Laura Roberts's Blog, page 17
September 23, 2018
Sunday Funday: One Author’s Odd (and Unusual) Talents
This post is part of the 52-Week Blog Challenge, hosted by the Marketing for Romance Writers Blog.
This week’s challenge is to consider my “odd or useless talent.”
What makes a talent either odd or useless?
I suppose being able to leg-press the equivalent of an averaged-sized sumo wrestler could be considered both odd AND useless!
I can leg-press 450 pounds. The average sumo wrestler weighs 148 kg, which is approximately 326 pounds.
An interesting bit of trivia: Although there is no known requirement for the weight of a sumo wrestler, Wikipedia says that to be a professional, one must be at least 5’8″ tall.
I’m only 5’2″, so I will never be able to sumo wrestle professionally. (Not that I had any plans to do so.)
Other unusual or useless talents I possess:
I can play the flute and the piano, and about 3 guitar chords either right- or left-handed.
I can touch the bottom of my chin with my tongue.
I hold the dubious merit of “World’s Worst Sex Story,” as judged by a professional sex columnist.
I hold a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do.
I have completed my NaNoWriMo novel projects 5 out of 9 times.
I have written an entire book in just 3 days (which you can read about in my book, Confessions of a 3-Day Novelist).
And those are just the useless talents I can mention in polite company!
I hope my useless and peculiar talents have amused you.
So… what are YOUR odd or unusual talents?
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September 16, 2018
Sunday Funday: An Odd Thing I Collect
I’ve been meaning to jump in on the 52-Week Blog Challenge, hosted by the Marketing for Romance Writers Blog, for… well, it feels like 52 weeks! But, thankfully, it’s only been 37 weeks. So, better late than never, and let’s get this party started already, shall we?
This week’s challenge topic is…
An Odd Thing I Collect
Probably the oddest things I collect are Buddha sculptures. Miniature, full sized, medium sized, cut from stone, molded from resin, or even carved from jade, I am big on the Buddha and his belly.
I’m not a Buddhist, so this collection is a little odd since it’s not religious in nature. I don’t have any shrines in my home, but I do have several Buddhas around for decorative purposes.
Here are a few of the specimens I’ve accumulated over the years (aided by my husband, who collected several Buddhas of his own before we met):
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I don’t really know what draws me to collect Buddhas, but I guess there is something welcoming and calming – and also funny! – about his many incarnations, and that is a bit of a reflection of us all, no?
What’s something rather odd or unusual that YOU collect?
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September 11, 2018
“Confessions” is BookWorks’ Book of the Week!
Good news, everyone: my book, Confessions of a 3-Day Novelist, has been named BookWorks’ Book of the Week!
I’m honored to be included in the fine company of so many other great independent authors. Thanks, BookWorks!
If you haven’t already grabbed a copy of this title, intrigued to learn more about the wild and crazy idea of writing a book in just 72 hours, here’s what it’s all about:
Want to finish writing your books faster?
Learn the tricks that bestselling authors use to succeed!
In 2011 author Laura Roberts wrote an entire book in just 72 hours, as part of the 3-Day Novel Contest. Upon completing the challenge successfully, she knew she’d found a great new way to write books quickly, and wanted to share her secrets with the world.
In this book you’ll learn:
How to write an entire book, from start to finish, in just three days;
How to outline your story to achieve success;
What you’ll need to write your book in just 72 hours;
Plus plenty of tricks and tips for writing faster, smarter, and harder!
Use the methods that bestselling authors have used to achieve their success. Learn how to finish your books quickly to get them delivered to readers and build your fan base.
What are you waiting for? Grab a copy and learn to start writing faster today.
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September 10, 2018
Prepping for Preptober
Hey, everybody! It’s been a minute, as I lost most of July to my big move, and August to setting up our new apartment once we finally moved in, and now it’s September already.
Back to school, back to work… and time to start prepping for Preptober!
What’s Preptober, you ask?
It’s the unofficial planning month, before NaNoWriMo takes off in November. In short: the entire month of October is devoted to brainstorming, plotting, character sketching, figuring out settings and scenes, and otherwise scribbling notes towards what will, ultimately, become your novel.
That’s not cheating, either! You’re totally allowed to plan as much as you like before you jump in on November 1st with your first of 50,000 words.
After writing 31 days’ worth of blog posts last October, I decided to create a workbook that readers could use to work through their own October planning program.
Thus Preptober! A 31-Day Workbook for Planning Your Next Writing Project was born!
It’s currently available for pre-order at Amazon, and I’m working on creating both a print and ebook version of this title to be released on October 5.
If you’ve ever wanted to write a novel during NaNoWriMo, or you’ve written lots of novels that ended up needing so much revision afterwards that you wanted to rip your hair out, Preptober! is here to help. Learn how to plan out your writing project the fun way, in just 31 days.
