Sharla Lovelace's Blog, page 10

Hot Tool Guy of the Day #1

BEFORE AND EVER SINCE has a hot tool man…Ben.  In his honor, we kick off “Hot Tool Guy of the Day”

For your first treat…

You’d be okay with this guy working around your house, right?  I think I’d suffer through it.

Tagged: before and ever since, ben, book launch, hot tool guys, romance, sharla lovelace

A Week of Life Lessons via BEFORE AND EVER SINCE…

Thus starts the pre-launch week of craziness!   

And eight very important life lessons via Emily Lockwood of BEFORE AND EVER SINCE…  Below are all eight lessons you’ll learn over the next week and a half, one per day, and each one will come with its own very pertinent exclusive excerpt from the book. 

Sit back and enjoy!   And later today, you’ll get the daily “Hot Tool Guy of the Day”, courtesy of Ben from BEFORE AND EVER SINCE.  Those will be worth the wait.

…just because. 

EMILY LOCKWOOD’S LIFE LESSONS…

#1           Never assume it’s safe to drop by Mom’s house looking like Swamp Girl.

#2           The most likely time to be found is when you’re trying to hide.

#3           Never say you’re never going to do something, like going out for girls night in a powder blue Winnebago.  It guarantees you will.

#4           Assuming your ex has gotten smarter in your absence is a fail.

#5           Don’t bring up the past unless you’re ready to be backed into a corner.

#6           Paint can be hot.  

#7           There’s no such thing as an innocent kiss when it’s with a not-so-innocent man.

#8           Mothers know everything, no matter how old you get.

 

Come back tomorrow to start lesson #1….  It’s worth your time!

Tagged: before and ever since, emily lockwood life lessons, hot tool guys, launch, romance, sharla lovelace

It’s A Party!!

Have you heard?  There’s gonna be a party!!   You are cordially invited to a Virtual Launch Party for BEFORE AND EVER SINCE!

On November 6th, from 10am to 5pm CST, join me on Facebook to celebrate the release of my second full length novel, BEFORE AND EVER SINCE .   This is the story of Emily.  She has a big secret she’s held close to her for two decades.  But between the love of her life coming back to town, and her mother’s house having an agenda, that secret is about to see the light of day. 


At the party, I’ll be handing out party favors every hour, such as free books from authors Melissa Cutler, Erin Kellison, and Stacey Kennedy (so far!), bath goodies, e-gift cards, book swag, and some small tools every woman should have if they don’t have a tool guy like Ben.    

When: Tuesday, November 6th

Where: On the party’s Facebook event page

Time: 10:00am – 5:00pm CST

RSVP: On the party’s Facebook event page with the “join” button in the upper right corner.

What will we do at the party?  We chat about the book and get to know the other partiers, share links to spread the word all over Facebook that Before And Ever Since is available, and hand out party favors.  Whoo hoo!

Do I have to stay at the event all day?  Definitely not!  Just make sure you RSVP that you’re attending and try to pop into the party a couple of times throughout your busy day or after work.

How do I enter the drawing for party favors?  If you’re on the “Going” list, you’re automatically entered into the randomizer to receive party favors, which I’m handing out every hour. If you’re not on the actual party page and are chosen to receive a party favor, I’ll tag and message you to make sure you find out about it.

Can I invite my friends?  Yes, please! Feel free to share the link to the party event page with everyone you know. It’s an open event and anyone can add their name to the RSVP list by going to the event page and clicking “join” in the upper right corner.

See you there!

Tagged: before and ever since, erin kellison, facebook party, giveaways, launch party, melissa cutler, party favors, sharla lovelace, stacey kennedy

Hold on, it’s gonna be a crazy week!! :)

This next week is going to be a whirlwind…   I remember this from the past Spring, when THE REASON IS YOU was about to launch.  The week before is a blur of blog posts and tours and giveaways and never-ending anxiety.  LOL.  Well, that’s about to start again.

When JUST ONE DAY released recently, (my e-novella) I didn’t have time for anxiety…. It was so fast and spur of the moment, I didn’t get a chance to obsess over its entry into the world.  Hmmm, that may be the way to go. 

Now… BEFORE AND EVER SINCE is about to step out there.

Just 11 days away.  *nail chewing and pacing commences*   And with that, I wanted to let my wonderful readers know what fun is coming this next week.  Here goes…

- I’m starting a virtual blog tour on Monday, and I’ll post that starting link here on Monday.  This tour will be at different sites and will post on M-W-F through Nov 22nd.  Great giveaways on this tour, including free books from myself and other authors, swag, totebags, and gift cards!  All the tour stops are also listed on my event page.

