Laurie Larsen's Blog, page 8

Enter a fun contest and win a cool gift pack!

I've put together this fun gift pack to celebrate the successful launch of my latest book, Crescendo into the world! What's in it?-- An autographed copy of the Crescendo paperback-- Two custom Crescendo coffee mugs-- One pack of coffeeI can just picture you making coffee and drinking out of your Ace in the Hole mugs while reading Crescendo.How do you enter?I've put together a quiz. Your answers will be your entries into the contest. The more questions you answer, the more chances you have to win. The winner will be drawn randomly in one week.Crescendo features Blake Scott, an aspiring country music artist, and his band Ace in the Hole. I worked with my talented cover artist, Steven Novak, to come up with a band logo, and then I had that logo printed on these awesome coffee cups. Throughout the book, Blake encounters other country music artists. Instead of using "real" names from today's world of country music, I started with a real singer, and I fictionalized it. The quiz will ask you to take a fictional country singer in the book and guess the real singer.For example ... Bryan Lucas is the fictional name of a country singer in Crescendo. He was based off the real-life country singer, LUKE BRYAN.Easy, huh? Well, if you're a country music fan it is.To enter the contest, click on this link and access the contest in Rafflecopter. Your entries will be recorded and in ONE WEEK I will announce the winner!Good luck! Let's let it roll!

It's Crescendo's Book Birthday!!

Every book has a birth-day and Crescendo's is today! The book has been on Pre-order at all ebook retailers for a month and I'm so pleased with how many people ordered it. If you did the Preorder, you will notice that Crescendo was delivered to your ebook reader TODAY! If you didn't preorder, I invite you to buy it today in whatever format you like to read your books:KindleNookiBooksKoboPaperbackSo, what's it about???A Rags-to-Riches story in the world of country music ... with a twist!"We're Ace in the Hole. Let's let it roll!"The ride of a lifetime...Aspiring country musician Blake Scott will do anything to catapult his band into the big time -- even if it means driving Uber to make ends meet. Encountering the beautiful and broken Haley Witherspoon on the worst night of her life, changes everything for him.The black sheep of a wealthy family, Haley yearns to find passion to add purpose to her life. When Blake offers her the opportunity of a lifetime, she can't refuse. Managing Ace in the Hole is everything she needs -- and nothing she ever expected. Despite her family disowning her, Haley throws herself into helping the band reach success.As Blake and Haley grow closer, she realizes that he's hiding something -- holding something back. Now it's up to Haley to uncover the truth about Blake's past while battling the vicious rumors that threaten to destroy the band. Putting their trust in God is their only hope. But will the faith they find in each other be enough to overcome the mounting danger, let go of the past, and create a future together?The third book in the Murrells Inlet Miracles series of inspirational romance!Book 1: SanctuaryBook 2: RestorationBook 3: CrescendoWhat are readers saying about it? All 5-star reviews so far!!"The characters were intriguing amidst the setting of a country band.""Sweet Christian romance about finding your way in life and what will make you happy.""The story was a quick and entertaining read, I enjoyed every minute of it. I think Christian and Non-Christian readers alike will have their curiosity sparked to read Crescendo cover to cover!"

Second reader giveaway contest!

As I promised in my last blog, I have THREE special reader giveaway contests planned to celebrate the release of Book 3 of my Murrells Inlet Miracles series: CRESCENDO. The first one has ended and the winner was announced. Now it's time for number two!SPECIAL READER GIVEAWAY CONTEST! -- Active for ONE WEEKTo celebrate my Pawleys Island Paradise series of inspirational romance, I'm hosting a contest to give away the following special Pawleys Island gift pack:The gift pack is a $75 value and includes: -- 2 signed paperbacks from Pawleys Island Paradise (Roadtrip to Redemption and Tide to Atonement) -- Pawleys Island decorative tin -- Pawleys Island greeting card -- Pawleys Island refrigerator magnet -- 2 Pawleys Island window clings -- $25 Amazon gift cardTO ENTER THE CONTEST, access the Rafflecopter app here. The more points you earn, the greater your chance of winning :Another reason to celebrate: on September 4, Book 3 of my Murrells Inlet Miracles series, Crescendo, goes live! Get your ebook NOW when it's still on sale for the special 99 cent preorder price! Here are all the Preorder links.Amazon:Barnes &Noble:iBooks:Kobo:Good luck! I'll announce the winner on Sunday 9/2!

