Lisa Brown Roberts's Blog, page 4
September 14, 2015
Playing the Player Releases Today!
I’m so excited to share this book with you because I had so much fun writing Trina and Slade’s story. I love romantic comedies, and writing this one was more fun than binge-watching Downey and Depp and Cumberbatch, while simultaneously scarfing Chocolove chocolate bars. Really.
Thank you to Entangled Publishing for selecting Playing the Player to be part of their fun new Crush imprint. It’s an honor to be part of such a terrific line-up of YA romances! Galaxy-sized thank you hugs to my critique group; to my RWA, RMFW, and SCBWI friends; and to my family, who is my constant source of support.
To the amazing readers and bloggers who are supporting me as a new author: it’s hard to find the words to thank you, but I’ll keep trying by writing many, many words in the form of new books for you!
Trina Clemons needed the money. Why else would she—the most organized, prepared student in school—spend the summer as a nanny and partner with the biggest slacker ever? Now she’s ready to tackle nannyhood with her big binder of research and schedules. Just don’t ask her about the secret job of “fixing” the bad habits of a certain high school player…
Slade Edmunds prefers easy hook-ups, and Trina is definitely not his type. She’s all structure and rules, while Slade wants to just have fun. Fortunately, Trina has no idea about the bet Slade made with his best friend that he can totally get her to unwind by the end of summer…
Then the weirdest thing happens. There’s chemistry. A lot of it.
But nothing gets between a boy and a girl like a big, fat secret…
“You will laugh, you will sigh and you will swoon. *Playing the Player* will play with your emotions… and you will love every moment of it because Slade and Trina are worth it.” – Paula M. of Her Bookish Thoughts
“For the love of all things adorable, swoony, and chick flick-like, you need to read Playing the Player! It was adorable from the very beginning to the very end.”- Katie from Reading Transforms
July 8, 2015
Blog Tour Live!
Itching for Books is hosting the blog tour for PLAYING THE PLAYER from August 11-15! Please sign up at the link below if you're interested in being a stop on the tour. I'd love to virtually stop by and chat :)
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/194fk...
June 8, 2015
Denver Comic Con 2015
Over Memorial Day weekend, my family and I attended our fourth annual Denver Comic Con. It’s become our summer kick-off event, even when the weather is rainy and cold.
I absolutely love the nerdvana vibe: costumes, sci-fi speed dating, panels on books, TV shows, and movies, tons of artists and authors, visiting celebrities…the whole event is fantastic. Exhausting, but fantastic. By the end, my feet are blistered and my brain is fried, but it’s worth it!
This year I dressed up for the first time, and now I’m hooked. I found an amazing Captain America dress online, and brought along a Frisbee shield. One of the highlights of the conference was meeting Andrew Bellen, one of the original Captain America artists. He signed my shield and was absolutely charming.
Comic Con is ultimately a celebration of story, a gathering of people who spend the weekend devoted to embracing their favorite fictional words and characters. As someone who loves the world of stories, I can’t think of a better way to spend the weekend!
April 23, 2015
Stonehenge Replicas
Stonehenge Replicas in How (not) to Fall in Love
I’ve heard from some readers asking me about the “clonehenges” mentioned in the book, so I thought I’d share some info about them.
Some of the replicas mentioned in the book are real, others are figments of my imagination. Though I made up the “Clonemaniac” website, you can find a lot of information about U.S. clonehenges at www.roadsideamerica.com and www.clonehenge.com.
Real Replicas (from the postcards Darcy’s dad sends):
Ingram, Texas – Stonehenge II was built by Al Shepperd and Doug Hill in 1989 in a pasture. It includes a Stonehenge replica as well as two Easter Island head replicas. In 2011 the henge was moved a few miles east of its original spot to the grounds of the Hill Country Arts Foundation.
Elbert County, Georgia – The Georgia Guidestones were built in 1979, funded anonymously under the pseudonym R.C. Christian. Though not a Stonehenge replica, the guidestones are often listed along with other Stonehenge replicas. Ten philosophical guidelines are engraved in eight different languages on the stones, including the tenth one, which Darcy’s father quotes on his postcard: “Be not a cancer on the earth. Leave room for nature.”
Maryhill, Washington – This replica was commissioned in 1929 as a memorial to soldiers who died in World War I. Construction began in 1918 and was finished in 1929. Samuel Hill, a wealthy railroad magnate, was also a Quaker and a pacifist. He is buried in a crypt close to the replica.
Fake Replicas:
Montana – The stonehenge on private property in Montana (where Darcy almost gives up on her quest) is imaginary, as was the gun-toting owner. However, it was inspired by reading about an actual-sized replica built in Fortine, Montana by inventor Jim Smith on his private land.
Wyoming – The replica in Wyoming where Darcy finds her dad is purely a product of my imagination, as is the town Blue Spruce.
