the
butt of jokes in high school.
So far, life at Cunningham University
isn’t much better. Her roommate only communicates in grunts while
Sadie’s “dream job” at the school paper has her interviewing
her fellow students with questions that practically invite them to
insult her.
Things change when she’s assigned a
story on Griffin Greenberg, the freshman track star who was one of
Sadie’s high school bullies. At first, she’s reluctant to work
with the gorgeous Griffin, but soon discovers that he’s not such a
bad guy. Plus, he’s been keeping a secret: he’s gay.
As their friendship grows, Griffin
challenges Sadie to do something she never thought possible: train
for a marathon. Meanwhile, she supports him as he slowly comes to
terms with his sexuality. Together, they help each other survive
their first year of college – and also learn how to stand strong on
their own.
*This book is a New Adult novel with
some mature language and situations. It is recommended for readers 14
and up.
Excerpt One
“If you could be any
type of animal, what would you be?”
I put on my widest
smile and tried to sound enthusiastic. I was in Reporter Mode, a side of my
personality which was somewhere between a morning talk show host and news
anchor. My pair of subjects stared at me, eyes narrowing. Both girls had faces
plastered with makeup and long, flat-ironed hair. Both were tan and slender,
and wore matching skinny jeans with pink T-shirts. I figured if anyone would
want to have their pictures and quotes featured in our college's award-winning
newspaper, it would be cute girls who actually bothered to dress up. Girls, who
unlike me, didn’t wear baggy, gray sweats and a stained, white T-shirt.
In my month of
acting as Freshman Roving Reporter for The
Falcon's bi-weekly polls
(Memorable queries included, "Other than eating them, what's your favorite
alternate use for mashed potatoes?" and, "Do you think underwear
would be improved if it had GPS?") I'd perfected the art of choosing
prospective interviewees. I could now tell before even asking a student whether
he or she would be willing to give me a response. The loner who sat by a tree
listening to his iPod? No. The theater major who liked to dance around the
Student Union as her friends looked on? Yep. With these girls, all signs
pointed to yes.
My job was to get 10
quotes and photos by four o' clock that day and I was only up to six. It was
already 3 p.m. and I was getting desperate.
“What's the point of
this?" asked the blonde, a smirk playing about her perfectly-lined pink
lips. I continued to smile and pushed my dark brown curls out of my eyes as she
considered the Deeper Meaning behind my query. Though it was late September, it
was unseasonably warm for upstate New York and we happened to be in one of the
least shady parts of campus. I'd only been standing for about a minute, but
sweat was already beading across my forehead and pooling beneath my arms,
making my shirt stick to my body. I envied the way these girls could keep their
hair so tame.
"It's just a
fun question for The Falcon's Roving Reporter column," I said. I shifted
my weight from one foot to another to ease the pressure on my back.
"What's really nice is you get your name in the paper along with your
picture and quote. It’ll be in print and online. Everyone on campus will see
it."
"Okay,"
she said, with a shrug. "I’ve seen that column. I guess it could be
fun." She stuck out a hip as she assumed a sexy photo pose and I snapped
her picture with my phone.
"Amber Sanchez,
I'm 19 and a sophomore," she announced as I recorded her response. "And
I'd be a cat. They're beautiful, mysterious and always land on their
feet." She finished with a little clap, clearly proud of herself.
"Great
answer!" I said. “My mom is a
fellow cat lover.” Buoyed by this small victory in my quest to complete my column,
I turned to her friend. "Do you want to give a quote?"
The brunette glared
at me and for a second I wondered if I'd misjudged her willingness to be put on
display. But after a nudge from Amber, she said "Fine, I'll do it,"
and let out a deep, tortured sigh. She shook her head as her green eyes roamed
up my body, taking in my worn beige sneakers and rumpled ensemble. I waited, my
phone poised to record her.
"I'm Chloe
Williams, also 19 and a sophomore. And if I could be any animal," she
said, pausing to look me right in the face. "I'd be anything but a fat
whale!"
Boom! The words hit me like a punch and I had to
remind myself that we were no longer in high school. I was flooded with bad
memories as a montage of past insults echoed in my head; "Fat whale"
was just one of many in a long list that included nicknames like
"Shamu," "Fatzilla" and even "Igpay Verde"
(That's Green Pig in combined Pig Latin and real Latin).
Amber gave me an
apologetic look, but high-fived Chloe as they strode away from me, snickering
the whole time. I just stood in place like a statue. A huge statue, mind you.
When you're 18 years old and morbidly obese, you get used to hearing insults—or
as used to them as one can get, anyway. For me, being called a fat whale was
just business as usual.
Review:
This book was an eye opening read that described the journey of Sadie's life and her struggles with weight loss, which is something I think many people can relate to. Her mother had her thoughts on eating healthy which tried to sabotage Sadie's weight loss attempts. But it was something Sadie needed to overcome. This story also showed her friend Griffin, a guy struggling with his "coming out". Griffin himself was a unique character who helped make the story very interesting.
I thought the book was really well written and had a realistic feel to both the characters and their situations.
Guest Post:
WALKING OFF WRITER’S
BLOCK
Most authors I
know have experienced the dreaded “writer’s block” – that frustrating period
when you just can’t think of what words to put on the page. For me, it’s especially annoying when I have
a clear story idea in my head and can actually envision the final product… and
just can’t think of the proper way to express my idea.
This wasn’t the
case for me when it came to writing my novel F#@! BOMB, at least at first.
Because the story is based somewhat on my personal life, the words flowed
freely and I quickly banged out drafts of the opening chapters. I put together an outline for each major event
that would take place in the tale and thought I had a good foundation for my
manuscript.
Wrong! As I was
nearing the middle of my novel – the part where my heroine goes through some
tough times -- I just couldn’t think of the right things to say. I’d stare at
the page… clean the house, practice my flute… stare at the page some more… and
could not come up with one word. Finally, I put aside the book and decided to
take a hiatus from writing.
It was during this
time that I began a serious exercise program. Like my story’s narrator, Sadie,
I’d been extremely overweight for years and was grossly out of shape. It was ironic
that as I wrote about Sadie’s marathon training, I’d gotten to a point where –
and this is no exaggeration – I could barely walk a block without having to
stop. My health was declining and I
suspect this was part of the reason why I couldn’t concentrate on my writing.
Toward the end of
2013, my good friend Scott (my real-life Griffin) confronted me and made me
promise to walk “just 20 minutes a day.” I agreed to try, mainly to shut him
up, but found that I enjoyed walking. Within a few months, I was conquering
several miles a day and had lost a significant amount of weight. I was also
ready to resume work on my novel.
Because F#@! BOMB
is somewhat autobiographical, I signed up for a memoir-writing class, figuring
that the discussions and critiques could help, even if my story were fiction. I
was right. Simply being in a situation where I got to read others’ work and was
forced to meet deadlines lit a creative fire.
Meanwhile, I
continued to walk and used that time to mentally construct my novel. Many say engaging
in exercise is a great way to clear your head, but for me, the movement helped
me focus.
Getting in shape
gave me the confidence to finish my work. It had been difficult to write about
a character who was improving her life while mine was falling apart, but Sadie and
I were now on the same page (pun intended). I needed to work on my personal story before I
could complete my fictional one.
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