Sharla Lovelace's Blog, page 14

Dear Reader…

 

Dear Reader,

Remember the movie “Hope Floats” with Sandra Bullock?  That was me.  Well, except for the cheating husband outing himself on a talk show.  But coming home, a single mom, starting over in a small town that remembers the high school version of you—that was me. 

And somehow, it’s the stories that draw on those things—starting over, dealing with a past, reinventing yourself—those are the ones that suck me in like no other.  I’m a sucker for a story about returning home to face your past, and even more so if there’s an old love still knocking around, waiting to reignite sparks.  There’s just something so hot about sexual tension between two people with a history. 

THE REASON IS YOU started with just the image of a single mom with a teenage daughter.  I’m a character-driven writer, finding my peeps before I find the story, and all I knew so far was that my main character’s name was Dani Shane, and she was driving down a highway in the hot summer weather in a car with no air conditioning, and her daughter was painting her toenails and hanging her feet out the window.  Dani was stressed and tired and headed back to her hometown to start over.  Someplace she didn’t want to go.  That’s all I knew at the time. 

At that same time, I was heavy into reruns of “Moonlight”, with a fangirl infatuation with the hottest vampire ever, Mick St. John.  I loved the sexy all-black-wearing, soft spoken, supposed-to-be-bad-but-not vampire that was so in love with the female lead.  I love a love story that’s forbidden or impossible or tortured in some way.  Then Moonlight was over.  And I wanted more.  And suddenly my strong and stubborn character, Dani, needed a forbidden love like that.  Maybe someone she could never really be with.  Maybe someone that was going to make her return home both exciting and migraine-worthy.  While I love vampire shows, I don’t write about them, so it couldn’t be a vampire.  But a ghost….ooooh, someone she couldn’t even touch.  Like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir meets Hope Floats!

Maybe she could see ghosts and hid that her whole life…maybe that’s why she left…maybe this guy was her only friend because the townspeople shunned her.  Maybe he would be the example she’s held every man up to ever since, because he’s all she’s ever wanted.  Maybe I could still have Mick if I wrote about him as a ghost!!!!  LOL!  And Alex Stone was created.

At that point, it grew and morphed and so many things changed and expanded into a story that constantly astounded me, as they all do because I don’t plot.  I take what you just read above, and feed that into a seed of a beginning and start typing.  I love it. 

I hope you have fun reading about Dani and Alex and the rest of the (sometimes) crazy people in the town of Bethany, Texas.  For an excerpt, click here.  To talk about how stories come to life, meet me over at Twitter all day today at hashtag #dearreader

Tagged: #dearreader, dear reader letter, how books are made, moonlight, romance, sharla lovelace, the reason is you, womens fiction

Friday Linky Love ~~ with Author, Jody Hedlund

Today’s link-up is with a phenomenal author who also spends a gi-normous amount of time helping other authors.  If you aren’t already following her blog, following her on Twitter, and liking her on Facebook, go do all of those things now.  She’s a one-woman plethora of information.  And I just used plethora in a sentence…so I’m feeling kinda proud. 

Oh, who am I talking about?  Sorry… I’m talking about Jody Hedlund.  Otherwise known as Superwoman.

Her latest book THE DOCTOR’S LADY is out now…

So show Jody some love and follow her, like her, subscribe to her, and buy her book!    Notice I didn’t mention Pinterest.  (eyeroll)  Yes, she’s there too, so look for her there too.  She has an amazing board there.  I just can’t jump on the Pinterest train yet.  So I’m in denial.  But YOU go.  Go now. 

 

Tagged: christian fiction, Friday linky love, jody hedlund, platform, romance, sharla lovelace, the doctors lady, the reason is you, womens fiction

Unconditional Love…

I’m over at Women Unplugged today with a post about our furry family members, and honoring the passing of a very special one…my best friend’s dog, Roxie.  Come share your pet stories!

 

 

Tagged: dogs, family, friends, roxie, ruby, sharla lovelace, the reason is you, women unplugged

It takes a village…or just some really cool people…

WANT TO HELP ME?

It takes a village! LOL!

 

 

No, I don’t need you to raise my kids. Just maybe raise a little awareness of a certain book…

 

You can help a debut author breathe a little easier and spread the word! The best way for an unknown book to become known is by word of mouth. So share the news with your friends, family, that chatty chick at work… Facebook it, Tweet it, blog it, put a review on Amazon or Barnes and Noble… and know you have my undying gratitude. I’ll even send you chocolate. And if you want me to do a video chat on your blog telling your followers I’ll give you chocolate, to nail that down… I’m on it!

