Roberta L. Smith's Blog

Here are some of the celebrities who will be at this awesome event!

Selling books can be a lot of fun, especially when you have returning customers (and dare I say it, even fans.) Creep I.E. Con 2024 was a success and Mike Raff and I were there as Nevermore Enterprises with our labors of love--our books. I lost a couple of sales because I wasn't able to sell with Tap.  I have since looked up Tap and I need a new phone.  I bought the one I have way back in 2017.  It has served me well, but I guess I better upgrade. I also lost a couple of sales because I spaced out. In all fairness, I didn't realize the guy wanted the books. He held two up without saying anything. I realized what he meant when it was too late -- by the way he walked off. He must have thought I was nuts. Live and learn. Pay attention. Anyway, shout outs to my returning buyers: Jason, Wendy, Dorie, and Michael.  It was great to see you again and hear how you enjoyed the books you already bought.  

American Book Fest announced the winners and finalists of The 2023 American Fiction Awards and I'm so excited to report that my latest novel, The Haunting of Peter Ashton, is a finalist in the Horror: Paranormal/Supernatural genre.

Winners and finalists were announced in over 70 genre specific categories. Awards were presented for titles published in 2021-2023. All finalists are listed alphabetically and have equal merit.
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Here is a link to the full list of winners/finalists and a link to my book.
https://www.americanbookfest.com/2023afafullresults.html
https://www.amazon.com/Haunting-Peter-Ashton-Roberta-Smith/dp/B0BZF7M36K/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Just released on March 26, 2023, my new horror novel, "The Haunting of Peter Ashton."  I finished a giveaway on Goodreads and had 4163 people enter to win one of 15 copies.  I'm very excited to see how it sells at the horror conventions Mike Raff and I attend as vendors.

This book is complex. It's not a mystery, everything unfolds in its own time.  Here's the blurb:

Peter’s rock-star sister destroyed his life and took her own with the strike of a match. Now she haunts him, and he may think he knows why, but he’d be wrong.
Terrified by his sister’s ghost, and under duress from her many die-hard fans, Peter is in a downward spiral. There’s help, but it’s the mysterious kind. Caught between an evil he doesn’t know exists, and those who want to help, Peter has a date with destiny where fate will decide if he’s to be freed from his past, able to start anew, or if he’s to succumb to malevolent circumstances beyond his control.
 
A suspenseful psychological horror tale set in modern-day Los Angeles that is part chilling crime drama, part supernatural thriller.
 
A psychological horror tale, part chilling crime drama, part supernatural thriller, set in Los Angeles will keep you guessing

My Kindle e-book giveaway has begun and runs to June 1, 2022. You must enter to win. Just click on the 'Enter Giveaway" button below. The eight stories in the book explore the weird, the ironic, the horrific, and the paranormal. Events that take place within in these eight tales are the result of human emotions and actions gone awry where moral conflict reigns supreme.

Dreams come true at a shocking priceThe number 255 holds significant meaning for a dying womanGreed leads to a lesson learned, but then again, some people never learnLonging for another time, another place makes up for feeling unfulfilledSomeone thinks revenge done right is poetry in action​ .goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; background: white; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: inline-block; color: #181818; background-color: #F6F6EE; border: 1px solid #9D8A78; border-radius: 3px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-size: 13px; padding: 8px 12px; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { color: #181818; background-color: #F7F2ED; border: 1px solid #AFAFAF; text-decoration: none; }Goodreads Book Giveaway Distorted 2by Roberta L. Smith

Giveaway ends June 01, 2022.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Distorted 2 is now available on Amazon (paperback and Kindle e-book versions). I'm doing a Kindle e-book giveaway on Goodreads beginning May 11, 2022, ending June 1, 2022. I'll post a link to enter on the 11th. Goodreads randomly choses who will win one of the fifty Kindle e-books I'm giving away. The book contains 8 stories: 4 paranormal, 3 horror, and 1 crime. I've made a short 30 second promo for each story. Here is the promo for the first story in the book, The Stunner. This one is a horror story.     #wsite-video-container-318017668955724737{ background: url(//www.weebly.com/uploads/b/10855243-660... } #video-iframe-318017668955724737{ background: url(//cdn2.editmysite.com/images/util/video... } #wsite-video-container-318017668955724737, #video-iframe-318017668955724737{ background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position:center; } @media only screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2), only screen and ( min-device-pixel-ratio: 2), only screen and ( min-resolution: 192dpi), only screen and ( min-resolution: 2dppx) { #video-iframe-318017668955724737{ background: url(//cdn2.editmysite.com/images/util/video... background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position:center; background-size: 70px 70px; } }

​Proofs of my latest book have arrived. It's a short story collection titled Distorted 2. Horror, paranormal, one crime story. I'm having it proof read by someone before I release it. In the mean time, I'm making short up-to-30-second promo videos of each story. I have three so far.  I'm excited to share the videos once the book is out.