Murrells Inlet Miracle Gift Pack -- Reader Giveaway Contest!

To celebrate the release of my new book, Crescendo on September 4, I'm hosting THREE reader giveaway contests over the next two months. I'm using Rafflecopter to facilitate the contest and I hope you find it user-friendly and easy to enter. Here's the first one!SPECIAL READER GIVEAWAY CONTEST! -- Active for ONE WEEKTo celebrate my Murrells Inlet Miracles series growing by one on September 4 (Book 3: Crescendo), I'm hosting a contest to give away the following special Murrells Inlet gift pack:a $75 value and includes: -- 2 signed paperbacks from my Murrells Inlet Miracles series (Sanctuary and Restoration) -- South Carolina decorative plaque -- Murrells Inlet window cling -- seashell soaps -- seashell napkins -- $25 Amazon gift cardTO ENTER THE CONTEST, use the Rafflecopter app here. The more points you earn, the greater your chance of winning : Troubles using the direct entry sheet above? Sorry about that! Click here to take you to another entry sheet.And here are the Crescendo Preorder links. Order yours today before it goes off the special 99 cent preorder price!Amazon: B&N:iBooks: Kobo:Good luck! I'll announce the winner on Thurs 8/23!Laurie

Finished Crescendo!

I'm thrilled to announce that just last week, I finished writing the first draft of Book 3 of my Murrells Inlet Miracles series, CRESCENDO. Of course, there's so much more to do. Here's a look at my To Do List:1. Write Book Description2. Work with artist to design cover.3. Write front and back matter for the book.4. Write excerpt for Book 4 to include in the back.5. Do second draft edits.6. Arrange for advertising for release week.7. Update website with new cover, blurb and video.8. Set up pre-orders on retailer sites.So yes, yes, yes, there's still a lot of work to do. But you know what? The biggest job is writing the book! And that's done! At this point, I'm looking to put up my pre-order links on all the retailer sites within two weeks, and official release day will be in early to mid-September! Stay tuned.I wanted to share with you a graphic that my cover artist created for me. Crescendo features Blake Scott, an aspiring country music star. Haley (who you met in Restoration as Carly's best friend) has taken on the job of being their band manager with the goal of shooting them into country music stardom. Blake's band is called Ace in the Hole and this is the logo we dreamed up for this fictional band: I'm so excited to release this exciting, suspenseful story. On the day I wrote THE END I made this video. Take a look to find out a little about the story, and my jubilation at finishing it: That's the big news for now! Stay tuned for more details about the Crescendo release date, as well as fun giveaways I have planned to celebrate the release.Laurie