 

~~~~~~JOIN ME!~~~~~~

 

On that note, I’m starting something new. I’m on a mission to try to make THE REASON IS YOU hit the bestseller list. My agent and editor tell me that people just need to find out about my books, that’s the biggest obstacle with a new author.

 

So I’m putting out a call for helpers.

 

A “street team” of sorts. I know some other authors who have established this, and it’s amazing. People around the country that would be interested in helping put REASON in front of new readers. I’m getting some chapter booklets made up that will have teasers from both books, and anyone who would like to join my team can get a stack of these and bookmarks and postcards with purchase links–to throw in your bag and hand out to your coworkers, your book club members, your bunko group, your church social, people at the gym, people at your daycare, even your local bookstores and libraries! Wherever there are readers. I can’t be everywhere, but I’d like my book to be. LOL!

 

You can also Facebook and Tweet about it, whatever you are comfortable with, and give me feedback on what’s stirring interest. In return, you’ll get the secret handshake and decoder ring to know things before anyone else… . Seriously, once this team is formed, I will give you a heads up on releases before they are made public, and will draw one name to win a signed finished book of BEFORE AND EVER SINCE. And my busy little productive team members will be mentioned in the acknowledgments. OH, and did I mention? Y’all can come up with a name. I’ll set up a yahoo loop just for you and so you can all communicate, and come up with the name for our promo team. What do you think?

 

So far I have two really cool people signed up. Who’s next?

 

 

 

Tagged: author business, before and ever since, promo, romance, sharla lovelace, sharla scroggs, street team, the reason is you, womens fiction

Friday Linky Love

Today’s quick link is for my friend and fellow BookEnds author, Melissa Cutler!  Her first book, THE TROUBLE WITH COWBOYS, comes out in November!!  Go check it out!

Hot, right? 

And she and I are both in the Brenda Novak Diabetes Auction this month, helping to raise money for the cure.  Melissa is giving away an advanced reading copy of THE TROUBLE WITH COWBOYS, and I am giving away a goodie basket including a signed copy of THE REASON IS YOU and a $25 Amazon gift card.  You can click on those links to be brought to our auction pages!

Everyone have a fabulous Friday and an awesome weekend!

 

 

Tagged: brenda novak diabetes auction, Friday linky love, melissa cutler, romance, sharla lovelace, the reason is you, the trouble with cowboys, womens fiction

Meeting with The Book Club Babes… :-)

First ever author event was Monday night, and I was nervous.

I even knew most of the ladies attending, but still, I’d never had to be in the spotlight with them, and I was….NERVOUS.  It’s just my hometown, after all.  This town has known me my whole life–I’m nobody special.  Why on earth would they want to come see me. 

But the Book Club Babes of Port Neches were so gracious and wonderful and such a hoot!!!

What a wonderful experience, and what a creative host!  There was banana pudding and sopapilla cheesecake, straight from the book.

I got to sign books and even sign some of their shirts, adding my book to the list of books on the backs of their shirts…in black sharpie.  It was hysterical.  There were questions after questions after questions…and I found it fascinating how many different perspectives there were.  I personally love forming my own images and ideas when I’m reading a story, and hearing all that about mine—that was really cool. 

Here’s the lovely host, Rachael Dubois, and I, posing pretty. 

My applause to the Book Club Babes for hosting a fantastic party and giving this author my first taste of “Authorly Events”. LOL!

On another note, tomorrow is the second installment of my monthly newsletter, and if you aren’t already on the mailing list, please go sign up here!

Tagged: author events, book club babes, book club discussion, book signing, sharla lovelace, sharla scroggs, the reason is you, womens fiction

A church, a donkey, and a little girl…

That picture doesn’t do justice to the spectacle that was real life.

I drove the three hours there-three hours back trip to pick up my daughter yesterday.  We do this every couple of months when she goes to her dad’s.  But today, I decided to take a different route home.  Something to kick up the scenery a little bit.  I told her when we made the exit, and yet she stayed focused on her phone and texting her friend.  I told her to get out of her phone and experience the adventure with me, to which I got a raised eyebrow and a good amount of groaning before she just laughed at me and went with it.  Told her friend that “mom wants quality time” and decided to humor me. 

The little road took us off the highway, into a rural area that felt held back in time a little.  The first thing we passed  was an old antiques store that had a covered wagon out front, that we marveled over the small size.  The second was that church.  I wish the pictures were as amazing as it looked in person, because we were both infatuated with it.  I was like, “Wait, we have to turn around and get pictures of that!”  And then it was funny because there were old men in cowboy hats staring at us like we were terrorists casing the place.  But I couldn’t help myself.  It was too perfect, and I needed to remember it, because we both decided it’s going in my next book somehow.

 