- Also kicking off on Monday are the 8 Life Lessons Learned via Emily Lockwood of BEFORE AND EVER SINCE.    These are fun little daily lessons that come with exclusive excerpts from the book that you’ll only get here on this blog!  These have their own perk, as one commenter from all eight posts will be chosen to have a significant character named after them in my next novella, which will be done in Spring 2013.

- Like your men handy?    All this week, in honor of the hot tool guy, Ben, in BEFORE AND EVER SINCE, there will a “Hot Tool Man of the Day” posted here and on Facebook and Pinterest.  Just because.    Be sure to follow my Facebook Author Page and Pinterest page!

- ON RELEASE DAY!  Now, this isn’t technically this week, but I want to give you a heads up…  I’m having a Facebook party from 10am to 5pm CST on Nov 6th.  This is piled with goodies and giveaways that all you have to do to win is register!  Click here for all the details!    After that…whew….is a Twitter Launch Party from 6pm to 7pm CST–an action packed hour of giveaways!  Click here to go register for that!!  I’ll post more on these during the week, but go ahead and register…it’s free!

*sitting down to rest*

I think that about covers things for now.  I can’t wait for everything to rev up on Monday, so I hope to see you back here!

Tagged: before and ever since, blog tour, events, facebook party, giveaways, hot tool guys, just one day, launch, novella, romance, sharla lovelace, the reason is you, twitter party, womens fiction

Countdown: Two Weeks!

That’s right.  Just two weeks from today, on Nov 6th, BEFORE AND EVER SINCE will be officially out in the world. 

It will be floating around cyberspace in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, The Book Depository, and any other online book sites, and nestled in all its paper glory on the shelves next to THE REASON IS YOU.  And if I’m really lucky, it will be placed on the New Releases table as well.

If you’ve preordered it, it will come singing (I believe it, so it’s so) to your house that day, or download right into your Nook or Kindle, waiting for you to open it.

And there are some events to come starting next Monday, launching the book buzz into the world.  There will be a virtual blog tour with giveaways (stops on my event page), Excerpt teasers with life lessons from the main character (fun!), and a Facebook party all day that day with a Twitter party that evening.  Craziness!  Fun!  Freebies!  What could be better?

Cookies!!  I’m even making cookies.  Or my daughter will.  So that I have something to graze on during all these parties. 

If you haven’t preordered BEFORE AND EVER SINCE yet, and plan to buy it, please consider preordering!  (You can use any of those ebook links above and click on ‘paperback’ if that’s your preference)  It makes my first week’s sales look good, which makes my editor happy. LOL.

Thanks to you all and have a fabulous Tuesday!

 

Tagged: before and ever since, launch events, new release, romance, sharla lovelace, small towns, the reason is you, womens fiction

JUST ONE DAY on Kindle!!

It’s everywhere, now!

My e-novella, JUST ONE DAY, is finally available anywhere you download ebooks.  It hit #4 on the Barnes & Noble Nook Books list, let’s see if we can give it some Amazon love as well.     Please spread the word about this powerful little story that packs a punch for just $2.99.

Twenty four hours to say yes….but to whom?

She has nothing but time . . .

Twenty-four hours. That’s how long Andie Fremont has to say yes—or no. At forty-four with a daughter in college, she’s no young kitten with starry-eyed ideas of what love is. Still, when the man who is everything she should want pops the question with a ring he knows isn’t her

style, during a party she didn’t want to have, Andie balks. Something tells her that it isn’t right.

Looking to clear her head, Andie hits the Texas highway in search of an answer. And when she stumbles upon an old roadside diner she decides waffles might be it, at least for now. What she didn’t expect to find was Jesse Montgomery. The man who stole her heart and broke it all in one

day, two decades earlier.

As a Texas-size storm takes shape outside, the electricity between Andie and Jesse builds inside. Suddenly Andie is faced with more than just yes or no. As the storm clears there are two men who will want answers.

Available now for your Kindle!

 

Tagged: before and ever since, just one day, novella, romance, sharla lovelace, texas

If you could only…

Short and sweet, but something to get you thinking today….

If you could choose one day in your life to go back and revisit…what would it be?

Any day…at any point in your life…  And push yourself.  We all have the easy picks.  Children’s births, obviously.  Try to think outside the box.

And would you change anything, or just want to watch again?

Share!

 

 

Tagged: before and ever since, just one day, random question, romance, sharla lovelace, the reason is you, what would you do, womens fiction

Off the Beaten Path with Pamela Morsi!

Here we are again at Off The Beaten Path!  A once-a-month opportunity to get to know a very special romance or women’s fiction author, in a fun and hopefully interactive way.   We all like to get to know our favorite authors a little better, and I want to make that fun for everyone.

