Top Five Charades Titles by E.J. Russell – Guest Blog and Giveaway

Long and Short Reviews welcomes E.J. Russell who is celebrating the recent release of Mystic Man.

Many thanks to Long and Short Reviews for inviting me to stop by today as part of the Mystic Man blog tour! Mystic Man is a contemporary novella set in Connecticut, part of Dreamspinner’s States of Love collection. To celebrate the release, at the end of the tour I’ll be giving away a $20 Amazon gift card and an ebook copy of Clickbait (another of my contemporary romantic comedies) to one lucky commenter.

When I was in graduate school, the co-chair of our department (Theater Administration) hosted a dinner at his home at the beginning of each year for the students in our program. He always included a parlor game as part of the evening’s festivities, and in my first year, my teachers and fellow students discovered one of my deep, dark secrets.

I’m a charades shark.

Part of this comes from working in a book store for years, so when the opposing team tried to pull one on us by giving us The Physician’s Desk Reference, I guessed it in about thirty seconds.

A second part comes from a long-standing fascination with the quirky and obscure. And the last part comes from strategy: when assigning titles to the other team, don’t give them easily acted words; when presenting to your own team, break things down into syllables, which are usually easier for people to grasp than the big picture (especially if the other team has a shark like me).

So although I’m giving away my best secrets here, I trust you to use them for evil, not good (at least when it comes to your next game of charades). Counting down from five…

5. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (book)

While there’s greater glory in stumping the opposing team with a short, obscure title with difficult to guess words, I’m rarely able to resist using this one. The first edition of this book came out in 1976, when I was working at the B. Dalton in Costa Mesa. I have no idea what it’s about—and the title doesn’t make it any clearer, which makes it perfect for charades.

4. “One Misty Moisty Morning” (song)

From Steeleye Span’s Parcel of Rogues album. The two center words are a definite struggle for most charaders who haven’t embraced the “sounds like” and “break down into syllables” strategy.

3. The Sex Life of the Polyp (movie)

If these are combined with Kamagra order cheap viagra or similar medicine. The muscles of it also are getting a huge flow of blood that makes relaxed of levitra 10mg the muscles. When a man is sexually aroused, the signals are sent to spinal cord and hartbuildersinc.com lowest prices viagra brain. viagra brand online Sullivan was a senior who played quarterback for Auburn. A 1928 short film written and performed by Robert Benchley. This is actually one of my Curmudgeonly Husband’s choices. He has a definite competitive charade-shark side too.

2. “Rhinocratic Oaths” (song)

By the Bonzo Dog Band, this song is impossible to explain. And nearly impossible to charadify as well—unless your team includes someone who’s a fan of sixties British surreal comedy groups.

1. The Valley of Gwangi (movie)

A 1969 movie featuring James Franciscus in possibly the worst movie makeup ever, with Ray Harryhausen dinosaur stop-motion animation. The movie’s tag line? “Cowboys battle monsters in the lost world of Forbidden Valley.” A classic.

So if you were challenged to a cutthroat game of charades today, what title would you choose to confound your opponents?

When a series of personal crises prompt risk-averse research librarian Aaron Templeton to apply for a job on the other side of the country, nobody is more surprised than he is. He nearly runs home before the final interview except for one little problem: he has no home anymore. He put his condo on the market before he left California and it’s already sold. Only an encounter with free-spirited Connecticut native Cody Brown at the Mystic Seaport Museum staves off Aaron’s incipient panic attack.

Cody loves nothing better than introducing newcomers to the great features of his beloved home state, and when the newbie in question is a rumpled professorial type with the saddest blue eyes on the planet? Score! The attraction between the two men deepens as they explore Cody’s favorite spots, but when difficulties arise and Aaron’s insecurities threaten to overwhelm him, will Cody’s love be enough to keep him in Mystic?

About the Author:E.J. Russell–grace, mother of three, recovering actor–writes romance in a rainbow of flavors. Count on high snark, low angst and happy endings.

Reality? Eh, not so much.

She’s married to Curmudgeonly Husband, a man who cares even less about sports than she does. Luckily, C.H. also loves to cook, or all three of their children (Lovely Daughter and Darling Sons A and B) would have survived on nothing but Cheerios, beef jerky, and Satsuma mandarins (the extent of E.J.’s culinary skill set).

E.J. lives in rural Oregon, enjoys visits from her wonderful adult children, and indulges in good books, red wine, and the occasional hyperbole.

Buy the book at Amazon, Books2Read, or Dreamspinner.