Then we passed a pasture of cows, which due to an old joke from my daughter’s childhood renders it necessary for anyone around to say “Neigh.”  But then just as we passed, I spotted a furry brown donkey, and she didn’t believe me.  Once again, I had to turn around to prove to her there was indeed a donkey there, and both of us laughing hysterically, we pulled alongside the fence and rolled down the window.  She waved at him and talked sweetly as he stopped eating and turned to look directly at us…probably in shock that someone would be talking to him from the street.

I wish I had a picture of that…it was priceless.

There were twists and turns, pastures and ranches and ponds and little dirt roads sprouting off everywhere.  As we were trying to think of a name for the donkey, we passed a sign for “Maynard”.

There will be a donkey named Maynard in my next book, mark my words. 

Toward the end of the trip, we passed a church group at an intersection, asking for money for the kids’ church camp.  We passed once, and my daughter caught the eye of a little girl in a pink shirt.  “We have to go back, Mom,” she said.  After I groaned and told her we couldn’t, she said, “We have to.  We turned back for a church and a donkey.  We have to go back and give that little girl some money.”

Oh, they know how to work that guilt thing, don’t they?  So we did.  We turned back.  Passed the same group on the OTHER side, turned around AGAIN, so that we’d be lined up with the little girl in pink again.

And now we have a story.  Of an old church, a donkey named Maynard, and a little girl in pink.    And I wouldn’t trade today’s miles for anything.

Have you ever had a memorable trip that was unplanned?

 

Tagged: church, donkey, family, road trip, romance, sharla lovelace, the reason is you, womens fiction

A much needed few days away…and linky love

Hello my peeps!

I know you didn’t hear from me this week…after the blog tour ended last Friday, I decided to take a few days off from blogging and focus on some other things.  The tour was wonderful!  But it did take its toll on my brain and my eyeballs, and I needed some non-blogging activity. LOL!

In that same vein of thought, I’ve decided to set a more reasonable schedule and NOT feel like I need to be here posting every day, since that is counterproductive to that whole “writing books” thing.  Therefore, unless something happens to beat me away from the computer, I will be here blogging random posts about writing, life, family, books…yanno, all that stuff…on Mondays and Wednesdays.  On Fridays, I will link to someone wonderful…someone different each week…and send you off to visit with them.

How’s that?  Sound good?

Cool.

So–this being Friday (ta-da!!! I actually know what day this is!), I’m going to kick off the Friday Linky Love.

My friend, Kathryn Magendie, who you may remember was here giving away a copy of her latest book FAMILY GRACES on March 29th, (and if you don’t remember, here is the post) is now celebrating the release of said book!!  Go see her at her website and below is  a purchase link for FAMILY GRACES, the third book in the Graces Trilogy!

BUY AT AMAZON!!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a wonderful day, and I’ll see y’all on Monday!!

 

 

Tagged: blog schedule, blog tour, family graces, Friday linky love, kathryn magendie, romance novel, sharla lovelace, the reason is you, womens fiction

Shout it out!! :-)

Whew!!

It was a whirlwind few weeks there during the blog tour, and I met some fantastic people and new readers.  Now it’s time to focus on getting the word out about THE REASON IS YOU so that my editor will be happy and want to sign me up for more books!  LOL!   It’s also time to crack down on writing again, because with BEFORE AND EVER SINCE only seven months away from release, promo is about to start on it as well.

Crazy, huh? 

So please help me out if you can…spread the word…check your bookstores for REASON and if it’s not there (probably shelved in Fiction), then ask them to get it.  Ask at your library, too!  You know, they say that the best way you can show an author you love them is to shoot out a review on purchase sites….and that is so true!!  I always check reviews when I buy ANYTHING.  It’s the first thing I look for, and what I count as the real measure of an item’s worth.  So if you read it, and want to take a minute to document a sentence or two toward it, I’m forever grateful!! 

And all you book club members out there!  I’m available in person locally and on Skype everywhere, and I’d love to meet up with you at your meetings!   Let me know your club is reading it, and I might just send you a little somethin-somethin…

And I want to say to all the people that have read the book in the last few weeks since its release, and have sent me so many wonderful notes and emails and Facebook and Twitter messages telling me that you loved it—I love you all!!!  You make my day every single solitary time.  Want to hug every one of you.

I’m including some links below.  And now I think I’m done with the shameless pimping.  HAAAAAAAA!!!!!  Y’all have a great day!!!

Amazon paperback      /      Amazon for your Kindle      /      B&N paperback      /      B&N for your Nook

Tagged: amazon, barnes and noble, book launch, promo, purchase links, romance, sharla lovelace, shout out, the reason is you, womens fiction

It’s the Last Day… (cue music)

It’s the last day of the Blog Tour, and the last chance to enter to win an Amazon or B&N gift card and some goodies.  And for a last laugh and some fun and a fabulous way to go out, I’m at Long And Short Reviews today, fessing up to 10 things you’d never guess about me.

Are you curious?

Like maybe did I run naked through a park?

Or jump out of a plane?

Or climb into a rabbit hole?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>You’ll have to come see!  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Tagged: 10 things, blog tour, giveaways, long and short reviews, random, romance, sharla lovelace, the reason is you, womens fiction