| Emails from the Edge The Life of an Expatriate Wife by Kristie Leigh Maguire in collaboration with Adrianna Larson |
| Most of us think it would be romantic to visit far and exotic places. To meet the local people, eat the food, and enjoy the culture. But we also say “it is good to come home”. What if you couldn’t just “come home”? What if you were stuck there, in a place where you had to recreate your life and home? How would you handle the constant travel to these new and exciting places? Would you enjoy packing and unpacking your house? Making and leaving new friends every six months to a year? Think about it for a second. You are just getting comfortable with the area, the people, and you have just enough of the language to get by. One night your spouse comes home from work and announces that it is time to go again, to move to yet another exotic and exciting place. Another place you know little about, another foreign and strange land. Emails from the Edge is a story about two women who have lived through this hectic style of life. They are survivors in the world of traveling, maintaining a family and home while being shuffled across the face of the world. Two women who may not have liked each other at first but were drawn together by their surroundings. Their need for friendship and understanding bind them together into a strong and lasting relationship that endured time and space. One returned to the States and the ‘real world’ while the other continued with the ‘expatriate life’. Connected by their computer screens, they form a bond that is forged in loneliness and tempered with their quiet strength. Emails from the Edge is a story of friendship. More importantly it is the story of two survivors who face the challenges they are given and with each other’s strength come out on top. Mark Haeuser Author of the Battleground USA series, The Second Coming Trilogy, and the newly released Hunters of the Shadows |
| Reviews |
| Spend the afternoon being swept away into the magical land of Japan. With Kristie Leigh Maguire’s magical writing talent, you will experience a deep understanding of what true loneliness actually feels like. You will bask in the realization of what it takes to meet and beat the unknown. EMAILS FROM THE EDGE focuses upon the true courage of one strong-willed woman. EMAILS FROM THE EDGE is a novel about reaching out and taking hold of the unknown. Readers will see and feel the courage one woman experienced as she struggled to cope in an unfamiliar foreign country. It will remind each of us to be thankful of the little things in life most take for granted. Not only will you find a beautiful picturesque novel filled with helpful advice, as an added bonus you will be rewarded with a sense of understanding that will provide you a overwhelming sense of tranquility. In today’s turbulent world, EMAILS FROM THE EDGE is the type of novel each one of us needs to savor. It will provide you a sense of calmness that will stay in your conscious long after you turn the last moving page. Reviewed by Suzie Housley for Bridges Magazine |
| "Write what you know." It is what authors hear constantly. But Kristie Leigh Maguire has carried this concept to the max. As a world traveler (not always by choice), she had to find a way to survive in the midst of being alone. Emails from the Edge shows the true grit of this delightful author as she shares the deep, real meaning of friendship. As one author to another, I am extremely proud of this voice to call her "friend." Janet Elaine Smith, author of bestselling novel Dunnottar; In St. Patrick's Custody; A Christmas Dream; House Call to the Past; Marylebone; My Dear Phebe; Recipe for Murder |
| "Kristie writes with candor, sharing the small details of life overseas. What is is like for a Western woman to shop at a grocery store in Japan? How can a tall, blond-haired American possibly blend in on the streets of Taipei? Written with humor and honest emotion, Emails From The Edge will delight any reader with a sense of adventure." Sarah Mankowski , WordThunder.com |
| Meet Margie and Sandy and take a peek into their "over the fence" friendship, although their backyards are several time zones apart. Warm and witty, candid and supportive, the pair truly become Internet sisters. A perfect gift for anyone who has ever shared an Internet friendship. Kim Blagg, Author / Publisher; PageFree Publishing, Inc. - December 2001 |
| “E-mails from the Edge is a departure for Kristie Leigh Maguire. It is a wonderful shared experience that reminds us we are all of one soul." Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This is the Place |
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| Page Copyright @ 2001 Kristie Leigh Maguire |
| Some things are very private, diaries, phone calls, letters and emails between friends. Emails from the Edge is a most unusual book, it details the relationship through emails of two friends, Margie who is living in Japan while her husband works there, and Sandy who is living in Texas with all her family around her. Margie finds it difficult to live in a place where she doesn't know the language, finds the culture so different to what she's used to. How would you feel to get lots of bills and you don't even know what they are for or for how much? There is no-one to talk to while her husband is out at work and she finds herself getting more and more depressed. Sandy comes to the rescue with almost daily emails of what life is like for her back in the "real world." In return, Margie writes about her time in Japan and other places. A true story, the friendship between these two women shines from the page and you feel as if you've eavesdropped on a private conversation, but accidentally and then they smile at you and welcome you into that circle of friendship. The writing is real and down to earth, as only emails to good friends can be. An excellent read Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of Silent Screams |
