Laura McNeill's Blog, page 5
April 22, 2016
Watch the Studio10 “Sister Dear” Interview
This week, I was fortunate enough to be a guest with Chasity Byrd on Studio 10/ FOXNews in Mobile, Ala. to talk about SISTER DEAR!
Books are available at:
*Signed Copies* of SISTER DEAR @ Page & Palette Bookstore in Fairhope, Ala.
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Books A Million
Christianbook.com
Upcoming Events:
Appearance @ Alabama Book Festival – Saturday, April 23rd @ 2 pm
Appearance @ Sun Dog Books in Seaside – Sunday, April 24th @ noon – 4 pm
xo,
Laura
April 20, 2016
Sister Dear Giveaway Winners: FitBit, Kindle Fire, & Paperbacks
I’m so excited to share the winners of the 4 Sister Dear giveaway that have been running through March and April.
We’ve had an overwhelming response, with more than 8,800 entries for the FitBit, Kindle Fire, and three signed Sister Dear paperbacks. I am so thankful for each and every entry!!!
Congratulations to all of the winners! They were chosen through Rafflecopter April 19th and are as follows…
GIVEAWAY WINNERS
Kindle Fire: Susie Q Law
3 Signed Copies of Sister Dear Paperbacks: Susan Roberts, Laura Bryant, and Jennifer Smeth
Fitbit: Liana Mellow
RT Prize Pack: Orange is the New Black, White Oleander & Sister Dear – Melody Simons
[Melody Simons]
Stay tuned for more news, blog tour stops, and giveaways over the coming month! This week, I’ll be in New Orleans, Fairhope, Montgomery, and Seaside talking about Sister Dear !
Purchase your copy today:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Books A Million
Christianbook.com
xo,
Laura
April 19, 2016
Behind the Scenes of Sister Dear
My new book SISTER DEAR releases today!!!
In the upcoming weeks, I’ll be attending 
conferences, signing books at stores, and meeting with readers about how the story came to be, how I developed the characters, and why I decided to write the book. You can read about these details in this post.
Today, I thought it might be fun to offer a bit of background about how I chose the setting of the story.
After considering several locations, I decided that coastal Georgia and the city of Brunswick were the perfect backdrop for SISTER DEAR, with its
traditional, tight-knit community, gorgeous scenery, and its Deep South focus on football, faith, and family values.
When the novel begins, single mother Allie Marshall is a
bout to go to medical school, and can hardly wait until she can start her new adventure in the big city of Atlanta.
As excited as Allie is, she remains nostalgic about her hometown and will miss Brunswick, St. Simons Island, and the ocean, which all represent the special place where she grew up with her parents, her sister, Emma, and her boyfriend, Ben.
But when tragedy strikes, and Allie finds herself accused of a horrific crime, she goes to prison for ten years. Each day, she vows to return, clear her name, and promises herself she will find a way to reconnect with her teenage daughter.
Allie endures much hardship in prison, and in preparation for the writing of SISTER DEAR, I watched a lengthy documentary about life behind bars in Georgia.
I hope that in reading Allie’s story, you’ll get a true sense of Brunswick, a taste of Atlanta, the feel of the beauty of St. Simons Island, and the danger inside Lee Arrendale State Prison. I’d love to hear your thoughts about setting and your take on the “behind the scenes” details of SISTER DEAR.
If you haven’t yet read SISTER DEAR what are you waiting for?
CLICK HERE TO BUY:
April 18, 2016
Character Casting for “Sister Dear”
Although I think everyone sees characters differently in the novels we read, I’m often asked who I’ve pictured while writing Sister Dear. If the book was made into a movie, it’s also fun to think about which celebrities might play the main characters.
Here’s my cast for Sister Dear:
Allie Marshall – Jennifer Lawrence
Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence is best known for playing Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games (2012), Tiffany Maxwell in Silver Linings Playbook (2012), and Rosalyn Rosenfeld in American Hustle (2013).
Jennifer Shrader Lawrence was born on August 15, 1990 in Louisville, Kentucky. Her big break came when she played Ree in Winter’s Bone (2010), which landed her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. Shortly thereafter, she secured the role of Mystique in franchise reboot X-Men: First Class (2011). Around this time, Lawrence scored the role of a lifetime when she was cast as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games (2012). – IMBd
–
Emma Marshall – Claire Forlani
Claire Forlani was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in London. Educated at Arts Educational School, she moved to the United States with her parents Pier Luigi and Barbara Forlani when she was 19 and began starring in films.
Claire has had leading roles in such films as Meet Joe Black (1998), Basquiat (1996), The Rock (1996), the STARZ original series Camelot (2011) playing Queen Igraine. She has had recurring roles on NCIS: Los Angeles and CSI: NY. – IMBd
–
Caroline Marshall – Marion Cotillard
Academy Award-winning Actress Marion Cotillard was born on September 30, 1975 in Paris. Cotillard is the daughter of Jean-Claude Cotillard, an actor, playwright and director, and Niseema Theillaud, an actress and drama teacher.
