Cheryl Robinson's Blog

This is the second book trailer for my forthcoming novel Until Ray, which will be available free at select online eBook retailers beginning June 27,2017.

Until Ray is set in the mid-eighties in Detroit. It is an unconventional love story of how two young people transitioning into adulthood find each other and develop a bond that will be tested through three decades.

I have a separate website dedicated to the Until Ray trilogy. Please click here to be directed there to watch the first trailer and listen to audio introductions of several of the characters from my novel.

To read the first four chapters please click here.

Two people in the same city but worlds apart.

Until Ray is an unconventional love story of how two young people transitioning into adulthood find each other and develop a bond that will be tested through three decades.

RAY IS LOST …

He lives in northwest Detroit with his mother. When he’s not at home, he’s either at the mall selling women’s shoes or in the club. In both places, he's focused on one thing—picking up women. Only now he’s ready to make a change but isn’t sure how to do it.

THEN SARITA ARRIVES …

At twenty-four, she has an MBA, is a CPA, and works in upper-level management at GM. But all that success comes at a cost: she’s lonely and craves the one thing she’s never had—attention from men.

Dive into a love story filled with soul-searching drama told from two very different perspectives. UNTIL RAY, the first book of a trilogy, is set in the mid-eighties in Detroit, where the author was born and raised.

UNTIL RAY will be available free wherever eBooks are sold beginning June 2017.

To listen to an author reading of the first four chapters, please visit www.untilraytrilogy.com

I stared across the booth at my mom with a blank expression on my face and told her what I felt she needed to hear, what I’d never heard her husband say. “You look pretty.” And she did—prettier than I’d seen her look in a long time. She looked like she’d lost a few pounds. Either that or bought a better girdle. And I had an instant vision of my mom losing half her size, like the people on The Biggest Loser. We were at Red Barrel, celebrating their three-year wedding anniversary on Halloween with a bunch of people dressed up in costumes. Who gets married on Halloween? Better question: Why did they get married at all?
 
Nothing changes if nothing changes

Thirty-one-year-old Nevada Pearson is suffocating in a loveless marriage and mourning the loss of the life she always wanted. The work-from-home mom has gained over a hundred pounds since saying “I do,” three years earlier, to her daughter’s father and is now convinced he’s cheating. On impulse, she participates in a twelve-week clinical trial for a diet pill and loses half her size. When changes at her job force her back into the call center, a place she dreads, she decides to make the best of it, which leads to an affair with her new boss—a sexy, older man with nontraditional beliefs. Nevada has always been the faithful type who would never ever cheat on her husband.

Nicole, Nevada’s troubled teenage daughter has three vices: profanity, junk food, and something she’s too embarrassed to mention. The fifteen-year-old uses the Internet to diagnose her mental problems and is convinced she has social anxiety. On top of that, she hates school and her mother’s husband. And if it were not for a certain NBA All-Star point guard and his team in green, she would feel hopeless. At school, she eats lunch in the bathroom. At home, she cries about the bullies who ruined her school day. There’s a change to her agenda when one of the finest boys at school—someone with problems of his own—takes an interest in her. Now, even though she’s fat and, by her measurements, somewhere between average and butt-ugly, she has a boyfriend, finally.

A deeply moving and unforgettable journey of transformation told through the voices of Nevada and Nicole. The fragile yet comical mother-daughter duo may be down, but they refuse to count themselves out.

You can add Like Mom on Goodreads by clicking here

 

 

If you would like to try your luck at one of the three door prizes, please sign in:

The grand prize winner of the $500 American Express Gift Card from the previous contest will be drawn and announced at the end of the book chat. Good luck to all!

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Have you read The One? There's plenty of time yet before my online book chat. I'll be discussing my latest novel on my blog with others who have read it and announcing the grand prize winner from my ongoing blog contest: The winner's choice of a $500 American Express Gift Card, Paypal Cash, or an iPad3. Some others will receive door prizes for attending the online chat and a few other prizes will be given to those who correctly answer a bonus question about the book.