Ready to get started?
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August 22, 2018
Dating the Prince by Alina Snow
Small-town girl, Katie O’Connor has always dreamed of seeing her name in lights. Check the box for fame, a movie deal, the perfect leading role that comes with a gorgeous leading man! Katie moved to Hollywood, elbows her way into auditions, lives on a shoestring budget—whatever is required to land a deal, she throws her heart into… until she’s involved in a royal kidnapping.
As the future king, Prince Alexander refuses to rule from an ivory tower. Duty-bound, he intends to relate to his future subjects, regardless of their walk of life. Before his coronation, he needs a foolproof plan to outrun his security team and go temporarily AWOL. While visiting L.A., all it takes is a sound stage collision and Alex is blindsided by a headstrong woman who is simply irresistible. So much so, he calls in a favor in order to secure her help… as his pretend girlfriend.
Their worlds are oceans apart, but their immediate attraction is impossible to put aside, especially their nonstop banter. Miffed at being wrangled into a situation that might blow up in her face, Katie comes up with her own plan. If The Prince is serious about walking the walk of the common folk, she’s only too happy to oblige as his pretend girlfriend. Through an ice storm, a road trip, kitchen duty, and a Texas pig race, Alex captures the hearts of the locals as well as Ms. O’Connor’s.
What starts out as a deal Katie can’t refuse becomes the acting role of a lifetime… letting Prince Alexander go without a fight.
A delightfully funny retelling of The Prince and The Pauper that romance readers of all ages will enjoy. On a two-week 1,500-mile road trip, Katie and Alex discover the end of the road might just be the beginning of their “Happy Ever After” together.
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Excerpt
The fire she imagined she’d have to walk through as a royal guide, cough babysitter, might be harder than eating nails. Impressed, Katie was not.
Like any good actor, she wanted to ascertain the parameters of this role, so she cut to the chase. “Exactly what is it that you expect from me, Your Royal Highness?”
The Prince’s smile deepened, as if her challenge were a source of amusement. Jeffrey huffed, sliding onto the leather seat. He slammed the door shut as if to punctuate her inquiry.
“Something people routinely do all over the world,” Prince Alexander supplied, not giving her an answer.
It was a subtle move. What her dad classified as a perp’s first line of defense, a deflection of an interrogation question. If Sam preached once, he had preached a thousand times: do not ask open-ended questions. Slowly but surely, move the conversation in a specific direction by controlled, structured planning.
Katie took a minute to consider what to say, how to frame the next question. She could hear her father’s voice. Don’t allow anyone to rush you. You own the show. She’d grown up with this type of guidance. That’s what law enforcement officers did, she suspected, all over the world as parents. They lectured. They policed. They yakked about the good old days as police.
She studied The Prince while asking, “How far away are we traveling?”
Alex chuckled as if that were the funniest repartee he’d heard in a while. “I’m not kidnapping you, Ms. O’Connor.”
Katie eased back against the leather seat and crossed her legs. She wore skinny jeans, rolled at the cuffs above her ankles, and ripped at the knee. She lightly tapped the toe of her trainer and noticed the direction of The Prince’s gaze at her foot. A nervous habit. Stilling, she inquired, “May I have a copy of your schedule?”
“Jeffrey, send a copy of our diary to Ms. O’Connor, straightaway.”
“Do you decide on the events that occur each and every day?” She thought she knew the answer but waited expectantly on his reply.
His Highness arched a brow. “Rarely. If there’s latitude, Lord Sizemore deals with the particulars.”
“Our schedule changes, sometimes moment by moment,” Jeffrey explained “At times, we have events listed that we have no intention on attending. It’s for security purposes.”
“Then how will I know what to plan, when it comes to routes and finding places to park? If I’m in the dark, it’ll prevent me from doing my job to the best of my ability,” Katie said, then added, “Besides being a colossal waste of time. Yours and mine.”
For the briefest second, Prince Alexander’s eyes clouded. Then his gaze locked with hers. “It might save your life, Ms. O’Connor.”
How could she be so blatantly thick? The man had lost his mother and brother because security had unwittingly been lax. She dialed down her frustration. Clearly, The Prince’s security was not a trivial matter. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Sometimes, I speak before my brain has time to decide to pull the plug.”
Tour
Be sure to check all of the tour stops for this book at Xpresso Book Tours.
Giveaway
About the Author
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A Southern gal at heart, Alina is a librarian who adores her job. She has a degree in anthropology from Vanderbilt and loves writing offbeat romance comedy. To refuel, Alina sings karaoke, bakes sweet treats, and can be found at the Y, kickboxing. She lives in Knoxville with her husband and Callie, their doxie mix.
Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, Bookbub or her website, AlinaSnowBooks.blogspot.com.
