Laura McNeill's Blog, page 22
November 22, 2012
LCB Black Friday Blog Hop!
at this BLOG HOP STOP!
While the rest of the US is out handling the crowds, fighting for holiday gifts, or shopping online, you can enjoy our Black Friday HOP in which we have THREE grand prizes (enter simply by commenting & leaving your email).
1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet
2nd Grand Prize: A $75 Amazon or B&N Gift Card
3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!
Here at LAUREN CLARK BOOKS, one commenter will win an awesome swag package, including magnets, book marks, postcards, and more!
My main character, Julia, Sullivan, would spend her Black Friday with new boyfriend and Southern gentleman hunk Shug Jordan. They’d prefer to keep their shopping low-key, and spend the day browsing at Eufaula’s cute boutiques. High on her list would be locally hand-crafted Christmas Ornaments, tasty gift bottles of peach chutney, and lovely baskets of goodies with yummy pecan candies. She’d top her day off by relaxing at PD’s new bakery, enjoying a smooth latte or a delicious hot chocolate.
What’s your favorite holiday shopping tradition?
BEST OF LUCK!
xx, Lauren
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Black Friday Blog Hop!
at this BLOG HOP STOP!
While the rest of the US is out handling the crowds, fighting for their holiday gifts, some of us like to stay in, shop online, or just ignore Black Friday all to together. This year, join us in our second annual Black Friday Blog Hop! It’s a ONE DAY hop where we’re giving away prizes, talking about books we love, and eating left over turkey. 
And while we do that, we are EACH doing a giveaway. Yep. There will be over 200 giveaways on each blog hosted by that Author or Blogger.
But that’s not all….We have THREE grand prizes:
1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet
2nd Grand Prize: A $75 Amazon or B&N Gift Card
3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!
If you’d like to win, go to EACH blog and enter by commenting and leaving with email address. (Yes, you can enter over 200 times!)
BEST OF LUCK!
xx, Lauren
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November 21, 2012
NaNoWriMo Advice HERE!
by Kelly L. Stone
One of the most powerful actions you can take to establish writing as a habit in your life is to carve out time to write every day for at least 30 days, and make a commitment to write every day for that entire 30 days. Even if it’s just 15 minutes a day, if you make the short-term commitment to do this, you will soon have a deep understanding of a very important concept: there is power in daily writing!
Daily writing leads to success, no ifs, ands, or buts. That’s because it forces you to focus like a laser on your work in progress and hone your writing skills whether you feel like writing or not. This in turn influences your subconscious mind to help you start thinking of yourself as a writer (or reinforces that belief) and that in turns affects your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors toward writing. Writing begets writing. Daily writing begets writing success.
Success is predicted by how you think, feel, and behave toward your writing goals. A person who has success-oriented thoughts and who feels confident in her abilities will naturally take daily actions that bring about her desired outcomes. She will feel enthusiastic, motivated, and dedicated to those outcomes because she thinks, feels, and acts her way toward reaching them, and she does the things every day necessary to achieve success.
This is the case with writing. An aspiring author who thinks positive thoughts and believes in herself will touch her craft daily, which will generate the enthusiasm and motivation to set goals. She will then cultivate the dedication required to take steps to reach those goals over a long period of time. She will write every day or take action every day toward her writing dream. She will act in methodical, self-disciplined ways that bring about desire outcomes. She will think, feel, and act in ways that stimulate enthusiasm, motivation, and dedication for achieving success as a writer as she defines it.
You can be that writer. Even if you have gotten off-track with your efforts to become a successful writer, it’s never too late to start again! Through daily writing, you can generate the enthusiasm, motivation, and dedication needed to work toward your long-term writing goals. You can create for yourself what is known in psychology as a positive self-fulfilling prophecy, which is a belief system that sets you up to succeed!