Ready for Our Close-Up, Mr. DeMille

We're putting our house up for sale.Even as I put that sentence in writing, it stuns me just a little bit. Of course, no one's forcing us. It was our decision to do it. But it makes my heart flutter. What if someone buys it?What if no one buys it?Back in 1995 we were being transferred to a new state and our company gave us a week-long house hunting trip to find and buy a house. I had told the realtor our price range, and she dutifully showed us a bunch of houses under that number. Like, thirty or forty houses. And even though all the homes we tromped through were perfectly nice and fine ... nothing was floating my boat. Or as our realtor said, "No bells and whistles, huh?" I shrugged. She said, "I have a house to show you. You'll just have to up your price range a little bit."As sales tactics go, it was not a bad one. "A little bit" ended up being a massive understatement. We had to up our price range a LOT bit. But the moment we walked into the house ... this house ... I knew it was ours. And I got so excited just imagining that this would be the gorgeous house that we got to raise our family in.Our kids were four years, and six months old when we moved in. Our house saw us through birthday parties, family Thanksgiving dinners, family Christmases, sleepovers, our annual New Years Day Open House. We befriended our neighbors. We decorated all the rooms, and some we redecorated. The best thing about the house is that it gave us room for everything. The house has never been fancy, but it's always been spacious. I knew when I moved in that I would never fill it, and I never have. Twenty three years later, both kids have grown up, moved out and are living in their own places. I've retired from the big day job now, and we've bought the beach home 950 miles away that will be our next permanent home. It's time to sell our dream house. It did an awesome job raising our family. Now, we've given the ole girl a face lift, remodeled the bathrooms and the kitchen, and put fresh paint on every wall. We're almost ready to turn it over to the next lucky family to fall in love with.I expect nothing less for my dream house, for my awesome house that raised our family and provided us with so many wonderful memories, to find another, younger family who steps in and immediately falls in love with it. Time ticks on and such is the way of houses. Tomorrow the realtor and the photographer is coming over to take pictures inside and out, trying to attract that one perfect family. <> Excuse me while I grab a Kleenex.

My New Life

April 1 brought about huge changes in my life. If you missed it you can read about it in this post.Among the biggest of things that happened on April 1, I retired from my day job.When you say those words to most people, they say, "Oh, congratulations." But when you say it to someone in the writing community, it means so much more. I attended a writer's conference this week, and several times I mentioned to fellow writers, whom I had never met, that I retired from my day job. And they exploded! Their faces transformed into exuberant happiness and they hugged me. Pounded me on the back. Because in my community of writers, we all know what this news means:MORE TIME FOR WRITING!I've had a job from the day after my sixteenth birthday. There has never been a time in the last 40 years that I haven't been someone's employee. I was a waitress, a guitar instructor, a snack bar worker, then a snack bar manager, a Public Relations office worker, an assistant editor, a health insurance claim rep, a computer instructor, a billing supervisor, a business analyst, a HR (Human Resources) manager, an IT (Information Technology) manager, and finally an IT Project Manager. Some of these jobs have been part-time hours while going to school. But for the last 34 years ... month in, month out, day in, day out -- EXCEPT the two times I had children .and took a couple months off .. I worked the job.And a lot of times I enjoyed it! Sometimes I even loved it! Many days, I hated it. But I still went in, day after day after day to do the job, sometimes with my stomach in knots knowing what conflicts and problems I was going to face once I got in there. It's what you do. I'm proud of my career. As you can tell, I've had a diverse one with many opportunities and chances to succeed. I feel I did all my jobs well (not every day, but overall) but I hit my stride when I went into the profession of leading others. In those assignments, I could help others develop their skills, help them succeed, reward them, encourage them and together, we'd all get good results for the company. I've been told many times from my wonderful people that I was the best manager they ever had. Probably because I cared so much about them, and put them and their needs as a higher priority than the deadline.I have always been very proud of my ability to be trusted with important work, to drive results ... and to make a good income! Let's face it, even if we love our jobs, we do it for the money, don't we? And my hard work over the years (combined with my husband's) has provided my family with a beautiful house to grow up in, a wonderful neighborhood to play in, opportunities to try all kinds of activities to see what my kids excelled in, annual vacations so we could see the world, and debt-free college educations so that my sons could prepare themselves for their own adult, self-sufficient lives.For the last eighteen years, I've also had my second career ... published author. Was it ever easy juggling a high-demand day job with a time-consuming hobby? No! Never! But I kept at it because I loved it. Writing was always my passion. My thing that I did for myself, that didn't involve my kids, my job, or my position at my company. I did it because I had a talent for writing and storytelling and it was mine and mine alone. Although I had five books published by small presses in the beginning of my writing career, it was when I became an independent author, in charge of every aspect of the publishing process, that things really took off for me. That, and focusing my brand on the type of stories I should be writing ... inspirational romance. Love stories with a Christian theme that take place at the beach, featuring less than perfect people who make mistakes but learn that God cares about them and will help if they just call on Him.If you had asked me when I was eight years old what I wanted to do when I grew up, Iwould've said, "Live at the beach and write novels." And now ... that's exactly what I'm going to do. Two years ago my husband and I found and bought our dream house, a cute little home in coastal South Carolina. Three weeks ago, I retired from the big demanding dayjob, and he's looking at retiring sometime in the next 12 months. And I've got tons of stories in my mind to write.It's amazing how easily I've adjusted to my new retired life. I don't think much about the work of my big important company anymore, the problems and priorities and deadlines that used to fill my mind. The IT business is notorious for sleepless nights during system implementations, and I missed 52 nights sleep over the last two years for work. I don't miss that at all! Technical decisions, test environments, coding glitches, deadlines, legislative requirements, resource conflicts. I just don't care about any of that anymore. As long as the people left in the company do care about it, is all that matters!I'm living my dream. I'm living my very best life. I'm soaking in the beauty and inspiration of the beach (always my favorite place in the world to be) while writing inspiring, life-changing fiction. Stories that make you laugh and make you cry and provide a message long after the story is done. I'm so happy to be here. And I thank you all for being along for the ride!!