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July 16, 2018
The Boyfriend Whisperer by Linda Budzinski
As President and CEO of Boyfriend Whisperer Enterprises, Lexi Malloy is Grand View High School’s undercover Cupid. One problem: She’s stuck in the friend zone when it comes to her own crush, Chris Broder. She and Chris have been best friends since the third grade, and he doesn’t even seem to realize she’s is a member of the opposite sex.
When pretty and popular cheerleader Lindsay LaRouche hires Lexi to whisper Chris, she has to decide whether to place her commitment to her company—and Chris’s happiness—before herself.
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About the Author
[image error]Linda Budzinski’s young adult novels, Em & Em (2015) and The Funeral Singer (2013), were both published by Swoon Romance YA. Her upcoming novel, The Boyfriend Whisperer, scheduled for publication in fall of 2016 by Swoon, received the Romance Writers of America Young Adult Chapter’s 2015 Rosemary Award and the Virginia Chapter’s 2015 Fool for Love Award.
She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, Joe, and their feisty chihuahua, Demitria (also known as Dee Dee, The Puppy, and Killer). She’s a sucker for romance and reality TV and has been known to turn off her phone’s ringer when watching The Bachelor.
Her favorite flower is the daisy, her favorite food is chocolate, and her favorite song is “Amazing Grace.”
When she’s not writing, she works in nonprofit management. Linda is represented by the amazing Andrea Somberg of Harvey Klinger Inc.
Connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads and her website.
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July 2, 2018
July Buttontapper Challenge: Join me at Camp NaNoWriMo!
The Buttontapper Challenge is back! This month’s challenge is to complete a piece of your choice as part of Camp NaNoWriMo.
The brilliant thing about Camp NaNoWriMo, as opposed to the more “official” NaNoWriMo event in November, is that you get to set your own challenge. Just like going to summer camp as a kid – where you might end up at a YMCA day camp, a Girl Scout or Boy Scout sleep-away camp, or even band or orchestra camp – Camp NaNo comes in many different varieties. You can choose your own word count, and you can also mix it up by choosing to write in a different genre, whether that’s a nonfiction book, a series of essays, a short (or long) play or screenplay, short stories, or whatever you like.
The pressure of writing a 50,000-word novel is off, because it’s summertime when things are more laid back. So why not take a chance and try something new?
It’s July 2, and I’ve chosen to write at least 20,000 words towards my new Foreign Affairs novel, Kyoto Kink, this month. Since I’m in the middle of a big move (and I’m holding a Moving Sale, too!), I didn’t want to drive myself insane by trying to pack up my whole life, move to a new city, AND write an entire novel. Even so, 20K is still a pretty respectable chunk, so I need to get cracking if I want to win.
I’ll be keeping track of my own progress over in the Buttontapper Challenge Facebook Group (where I’ve already posted a funny story about yesterday’s adventure), and encouraging you to share your own successes, failures, questions, comments and favorite tunes to celebrate your milestones.
Camp is supposed to be fun, so that’s my aim for each of my daily posts. No difficult questions, and definitely no homework!
So, are you ready to add a little adventure to your summer? Then head over to the Facebook group and join us. Last one into the lake’s a rotten egg!
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June 30, 2018
Buttontapper Press flash moving #sale!
Buttontapper Press is packing up and moving! So what’s in it for you? BIG SAVINGS!
Since I do not want to have to hoist more heavy boxes of books onto a truck than I have to, I’ve come up with a simple deal. I’ve currently got 7 6 paperback copies of San Diego From A to Z in my possession. These retail for $15.95, but for the first 7 6 lovely people who reply to this post, I will mail a copy out – autographed and all, shipping included (US only!) – for a flat $10.
Interested? Step right up and Paypal that cash to me easily and efficiently at https://www.paypal.me/LRcreativeservices and I’ll do the rest.
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I also have a limited number of hardcover copies of my YA nonfiction books, Careers in Digital Media, Careers If You Like Music, and Careers in [Video] Gaming! These each retail for $29.95, and I am ready to ship out copies for just $20 each (shipping included, US only).
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Feel free to ask me any questions about the books or this flash sale in the comments. I’ll keep shipping books ’til I run out, at which point I’ll remove this post from my site.
Once again, to purchase please use the Paypal link https://www.paypal.me/LRcreativeservices and I’ll do the rest. (There is a “Notes” space where you can tell me which books you are purchasing, in case you’d like multiple titles.)
Thanks very much for supporting an indie author and her work, and for taking a look at these books!