ORDER NOW: Amazon | B&N | Borders
BIO:
Kelly L. Stone (www.AuthorKellyLStone.com) is the author of a women’s fiction novel, GRAVE SECRET (Mundania Press, 2007) which Romantic Times Book Reviews called “powerful” and “well-written.” She is also the author of the TIME TO WRITE series for writers: TIME TO WRITE: No Excuses, No Distractions, No More Blank Pages (Adams Media, 2008), THINKING WRITE: The Secret to Freeing Your Creative Mind (Adams Media, 2009) and LIVING WRITE: The Secret to Bringing Your Craft Into Your Daily Life (Adams Media, 2010). She is a sought after keynote speaker and workshop presenter at writing conferences across the country and offers online classes, critiques, and coaching services to writers.
Contact her at Kelly@AuthorKellyLStone.com
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November 19, 2012
The Next Big Thing!
The lovely and talented Juliette Sobanet, author of Sleeping with Paris and Kissed in Paris, tapped me for this blog post, The Next Big Thing.
Please look for Juliette’s next novel, the much-anticipated Dancing with Paris, coming soon this Spring, 2013!
Thank you so much to Juliette…and here’s more about my new novel……….
Where did the idea come from for your next book, Pie Girls?
I visited The Pie Lab, which is a real restaurant in Greensboro, Alabama. It’s a funky little restaurant that serves up amazing pies of all sorts and does job training for high school dropouts and people who need job training in this very small, rural community. While I can’t use The Pie Lab as a location (see this previous post), I am basing some parts of the novel very loosely on this great concept!
My story will follow Searcy Roberts, a spoiled rotten but beautiful Southern Belle who’s gone off to a big city (like Atlanta or New York) and vows NEVER to come home to her tiny Alabama hometown. She’s forced to return, though, when her romantic relationship falls apart and her husband leaves her for another man. Since she’s burned a lot of bridges, it will be interesting to see how she makes amends.
What genre does your book fall under?
Chick Lit. Humor. Women’s fiction.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Amy Adams would be darling and perfect as Searcy! I am thinking about someone like Ryan Reynolds for her love interest.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
When spoiled rotten Southern Belle Searcy Roberts’ husband leaves her for another man, she’s forced to return to her tiny hometown in Alabama and start life over again … with no job, no money, and no plan.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I have my own publishing company, Camellia Press.
How long did it take you to write your manuscript?
I am still writing it! I spend a lot of time outlining and with character development. I’ve found that the more time I spend planning, the less time I spend writing and rewriting!
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I would be honored for my books to be compared (even a little bit!) to Sophie Kinsella’s books. I adore novels that make me laugh out loud, and in which the main character gets herself into (and out of) some downright impossible, crazy situations!
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I’ve written two novels about good-girl characters who have a lot of struggles and overcome (most) of them through some incredible learning experiences. This time, I thought that it would be really FUN to write about a person who had flounced through life as the “IT” girl and has her life fall apart unexpectedly. It’s going to be so very interesting to reveal how Searcy redeems herself … and how some of the folks she’s hurt get a little “sweet” revenge. It’s all good fun and should make for a light-hearted, but memorable read.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
I am going to include some AMAZING pie recipes from my grandmother’s collection. She was a fabulous baker and I am lucky enough that my mom passed down all of her secrets! I also have a super-easy recipe (no fail!) for pie crust ~ all of which will be included in the book!
I also am so proud of the cover. My designer, Damonza.com is so amazing and talented. I am so fortunate to have him on my dynamic publishing team!
Thank you so very much to all of my readers! You have been so supportive and positive. I appreciate all of your notes and emails soooo much! Love y’all!
Pie Girls will be released in the Spring of 2013! Details to follow soon!
xx, Lauren
Here’s a link to Juliette Sobanet’s novel, Kissed in Paris. Please check it out on Amazon.com!
I am passing “The Next Best Thing” torch to my good friend and fellow author, Kat Kennedy, who just published her first novella and collection of short stories, Flamingo Funeral: Tales from the Land of Tea Cakes and Whiskey, available on Amazon. Kat Kennedy has just released her first book, Flamingo Funeral & Tales from the Land of Tea Cakes and Whiskey, on Kindle. The paperback edition is due in late November. She has recently started a blog – Tea Cakes and Whiskey. She lives in Mobile, AL where she is active in local writing groups.
