Guest Blogger Meredith Cagen author of Size Eight in a Size Zero World

Good Morning All! Please join me in welcoming guestblogger Meredith Cagen author of 'A Size 8 in a Size 0 World'.

Title: A Size 8 in a Size 0 World
Author: Meredith Cagen
Genre: Women Contemporary Fiction/ ChickLit/NYC ChickLit
ISBN: 978 1440169748
Copyright: 2009

Author's Bio
Meredith Cagen is a working wife and mother living in New York City. She works as a freelance writer and registered nurse. Her family has awarded her the “Queen of the Multi-taskers” title. In her free time she goes to the gym and out to eat.

Meredith returned to school to obtain a Bachelors of Science in Nursing. Finding the subject dry, technical and boring, she had a difficult time focusing on her studies. Easily distracted, and prone to daydreaming, she wrote Size Eight in a Size Zero World.

Synopsis

Meet Lindsay Chandler--a 32 year-old New York City working wife and mother with old-
fashioned values who thinks she's living a fairy tale life (she's not). She's too busy navigating
between her job, husband, home, children, friends and other obligations to acknowledge her
loneliness. Then an unexpected friendship with her upstairs neighbor (he is smart, successful,
sophisticated and sexy-- she's not) unleashes her passion and re-ignites her sparkle.

This liaison causes her to realize what she is missing. Yearning for a storybook ending, she
decides to make changes in her life, embarking on a quest for self re-invention in this hilarious,
witty, heart felt story.

In the tradition of Sex and the City, Size Eight in a Size Zero World, is a modern-day story of a
good girl trying to do the right thing and the wrong thing simultaneously, while remaining true to
herself, whoever that is.

With the help of a believable cast of characters, Lindsay embarks on a plan to better herself and
plight. This novel is a wickedly funny social commentary on the lives of average women in New
York City's posh Upper East Side.

What happens when the road to happily ever after takes an unexpected detour?

Blog:
Go Directly to Jail, Do Not Pass Go
When I was younger, I had a relationship that broke my heart. Adverbs, adjectives and accolades did not do him justice. He was the perfect man. No matter how many times he showed his true colors, I was steadfast in my belief that he was perfect. I languished in my illusion (actually delusion) of his perfection. I was in love.
I didn’t know what to do. There was no expert who could guide me. No published Q & A pertinent for my situation. I searched for a plan, a guidebook, and a path to success: how I can get the storybook ending with Mr. Perfect.
Every “what not to do while dating” offense a girl can make, I embarrassingly made. I was available for him. Running to see him when he beckoned, accepting last minute dates, and accepting last minute cancellations. I telephoned him, I initiated contact, I showed I was interested. I accepted his lies, I had no self respect. I threw myself at him. I was insane! Where were my friends when I obviously needed them? An intervention was called for but no one restrained me.
Unwilling to consider the possibility of his rejection, I changed myself to meet his requirements.
Yes, Mr. Perfect had criteria. His personal preference was models, blonde skinny models. His office was loitered with photographs of Mr. Perfect with his choice of arm candy. It was a shrine to his ability to attract these trophy girlfriends. A medium height, curvy size eight brunette didn’t seem to be a worthy enough prize for a man of his considerable talents.
I tried my best to meet his standards. I dieted, exercised, groomed, involved myself in his interests. I told him and showed him that I wanted him…………………and then I committed the biggest sin a girl can. A don’t so whopping that I am banned from giving advice forever. A mistake so huge, there is no known recovery. I committed a felony. I told him, I was in love with him. Yup, the girl police should have come and thrown me directly into prison or a padded cell on the spot. No trial was necessary. I was guilty of extreme stupidity and whatever else is beyond.
My idiocy haunted me for years. If only I had a second chance. What could I have done while staying true to myself. In my fantasies, I would still be me, but smarter. What was I thinking during this period of being in love? How did I permit myself to act like a fool?
One day, I looked back at my past actions, those silly schemes, idealistic beliefs that if I loved him with a pure heart, he would love me back. I started to laugh. It was funny, very funny. Telling this story would be my second chance and shot at redemption
My reality hit me as I lay pen to paper, Mr. Perfection was my upstairs neighbor, he was The Man Upstairs.
That was the original title for my book, The Man Upstairs, but people thought it was a religious book. Next title was What Was I Thinking? To this day, I am uncertain what was going through my head during that dark period of time. Maybe I wasn’t thinking? People thought that was a self-help book.
I will never fit into his model sized world. I wasn’t who he wanted. My size (thin not emaciated) didn’t matter because it is what is on the inside that truly matters. It’s a cliché but true. Over time looks fade, have you ever swooned over an eighty year old? You need that intellectual/emotional connection. The older I get, it’s my sense of humor that gets me through the days. I was/am a Size Eight in a Size Zero World. And very happy about it!


