Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am the second of six children. Although I was born in Queens, NY, I grew up on my maternal grandparents’ farm in North Carolina.
My paternal grandparents immigrated to America during the Russian Revolution. My father grew up in the magical city that never sleeps and met my mother after she came to New York City as a young nurse. When I was two, my parents moved to be near my mother’s family. I was blessed to be raised on a farm in North Carolina and also visit New York City throughout my childhood to visit my grandmother.
I was definitely a tomboy and I hated being inside. I was always ready for an adventure. I loved heading out the door and not coming home until dark. The adventures were endless. Hide and seek was a summertime event. Along with my brothers, sisters and cousins, I loved climbing the big pecan trees that covered my grandparents’ front yard with shade.
I am a graduate of Appalachian State University, where I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Concentration in Management. I worked most of my adult life in the healthcare industry using my degree in administration.
With my childhood memories, and lots of imagination, I have written an exciting, family saga for readers young and old. In my seven book saga, I memorialize an old oak tree that was truly on the way down to the family pond. It still stands today surrounded by a forest of younger trees. The arrowhead that I featured in my books was actually found by one of my younger brothers. And cats were everywhere. One of my fondest memories was finding the new litters of kittens in the hayloft, in the granary or under my grandparents’ home.
I have an awesome family of humans, immediate and extended, and animals. I cherish them dearly. Although my first marriage ended in divorce, my ex and I were very involved parents with our one son being the most important thing in our lives. I am now engaged to a wonderful man, Henry, who I met years ago, but we waited until our children grew up to begin our lives together. He is the one person who actually told me to stop talking about writing that one book and just do it. I don’t believe he ever thought I would write seven.
I completed my seven book family saga in July 2015 and I have just recently published my first children’s picture book, “The SeaCrit Garden”.
Laura Beth is my pen name, as it was my birth name.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“The SeaCrit Garden” just came out for sale in July of this year. After selling our homes in Tampa, Henry and I bought a small beach condo. I was all by myself for seven days. As I walked along the beach near the surf, I continued to see this one particular rock. After noticing it over three times, I picked it up and took it home. I thought it resembled a sea lion and I decided to glue some sharks’ teeth for eyes, cat paw shells for front flippers and a rather large shark’s tooth as a back flipper. Hence, Sampson was created.
I got so excited I began picking up other animal looking coral or beach stones. That week I created Plato, which resembles a pelican or a platypus; Dink, which resembles a dinosaur; Duke, which resembles a dragon and adorable Mumba, which resembles a manatee to my eyes.
I was so excited to introduce my five SeaCrittures, as I decided to call them, to family and friends. When I introduced my creations to Henry, he looked at me and asked, “Are you okay?” Two of his co-workers had to have their very own SeaCritture for their desk!
Then, I packed them up and took them on a trip to North Carolina. I stopped in SC to visit my son in college and showed him my new creations. As Henry had done, my son laughed and looked at me. “Mom, I’m worried about you. You’re playing with rocks.”
When I reached my older brother’s and sister-in-law’s home, I introduced them to my five, adorable creations. They both laughed so hard that I began laughing. My brother kept looking at them and then at me and he would just burst into laughter. But everyone fell in love with them and soon they began getting one as a surprise. My sister-in-law placed hers in a flower pot. That is where I came up with “The SeaCrit Garden” title.
My twenty-seven-year-old niece, and all of her close friends, had to have one.
Still everyone was making fun of me, so I decided to create a book. This was very hard for me as I am not an drawing artist. I began taking pictures of our beach and I taught myself to create pictures using a cheap photo shopping program.
My artist friends are quite impressed. My sister, who is an awesome artist, was totally excited when she saw it. She now wants me to help her publish her first children’s book in the near future.
I have another book planned for my five SeaCrittures, but it may take a year or two as this one was over a two year project for me from Sampson to putting my book up for sale. I learned a lot and I still cannot believe I did it. My three-year-old great-niece calls it her comic book. She has her own SeaCritture and if you could have seen the look on her face when I presented it to her. It was classic. She looked at me like I was crazy, but I hear she is now accepting this strange, small creature.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I am not quite sure what you mean by unusual writing habits, but I do like to write poems whenever something hits me. I wrote a poem after 9/11. I wrote several poems when my wonderful nephew lost a battle to a very rare lung disease. I have so many writing ideas, but not enough time to devote to typing them all out.
I have written several short stories with the intention of publishing a book of short stories one of these days. Some people just don’t want to read a book, but they love the short stories in magazines. I used to read the magazine short stories and really loved some of them. I used to read a magazine from front to back. There is so much information in them. I love my AARP magazines and newspapers.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
As I wrote earlier, I was a tomboy and I was usually outside or with a cousin on their farm. I didn’t sit to read much unless I really had to read for school. My two most memorable books from my youth are “The Island of the Blue Dolphins” and “Star Girl”. Of course, I loved “Charlotte’s Web” and some other books. I loved reading out loud, which I did a lot in third grade. I read books throughout high school and college, but mainly those that were assigned to me. I worked most of my way through high school and college, so I didn’t have much time to devote to reading for pleasure.
