by Laura K. Curtis | Nov 5, 2013 | Books, Romance |
I know y’all are getting tired of hearing my voice every day, so today I am going to introduce you to the fabulous Sarah M. Anderson, who did my Lego trailer for Twisted. And at the bottom of the little interview, you can enter to win any format you choose of Sarah’s Expecting a Bolton Baby, e or print!
LKC: How did you get the idea to do Lego trailers?
SMA: I got the idea for Lego book trailers indirectly from Tessa Dare. She’d done some videos using only toys found in her kids’ room–and, given the number of Barbies, her kids are girls. I thought the videos were hilarious but I have 1 son–not so many Barbies (a few vintage Star Wars ‘action figures’, but not enough to do anything with). “I just don’t have Barbies. I have Legos,” I was complaining to my friend one day and then it hit me–I HAVE LEGOS. We did the first video that weekend, for Mystic Cowboy.
LKC: What part of the trailer production is “mother” and what part is “son?”
SMA: I’d say it’s about 70% Mother and 30% Son. Obviously, my son is in charge of props. He also is in charge of backdrops–he draws the skies for me and we use his science fair posterboard as the base. So usually I’m setting up the shots and shouting to him, “I NEED THE SHARK GUY! WHERE IS HE?” and he has to excavate through the thousands and thousands and thousands of Legos we have for the one shark guy. Otherwise, I’m pretty much making up the script as I go, taking the photos (lighting Lego Dudes is harder than you think!) and then uploading everything to my computer and editing it in iMovie. He hasn’t graduated to editing yet, but when we have the backdrop set up, he usually takes shots for a movie he’s going to make … someday. Last time, it was Star Wars Clone Wars Battle (with surprise Ninjago battalion!)
LKC: What’s your favorite (and least favorite) part of making a trailer?
SMA: I crack myself up. I really do. I make these for my own entertainment. I like seeing what Lego weirdness (or other toy weirdness–like Jeremy the Jet from Thomas the Tank Engine popping up in the Real Cowboy video) I can cram into two minutes or less. The least favorite part is actually taking the photos. I guess I need a better camera with a fancy flash or something, but trying to get close-ups without a flash glare is hard. Or maybe I just need to clean the boy fingerprints off the lenses!
LKC: Tell us a little about the Bolton brothers — how many of them are there, what is their relationship like, how does the family dynamic work?
SMA: They’re a fun bunch–as the video states, they put the ‘fun’ in ‘dysfunctional’! The Boltons are three brothers that own and operate Crazy Horse Choppers, a custom-built motorcycle shop. The first book is middle brother Ben (Straddling the Line)–he’s the numbers guy who runs the company and pays the bills. Billy, the oldest (Bringing Home the Bachelor) is the hard-core biker dude who actually builds the bikes. Baby brother Bobby (Expecting a Bolton Baby) is a marketing genius who frequently butts heads with his brothers. They don’t always get along when it comes to the family business, but Boltons always put the family first. When things go to hell in a handbasket, they can count on each other!
LKC: Can you tell us a little about the newest book (that I will be giving away), Expecting a Bolton Baby?
SMA: Bobby was a challenge because he rubs both Ben and Billy the wrong way with his grand, expensive plans that they have to pay for. He’s a playboy who’s also a marketing genius and he has big, big plans–plans that are all suddenly at risk when Stella Caine shows up at his doorstep and announces that she’s pregnant with his baby. Because Boltons always put the family first, Bobby decides he must marry her. He doesn’t expect Stella to say no–but as a consummate salesman, Bobby doesn’t take no for an answer!
Expecting a Bolton Baby Giveaway
by Laura K. Curtis | Nov 4, 2013 | Books, Freebies & Giveaways |
If you know me at all you probably know that John Connolly is pretty much my favorite author out there. Every serious reader has several “go-to” authors, those whose work is an automatic buy, and Connolly’s top of that list for me. Still, I don’t always sit down and read the book the second I buy it because his work is dark. I mean, really dark. So this one’s for fans of the dark and those things that go bump within it. An e-copy of Connolly’s first Charlie Parker mystery, Every Dead Thing in your choice of e format.
A bit about the book:
Hailed internationally as a page-turner in a league with the fiction of Thomas Harris, this lyrical and terrifying bestseller is the stunning achievement of an “extravagantly gifted” (Kirkus Reviews) new novelist.
John Connolly superbly taps into the tortured mind and gritty world of former NYPD detective Charlie “Bird” Parker, tormented by the brutal, unsolved murders of his wife and young daughter. Driven by visions of the dead, Parker tracks a serial killer from New York City to the American South, and finds his buried instincts — for love, survival, and, ultimately, for killing — awakening as he confronts a monster beyond imagining…
Really, you want to read this book if you haven’t already.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
by Laura K. Curtis | Nov 3, 2013 | Freebies & Giveaways, Stuff! |
Our refrigerator is not magnetic–the front is a piece of slate, which is great for leaving chalk notes to each other on and creating a shopping list, but it does leave something to be desired in the “stick a receipt here til you need it” or “grab the restaurant menu” department.
And then, courtesy of The Grommet, I discovered Siconi silicone mats and animals. I love em (though I use the sticky pad with an animal to hold paper on fridge)! You will too! So I am giving away a gray mat and three black kitties. Perfect for all your sticking needs. These can be shipped worldwide, so enter at will!
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by Laura K. Curtis | Nov 2, 2013 | Books, Freebies & Giveaways |
The weather is cooling off and that’s the perfect time to warm up with a hot romance from author KM Jackson. Many of you know her on Twitter as @kwanawrites. Kwana read at Lady Jane’s in October and she had the audience in stitches with the internal monologue…she really understands women and knows how to write what they’re thinking.
