New cover for Last First Kiss…also from KK of Hot Damn Designs

Fabulous new cover for Some Day Somebody, designed by K. Killion of Hot Damn Designs.

http://www.amazon.com/Some-Somebody-Fleur-Love-ebook/dp/B005JNAJ3Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316056492&sr=8-1

Some Day Somebody is the story of one  woman’s encounter with independence, intrigue, and intimacy in the arms of
a man who helps her to realize it’s never too late for a new beginning. 

Carrie Jeansonne’s Plan for the rest of her life: Education  (check), Career (check), Provide for her three teenagers (check), Divorce  controlling, horn-dog of a husband (somewhat nasty, but progressing), and find  some happiness (not so easy).  The thirty-six year old mother wants to concentrate on her new drafting career in Road Design with no added complications – is that too much to ask?

Enter Sam Langley: Knocking on forty, single, and hating it. Formerly the office clown, his morose mood has prompted his co-workers to dub him “Oscar the Grouch” in the year
since his wife’s departure and his divorce.   After clashing with his new, outspoken co-worker, the surveyor can’t  help but be drawn to this brassy, sassy lady with her take no prisoner  attitude.

Plagued by her ex-husband’s can’t- take-no-for-an-answer  intrusions and sleep depriving phone calls, Carrie is reluctant to allow another man into her life.  By the time
she decides Sam could be more than a friend, the mysterious phone calls lead to
something dark and disturbing.  As Carrie realizes she may be dealing with more than her disgruntled ex, she struggles to overcome the obstacles threatening her happiness as well as her life.

I’m extremely proud of my Cajun heritage and try to inject the flavor and flair of southern Louisiana in the form of food, customs, dialect, or music. I would love the opportunity to introduce you to ‘my people’, the witty, wonderful, and sometimes wild characters of my imaginary world.

COMING SOON!

Last First Kiss

Book 2 of La Fleur de Love Series

While I’m waiting for those, I and my cover artist/photographer/friend/co-worker, Joan, will begin working on the cover for the first two books in my series.

Lastly, I’ll convert the books to e-reader format for Amazon’s Kindle (either the reader or the free reader for your PC, which is what I have)  and upload my books to Amazon.  Once I get the kinks worked out of that, I’ll tackle the PubIt formatting for Barnes and Noble’s Nook reader, then go on to other formats.  I do plan on having print books eventually, but I’m going to concentrate on e-books for the first few months.

So, bear with me!  I’m going to use Facebook, twitter, blogs, and any other form of Social Networking to get the word out, but I can always use the help of friends, fans, and family to get the word out.

I’m constantly striving to get my writing cleaner, sharper, tighter, and more pleasing to the reader.  I pray that you all love reading about my characters as much as I love writing about them and the fictional world I’ve created.  As you may have heard, writing is just a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep you posted on when the books will become available.  You keep checking, and I’ll keep blogging!

Lori

Deborah LeBlanc will be the emcee this year, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing her also. I met her at the luncheon for the first time last year and have bumped into her at a few functions since then.  I think I’ve already bought everything she’s written, so I hope she’s published something new since I last saw her.

Later,

Lori

Book One: Some Day Somebody

Book Two:  Last First Kiss

Available for Amazon’s Kindle

AND

Barne’s and Noble’s Nook

Late Summer or Fall of  2011!

So, as I said, I’ve decided to try the self publishing route. E-books and print on demand from both Amazon (Kindle) and Barnes and Noble (Nook).

The dilemma? Choosing a genre for my stories. They contain suspense and romance but I’ve been told they don’t exactly qualify as Romantic Suspense. WTH??? So, I kick into research mode and pull up all sorts of articles stating the differences between Fiction, Romance, Suspense, Mystery, etc.

What it comes down to is this…I write fiction. I write from both the women’s and men’s points of view. They have romance, some have mysteries, all have a little suspense, but not as the main storylines. The five (and a half) books I’ve written are a series, in that each book will have characters that are included in the following book.  I’ve even found a fantastic name for the series that works in the Lousiana story settings.  I call it “La Fleur de Love” series. My books are novels, because they all come in between 90,000 to 100,000 words. They have subplots with multiple characters and storylines.  The problem is, I can’t seem to follow the strict guidelines called for by the industry for one particular genre. So what does a rambling, rebel writer such as myself do in this situation?

She sells it as Mainstream Women’s Fiction. Why? Because it allows me to do what I do best in writing, which is to bend the rules…color outside the lines…have some fun with my stories.

All I can do now is get them out there, and hope I find a family of readers who have as much fun reading my work as I have writing it.

Later,
Lori

Last Saturday, daughter in law Trish and I took off on another small writer’s adventure. We left around 6 a.m. and made it to the library in Metairie by 9:30 for the chapter’s monthly meeting. New York Times best selling author (and friend, I’m proud to say) Shirley Jump was there as a guest speaker and giving a condensed version of her workshop, From Good to SOLD. Attending this meeting gave Trish and I the opportunity to meet up with friends, Dawn Chartier and Debbie Dalme, as well as surprise another friend, Farrah Rochon, with our unexpected presence.

We got to witness as Charlotte Parker, their in-coming president, presided over her first meeting as Prez. The meeting began at 10:00 a.m. sharp, and though Charlotte claimed to be nervous, I didn’t see any sign of it. She introduced the guest speaker, Shirley Jump, who spoke to a full house thanks to an advertisement in the previous week’s paper. Shirley has a remarkable way of giving you examples that make it easy to get her point across. After an hour of easy to follow lessons on plot, conflict, scene, sequel, dialogue, and showing versus telling, the meeting adjourned. I bought four books from Shirley, and had her authograph them for my soul sister, Arlene, and my daughters.

Everyone drove to the Picadilly down the street afterwards for lunch, where I got to spend another two hours talking to Shirley, Dawn, and Farrah, and getting to know other members of their hospitable group.

Le Pavillon Hotel in the the French Quarter of New Orleans

It just so happened that Karen Marie Moning, author of the Highlander and Fever series, was coming to New Orleans for the release of her latest book in the Fever series on the same day as the meeting. So Trish and I headed on down to the historically posh Le Pavillon Hotel in the French Quarter. Thank God Dawn led us there or we’d have been totally lost. While there, we met up with several other Fever Fans, a mother and her daughter, whom I truly believe I’ll be hearing from again…What do you say, Suzette and Christine?

We also met the absolutely adorable and sexy sounding Phil Gigante, who is the THE VOICE of Barrons in the audible version of the Fever books. He was sweet enough to take a photo with me, and even agreed to record a verrrry sexy message into my I Phone’s voice recorder. Unfortunately, after he left the hotel, I discovered that the entire time he thought he was recording, it was paused. RATS! And I was all ready to download the APP that would enable me to transfer it to this site as well as my blog. Let me just tell you ladies, here and now, it would have been a wonderful addition to my websites. What a set of pipes that man has to match his fantastic personality.

Trish and I would have LOVED to stay and get to know those women better, but we had to leave to make the three hour drive back home that same evening. So, instead of actually getting to meet and speak to Karen Moning, we had to be satisfied with watching her check into the hotel from several feet away. We left by four forty-five, just in time to avoid having to pay another three bucks to keep my car parked conveniently in front of the hotel. But still – that wasn’t bad for a spur of the moment trip to the French Quarter we hadn’t planned on making.

Many thanks to Debbie Dalme for calling her friend, Jennifer Zeffer and having her introduce us to everyone in their group. It was a blast and a truly enrichening addition to our trip to the SOLA Writers meeting.

Mais, chere, where I come from, we call that LAGNIAPPE! (lon-yop)