Buy on Amazon: Flamingo Funeral: Tales from the Land of Tea Cakes and Whiskey
Southern Delta Literary Magazine
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November 16, 2012
Sensational Book Signing
My Books & Bill Finch
A BIG thank you today goes to Dot Havard of the Junior League of Mobile and Pat Mackey, Community Relations Manager of Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Dot and Pat offered me the opportunity to sign Stay Tuned and Dancing Naked in Dixie at this year’s Christmas Jubilee holiday shopping market.
My Cozy Author Table at the Jubilee
What a wonderful event! Hundreds of people attended the morning, and the crowd kept coming after lunch! The best part of my day, however, was meeting local Celeb and Gardening Guru Bill Finch. His new coffee table book, Longleaf, Far as the Eye Can See would make a great gift this holiday season! See the description of the book at the bottom of this post.**
Bill Finch Signs ‘Longleaf’ at the Jubilee
Much appreciation also goes to Barnes and Noble employee extraordinaire, Carol, who tirelessly worked the cash register and directed customers! Many, many Junior League of Mobile volunteers also helped make the Author’s Corner a huge success! The Christmas Jubilee (click here for info!) continues at the Greater Gulf State Fairgrounds through November 17, 2012. Have a great weekend! xx, Lauren
Barnes and Noble Online:
Longleaf, Far as the Eye Can See
Or, stop by the Eastern Shore BN store for all of your holiday shopping needs:
Barnes & Noble Booksellers
30500 State Hwy 181, Ste.414
Spanish Fort, AL 36527
251.621.9255 phone
**About Longleaf, Far as the Eye Can See
Longleaf forests once covered 92 million acres from Texas to Maryland to Florida. These grand old-growth pines were the “alpha tree” of the largest forest ecosystem in North America and have come to define the southern forest. But logging, suppression of fire, destruction by landowners, and a complex web of other factors reduced those forests so that longleaf is now found only on 3 million acres. Fortunately, the stately tree is enjoying a resurgence of interest, and longleaf forests are once again spreading across the South. Longleaf, Far as the Eye Can See invites readers to experience the astounding beauty and significance of the majestic longleaf ecosystem.This book highlights the special nature of longleaf forests and proposes ways to conserve and expand them.
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November 14, 2012
Happy Holiday Reading
12 Holiday Stories in One
Books make terrific holiday gifts, but finding perfect books for friends and family is always a challenge. If only we could flip through a few sample pages on our own schedules. If only if the bookstore could come to us. Well, guess what readers…We’re doing just that!
Twelve amazing authors have come together to offer you an amazing opportunity to sample their latest novels just in time for the holidays! Snap up this FREE .pdf for a friend, family member, and yourself.
Whether you like to read mysteries, romance, young adult, women’s fiction, or suspense—this group has a book for you.
First Snow – Christine Cunningham
After The Fog – -Kathleen Shoop
A Charming Crime - Tonya Kappes
Come Back To Me – Melissa Foster
Read Me Dead – Emerald Barnes
The Halo Effect – MJ Rose
Dancing Naked In Dixie – Lauren Clark
The Last Supper Catering Company – Michaelene McElroy
The Hurricane Lover – Joni Rodgers
The Hounding – Sandra de Helen
Milkshake – Joanna Weiss
The Ninth Step – Barbara Taylor Sissel
Each excerpt is prefaced by information about the book and its author. Concluding each excerpt is an order page with clickable links to several online retailers.
You can download the PDF “Holiday Sampler” here: http://bit.ly/eBookSamples
Share it with friends by sending them this link: http://bit.ly/eBookSamples
So, go ahead and sample these fantastic novels from amazing writers! And don’t forget to help spread the word!