Her first movie in Hollywood was Tim Burton’s Big Fish (2003), years later she starred inRidley Scott’s A Good Year (2006) alongside Russell Crowe. She teamed with Christopher Nolan in The Dark Knight Rises (2012). – IMBd
–
Lee Gaines – Liev Schreiber
Liev (pronounced Lee-ev) Schreiber was born in San Francisco. His mother, Heather (Milgram), is a painter, and his father, Tell Schreiber (Tell Carroll Schreiber III), is a theatrical actor who had a small role in The Keeper (1976).
Known for X-Men Origins, The 5th Wave, Salt, and the television series Ray Donovan. He began acting at Hampshire College and continued at the Yale University School of Drama in 1992.
He originally wanted to be a playwright, but his teacher encouraged him to become an actor.
– IMBd
–
What are your thoughts on the casting for Sister Dear? I’d love to hear your suggestions on who might best play Allie, Emma, Caroline, and Lee Gaines!
–
Sister Dear releases Tuesday, April 19th, 2015 everywhere fine books are sold.
Purchase your copy today:
Pre-Order on Amazon
Pre-Order on Barnes and Noble
Pre-Order on Books A Million
Pre-Order on Christianbook.com
xo, Laura
*Images: IMBD
April 15, 2016
Virtual Book Tour for Sister Dear
Monday, April 18 – Book Review at Stormy Nights Bloggin’ & Reviewing
Tuesday, April 19 – Book Review at The Book Bag
Wednesday, April 20 – Blog Post at My Novel Opinion
Wednesday, April 20 – Interview at Readsalot
———-
Monday, April 25 – Book Review at The Phantom Paragrapher
Tuesday, April 26 – Blog Post at Book Fan Mary
Tuesday, April 26 – Book Review at fuonlyknew
Tuesday, April 26 – Book Review at Live Love Books
Tuesday, April 26 – Interview at Around the World in Books
Friday, April 29 – Book Review at Worth Getting in Bed For
Monday, May 2nd – Blog Post at Reeca’s Pieces
———-
Find past stops here …
Monday, April 4th – Blog Post at The Book Junkie
Monday, April 4 – Interview at PUYB Virtual Book Club
Tuesday, April 5 – Interview at The Noise Beneath the Apple
Wednesday, April 6 – Book Review at Books, Reviews, ETC.
———-
Monday, April 11 – Blog Post at On D Bookshelf
Monday, April 11 – Guest Blogging at Lori’s Reading Corner
Tuesday, April 12 – Guest Blogging at Whispering Stories
Wednesday, April 13 – Interview at CBY Book Club
Thank you for following along …!
xo,
Laura
April 14, 2016
Unlock Exclusive Content – Pre-Order Sister Dear
With the help of the fabulous Thomas Nelson/HarperCollins team, I’ve created exclusive content that you’ll receive if you Pre-Order Sister Dear by Monday, April 17th!
To ensure you receive your exclusive content, take a screen shot of your pre-order and email it to laura@lauramcneill.com.
(NOTE: If you’ve already pre-ordered Sister Dear, and emailed your receipt to laura@lauramcneill.com, you will also receive this exclusive content!)
Pre-Order on Amazon
Pre-Order on Barnes and Noble
Pre-Order on Books A Million
Pre-Order on Christianbook.com
Help us reach 200 new pre-orders and we’ll unlock this special gift! The content will be released on Thursday, April 21st!
xo,
Laura
April 12, 2016
Love Orange is the New Black? 10 Reasons to Check Out Sister Dear
Long after I’d finished the first few drafts of Sister Dear, Orange is the New Black debuted on Netflix in July of 2013. The popular series is based on Piper Kerman memoir, a book that details about her experience serving time in a correctional facility for money laundering and drug trafficking.
Though the Emmy Award Winning Netflix series has, after Season One, departed far from the memoir’s storyline, quite a few similarities between Piper’s real story and Allie’s journey in Sister Dear.
Piper Kerman was born in Boston into an upper-middle class family with many attorneys, doctors, and educators.
Allie Marshall was born in Brunswick into an upper-middle class family with a veterinarian father. Shortly after the novel begins, she is accepted to medical school.
During Piper’s incarceration at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison, the facility housed only female offenders. It has since transitioned into an all-male prison with a satellite women’s campus.
During Allie’s incarceration at Lee Arrendale, the state prison also housed only female inmates. Prior to 2005, the facility was an all-male prison.
Piper Kerman was 24 and a new graduate of Smith College when she smuggled a suitcase of drug money across international borders.
Allie Marshall was 26 and accepted to medical school at Emory University when she stumbled on the dying coach.
