Sunday, May 12, 2013

Blog Tour (Interview & Giveaway): Family Ever After by Michelle Packard


Tour Schedule

Family Ever After: Simple Ways to Achieve Perfect Happiness in an Imperfect Family

Women frustrated with their marriage and their family will find the help they need to achieve greater happiness and success in their family in the new book, Family Ever After: Simple Ways to Achieve Extraordinary Happiness with Your Ordinary Family by stay-at-home mom, blogger, and ordinary family leader Michelle H. Packard.

Family Ever After uses the fairytale concept that once you find your prince charming life is happily ever after. Michelle H. Packard knows this concept, while romantic, is not realistic, and she provides a practical, poignant, funny, and moving exploration of the simple ways you can help find greater happiness and satisfaction in your marriage and family. Packard says, “While the idea of happy ever after is distorted, you can, in fact, achieve a Family Ever After.”

Family Ever After brings time-tested and well-researched principles to family life to help you learn specific ways to improve your marriage and your family, whether that family is ordinary or extraordinary. Using real-world examples of best practices and helping woman readjust their media-driven perception of what happily ever after means, Family Ever After gives readers a pragmatic, helpful, and entertaining exploration of:
  • How happiness in marriage and family life requires a more educated, real-world perspective
  • How proper prioritization and defining what’s important in marriage and family is key to success;
  • Why conflict is part of an ordinary family experience and how to peacefully resolve it;
  • How to cultivate a sense of humor;
  • How to develop a thoughtful and sincere habit of complimenting each member of your family;
  • How to improve family relationships with extended family members; and
  • Learning how to love a family member in the way they understand and accept that love
More than another how-to-have-a-perfect-family book, Family Ever After helps you gain the understanding and the practical skills of what makes ordinary families successful. Family Ever After is an essential and beautiful resource for all women who want to put more happiness in theirs and their family’s life.

Interview

Your title is a very cute play on the fairy tale “happily ever after”. Do you use fairy tales as inspiration for any other parts of the book?

There is a little fairy tale inspiration here and there. Things like magic wands flashing to make life perfect, and finding prince charming. The fairy tale idea came because my husband and I are always joking about how every Disney princess comes from a dysfunctional family of sorts but somehow they always find their ever after.

What is your favorite fairy tale?

Beauty and the Beast is by far my favorite. I think maybe it’s just because I like the music, but I do think Belle is beautiful for an animated character. The entire show just pulls me in. It’s almost and edge of your seat fairy tale if you ask me.

What was the hardest part of writing Family Ever After?

The editing process was very difficult. It was hard to content edit. The` book is so much a part of me and who I am, that when changes had to be made it felt very personal.

What is it about your book that makes you the most proud?

I think what makes me feel most proud is that as I enacted the principles in the book with my own family and spouse it really made our marriage and family better. I discovered something that really can help families be happier and that is exciting to me.

Do you have any funny habits for when you’re writing?

There are a few silly things, like I won’t let anyone read my first draft…EVER, and when the writing gets stressful, I rely heavily upon Nutella. It is my favorite.

What is the most important thing you would like for your readers to take away from Family Ever After?

I think it is so important to remember that no matter what family path we are on, it will be hard. In the words of my aunt, “It is hard to be married. It is hard to have children. It is hard to be divorced. It is hard to be single.” Life is hard no matter what path we choose, but we can always choose to be happy.

Buy Links
Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About the Author

michelleMichelle Packard is a mother to her four very human and totally fabulous kids. Her oldest, Ella is always in charge and leads the pack with creativity and curiosity, Daniel follows with loyalty and loves tenderly, Julia is a doll and always buzzing over something beautiful, and Jackson could hunt down the last sharpie on earth to create art on your bathroom wall. She has been married ten years and is quite taken with her guy. Date night is her favorite and she dreams of weekend getaways with her man. She loves creating beauty through floral design, but apparently has no gift with living flowers (They end of upside down and pressed in books). She finds parties alluring. They beckon her to invite people over, spend way too much time preparing food for murder mystery dinners, and totally enjoy friends and family. Michelle holds a bachelors degree in Home and Family Science from Brigham Young University. She has spent a great deal of time working with children and young adults and finds her greatest joy is happy families.

You can find out more about Michelle on her Blog

Tour Giveaway

Enter to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash
Ends at 12:01am EST on May 20th

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2 comments:

  1. What a great book cover! Congrats to Michelle!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Such a cute cover!
    Also, double yes on Nutella!! It makes the world go round :)

    ReplyDelete

You are going to put words in my box?! *squeezes you* Now I shall stalk YOUR blog!