This month, I’m so excited to have the fabulous Pamela Morsi here!!

Pam and I were separated at birth—I’ve decided this.  We both love to write about small towns, we have a similar writing style in my opinion (or maybe wishful thinking), and we both have the most unappealing brutal writing process EVER.

And I was so fortunate and excited to meet Pam in person in California this past July, at the RWA Writers Conference.  She and I both belong to the RWA-Women’s Fiction chapter, and had conversed many times online, but there’s nothing like one-on-one to really get a sense of someone. 

And we had a lot of one-on-ones on the patio. LOL.

Pam’s voice in her emails and in her books is exactly the person she is.  Now that I’ve met her, I hear her voice as I read her books.  Such fun and snarky wit—I’m telling you, she’s supposed to be related to me!

So—instead of me waxing on about that, I’ll let you get to know her too.

*  *  *  *  *

What top three words would you use to describe yourself?  

Sweet, mushy, sentimental . . .and most people would use “too” as a modifier for all three of those.  But I can also be snarky, self-centered and sarcastic if the occasion calls for it. 

I love your snarky-ness, Pam!  It’s what makes anything you write so much fun!    Okay….I’m a scent person.   Do you have a favorite scent of candle or lotion or perfume?   

Pizza?

Oh, I totally should have gone there.  I would say bathe me in popcorn…  So, next.   What is an odd or quirky trait about you that we would never guess? 

I am an incredible doodler.  For years I saved all my notes from school and college, just for the artwork.  Now I do it in business meetings and writer’s conferences.  If you see me with a pen in my hand, you can be sure I’m not making notes for my next novel.  Somehow it helps me listen to draw weird shapes.  My work is kind of like Kandinsky… if he were stoned on acid and had a broken hand. 

(Seriously?  Me too!!!   I’m slapping my head.  Right now.  Separated at birth, I tell you!!!! )

Okay…If you could go back and tell your younger self one important thing, what would it be? 

I doubt seriously if my younger self would have listened.  And I’m not sure what I would even say.  Things have turned out well for me, so I wouldn’t want to mess with that.   I dated a few idiots that might have been avoided.  But without those idiots, I might not have recognized the value of the wonderful husbands I found.  I might have chosen to give birth to more children, but the ones who’ve shown up in my life are as dear to me as those that share my genetic material.   I could have started writing earlier, but my life experience gave me better things to say.  I guess that good or bad or indifferent, I wouldn’t change a thing.  Though I might tell younger Pam to value her time, it goes by pretty fast.

I know what a wine connoisseur you are.     What are some of your favorite wines?

Writing is hard work!   I never have time for friends!  Why am I not famous!
Oh wait, you said “wines” not “whines”.  Sauvignon Blanc

Tell us about your grandchildren!  And what do they call you?

I have 9 smart, beautiful grandkids that I adore.  All of them are some version of step-grands.  But the goods new is that they are mostly unclear on the concept.  I’m called Grandma Pam or simply Pam. 

If you could pick a dream vacation where money was no object, what would it be? 

I’d like to do the Orient Express from London to Beijing.  Get off for a few days where it looks interesting.  Get back on when I want.  Slowly take it all in, the people, the architecture and the history.  All with the guy I love in the seat beside me.    We often talk about getting away for a summer.  Renting a house in Delft or New England or the Canary Islands.  But we have my special needs daughter, Leila, who thrives on routine and needs to do the same thing every day, go to the same places, hang out with the same people.  So our summer in Provence stays strictly in the realm of fantasy. 

Is there anyone you would be a total crazy fan girl over if you met them in person? 

I have totally fan-girled in person.  Fortunately, I’ve met most of my favorite writers.  And George Harrison is no longer with us. 

What is your favorite curl-up-on-the-couch-and-hibernate comfort food? 

I really do make a fabulous meatloaf.  It tastes as good as my mom’s.  And that is very comforting.  Unfortunately when I think of curling up on the couch, I want someone to bring me food, not to make it myself.  If you will bring it to me, I will be happy with anything. 

What is your favorite all time movie that you could watch over and over?

I’ll watch almost any romantic comedy.  And I love LITTLE WOMEN with Susan Sarandon as Marmee.   I also like FOOLS RUSH IN, because it’s a mixing cultures romance.  And it has one of my favorite lines:  “You’re everything I never knew I always wanted.”  But the one program what I can watch infinitely is the A&E version of PRIDE AND PREJUDUCE.  If I’m sick and stuck on the couch, that’s the DVD playing on the TV. 

Do you have a favorite teacher or mentor from your childhood that shaped you in some way? 