What's so special about April 1 anyway?

April 1, 2018. Easily one of the most monumental days of my life. Why? Well ... let's see ...It's Easter Sunday. For Christians, Easter is sort of like our Super Bowl. It's the biggest, most exciting, most important day of the year. It's the day Jesus is resurrected. He beats death on the cross and comes back, bringing new life for all of us. It's the Release Date of Restoration.The second book in my Murrells Inlet Miracles series. My eighteenth book in all. The book that will push me past the 1,000,000 word published mark.It's my retirement date. For close to 34 years I've had a day job, and it's been a doozy. The entire time I've been writing, I've been in leadership positions in a big Fortune 50 company. I've lived, breathed and sweated out my day job. It's one of those career-level jobs that is so demanding, so prestigious, so rewarding, so challenging, so dang hard. It formed me into theconfident businesswoman that I've been for a long, long time. It provided me with a generous income with which to raise my family. It allowed me the chance to grow and learn and stretch my capabilities. And on April 1, I'll be putting a wrap on it. I'll be done. Finished. Complete. It's so hard for me to believe, actually, because it's been a huge part of me for so long. But I feel great about how my career is ending on a high note, and I feel awesome that I can retire at an age young enough that I can now spend my fresh, wakeful hours on the thing that I'm most passionate about ... my writing.It's the second anniversary of closing on our beach house. Two years ago, my husband and I bought our Happy Place, a beautiful little house in Murrells Inlet, SC, not too far fromPawleys Island and the fictional Waccamaw Trails property from my books. I love it there, and get there as often as I can. Now, I can be there as often as I want! If you had asked me when I was eight years old what I wanted to do when I grew up, I would've said, "I want to live at the beach and write novels." And now, I will be making that long-term dream come true.It's the assigned birthday of my new grandpuppy, Buster. My son and his girlfriend adopted an adorable little puppy from a rescue shelter. He's half beagle and half Rottweiler. He's got a sweet disposition and he knows he hit the jackpot of homes. When they took him for his first veterinary appointment, the vet determined he was between 8 and 10 months old. So he said, "Let's put April 1 as his birthday." Considering how meaningful that date is in our family, I'd say it was a great choice!It's April Fool's Day. That one makes me a little nervous! I'm just hoping my grand employer doesn't tap me on the shoulder on April 1 and say, "Surprise! It was all a big joke! You don't really get to retire after all!"