February 6, 2015
Inspiration and Perspiration
Since my first book has become a reality, I’ve had a lot of people ask me how I get inspired and how I manage to write books, work a day job, and raise a family.
What really happens is I get up at 4:30 a.m. every day, make a pot of coffee, and get in two hours of writing before I take my son to school and head to my day job. It’s not a glamorous answer, but it’s the truth, and it’s how I’ve managed to write two more novels since HOW (NOT) TO FALL IN LOVE, and why I’m currently halfway finished with another WIP, and am outlining a couple of new projects.
Inspiration can come from anywhere. I sometimes think there’s a gigantic cosmic soup of story ideas and our subconscious dips its ladle in there, and the ideas just show up to us fully formed. Other days we’re making the soup from scratch and scrambling for the ingredients. But as Stephen King says, if you’re sitting at your computer every day, odds are good the muse will show up for you, at least sometimes.
I believe with every fiber of my being that if you want to be a writer, or a musician, or a game designer, or whatever is your passion, you can do it. But it won’t be easy. You’ll have to sacrifice: say no to social events, TV watching, and sleep. You’ll probably need to spend less time with family and friends, at least at first while you figure out your creative process and how to balance everything. But it’s worth it. Every single day when I get up early and sit down to the light of the moon in my office window, drinking coffee and spinning stories, it’s worth it.
“Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.” – Goethe
October 31, 2014
Tiffany Truitt Cover Reveal- Because You Exist
Today I’m excited to participate in Tiffany Truitt’s cover reveal for her amazing new YA novel, BECAUSE YOU EXIST.
Available November 11, 2014
Life is good for LOGAN MIDDLETON.
He’s quarterback of the Shepherd High football team, nephew of the town’s most successful lawyer, and boyfriend of Jenna Maples, a girl who has finally agreed to take their relationship to the next level. But nothing good lasts forever.
With only a few minutes of last period English left between him and a weekend alone with Jenna, Logan blacks out. When he awakens, he finds himself in a future where Shepherd High lies in ruins, nothing is what it seems, and everyone he loves is dead.
Logan is a shifter.
Chosen to travel through time, it’s up to him to figure out how to stop the terrible events that claimed his once perfect life. Of course, all of this might be easier if he wasn’t paired with the one girl who’d rather see him dead than help him, JOSEPHINE.
A girl he tormented during childhood. Strong-willed with biting wit, who lives in the shadows. Tough and dark, Jo is Shepherd High’s most notorious outcast and Logan’s opposite in every way.
Together the two must overcome their many differences to figure out why they’ve been selected for such an overwhelming task, and who selected them in the first place.
Before it’s too late…
Pre-Order Today:
About the Author:
Tiffany Truitt was born in Peoria, Illinois. A self-proclaimed Navy brat, Tiffany spent most of her childhood living in Virginia, but don’t call her a Southerner. She also spent a few years living in Cuba. Since her time on the island of one McDonalds and Banana Rats (don’t ask), she has been obsessed with traveling. Tiffany recently added China to her list of travels (hello inspiration for a new book).
Besides traveling, Tiffany has always been an avid reader. The earliest books she remembers reading belong to The Little House on the Prairie Series. First book she read in one day? Little Woman (5th grade). First author she fell in love with? Jane Austen in middle school. Tiffany spent most of her high school and college career as a literary snob. She refused to read anything considered “low brow” or outside the “classics.”
Tiffany began teaching middle school in 2006. Her students introduced her to the wide, wonderful world of Young Adult literature. Today, Tiffany embraces popular Young Adult literature and uses it in her classroom.
September 26, 2014
First Look Friday
I’m thrilled to welcome Tiffany Truitt for First Look Friday! Take it away, Tiffany!
I would like to start off by thanking Lisa for hosting me today! I am so excited she agreed to be a part of the YA Reader Week Blog Hop 
Now, let’s get to First Look Friday.
My current novel, The Language of Silence, is my first YA Contemporary novel. Previously, I published the YA Dystopian / Sci-fi series, The Lost Souls (Chosen Ones, Naturals, and Creators). I might, just might, have some news about my return to the science fiction world soon, but until then, I will share what I am currently working on…a yet unnamed contemporary NA Romance. Told using a third person omniscient narrator, the novel tells the story of two best friends who go on a wild road trip together the summer before starting college. So, here it is…a sneak peek:
Chapter 1:
It felt good
The kind of good that made her skin tingle and stretch, ready to rip with the burning, urgent tempestuous need for more. The aching physical need that whispered of things still unknown. Comfortably peaceful in its ability to make her fall completely away from the world and sublimely frightening because she didn’t know where it would take her.
The way his hands seemed to touch all of her, and yet not touch her enough. The breathy sentences that crawled from his lips, sweeping their polysyllabic promises of more to come across her collar bone, punctuated with soft kisses.