Reviews
This book is everything Sex and the City 2 should have been -- smart and witty with a lot of heart! I've already bought a bunch of copies for so many friend who could relate to Lindsay.

This is Meredith Cagen's debut novel and I hope she writes more. A LOT more!

As soon as I read the first page, I knew I would love this book! Size Eight in a Size Zero World: A Novel by Meredith Cagen is written in a voice that resonated with me. The author's smart, witty style moves along at a good pace and it kept me turning the pages. I could relate to the conflicted heroine and I kept hoping she would wake up and smell the coffee.

Lindsay Chandler is thirty-two, a working wife and mother, who lives in New York with her family. In the highfalutin' Manhattan society, she's an oddity, a woman who has a real day job, does not have a nanny and does her own cooking and cleaning. Lindsay's life looks perfect on the outside, but she's miserable on the inside. Her husband Grant, a divorce attorney, treats her like a servant, ignores their two kids and is an overbearing jerk.

One day Lindsay gets into the elevator of her building and meets a man who gives her goose bumps. They strike up a friendship. He appreciates her, asks her for advice and befriends her kids. Lindsay falls hard. She loves the way they interact; he seems to accept her, perceived flaws and all. The more she sees him the more she realizes all that she's missing in her marriage. She questions her life with Grant and decides to reinvent herself and make some changes. It all leads to a satisfying conclusion.

A wonderfully witty social commentary on the New York scene, this is also an endearing story of relationships, love and infidelity. The characters are believable and many women will be able to see themselves in Lindsay. Sometimes I wanted to scream at her and sometimes I wanted to cheer her on, but always she kept me reading. I highly recommend it

Going Green

Recycling is in. The new millennium introduced a new generation of tree huggers. These sophisticated environmentalists have a vision of an eco-sensitive life made possible by choices about what to buy and how to use those products responsibly. Our past excesses haunt us. Landfills covered by tires, disposable diapers, plastic bottles and products are a reminder of our insensitivity to the future. It is our descendants who will be forced to handle our abuse of the environment. Creative minds and technology attempt to transform yesterday’s garbage with second lives as new products. This is usually accomplished at a considerable cost to consumers, which assuages our guilty consciences. We need to learn how to allocate and use our natural resources for considerate optimization. There is only one earth, with limited resources. Remember Mark Twain said, “Buy land, they don’t make it anymore.”
These reincarnated resources given another life as politically correct products inspire us. We can adapt this new found strategy to our personal lives.
From the generation of wanting what is next, because next is inevitably better, how do we manage our expectations for our love lives. Is your current relationship as good as it gets. Or is a pit stop on your relationship highway because someone in the future might make you happier. Compared to the fixed amount of natural resources of our planet, do we have a love quota? Only so much love to give, and when it is gone, we become empty. Are those emotions reusable? Or should we recover a deleted relationship from our personal recycle bin?
When is enough – enough? When a woman can “never be too rich or too thin,” is a Size Eight in a Size Zero World fat? When a relationship ends, where does the love go?