I was so fortunate growing up in a small town full of interesting, caring people who continue to impact and influence me long after they are gone.   The members of my family have a nice tendency to live far into old age.  So I had the story directly of my Grandma Vonnie coming to Oklahoma in a covered wagon and my Grandpa Bob moving around the country with his uncle, a Traveling Penman.  Then there was Old Pap, who left home at age 12 to start his own hack business in Wetumpka.  And Corrine who was orphaned at 14 and continued to run the farm and take care of her siblings.  The elderly storytellers in my life have inspired my love of history and sparked my imagination with possibilities.  Truth is very much stranger than fiction.  Which is why a writer can whisk up one little dust mote of an actual life and construct a huge book from it. 

Oh my God, I love that!!!!  What amazing family stories you have.

Pam, you totally made me laugh today, and I enjoyed having you here SO much.   Now it’s everyone else’s turn to have a go at you!!  LOL!

Pam was kind enough to offer a signed giveaway of her latest book, THE LOVESICK CURE, to one of you lucky lucky commenters!  

 Woot!  I’m reading this now in my 3-minutes-a-day of free time, and loving every bit of it.

So leave your comments, feel free to chat with Pam today, and a winner will be chosen tonight!

Good luck and have fun!!

Tagged: author interviews, fangirl, off the beaten path, pam morsi, romance, sharla lovelace, small towns, the lovesick cure, womens fiction

Let the lunacy commence!

I’ve been very lax of late on my blogging, and I apologize.  Deep, scraping bow kind of apologize.  Everything is about to explode in my world–in a good way–but explosions nonetheless.

But first I want to put a shout out for my Off The Beaten Path blog feature tomorrow!  This month I have RWA-WF chapter’s very own Pam Morsi!  SO excited, and you will love her wit and charm.  She’s giving away a signed copy of her latest book THE LOVESICK CURE to a random commenter, so be sure to come play with us!!

JUST ONE DAY, my first time writing a novella, started with Nook First last week, which runs for 30 days before it goes out to the rest of the big bad world.  In three days, it hit #4 on Barnes & Noble Nook Books Bestseller list, and this week it’s holding steady in the 20′s, so if you didn’t hear me scream, suffice it to say there was noise.  It made me an official National Bestselling Author, which is mega-cool to stick by my name.    And it kicked off more sales for my first and upcoming books, which is even better.

Speaking of upcoming….. BEFORE AND EVER SINCE  is a month away!  You know there’s a hot carpenter guy in it, right?  He can come to your house.  You can preorder him here.  And here.  And probably other places too, but you get the point. 

And….something I’m jumping up and down about today.  You know who Kathryn Stockett is, right?  (ducking as you throw things)   Yeah….we ALL know who she is.  We all want to BE her.  And I get to sign books with her!!!!!!!!  Okay not like–sitting next to her, being her BFF or anything (although I would love to be her bff, and send funny text msgs back and forth) but signing at the same event!

I was chosen for the John Cooper School’s annual Signature Author Series event in The Woodlands, TX (Houston area) as one of about 10 authors to do a book signing event.  Kathryn Stockett is the keynote speaker, and she’s bringing the director of THE HELP movie with her.  There’s a big luncheon, and video presentation of all the authors, and massive publicity.  And….it’s three days after BEFORE AND EVER SINCE comes out….so hello…great timing!

So so so so excited about that.  If you are in the Houston area on November 9th, this is an event to put on your calendar!

Okayyyyyyyy….I think that about covers things for right now.  Oh, and I wrote a 4 page synopsis last night in an hour…which could mean that the world really is ending in a couple of months.  Or just that angels rained down good juu juu on me for once.  

Everyone have a fabulous day, and come back tomorrow to talk to Pam!!

 

 

Tagged: before and ever since, just one day, kathryn stockett, off the beaten path, pam morsi, promo, randomness, romance, sharla lovelace, the reason is you, womens fiction

JUST ONE DAY out this week!!

Excited to officially announce my new e-novella JUST ONE DAY was chosen by Barnes & Noble for their Nook First program!

This means that they will have it exclusively for thirty days, promoting it on their website.  After that time is up, it will be available at all other ebook sites!

The novella is available at Barnes & Noble for download ($2.99) starting today!!!

So all you “Nook’ers” out there….you get first bite!!   And for you and everyone else out there….here is an excerpt…

Woot!!

And then, of course…BEFORE AND EVER SINCE is almost here!  Just 43 days away!  Stay tuned to see where I’ll be signing with it…there are some exciting events coming.

Tagged: before and ever since, excerpts, just one day, nook first, novella, romance, sharla lovelace, texas, womens fiction