Happy holidays and happy reading!
xx, Lauren
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November 12, 2012
Christmas Jubilee 2012
And Checking It Twice!
This Thursday, November 15th, 2012, you can find *ME* at the Mobile Junior League’s annual Christmas Jubilee’s Author’s Corner, sponsored by Barnes and Noble.
The Christmas Jubilee will be held at the Greater Gulf State Fairgrounds, 1035 Cody Road North Mobile, AL 36608.
MARKET HOURS AND TICKET PRICES
Thursday, Nov. 15th, 2012
10:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
$8 in advance, $10 at the door
Please come by, as I will be signing paperbacks at the event and handing out goodies for your shopping bag!
Here are some of the other fabulous, fun Christmas Jubilee authors:
Fiction
Pamela King Cable - “Televenge”/”Southern Fried Women”
Lauren Clark - “Dancing Naked in Dixie”
Margaret Cunningham – “Always Charlie”
Paris Love - “Growing Pains”
Bobbi Ann Mason - “The Girl in the Blue Beret”
Children’s Fiction
Sheila Booth Alberstadt - “Maggie McNair Has Spiders in Her Hair”
Drexel Gilbert – “Colors are Fun!”/”Fun Alphabet Foods”
Sarah Frances Hardy - “Puzzled by Pink”
Jean Reagan - “How to Babysit Grandpa”
Lori Taylor - “Squirelly Celebration”
Josh and Wendy Torres - “This Little Dawg”/”This Little Elephant”
Karyn Tucks - “Jubilee”
JLM Legacy Projects
Christmas Jubilee is a Southeast Tourism Society‘s “Top 20″ event for fifth year in a row.
Over the past 80 years, The Junior League of Mobile (JLM) has gifted a “legacy” of other nonprofit agencies and programs to our community. Those include: The Carlen House Museum, The Child Advocacy Center, Mobile Arts Council, and The Gulf Coast Exploreum Hands-On Science Learning Center.
Hope to see you at the Christmas Jubilee November 15th, 2012! I’ll be there for the morning shift, 8:30 am – 12:30 pm!
Here’s more information: Junior League Author’s Corner
xx, Lauren
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November 9, 2012
Stay Tuned – Writer’s Digest Honorable Mention
for Stay Tuned
(EEEEK! I am so excited to share this letter with everyone!)
November 2012
Dear Lauren Clark,
Congratulations! Your book, Stay Tuned, was chosen as an Honorable Mention in the Genre Fiction category of the 20th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.
Competition was particularly fierce this year; your accomplishment is truly impressive. All winners have been notified, and will be formally announced in the March/April 2013 issue of Writer’s Digest and on WritersDigest.com.
We’re extremely pleased at the quality of the winning books, and indeed, at the level of self-publishing quality evidenced by a great many of our entrants. We wish you continued success in the publishing and marketing of your writing, and hope we’ll see you among the entrants in our 21st annual competition.
You have won $50 towards Writer’s Digest Books; details will be emailed in the next few weeks. A brief judge’s commentary will email later in the year, as will some general marketing tips that we hope you will find helpful.
Thanks again for your participation and for proving how self-publishing can be a vital and successful option for today’s writers.
Sincerely,
Jessica Strawser
Editor, Writer’s Digest
Stay Tuned is available here for Kindle, Paperback & Audio Edition ($1.99!):
Stay Tuned is available here for Nook:
Stay Tuned is available here for iPad & iTunes:
Have a great weekend, everyone! xx, Lauren
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November 7, 2012
I’ll Be Home For Peacemas…
A Gift from DuoLit’s
Shannon O’Neil…
Please welcome my friend and DuoLit publishing guru Shannon O’Neil, as she previews her new release for the holiday season …..
I’ll be home for Christmas aren’t the words that anyone in Bailey Hamilton’s family have heard lately. She isn’t exactly a recluse (so she tells herself and her couch stain-turned best friend, Fred), but when it comes to Christmas, she prefers a pair of sweats and peaceful time with the television – anything, really, to stay away from her hometown of St. Augustine, Florida, where things are anything but quiet and a hidden sandbar of quiet and painful memories lurks.