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June 27, 2018
The Proposition by A.M. Salinger
They call me the Charmer. My best friend Wade tells me it’s because I’m suave and mysterious. But he doesn’t know my secret. The one I’ve kept hidden from him for twelve years. The one I will never reveal to him. —Rhys
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They call me The Brute. Probably because of my physique. And, let’s face it, because I’m a total dick at times. So Rhys likes to tell me anyway. Thing is, there’s something Rhys isn’t telling me. Something I’m dying to hear from his lips. His sinful confession. You see, I know Rhys’s secret. —Wade
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Rhys Damon has spent most of his adult life watching Wade Tucker bed woman after woman, his dark desire for his best friend and business partner a secret he is determined to take to his grave, since he knows it will never be reciprocated. With their design firm thriving across two continents, Rhys finds himself content burying his heartache in a string of meaningless, casual sex arrangements. Until the night everything changes.
When Wade Tucker stumbles upon his best friend calling out his name as he pleasures himself, he knows his relationship with Rhys will never be the same again. A year later, the memory of what Wade saw is still branded in his mind and his feelings for Rhys have evolved into something he never anticipated. As tension mounts and the relationship between the two business partners becomes increasingly strained, things finally come to a head the night Wade follows Rhys and discovers him with another man.
After an explosive confrontation, Wade makes Rhys a proposition he can’t refuse: that they try things out for six weeks. Six weeks of exploring a side of each other they never knew before. Six weeks of torrid kisses and sultry touches. Six weeks of screamingly good, scorching hot sex. Six weeks of utterly losing themselves to one another.
But as the end of their proposition looms in sight, can Wade persuade Rhys that he wants more? Or will Rhys’s deep-seated fears stop him from fully surrendering his heart and soul to the one man he thought he could never have?
Discover Rhys and Wade’s wickedly intoxicating story in this sixth novella in the hot, contemporary romance series Nights by A.M. Salinger.
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Note From the Author: Although each book in Nights can be read as a standalone, you will enjoy this series even more if you read the books in order! This is a novella length MM romance with a HEA.
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Giveaway
Enter at Rafflecopter to win a shot at a $10 Amazon Gift Card + one of three signed paperbacks of The Proposition.
About the Author
[image error]Ava Marie Salinger is the pen name of an Amazon bestselling author who has always wanted to write scorching hot contemporary and erotic romance. In 2018, she finally decided to venture to the steamy side. NIGHTS is the first of several sizzling series featuring sweet, sexy men and women with dark pasts and a whole lot of love to give to the ones brave enough to fight for their hearts. When she’s not dreaming up hotties to write about, you’ll find Ava creating kickass music playlists to write to, spying on the wildlife in her garden, drooling over gadgets, and eating Chinese food.
Want to be the first to know about Ava’s new releases and get access to exclusive content, sneak previews, sales, and giveaways? Then sign up to her Reader Group here and join her VIP Facebook Fan Group here.
You can also follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Bookbub and Goodreads.
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June 8, 2018
Foreign Affairs Friday: The big debut!
My newest book, Montreal Mischief, is now available from Liquid Silver Publishing!
I am currently reveling in the fact that I am listed on the site’s front page, under Newest Releases…
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That’s me in the top slot. Bonjour!
What’s it all about?
Ryan and Jackie Murphy have come to Montreal for a wild weekend. The young Boston couple is ready to recharge their marriage after a tiring year building their own lifestyle business together. Now it’s time to play in the Sin City of the North, and they’re looking for kinks they can’t get back in Beantown.
Jackie loves Leonard Cohen, and wants to make a French connection with romance over fondue and chocolate croissants. Ryan’s looking for something a little more hardcore, like a trip to a strip club, a hot sweat in a swinger’s club sauna, and maybe even a bit of ménage.
Will they be able to reach a compromise amongst all the naughty options in Montreal’s Underground City, or will this romantic weekend away turn out to be a disaster?
A quickie for the road…
And here’s a brief excerpt to get you hot and bothered…
“Hey, why don’t you get out the guidebook?” Ryan suggests. “We’re only an hour away. Let’s figure out what we want to do after we check in to the hotel.”
“Good idea,” Jackie says, poking around in the glove compartment for the book she’d seen Ryan stash there earlier in the day.
“Naked Montreal: A Guide to the Sexy Side of the City?” she says, reading the book’s title. “Wow, you really do have something special planned for this weekend.”
“I told you we needed a change of pace. Did you know they call Montreal the Sin City of the North?”
“Meaning what? Gambling and strippers?” Jackie wrinkles her nose at the thought. She’s never been a fan of Las Vegas.
“Strippers, yes. And all kinds of naughty distractions.” Ryan wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.
“Gross. I’m not going to any strip clubs with you. This was supposed to be a second honeymoon, not a second bachelor party.” Jackie swats him on the arm.
“Okay, okay! I’m just kidding. There’s plenty of other stuff to try. They’ve got sex shops…”
“Ew.”
“Swingers clubs…”
“Double ew.”
“French lingerie?”
“Now you’re talking.” Jackie conjures visions of the bra and panty sets she’s been eyeing in the Victoria’s Secret catalogue. “Lots of lace?”
Ready for a little Mischief?
Grab your copy from Amazon or buy direct from the publisher!
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