Month: July 2012

Journey into Ebb Tide!

/ Rhonda Laurel, Author

      I love the west coast, particularly California!  Each time I visit I bring back a boat load of story       ideas. Ebb Tide is the result of one of those California trips and a ride down the Pacific Coast Highway sealed the deal.  Imagine pulling over onto a shoulder and that (see pic) is your view!  Cali was definitely going to be the backdrop for my story about a self-made, adventurous playboy and his unique relationship with his straight laced attorney.

      Let’s see…light, crisp, contemporary jazz inspired me for this one.  On the surface Griffin and Evan have a light and breezy relationship.  Listening to Najee, David Sanborn, Paul Hardcastle,  and Boney James while cruising down that scenic highway is sublime.  These are a few of the songs that helped me bring clarity to Griffin and Evan.

Inspirational Soundtrack

What You Do To Me – Najee

Blue Beach – David Sanborn

Lost Summer – Paul Hardcastle

Aint No Sunshine – Boney James

Sailing – Christopher Cross

3rd Time’s the Charm! Shutter is being published!

/ Rhonda Laurel, Author

My novella Shutter is being published!  I received word yesterday that my 3rd installment of what I hope to be a series one day, The Invisibles, will be published with Etopia Press!  This is a pleasure for me to introduce you to Antonio De Soto.  Antonio is a photographer that is about to embark on a journey of self discovery when he visits an old friend to help him with a project at the community theater in town.  Antonio is near and dear to my heart because he and his brother Alejandro, a protagonist in a novel that I will hopefully have published one day soon, pushed to me to my limits about how I perceived men.  They helped me break out of the pattern that male heroes had to be cookie cutter types who served the purpose of helping me conjure up a happy ending for my female protagonist!  I think you will appreciate me introducing you to Antonio first.  Like all little brothers, I don’t want him to get lost in the shadows of his big brother Alejandro!

Will keep you posted!

The Rabbit Hole Chronicles 7/12/12

/ Rhonda Laurel, Author

8/19 – Today Yvette Hines was kind enough to let me know she received my promos and that she liked them. I thanked her for the opportunity and would like to thank Denise Jeffries for telling me about it. The promos were a good challenge, trying to create something and capture a person’s attention and hope they won’t throw it away. Lol.

8/14 – I have spent the last few weeks brainstorming about promo ideas!  A new literary friend of mine presented me
with an opportunity to provide some items for an event and I must say I am pleased with the result.  I like anything that stimulates creativity.

8/9 – So finally completed a project that I have had with me for a very long time.  I love all of my characters/children but these two have to be watched at all times!

Since this journey began I find myself amidst a flurry of publishing activity!  It’s exciting to see seasoned writers as well as newcomers like myself, all trying to build an audience and be heard.  When I submitted my last project, I realized I was building my backlist.  Lol.  I hope to be able to bring well-balanced characters to life with each story I tell.

7/30 – Mood music!  I have a process writing a story and I thought I’d take some time and share.  Music has always been a big part of my life, there was a time when I wanted to be a music producer!  Some of you may remember my early days when I attended sound engineering school in New York.  It was very exciting and MANY, MANY moons ago.  Lol.  Sometimes a story begins with a song, that takes me to another place and gives me a bird’s-eye view into the lives of the characters I create.  Some lives are already in progress and I get to sneak a peek and some lives require a little help from me.  Lol.  As I say in the opening line of my poem Messenger of the Craft, “I have the power to shape worlds.”.

Check out my background info and sound track to Ebb Tide.

Rhonda

7/26 – Saw the cover for For the Love of the Game today…and I liked it!

7/21 – When I started this journey many years ago, my dream was to publish and have a printed book in my hands!  With my name on it and some snazzy cover, sitting at a table in a bookstore doing book signings.  And if you were lucky, you do a few lectures.  I had the pleasure many years ago to see a very famous author at the time at a university in New York, the venue was sold out and she was flitting around up the aisles before her lecture started.  To me, this was a sign that you had made it as a writer.

These days, the writer’s life (in my case) exists in cyberspace.  My novellas are produced in an e-format, which means anyone with an electronic reading devise can download my book.  Anyone with a computer can download an app that can download my book.  Lol.  This may be slightly disappointing to some but I like having the work in the forefront and meeting the writer comes a bit later.  Do I dream of someone considering what I do as valuable enough to want to see me in person?  Of course!  But for now, I am comfortable being the writer who helps these characters tell their stories.  Who I am is not necesssary to grasping the plot but I am grateful to those are interested in learning more about me.

7/18 – Another review on Barnes & Noble!  Yay!  In addition to watching the rankings obsessively, I’ve also been looking into opportunities to get my novella reviewed.  From what I have learned the first 90 days are critical in terms of reviews.  As frightening as all this is, watching your life’s dream take place, it’s also awesome at the same time.

7/16 – The ranks for Ebb Tide are looking good!  Not that I am 100% sure I know what they mean.  Lol.  Ebb Tide has been keeping its pace on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and now another site, Kobo.  Since last week I have been ferreting out marketing opportunities and I found one!  In October I will interviewed for the blog Dawn’s Reading Nook.  I have been editing For the Love of the Game this weekend and I rediscovered why I like those characters and I hope you will too.

7/12 – This has been such an interesting journey, I thought it was only appropriate to write about my experience as a writer and what a long and interesting road this has been for me.  I began writing in college.  I was an English major and trying to find a way to make that work for me.  I initially had no desire to teach but I’d always had a great imagination.  One day I saw a call for submissions to a small literary magazine posted on a board at the university.  From the research I’d done, I found out submitting work to a professional magazine was a good form of free and professional criticism.  I submitted my short story and they published it!  There was some fine tuning to be done, but I still remember the letter I received in the mail my words would be place between the pages of their magazine.  And they paid me too!  That was in…roughly 1992.  This twenty year journey has many twists and turns but my soul navigated to what I do best.  Happy reading!