It felt darn-tooting good.
And then it was darn-tooting gone. Quickly. Abruptly. Annabel Lee Cooke shot up in her bed, drenched in sweat and beet red from the tip of her nose to her little pinky toe. That little piggy had had a very naughty dream. Dreams Annabel had been having for weeks.
With a grunt, and not the kind that filled her dreams, Annabel threw off her covers and begrudgingly got out of her bed. Someone, and she had a pretty good idea who that someone was, found it perfectly acceptable to honk his horn outside of her bedroom window at five in the morning.
There was only one person she knew that stupid. Kennedy Hoyle. The most incorrigible, annoying, pretentious boy she ever had the misfortune of knowing. A boy who never failed to get under her skin. The same boy who had been Annabel’s friend since sixth grade. The boy she never could stay mad at. Not for long. Something Kennedy Hoyle knew. And so he pushed every damn button he could.
BUY LINKS:
About the Author: Tiffany Truitt received her MA in literature from Old Dominion University. Her debut Chosen Ones, first in the Lost Souls trilogy, is a searing look at what it means to be other and how we define humanity, as well as a celebration of the dangerously wonderful feeling of falling in love.
September 25, 2014
Transformation Thursday
As part of YA Reader Appreciation Week, I’m happy to host author Catherine Stine, writing new adult romance as Kitsy Clare.
Catherine Stine/Kitsy Clare
I was always, always into writing big-time, but in my twenties I was also a serious artist who attended art school. In fact, while I was writing away quietly in my studio, I was showing my paintings in NYC and all over the east coast. I painted still lives with giant clocks and hedgehogs, and I wore funky outfits like a pink suede skirt with a semi-see-through crochet top, and paint-dappled orange overalls with clashing red leather shoes. Clothes are one of the things I love to describe. Hey, I’m a visual writer, painting with words.
So it made perfect sense to write a novel series about the art world. I love to write about it, because, believe me, there are some colorful artists and really wacko art dealers! Art is a big fake-out game while at the same time it is deadly serious and cutthroat. Oh, and artists (and writers) are some of the sexiest beasts around!
Sienna, my leading lady and the narrator of the Art of Love books, shares certain qualities of mine. She is talented, but a little insecure, passionate, dedicated and ambitious. She dives in wholeheartedly, and as a result, she gets into a bit of trouble now and then. Okay, huge, deep trouble!
Since it’s fiction, I get to put my characters into worse dilemmas than I ever had to face—with even hotter guys (Though I’ve hung around some hot guys for sure). In fact, most art school drawing models were doggy—or just plain weird—like one dude who dressed in a ratty clown suit.
Here’s an example of a real dilemma: an artist friend of mine actually got attacked by his art dealer! They were fighting over one of his paintings, and the dealer ripped my friend’s shirt right off his back. Oh, yes, I have more stories up my sleeve. For instance, Caz, Sienna’s boss and love interest in Private Internship, works on his sculpture practically naked and swinging from chains. Tarzan anyone? And he has a shocking secret socked away in his locked studio that Sienna winds her way into.
Private Internship launches on Sept 29 but preorders are open now
The first in the series, Model Position is on sale at Amazon
Subscribe to Catherine’s newsletter
Catherine Stine books on Amazon
September 24, 2014
Woman Crush Wednesday
Today I’m happy to host YA author Meradeth Houston
Thanks so much for hosting me! It’s always so fun to get to visit my favorite places around the web Today we’re supposed to be talking about our favorite women around–those we may have crushes on, for one reason or another. The thing is: narrowing it down! There are so many amazing women that I want to highlight, but I’m going to go with two.
The first: Rosalind Franklin. Have you heard of her? No? Well, if you have, that’s awesome, but my money’s on most people never having heard of her. Which, really, kinda sucks. I’ll try not to get too nerdy on you here, but basically, Franklin’s work with x-ray crystallography paved the way for Watson and Crick to figure out the structure of DNA. When they published on that in 1953 it led the way for some of the amazing genetics findings that we have today. But did she get any credit? Nope. And that’s always bothered me. Anyhow, she was an amazing scientist during a time when women weren’t scientists on the whole, and I love telling people about her (just ask my students, haha!). She opened a lot of doors for those of us who are women scientists today!
Another of my female crushes? Definitely J.K. Rowling. I honestly can’t help it! She’s written some amazing books and really opened up the world of children’s literature to the masses. I really don’t think the YA genre would be anything like it is today without her. So, other than owing her a serious debt of gratitude, I think she’s amazing, and I’d love to have lunch with her, just to get to chat
Okay, so who is your female crush? I’m definitely looking forward to hearing all about them!