| Emails From The Edge is a book for this time. Kristie Leigh Maguire uses her own emails and those of her electronic pen-pal, Sandy Davis, to tell a story of the psychological strain created when a person lives outside her own environment. It is an important lesson for those of us who—on occasion-- look at our own emigrants with less compassion that we should. In its pages, we share Maguire’s experiences as an expatriate wife in a country where she knows no one. The pure frustration she feels every day trying to perform the simplest of daily tasks is a reminder that we have people among us who are doing the same thing. The joy the author feels at a small kindness, a gesture from a friend afar, or a stranger on the street reminds us that we, too, can make a difference in someone else’s life. It may take no more effort than tapping out a brief note to an acquaintance or nodding our head to a new arrival on our shores. It may even encourage us to smile at someone different from ourselves or to play a short game of charades with someone who only speaks a language we don’t understand. This book is also a testament to how much one person can overcome if she but perseveres. The struggle of learning to live in a land where one understands not a single spoken word, can read nothing, and fears getting lost every time one steps out of one’s home is told completely with actual reproduced emails. Early on, I would have preferred to hear a bit more about the two women, know more about their appearances and backgrounds. That eventually comes, however, revealed little by little. I suppose, then, that this book is also a tutorial in letting a story unravel as it goes and in not rushing a good thing. Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, MyShelf.com and author of This is the Place (Carolyn Howard-Johnson award-winning novel, This Is The Place, is published by AmErica House, Baltimore. Valerie Susan Hayward, Consultant and former senior editor at Harlequin/Silhouette pronounced it fabulous. ors/carojohnson.htm.) |
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| From the moment you start this story, you feel what it’s like to be the wife of a traveling executive, living in foreign places, the camaraderie built within the close-knit communities of the families stationed in far-away places. You feel the adventure and the fear, but at the same time, the good-times and friendships. Ms. Maguire, writing as Margie Tovrea, pulls us into her life and tells us of the world she lives in with exciting ability. When she learns she is to be stationed in Japan she’s thrilled, it’s another adventure in an exotic place she’s always wanted to go to, but the reality of it is much different than any she’s yet experienced. We feel her fear and panic, as she’s isolated with no other band of expatriates to navigate the strange world with. Trapped and most-times alone, with her husband working, she has to learn to adjust to a life in a world where she doesn’t speak, read, or write the language. Where the customs are totally different from any she’s yet lived in. Then, she discovers the Internet. Reaching out through the life-line of space, she makes contact with an old friend made in a past expat camp, one who can relate to the experiences she’s living in. You feel the attachment and the desperate need for friendship that creates a stronger bond than any normal reality would, and that’s just the beginning of the journey through the year spent in the land of the rising sun. Recommendation: This book is a must read for women of all ages. It helps you to remember the true value of friendship and come to the realization that distance is nothing but space between friends. EMAILS FROM THE EDGE is available from PageFree Publishing, and at Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com. Pick one up today. Reviewed by Tami Parrington for WOW (Women on Writing) |
| Review by: Joan Moore Lewis, Southern Fiction Author, Georgia USA Walk a Mile In Her Shoes A picture postcard description of the exotic Land of the Far East and her husband’s job lured Margie Tovrea to Japan in June 1997. Past international assignments had landed them in St. Croix in the U. S. Virgin Islands, Aruba, Panama, Thailand and Saudi Arabia. But nothing had prepared Margie for the isolation she would face in Japan. The only English words that reached her ears were those uttered by her husband, Stan, and television’s CNN International. Due to the language barrier, Margie could neither converse with neighbors nor identify food in the grocery stores. Then in August 1997, a miracle happened! Margie was reunited via email with her friend, Sandy Davis, whom she had met in Saudi Arabia. While Margie was "losing it" in Yokohama, Sandy, who had returned to the U. S., was "kickin’ it" in Houston, Texas. "Emails from the Edge" is the actual correspondence between an expatriate wife and a Houston housewife who laughed and cried as they shared each other’s life on-line almost every day for seven months. You will laugh and cry also as you read this story of deep friendship and understanding. I highly recommend "Emails from the Edge" to anyone who has at any time dreaded grocery shopping or spending time with family, friends and neighbors. #### |