A little bit of everything....

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We certainly did. The kids and their families were all here, and we ate two turkeys! LOL. One at noon, the other at six. In between meals the kids went out and cut down Christmas trees, so I’m hoping to get ours up this week…Along with several other things, such as cards, shopping, wrapping, you know, the whole Christmas gamut, which includes a couple of those wonderful Hallmark Channel Christmas Movies! Yes, December has arrived. Yeah!

My free read, Yes, Genevieve, There is a Santa Claus, should appear sometime this month at The Wild Rose Press.

On Thursday I have the Author Tea for Osseo Community Education. I’m looking forward to the event.

When I turned on my computer this morning, I had a nice surprise… My first review for Shotgun Bride, The Quinter Brides Book 1! WRDF reviewer Joanne Hall says, “Lauri Robinson has rustled up a highly enjoyable read…” If you have a moment, check out the full review. This is the first time I’ve been reviewed by this site, and had never heard of them before.

Last week I received the covers for my two short stories, Rancher McBride and Doctor McBride. The third story, Sheriff McBride is part of the Outlaw and Lawmen anthology. These will be released in May/June of 2009.

I also received a phone call from a book club interested in reading An April to Remember as soon as it’s released in April 2009. They have requested twenty copies, and scheduled me to speak to their group in August. It’s sure to be a lot of fun.

One final note...On Thursday I’ll post a blog on The Cactus Rose of The Wild Rose Press Blog, so stop by to hear more about frontier weddings.

Thanks for stopping, and have a great week!

Do, delegate, dump...

I have the house alone this weekend, and should be busy getting every thing in order for Thanksgiving, but once again, the computer calls and here I sit working on the next Quinter Brother book instead of scrubbing floors and cleaning closets. I’m having supper with a friend tonight, and have my writing group meeting tomorrow, which means Sunday I’ll have to scrub and clean. Then again, I do not believe anyone has died from a messy closet, and I know I’ll have to mop again before company arrives (living with three dogs in Minnesota guarantees the floors will need to be scrubbed again before Thursday), so perhaps I’ll get a little writing done on Sunday as well.

A short time ago I was told to make my life easier I should adopt the three D policy. Do it. Delegate it. Or Dump it. Since I’m historically a Do It type person (just to get it over with) this policy sounded a bit harsh. But, I’ve never liked To Do lists, so the more I think about it, the more doable this policy becomes. Would life be simpler if every morning I looked at what needed to be done and assigned it to one of the D’s? The jury is still out, I’ll have to think about it a bit more, but for today, I think I’ll delegate the floor scrubbing to happen on Sunday night.

On the writing side of things…I signed two contracts this week. Rancher McBride and Doctor McBride are two short stories that will be released in May or so. The third McBride story, Sheriff McBride will be released in June as one of four stories in the Lawmen and Outlaws Anthology by authors from The Wild Rose Press. I finished my Texas Ranger story, The Marriage Plan, and sent it to my ‘beta’ reader for an overall critique before preparing to submit it anywhere. I’m also writing the speech I will be giving at the Author’s Tea on December 4th in Osseo, MN, and of course the Quinter Boys are still vying for their stories to get completed. Oh, and the Quickie Magazine purchased my short story Jailed for publication in their upcoming magazine, and asked for more…All of this tells me my To Do list for writing is longer and taking precedence over floor scrubbing.

How about you, are you a To Do person, or more of a three D’s person?

I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving, and here is a little turkey quiz to see how well you know your bird!

New Release--Shotgun Bride

Shotgun Bride, The Quinter Brides Book One was released this morning from The Wild Rose Press. The print version will become available in February 2009.

Kid, the oldest Quinter brother didn’t want a wife, didn’t have time for a wife, but all that changed the night his brothers knocked him unconscious and hauled him to his mother’s house. Tied to a chair, he had little choice but to marry the girl held at gun point in Ma Quinter’s kitchen. And that’s just the beginning. His new wife can’t even cook, and almost burns down his house attempting to learn how.

I’m currently working on the third book, Boot Hill Bride, (working title, subject to change upon contracting). This story also begins with a ‘shotgun’ wedding, and is set in the number one Old West town, Dodge City, Kansas.

Hope you all have a GREAT weekend!

Authors...

There is something about authors, that when you get together you just can’t seem to stop talking. I met John Koblas today for coffee, and four hours later, we finally left the restaurant!

John Koblas has written over 60 non-fiction books and has prolific knowledge on the outlaw gangs of America. One of his books, The Jesse James Northfield Raid: Confessions of the Ninth Man, has been filmed as documentary. Jesse James has long been known as one of the most daring, most wanted, and most controversial outlaws of The Wild West History. This book is full of little known, interesting facts, as well as theories still in question. Mr. Koblas said he wrote the screen play for the movie and that the ‘shoot out’ scene at the Northfield Bank lasted little more than seven minutes in real life, however, in the film, it goes on for over half an hour. That’s Hollywood, right?

It was fascinating to visit with such an eclectic writer, and to compare fiction/non-fiction writing, including the need for accuracy in the western historical romance genre. He was interested in the research I did for An April to Remember, and it was so cool to talk with someone who knew so much about the Sultana, most people have never heard of the riverboat disaster.

If you ever have a chance to hear his lecture on the James/Younger Gang I highly recommend it, and know you will be in awe with his research.


One final note: Shotgun Bride, The Quinter Brides Book One will be released this Friday, November 14th from The Wild Rose Press in e-book. The print version is scheduled to be released in February 2009.

An April to Remember

I received the release date for An April to Remember. Both the e-book and print version will become available on April 3, 2009.

This book came about in October of 2006 when we went to Memphis to celebrate our 25th anniversary. Graceland was wonderful, Sun Studios, unforgettable, but if anyone travels to Memphis, I would highly recommend taking a river boat ride. During our trip on the Island Queen, the tour guide, “Rooster,” shared the remarkable story of the Sultana, a river boat which exploded near Memphis in 1865. More passengers perished in this accident than any other maritime disaster including the Titanic. However, due to the time of its demise, (the same month Lee surrendered and President Lincoln was assassinated) the story of this remarkable ship was swept into history along with many other Civil War tragedies.

Upon our return home, I couldn’t get the ship out of my mind, and began to research the Sultana. I was amazed and somewhat overwhelmed by all the information. While trying to hold as much history as possible, I began to create a romance story around the ship’s fatal voyage. It was my son Dallas, who gave me the title. He’s a history buff, and while discussing the story he suggested I change the name of my heroine to April and title the story An April to Remember.

The actual demise of the ship remains in controversy even today—some claim it was a coal torpedo, and some claim it was a faulty boiler. (You’ll have to read the story to see what happens in my version.)

I’ll be blogging at The Wild Rose Press Cactus blog this Thursday, so please stop by and leave a comment to be entered in a contest for an e-book of Shotgun Bride that I will give away on November 14th.