I am reading this book for the second time. Rarely do I do that. I really like the story. I like Addie. I could never be as brave and resourceful as she is. 

Addie is a woman who knows, back in 1714 small-town France, that she doesn't want the ordinary life of a wife and mother, especially the wife of someone she is being forced to marry. To escape, she sells her soul to the Devil and in return is given freedom to do as she pleases and take all the time she wants. But life isn't easy because of the form this freedom takes, and the Devil shows up in her life from time to time urging her to surrender her soul so she no longer has to face the grueling situation she is in. But as difficult as her life is, it is also filled with wonder and beauty. Think of all the things you might experience as a first if you lived for 300 years. Addie is a fighter and she won't surrender.

I found the story fascinating because history is something that happens real-time, and if you were to live through it and continue to live for hundreds of years, it would be a memory, a part of your life, not something separate from you in history books. Also, you would know that the events you are experiencing today will soon be history to someone not yet born.

I also love the ending of the book, but I won't go there.

When I check out the one-star reviews, I agree with the complaint about repetitiveness. And sometimes the descriptions are over-long and often too abstract or esoteric; you know, when a writer become enmeshed in their own choice of words. I want to be able to see the scene the author is painting, or at least feel it. The author didn't always get me there.

I don't mind the jumping back and forth between time periods, however, which some reviewers hate. I think it's rather clever, actually. The story wouldn't be nearly as engaging if it were simply linear.

So, I guess this book is a matter of taste and according to the reviews, most people love it. Count me as one who can ignore its shortcoming and get into Addie's experience. I love thought-provoking and this story is that for me.

Thank you to my niece, Hayley, for loaning me this book and sharing enough of its story so that I read it in the first place. 

 

So I wrote this short story inspired by a trip to Leadville, Colorado I took with my sister’s family eleven years ago. My niece was 15 at the time and she really was the fifteen-year-old from hell. She is the narrator of the story and I portrayed her as she was on that trip. I submitted the story to a speculative fiction podcast that specializes in everything from hard science fiction, to urban fantasy, horror, steampunk, superheroes and more. My story was rejected. They found my narrator off-putting and suggested I tone her down.  Well, I found her off-putting in real life, so why didn’t I tone her down when I wrote the story in the first place? I’ve done a rewrite per the editor’s suggestion, but I am dragging my feet about submitting the story elsewhere. I could just include it in my next collection of short stories titled Distorted 2.  Oh, btw, my niece is a sweetie now. Headstrong, yes, because she’s turned out to be a bit of a perfectionist. She is also intelligent, beautiful, and kind. The fifteen-year-old terror was a phase.

So, what’s in a name? My name is Roberta. I was named after my dad, Robert. I’ve had a love-hate relationship with it all my life. First off, it’s a little awkward to say. The R then the er sound. But I like that it’s not super common and yet it is common enough. Still, when I was a kid I wanted a name like Susan or Kathy (popular when I was born). I also liked the names of all the girls my age on my street. Connie, Sherry, Nicki, Brenda.  Nice names, huh?
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A lot of Robertas get the nickname Bobbi or Bobby.  Not me. When I was in 6th grade I thought I’d like to be called Robbie.  But I wasn’t the take-charge type.  The best I could do was write Robbie as my first name on a school assignment. My teacher, Mrs. Simon, came after me perturbed. “Is your name Robbie or is it Roberta?! If it’s Robbie . . .blah, blah, blah.” I don’t remember what else she said. I went back to Roberta.

People don’t remember the name Roberta. They don’t even read it right sometimes when it is right in front of them. Most often people will call me Rebecca (starts with R, has three syllables, ends in A; makes sense). One day, though, I was called Rhonda. How’d they get that? Only two syllables.  Oh, starts with R, ends with A. Got it.

I’ve met women named Roberta who don’t use it. They go by their middle name. Just yesterday I was exercising in a therapy pool and two women were in a discussion. One of them evidently is named Roberta, but goes by her middle name, the name I know her by. She hates the name Roberta. The other woman told her, “Well, it’s not your fault you got that name.” I just smiled to myself. I guess the woman named Roberta realized my name was Roberta and sort of apologized to me later. Why apologize? If you don’t like a name, you don’t like a name.

There are some famous Robertas. One in particular is Roberta Flack. Yay! I love her song, “Killing Me Softly.” It’s beautiful! I guess Joni Mitchell’s first name is Roberta, but she must not like it either.
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So, my name is Roberta. I’m okay with it. I haven’t changed it. But for a long time now, my nieces and most of my family call me Berta. So I guess it’s been changed. But not by me. When I introduce myself, I still say, “Roberta.”