When I was in my twenties, I moved to Tampa, FL. Besides my fiancé and my co-workers, I didn’t know anyone. I joined Doubleday Book Club and began reading books. I think I read twenty-two books in less than a year. I loved: “The Trail of Tears”, “One Thousand White Women”, “The Bronze Horseman”, “Zoya”, “Granny Dan”, “The Notebook” and others. I also want to mention I loved reading “Embraced By The Light” and “Questions From Earth, Answers From Heaven”. I am a believer.
I think you can see that I love historical fiction. I know I haven’t read but a tiny bit of what great works are out there. Now that I am writing, I find myself reading inspirational books for motivation. Oh, I love ghost and the stories about them. I have bought a couple of short books as “Ghosts From The Coast”.
What are you working on now?
Presently, I have two books in the works. When I had a writer’s block as I wrote my book, “Nadia’s Sweet Tea”, I got really frustrated and put it away for a couple of months. I began writing a book for the teenagers and older. I have my cover already designed, but my book needs quite a bit of research and I began rewriting it. I have lots of typing to do on this one.
My second book, which has more priority than the book I mentioned above, is for young boys. My son was a bit upset because he felt my seven book saga looked like it was for girls. It’s not, but the covers do give you that impression. Hey, I’m a girl and I grew up on a farm.
My son, who is a Sports Management major, is co-authoring this book with me. It’s going to be really cool and we’re dedicating it to his cousin, my nephew, who we lost several years back. It’s going to be about a sport, but also it’s going to have some cool history in it. My love for historical fiction is coming out. I have someone in the family who reads my chapters to give me a thumbs up or down. She is a retired teacher and she told she would have really loved history if she had been able to read a book that began like this. I think boys will love it.
I was hoping to have it done by the holidays, but I am not so sure. The entire book is outlined, but it’s filling up the chapters with words so the adventures are awesome. We want it to be a short book for young boys to enjoy and not dread reading. My son was a lot like his mom. He began playing sports at three and he didn’t enjoy sitting around reading. But when he did read, he really got into what he was reading and would tell me all about it. We want this to be one of those books.
I have began crocheting in the past year too. Along with my books, I am selling crocheted cat bookmarks. I did it just to see if they would be well received. Well, people are loving them. So, I’m crocheting quite a bit and I’m about to launch a first time ever holiday store with one of my sisters. It’s just something we’re trying out. I’m crocheting beanies and hand warmers and my sister is making the most beautiful jewelry from shells I collected from my beach. She’s quite amazing with her what she can create.
Of course, people have a choice to also get a book along with a beanie and a set of hand warmers, which would be great when you’re reading a book and your hands are cold!!!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I strongly believe meeting people face to face is the best way to promote my books. There are so many choices out there and I haven’t done a book signing yet without selling at least five books. I believe handing out bookmarks is the second best way.
I tried the Facebook page, but I took it down when people began stating their personal life information on it. It just didn’t seem to get people to talk about my books or buy them. That was before I finished my series, so I may try again. I may try blogging, but I don’t want to begin something I won’t keep up with on a regular basis.
I have had a website since I began my first book and I have changed it up for the third time and I really like it. I get lots of compliments by other authors, friends and family. I need to work on the exposure as I had it analyzed and I was told it was all good with the exception of needing more exposure. I have helped another author learn website building and I have recently been asked by two older women, one being an artist and one being an author, to help them build a website.
I have my books set up in three small town stores and I am getting good results. With our four children all in college or out, my fiancé and I are in search of our retirement home and we are traveling quite a bit. I am able to promote my books along the way.
As I found your site, I try and introduce myself and my books now that I am certain that people are really enjoying the read. I have done some free Kindles and I have seen quite a few downloaded, as well as I have had sells in Great Britain, Japan and a few other countries. This is always exciting.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
It’s never too late to become an author. When you have an idea, build upon it with an outline for your chapters and try to envision how you want the book to end. I wrote the last chapter of my final book when I knew I was going to have to write multiple books to tell my story. It really helped me. The last book almost wrote itself. My last chapter had to change a bit, but it ended almost the exact way as I wrote it years earlier with different names and a different chapter title.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t stop promoting and never take the “sorry, but your books are just not what I am looking for right now.”
What are you reading now?
I am trying to read through the Bible and it’s been a two year project for me. I just read “Ghosts of New Bern”, as I am visiting here. I haven’t read a lot in the past two years, other than trying to read The Bible. I have been writing and crocheting.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I believe I will be writing as long as my fingers are able to type. The more books I can type out before I leave this world, the better. If I should be blessed with grandchildren and great-grandchildren, they will have something to either remember me by or to know me.
I just received a note from an eight-year-old distant cousin, who received my books for her 8th birthday from her great-aunt, my cousin. She drew me a picture of her new cat and told me she was going to read my “JILLIE And Her Sassy Cat” first, because she loved her new kitten so much. That made my day. She doesn’t know me, but now she kind of does.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
“The Holy Bible”, because I would have plenty of time to get through it and I believe I will have plenty of time to really understand the word. It’s a hard read, especially The Old Testament.
“Island of the Blue Dolphins” would be a must. I would be living out the story!
“The Largest Book Of Survival”, which I just made up to include everything from building a structure, to building a canoe, to catching fish and maybe island clothing.
A book of memories with pictures of my family. I could look at pictures for hours and enjoy the memories. My son used to get so mad when I would take pictures at his basketball tournaments and all of his teammates would see me and they would shout “Memories!”. I love those memories.
Author Websites and Profiles
Laura Beth Website
Laura Beth Amazon Profile