So while we were at Lady Jane’s, I had her sign a copy of her first book, Through The Lens, and her second, Seduction’s Canvas. I will send these books anywhere in the world, so feel free to sign up no matter where you live!
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by Laura K. Curtis | Nov 1, 2013 | Freebies & Giveaways, Stuff! |
November’s a busy month in any year. Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, getting ready for the December craziness… and this year I have a book release as well. So as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve decided that every single day in November I will be giving something away. I feel very lucky this year, so I want other people to have some joy, too.
I’ll be posting toys, books, gadgets for readers and writers, pens, paper, and jewelry. The rules will always be simple: comment, become a newsletter subscriber (or already be a newsletter subscriber), tell your friends… the thing that will change is where I will send the prizes. Some will be US only, others will be available world-wide.
To start, I’m giving away the ultimate conference accessory, extra power! This Duracell battery backup takes a standard USB, so you can plug in your tablet, eReader, or phone using a USB power cable. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
by Laura K. Curtis | Oct 29, 2013 | Stuff! |
November 1 begins my massive month of giveaways. I will be giving something away on the blog every single day. But right now I am asking you to do something…even if it’s just commenting on this post at A Little Bit Tart, A Little Bit Sweet. See, Limecello, who runs that blog, is raising money for Love 146, an organization that focuses on preventing human trafficking and also provides aftercare for rescued victims.
It’s possible you can’t donate. But Lime is donating for every comment up to $600, and I’m tossing in an extra $100 the minute she reaches 100 comments. So you don’t have to spend your own money (though of course it’s even better if you have a couple of dollars to give to the cause). All the information (and it’s truly frightening and depressing) is on her blog, including a link to the donation page should you want to give thanks this year by donating a little something. But if you can’t just comment and say you would if you could. That’s enough. Others are also kicking in money depending on how many comments there are, so pass the word to friends, too.
And don’t forget to come back in November to see what I’ve got for you!
by Laura K. Curtis | Oct 21, 2013 | Recipes |
You can, of course, do the same thing with meat if you like, but there are a thousand recipes for beef stews out there. You can also use seitan as a beef substitute if you don’t have a problem with gluten.
You will need a large slow cooker or a pot you can put on very low simmer and a large saute pan.
INGREDIENTS:
1.5 cups chopped celery
1.5 cups chopped onion
1.5 cups chopped carrots.5 lb French beans (or regular string beans), ends trimmed and beans cut in half horizontally
2 baking potatoes, scrubbed & cut into 1-inch cubes or slightly smaller
2 Tbs oil*
Garlic to taste*
1 12-oz container of Pacific Naturals Organic Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
1.25 cups vegetable broth (I like Better Than Bouillon, but it contains soy sauce so it may not be for you if you’re very gluten-sensitive)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 cup of red wine (currently, my favorite for this recipe is Cantina Zaccagnini Montepulciano, which we refer to as “wine on a stick”)
1 dry cup of Beef (Not!) strips (do not reconstitute before cooking)
Salt, pepper, herbs and spices to taste
*I don’t mess around with oil and garlic. I begin virtually every recipe with these two ingredients (unless the first two are butter and sugar), so we keep large containers of Rick Bayless’s garlic mojo in the fridge at all times. So when I saute this particular mirepoix, I use a tablespoon of mojo and a tablespoon of canola oil.
DIRECTIONS:
Saute celery, onion, and carrots until onions clear but have not yet begun to brown. Add beans. Saute until onions brown. Scoop out (leaving as much oil as possible in pan) and put into slow cooker. Saute potatoes in leftover oil (add more if necessary) until brown but not cooked. Put into the slow cooker.
Add cream of mushroom soup, diced tomatoes, and wine to slow cooker.** Pour some vegetable broth into still-hot saute pan and use to deglaze. Then pour all stock into slow cooker. Add salt, pepper, and herbs. (I use grey sea salt because it’s strong so you don’t need much, and blended Italian herbs because they’re easy.)
Cook on high for two hours or until the potatoes are cooked through.
Enjoy! As with most soups and stews, this tastes even better the next day.
**I don’t like a particularly thick base, but if you do, you can start this with a roux using gluten-free flour or you can thicken with cornstarch.
by Laura K. Curtis | Oct 17, 2013 | Books, Romance |
Back during the Brenda Novak auction in support of diabetes research, the awesome Sarah M. Anderson and her equally-awesome eight-year-old Lego set-building son put their trailer-making talents up at auction. I was determined to win, and I did. I now present to you the result:
Don’t forget to check out an excerpt of Twisted on my website!
by Laura K. Curtis | Oct 16, 2013 | Books, Romance, Writing |
Today Twisted went live on NetGalley, so reviewers can now request it if they want it. It seemed an appropriate time to put an excerpt up on my site for anyone who wants to see a bit about the style and story. So if you’re curious, head on over to the Twisted page and read the first chapter!
by Laura K. Curtis | Oct 11, 2013 | Books, Crafts, Freebies & Giveaways, Romance, Stuff!, Writing |
I’ve been thinking about Thanksgiving lately. Not just because I have a lot to be thankful for (which I do) but because my book comes out November 19 (which is one of the things I have to be thankful for). So I’ve decided that this year, I’m going to give something away on the blog every single day for the month of November to celebrate. Books—mine, my friends’, my favorite authors’—in both e and physical copies, handmade jewelry, Donors Choose gift certificates (which I give away almost every year), and who knows what else?
I’ll also be having guests. Normally, I don’t do the guest blogger thing, but I know I won’t be able to blog every day by myself, so expect a few other voices in this space next month. If you have suggestions, or want to volunteer, let me know!