A Look at 2017 -- in retrospect

2017 is almost behind us! A friend of mine wrote a blog post of the highlights of each month of her year, and I enjoyed it so much that I thought I'd do the same thing! It's been a busy year! A fun year! And in some cases, a heartbreaking year. So, here we go:JANUARYI started out the year with an Amazon #1 Bestseller! Always an excellent adventure, every single time, but what a great way to start out 2017.FEBRUARYI've done some fun, entertaining Girls Nights Out with friends. I saw some great country concerts with my friend Pam -- Jason Aldean, Garth Brooks. I saw some great plays with a variety of friends. But this event I did in February with my friend Beth was a lot of fun -- a live stage production of The Price Is Right, hosted by none other than Jerry Springer! What a night. We even had these matching shirts custom-made.MARCHMarch introduced my adorable little grandpuppy into our lives ... IZZY! My son wanted to become a dog owner, and picked out a beautiful yellow lab puppy. This was the day we got her and I made the traumatic mistake of giving her a BATH. She's avoided the stairs that lead to the basement (and washtub) ever since. At this writing, she has grown from 8 pounds to 72, is energetic, crazy and fun. She's added a ton of excitement to our lives. Although I think we're all looking forward to a day when she's calmer and easier to manage.APRILWe've been making a lot of trips to our new beach house in Murrells Inlet, SC and this year we've especially enjoyed welcoming our friends and family for visits too. In April I welcomed Marta and Harriett, two special women I've been friends with for over 30 years. We all started our careers at a big corporation on or around the same day and wherever our careers have taken us, we've stayed in touch. I was thrilled when we planned a vacation in my neck of the woods. We had a ball.MAYMay was a huge month. Our youngest son, Jeff graduated from college. This was a milestone, not only for him, but for us as parents. We'd been raising our sons for 25 years, and this event marked THE END to the formal education of our two boys. We're fortunate that both our sons are now working in their chosen fields and independent. A parent'sdream!!JUNEAnother monumental month. Jeff's career begins in Dallas, TX, 800 miles away from home. So, his dad and I rent this cargo van, and the boys load it up with all the stuff he'llneed for his one-bedroom apartment, and off we go. We got him settled in and he's doing great in his new life. So happy for him. He's working hard, enjoying his new city and experiencing life. June also saw the publication of the launch of my new series, Murrells Inlet Miracles. Book 1 is Sanctuary. As it turned out, this was the ONLY book I published in 2017, a problem I intend to remedy in 2018!Later in June we celebrated another big event: my parents' 60th wedding anniversary! My parents have been my beacon and guide for a happy, successful marriage my entire life, and I was so happy that twelve of our family members all met out in Murrells Inlet to celebrate for a week of sun and sand. Here we are at their anniversary dinner. Couldn't have been more beautiful.JULYAmidst the happiness 2017 brought was one devastating event, the loss of our beautiful, happy, sweet, lovable dog Grace. She was a one-of-a-kind dog, a member of the family, someone we shared our lives with, who shared her love with us. She was 15 1/2 this past summer, and although she had been deteriorating for two years due to a variety of health issues, one Friday night, she started to shut down. She could no longer get up on her own, she wouldn't eat, she needed help with the most basic of functions. We made the decisionto help her end it, and the vet came out to our house so we wouldn't have to stress her out by a last trip to the vet. My husband and I provided hospice care for her that final weekend until her passing Tuesday at noon, never leaving her side. I know she appreciated our tender loving care. I snapped this beautiful shot of two souls who loved each other deeply clear through to the last moments of her life. AUGUSTAugust found us back at the beach house enjoying the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of our Happy Place. This time, we hosted two of our very good friends from Pennsylvania, John and Kristine.SEPTEMBERSeptember was the month of a huge, fun and exciting alumni reunion of my college alma mater, Blackburn College. Blackburn was a wonderful experience for me as a college student, and I'vealways enjoyed taking part in Homecoming and other reunions. But this one was the mother of all reunions, called Pigger 2017. It featured a dance, a pig roast, an open keg and over 300 alumni, all over a beautiful central Illinois weekend. OCTOBERSo much happened in October, I have 3 photos. The first is the view from my office building at 4 AM on a Sunday morning. It represents theculmination of two years of work to build and implement a world class computer system. In my day job I manage IT projects and this one was a doozy. Big, complex, intricate. I had a Dream Team of smart people and the project was prioritized as one of the most important efforts in our entire enterprise. It was an awesome experience and it went extremely well. (Hallelujah)I participated in a few booksigning events in October atlibraries across the area. Those are always fun and a great chance to connect with other authors and with readers who either know my work, or are just being introduced.I also took a trip out to visit Jeff in Dallas. It was somuch fun to experience his new city, his favorite restaurants, and also he and his girlfriend Becca took me to the Texas State Fair!NOVEMBERIn November I went through the exercise of reformatting allmy ebooks, as well as adding consistent back matter to all of them. It must've been a good thing to do, because I was rewarded with ANOTHER #1 Amazon bestseller on my boxset. So yes, I started and ended my year with a best seller.DECEMBERI was excited to get to see HAMILTON on stage in Chicago in December with my buddy Tina. A year ago we tried to get tickets, and they were $365 a seat -- waaaay out of our price range. But this year, they were about half that, so we bit thebullet and bought them. Look at the view that $165 buys you! What a year! And so many more highlights that I had to leave off. And 2018 is going to be even better! Happy New Year everyone!!Laurie