Meradeth Houston is the author of the Sary Society series: Colors Like Memories, The Chemistry of Fate, and Surrender the Sky. Catch the first two books for just 99 pennies! Soon to be released will be a sci-fi novel with killer aliens: Absence of Light. When she’s not writing, she’s an anthropology professor who talks a whole lot about dead people’s DNA!
Find Meradeth Houston online at: www.MeradethHouston.com, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and of course her blog!
September 23, 2014
Transformation Tuesday
Today I’m happy to host Shannon Lee Alexander for YA Reader Appreciation Week, talking about the publication journey of LOVE AND OTHER UNKNOWN VARIABLES.
Love and Other Unknown Variables began many years ago. Its journey to publication has been long and pocked with pitfalls, but I learned so much along the way. It’s not only my debut novel, but it became a way to process the reality of my friend’s cancer and eventually, her death from ovarian cancer. This novel is 100% a labor of love and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Love and Other Unknown Variables was a very different story when I first began. It was titled Charlie Hanson Finishes Last (and How the Universe Cheats). It was lighthearted and free of heartbreak. It was a cute story, but it wasn’t the one I was meant to tell. It wasn’t Charlie’s true story.
I queried only one agent for this first version of Charlie’s story and it was rejected. The agent’s rejection was actually instrumental in making Love and Other Unknown Variables into the story it is today. She said she loved Charlie’s voice and perspective, but was passing on representing his story because the stakes weren’t high enough. After a good cry on my husband’s shoulder, I decided to start over. She was right. I’d let my fear of failure get in my way. I needed to be brave like Atticus Finch.
We were moving at the time, and once I was established here in Indiana, I reached out to my local SCBWI chapter and found a critique group. Mike Mullin, Robert Kent, Jody Sparks, Lisa Fipps, and Virginia Vasquez Vought (we’ve since added Julia Karr and Josh Prokopky) tore my story apart limb from limb. And then they helped me put it back together. We call ourselves the YA Cannibals because our critiques are always honest and sometimes that honesty feels a little like having someone snack on your spleen. Without their help, I’d have never been able to shape this story into the gem it is today.
Once I had a draft that got the Cannibal thumbs up, I began querying agents again. On a sunny day in July 2013, I got a call from Jessica Sinsheimer of the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency. Within minutes of speaking with her, I knew she was the one for me. Passionate, intelligent, and kind, Jessica was the only person I could imagine championing Charlie’s story for me.
We worked on more revisions before submitting it to publishers in September. Within weeks, Heather Howland from Entangled Publishing called to discuss placing Love and Other Unknown Variables with the Entangled Teen line. Again, after talking with Heather, I knew this was where Charlie belonged. And every interaction with the staff at Entangled since then has reiterated that for me.
The most telling thing about my path to publication is that there were so many moments when I could have quit, but instead of looking at setbacks as negatives, I tried to learn from them. Every misstep was a chance to grow my craft, to develop better writing skills, and practice trusting my instincts. I’m proud of all the growing Charlie does in Love and Other Unknown Variables, but I’m also proud of my own growth as a writer. And if I can conquer my fears, then you can, too.
Tweet about a fear you’ve overcome or one you’re still working to overcome, and be sure to tag me @shanlalexander and use the #LoveAndOtherUnknownVariables hashtag. A winner will be chosen at random to receive a Teal Toes prize pack. Teal Toes is an organization dedicated to spreading ovarian cancer awareness, a cause near and very dear to my heart.
Love and Other Unknown Variables releases from Entangled Publishing October 7, 2014.
Charlie Hanson has a clear vision of his future. A senior at Brighton School of Mathematics and Science, he knows he’ll graduate, go to MIT, and inevitably discover the solutions to the universe’s greatest unanswerable problems. He’s that smart. But Charlie’s future blurs the moment he reaches out to touch the tattoo on a beautiful girl’s neck.
The future has never seemed very kind to Charlotte Finch, so she’s counting on the present. She’s not impressed by the strange boy pawing at her until she learns he’s a student at Brighton, where her sister has just taken a job as the English teacher. With her encouragement, Charlie orchestrates the most effective prank campaign in Brighton history. And in doing so, he puts his own future in jeopardy.
By the time he learns Charlotte is ill—and that the pranks were a way to distract Ms. Finch from Charlotte’s illness—Charlotte’s gravitational pull on Charlie is too great to overcome. Soon he must choose between the familiar formulas he’s always relied on, or the girl he’s falling for (at far more than 32 feet per second).
To preorder Love and Other Unknown Variables, click here.
Shannon Lee Alexander is a wife and mother (of two kids and one yellow terrier named Harriet Potter). She is passionate about coffee, books, and cancer research. Math makes her break out in a sweat. Love and Other Unknown Variables is her debut novel. She currently lives in Indianapolis with her family.
Goodreads reviews for Love and Other Unknown Variables
Reviews from Goodreads.com