But after an incident with a homeless man dubs her the “Santa Slugger,” Bailey finds herself in the last place she expected – home in St. Augustine. Through her stepmother Oliva’s celebration of “Peacemas,” her adopted African brother Ukembe’s hujta fire, a Christmas parade float entitled “Jesus Through The Years,” surprise weddings, an unexpected pregnancy, and quality time with a former flame, Bailey finds that the life she has been running away from is the one she really needed.
I’ll be home for Peacemas will be free Nov. 9th – 11th (Friday – Sunday). The 11th is author Shannon O’Neil’s birthday, so she’s giving instead of receiving gifts for my birthday.
Shannon (one half of the dynamic DuoLit team) is giving away a paperback copy of her novel. Leave a comment with your favorite Christmas memory or tradition for a chance to win!
Click below Friday through Sunday for your copy of Shannon’s novel!!!
http://www.amazon.com/Ill-Be-Home-Peacemas-ebook/dp/B0047GNE88
http://www.amazon.com/Ill-Home-Peacemas-Shannon-ONeil/dp/0615328636
For more on Shannon and DuoLit, click here: http://selfpublishingteam.com/
Here’s an excerpt from I’ll Be Home For Peacemas:
I suppose it goes without saying that anything with roots in a lean-to wedding chapel sandwiched between an IHOP (site of the rehearsal dinner) and a bar (site of the reception) is probably destined for disaster. Unfortunately, my parents were so blinded by the powerful trio of love, rebellion, and alcohol that they failed to notice the army of red warning flags crowded into the hallowed halls of Wally’s Wedding Wonderland with them on that balmy summer night.
To their credit, my parents did not go down to Daytona Beach (St. Augustine’s sin-city neighbor to the south) on the night in question with the intention of getting married. My dad, Jack Hamilton, was a college sophomore and my mom, Liza Jane Bailey, had just finished high school. They were two years into a relationship born strictly out their mutual goal to upset their fathers, though I don’t think either of them knew how successful they would eventually be.
In less than twenty minutes, papers were signed, a ceremony was performed (I’ve seen pictures, there’s nothing like a wedding party composed of three drunk cheerleaders in halter tops and short skirts and five drunk football players in swim trunks and tank tops, all of them clutching red plastic cups and flashing crooked smiles at the camera), and a surprisingly legitimate marriage license was issued.
It’s my understanding that there was a tiny moment of clarity about a month after their impromptu wedding ceremony when my parents realized their secret marriage might not have been such a great idea. I try not to dwell on the fact that the chaotic circumstances which I now call my life might have been avoided entirely if that moment of clarity hadn’t been so rudely interrupted by the sudden appearance of my older sister, Becca.
Just a few weeks before she was scheduled to move into her freshman dorm at Florida State, my young mother saw her worst fears illustrated by two lines on a stick. Before she could even wrap her mind around the sudden change in her future plans, however, my Nana Jane came flying through the front door of my grandparents’ church-owned home in a blind rage. Apparently, the pharmacist who worked at the local drugstore where my mother bought her pregnancy test had immediately called his wife (as anyone would have if they saw the preacher’s daughter buying such an item). His wife answered the phone on her way out the door to meet her Sunday School group for afternoon tea. It just so happened that the pharmacist’s wife’s Sunday School group included Nana Jane.
So much for living in a small town.
By the time my Grandpa James arrived home, my mother and grandmother were in separate corners of the living room, squaring off like prized fighters across the shag rug. Somehow, Grandpa James managed to fling himself in between the two women and bravely hold them off long enough to discern what their argument was about. Without saying a thing (my grandfather has always been a man of few words, except when he’s in the pulpit) Grandpa James left the house, climbed into his aging Buick, and drove six blocks south to the waterfront Hamilton estate.