I hope you'll be able to stop by.

 

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<a href="http://rafl.es/enable-js"&am... need javascript enabled to see this giveaway</a>.Deadline for entry for the Grand Prize is March 31, 2012 at 12:01 a.m. The winner will be announced during the online book chat, but you do not have to be present to win.

*Door prizes and avid reader prizes will be announced during the online chat, and you will need to be present to win.

To complete the book quiz, click here.

On March 31, 2012 access the book chat through the link below:

The One Book Chat – Join Now! (LIVE )

 

Beginning today, you can enter the 14 Days of Valentines Giveaway for a chance to win any of the prizes listed below:

From February 15-28, 2012, I'll be giving away fourteen copies of The One (e-book edition): one copy a day for fourteen days.

On February 29th, one lucky person will win their choice of an Amazon Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet, and four people will win a $25 Amazon.com Gift Card or Barnes and Noble Gift card for answering a brief survey.

All of this is leading up to the $500 Grand Prize that will be awarded during my online book chat on March 31, 2012.

You may enter for a chance to win a daily prize from now until February 27, 2012.

The end date for the Amazon Kindle or Nook Color and the $25 Amazon.com Gift Cards is February 28, 2012 at 12:01 a.m.

The end date for the grand prize drawing is March 30, 2012 at 12:01 a.m.

Simply:

Enter through the Rafflecopter form below with either your Facebook login or your name and e-mail address. You do not need a Facebook account to enter.    
Once you have logged in hit the green button that corresponds with the task(s) you would like to complete.  Follow the instructions and then hit enter.
Complete at least one task  or as many as six, and you will be entered into the contest. The more tasks you complete the more points you'll have toward the contest, and the more prizes you'll be eligible to win.
Winners are drawn randomly. All prizes, with the exception of the grand prize, will be drawn while the contest is still running. Winning a prize does not prohibit you from entering to win any of the other prizes.
Please be careful not to indicate you've completed a task until you have actually done so, or it could void your entry.

Good luck!

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<a href="http://rafl.es/enable-js"&am... need javascript enabled to see this giveaway</a>.This contest is sponsored by Second Chance Motors.

Dear Readers:

Three years ago, I wrote a story about a single woman in her early forties who was hugely successful in business, with her professional sales career, but she had never had much success with her love life. The book is entitled In Love with a Younger Man. After seven years of outstanding sales performance, Olena Day was awarded a paid one-year sabbatical. With the time off, she moved to Atlanta and did something she hadn't done in years—dated. She met two men; both happened to be much younger than her, and while her heart told her one thing, her mind told her something else. Unintentionally, I left a cliffhanger at the end. And now Olena's story continues with some of the old characters returning while a few new ones will be introduced.

The One is a standalone novel, and you don't have to read In Love with a Younger Man prior to reading The One.  Later this week, The One will be available in e-book for $7.99 and in paperback for $14. And beginning February 1, 2012, you can purchase a copy in paperback direct from Rose Colored Books for the special price of $9, which also includes shipping and handling, or you can support your local library and check out a copy there. If it's not at your library or favorite bookstore, please place a request.

Once you have read my latest novel, I invite you to join me on March 31, 2012 during an online book chat that I'll be hosting on my website. I plan to make it as fun and interactive as possible, complete with door prizes.

Also, beginning Wednesday, February 1, 2012, you can enter the 14 Days of Valentines contest on my website, and the two winners of my Early Entry Valentine's contest will be announced on that day, as well.

Thank you in advance for your consideration in placing my forthcoming novel on your list of books to read.

Take care!

Happy New Year, Avid Reader!

If you've visited my blog, Facebook page, or you're a Fresh Fiction or Goodreads member, then you may know that I've been promoting my forthcoming novel, The One, through a series of holiday contests all leading up to the 14 Days of Valentines Giveaway. Thanks to my sponsor, Second Chance Motors, I will be running contests from now until the end of March, which means I have three more contests to go.

In the early entry contest, one winner will receive a $200 Valentine's Package, which includes the following:

$100 American Express Restaurant Gift Card.