Piper had a quiet, law-abiding life in New York, so her sudden and unexpected indictment seriously disrupts her relationships with her fiancé, family, and friends.
Allie had a quiet, law-abiding life in Brunswick, GA. Her indictment also disrupts her relationships with her fiancé, family, and friends.
Despite the top-notch attorney she could hire, despite the support of her parents, her boyfriend, and despite the fact that she had lived an exemplary life in the meantime, Piper was still sentenced to 15 months of incarceration.
Like Piper, Allie had also led an exemplary life. Despite hiring the best attorney her family could find, and despite the support of her parents and sister, Allie was still sentenced to prison.
Throughout her time at Danbury, Piper has the unfailing support of her boyfriend (now husband) Larry, who comes to visit her every week at Danbury.
Allie also has the unfailing support of her boyfriend Ben, but chooses to push him away during the trial and when she is sentenced to prison.
In both Piper’s memoir and Allie’s story, the majority of the prison characters are in jail for offenses related to narcotics, fraud, larceny, homicide, and aggravated assault.
In the memoir, Orange is the New Black, Piper is quoted as saying “during those 11 months in prison in Danbury, I had found my way, in terms of the social ecology of the place. I had found my friends. I had figured out who my adversaries were. I had my prison job. You have your rituals which help you do your time.”
Allie also found her way in Lee Arrendale Prison, identified her adversaries, created rituals, and learned the social ecology of the facility. By doing so, she learned to survive.
Piper lives through prison to return to Larry.
A
llie lives through her incarceration to return to her daughter Caroline.
Larry never chastises Piper for her crime. He doesn’t suggest that Piper had ruined her life — and his, too. He tells Piper, “It will all work out. Because I love you.”
Like Larry, Ben echoes a similar sentiment to Allie. Ben tells her, “I will spend every day, every waking moment, making you happy. I don’t care about the past. I love you, and that’s for always.”
Are you an Orange is the New Black fan? What do you love most about the series? What did you really enjoy or dislike in reading Piper’s memoir?
Any other similarities or differences between OITNB and Sister Dear that I should have included?
April 6, 2016
Fitbit Giveaway: Get Your Heart Rate Up with Sister Dear
Spring is one of my favorite times of year. Here in the Deep South, the grass is getting greener, flowers are blooming and leaves are popping out on all of the trees.
I find that by lunchtime each day, I can’t wait to get outside and soak up the sun. Often, I log several miles around campus and downtown Birmingham, passing the time walking and talking with my coworkers and friends. In addition, it’s been even more fun to keep up with our steps since my mom gave me a Fitbit a few weeks ago!
Since great summer weather is right around the corner, and getting outside and exercising seems to be on everyone’s mind, I thought it might be fun to give away a new Fitbit in conjunction with Sister Dear‘s release April 19th!
If you’re an audiobook lover, I’ll be happy to include a Audible copy of Sister Dear as well! That way, it’s a double win … you’ll enjoy the nail-biting suspense of my new novel and get your heart rate up walking with the Fitbit at the same time!
We’ll announce the winner of this giveaway (and my other two contests: A Kindle Fire giveaway and 3 signed copies of Sister Dear) on April 19th! Scroll down on my website’s Giveaways page to enter all three!
Best of luck and have a great week!
xo,
Laura
March 25, 2016
*Sister Dear* Events & Signings
The release of Sister Dear is just around the corner and we have lots of fun events planned for the next few months.
If you’d like to catch me on the road, talking with groups, and signing books, here’s the schedule so far:
Tuesday, April 19 – Sister Dear release day!!!!!!
Thursday, April 21 – Page & Palette – Read it and Eat, Fairhope, Ala. 12 noon – RSVP Required!
Saturday, April 23 – Alabama Book Festival, featured speaker, Montgomery, Ala.
Sunday, April 24 – Sundog Books – Book Signing, Seaside, Fla. 1 pm – 4 pm
April 2016 – WBRC TV Interview with Janice Rogers – TBD
Saturday, May 21st – Canton Festival of the Arts, Canton, GA
We’ll be adding more dates as they get confirmed!
I’d also love to visit your book club, writing group, or local bookstore. Setting up a date to speak by Skype is just as easy – just contact me at laura@lauramcneill.com.
Don’t forget to pre-order your very own copy of Sister Dear!
Order on Amazon
Order on Barnes and Noble
Order on Books A Million
Order on Christianbook.com
Have a great week!
xo,
Laura
March 9, 2016
Sister Dear *Kindle Fire* Giveaway
I’m excited to announced the first of 3 fabulous giveaways leading up to the April 19th 
release of Sister Dear!
During the first giveaway, one lucky reader will receive a brand new Kindle Fire. The giveaway runs through April 19th. You can earn chances to win by entering via Rafflecopter, below:
Pre-order Sister Dear today by clicking HERE.
Best of luck and have a great week!
xo,
Laura