For centuries, the notorious Hamilton family had been sculpting the history of St. Augustine through politics, justice, and the power of an iron fist. People held passionate opinions about the Hamiltons in only one of two directions–adulation or fear. Many people who subscribed to the latter belief (including Grandpa James) felt that the family was a long line of criminals who forced their way into the city’s political landscape.
That’s not an entirely false perspective.
By 1982, my paternal grandfather, the honorable Judge Raymond Q. Hamilton III (known to most as simply “Judge”) was the reigning patriarch of the family. He had already ascended to the highest-ranking judicial position in all of St. Johns County, but his eyes were focused on a seat at the district court bench that was slated to open up before the next election. In fact, he was relaxing on the veranda of the family’s bayfront estate, sipping cognac, smoking a cigar, and discussing his political future with my uncle, Ray IV (my dad’s older brother), when Grandpa James pulled up.
According to Uncle Ray, Grandpa James started shouting at Judge that he was going to chop off a favorite appendage of his no-good son and toss it into the Atlantic. Judge unfolded his massive frame (he’s well north of six feet tall and beyond three hundred pounds) from his rocking chair and took a wide stance at the top of the porch steps. He issued a stern legal and physical threat to my maternal grandfather should he attempt to lay even one finger on my Uncle Ray.
Confused, Grandpa James explained that it was Jack, not Ray, that he wanted dismember. Suddenly relieved, Judge downed the rest of his drink and told Grandpa James that Jack was upstairs, have at it.
Shannon O’Neil is a native of St. Augustine, Fla. and author of novels highlighting some of the colorful characters and cities tucked away in the Sunshine State. Join her newsletter for a chance to win a copy of her holiday novel, I’ll Be Home for Peacemas.
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November 5, 2012
Happy (Achoo!) Monday!
I was fortunate to spend a few hours of my weekend with the lovely and fun members of a local RWA chapter! These ladies are all experienced authors, each with at least one published book to her credit.
Because the group was so experienced, with many members writing professionally for five or more years, I was a little nervous about sharing my tips for marketing and promotion. I wanted the talk to be value-added, so I spent a lot of time preparing what I would say.
I decided to concentrate what has worked for me: The basics.
1. Story
2. Packaging
3. Plan ahead
4. Research
5. Blog
6. Social Media
7. Author Friends
8. Cost/Benefit
9.Three-month Plan
10. Pay it Forward
In short, in order of importance, begin with a good story (1) create the best cover you can, edit, proofread (2), plan your blog tours, giveaways, events (3), research books like yours, what makes them successful, what are your goals for this book (4), set up a blog and contribute once a week minimum, and remember to be personal and creative (5).
Once 1-5 are in place, then Go to the next level, establish social media accounts–but not so many that you can’t manage them (6), reach out to other authors and ask them to blog on your site, swapping ideas, show support for each other (7), weigh the cost and benefit of each promotional opportunity, advertisement, or event you are planning and talk to other authors about what’s been successful for them (8), have a 3-month plan for each book launch–meaning a 90 day spread the word campaign to get the word out about your book.
This means…over three months… doing something every day to promote your new release, whether it is a sponsorship, a blog post, tweeting, getting active on Facebook, etc. my list tip is paying it forward (10). ideally, during the SAME three-month time period, match your own promotional efforts By doing something to help someone else every day. Get out there and comment on other blogs, retweet other author’s posts, leave a “like” on someone else’s Amazon page, or write a review for another author’s novel on GoodReads.
Yes, it’s a lot of work. And no, you can’t do 2-9 without #1. It all starts with the story!
What do you think? Anything you’d add to the list?
*Five hours later, I came down with an early winter cold …. Sneezing, sniffling, and coughing. Yuck! I hope that i didn’t infect anyone! My friends at DuoLit will be posting for me Wednesday to give me a few days to recover.
A huge thank you the Gulf Coast Chapter, Romance Writers of America for a great discussion on books and promotion! For more on this wonderful group, click the link below:
http://www.gccrwa.com/
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