$75 Gift from any one of the following: Godiva.com/Sees.com/Ediblearrangements.com/1-800-Flowers.com. (You may request that this gift be sent to someone else, and it will arrive on or slightly before Valentine's Day. Flowers and Edible arrangements are guaranteed to arrive on Valentine's Day.)

$25 Fandango.com Movie Gift Card.

Plus an autographed copy of The One.

Please note:

This is not the 14 Days of Valentines Contest.
The winner of this contest will also be considered the 1st winner of the 14 days of Valentines Contest. 13 additional prizes will be awarded between February 16-28th.
Entry into the 14 Days of Contest will begin on February 1, 2012.
This is an early entry contest open to those who have either previously liked the Facebook page for The One or Remember Me, Fresh Fiction Subscribers, Goodread subscribers, visitors to my blog, and those who received an e-mail invitation.

There are 6 easy and optional ways to enter and a total of 10 entry points to earn. 
To Enter, please use the form below and click the green 'Do it!' button for instructions. 

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&<img src="http://cherylrobinson.com/wp-includes..." alt="" class="mceWPmore mceItemNoResize" title="More…" /><br /> <script id="raflin-eec01506″ type="text/javascript">/*{literal}<![CDATA[*/ window.RAFLIN = window.RAFLIN || {}; window.RAFLIN['eec01506'] = {id: 'NWU5ZWNjZmMwNDdiNTFlNGI1ZmYyNThkMzY3NDA2OjEw'}; var url='//d12vno17mo87cx.cloudfront.net/static/...', head=(document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]); (function(d,n,h){if(!!d.getElementById(n))return;var j=d.createElement('script');j.id=n;j.type='text/javascript';j.async=true;j.src=url;h.appendChild(j);}(document,'rsoijs',head)); /*]]>{/literal}*/</script><br /> <a class="rafl-powered" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com" target="_blank" style="font:10px sans-serif;color:#999;width:100%;text-align:center;display:block;" id="rpow-eec01506″>a <i>Rafflecopter</i> giveaway</a><br /> <noscript><a href="http://rafl.es/enable-js"&am... need javascript enabled to see this giveaway</a>..This contest is sponsored by:

Do we kiss at the stroke of midnight on New Year's to spread love? Is that the reason? Ever since Thursday, I've been thinking a lot about love. Not about kissing on New Year's, but, for some reason, I did wonder about that. So I looked it up and found out that it's a custom in some Western cultures to kiss at the stroke of midnight on New Year's to celebrate and set the tone for the new year. Some people are even superstitious that if you don't kiss someone on New Year's you will have a year of loneliness.

A year of loneliness. How interesting? Being single does not necessarily mean you're lonely. To me, the loneliest feeling is when you're with someone and you feel as if you're all alone.  But because we're embarking on a New Year, let us all look forward to having and sustaining real and true love. I don't have a definition for what real and true love is. But I will say that I came across a video two days ago that touched my heart and made me cry, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. I'm not sharing this with you to make you sad on New Year's Eve because as sad as it is, it's also extremely beautiful and touching. It renewed my faith in the power of love. The video I'm referring to is the wedding video of Chris Draft and his wife Lakeasha Monique Rutledge-Draft. Chris married Lakeasha on November 27, 2011. She passed away a month to the day, on December 27, 2011, and her funeral is today. I watched their wedding video first, and I could literally feel their love, and that feeling continued as I watched the next video, which was a photo montage. Both videos gave rise to the wedding vow, "I, (Bride/Groom), take you (Groom/Bride), to be my (husband/wife), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.

I would like to wish every one of you a year filled with real love—a love that doesn't hurt. One that doesn't use you or abuse you and that gives, and one you're willing to accept. I'd also like to extend my deepest condolences to the family and friends of the Draft family.

Keasha & Chris Draft Wedding Trailer from KRJ PRODUCTIONS on Vimeo.

Keasha Draft Photo Montage from KRJ PRODUCTIONS on Vimeo.