Goals -- how'd I do on the old ones, and what are my new ones?

Goals help me make sure that I'm staying on track throughout the year. It's sort of like a roadtrip from Illinois to South Carolina. It's a lot of miles, and takes a lot of time, but with milestones, I know I'm going to get there without time-wasting detours. If I didn't set writing goals, I may not accomplish what I want to in a year's time.Okay, so here are the goals I set for 2017, along with my assessment of my progress:Rebrand and update website: Done! and very pleased with the result. I love the beachy feel of my new website, and along with the new branding, I also changed technologies to something MUCH more user friendly and flexible. On the topic of rebranding, I feel like over the last few years I've really cemented my "brand" as a Christian fiction author who writes inspirational and heartwarming tales about families facing everyday challenges , drawing on God's help. They're set at the beach. As a result, this year I unpublished all my books that came before this strong brand took shape. There are probably some places you can find my earlier works, but I'm not actively selling or promoting them.Modernize my newsletter and grow subscribers. Done with this one as well! In fact, I spent a lot of focus and energy on this goal, and I'm happy to say that my list of regular subscribers grew from 500 to over 6000! I'm settling into a monthly newsletter schedule where I try to present entertaining content that is quick to read, but provides insight into my writing, my books and my life. It still sort of hurts every time I get an "Unsubscribe" but truly, that's what I want. If people aren't enjoying the content, I want them to leave and make room for more true fans. In fact, if you want to join my newsletter, or you want someone you know to join, just sign up here!Narrate my own audiobook. I did make solid progress on this goal, but only in the "preliminary preparation stages." Lesson Learned: it's hard to narrate an audiobook! But I'm still very interested in learning this skill. This year, I bought all the hardware and software to set up my recording studio in my walk-in closet. Recognizing that I needed a mentor or professional to help me learn, I reached out, and on the second try, found a professional "sound guy" who will be my Padwan through the art and science of narrating. I have a whole list of things I need to work on. Voice tone, accents, emotion, pace. And refining my studio itself so it doesn't echo. So, although I dedicated quite a bit of time to this goal this year, it's nowhere near complete. I will carry it forward to next year.So ... looking ahead to 2018: what goals do I want to focus on?Write Books 2 and 3 of Murrells Inlet Miracles. Unfortunately, due to dayjob responsibilities and the non-writing goals I outlined above, I was not as prolific this year as I have been the last few years. I only released ONE book: Sanctuary. I have big plans for my Murrells Inlet series, including at least 4 books so I need to get moving. Write a novella for an exciting new multi-author anthology project. It's sort of secret right now, but I've agreed to join some dear author friends in an anthology that I'm really excited about! All the stories center around an object that possesses special powers. Each story takes place during a different part of history -- and my novella will really push me out of my comfort zone -- it takes place during World War II!! I'm so excited about writing this book, and participating in such an exciting group project! Stay tuned.Narrate my own audiobook (Part Deux). Make some time this year to continue learning the art of storytelling and improve my narration skills AND learn enough of the technical side of narrating that my files that I send to my producer meet the technical requirements set out.