Author Spotlight: Welcome Back, Laurie Beach!
So this is cool–we have a winner! Congratulations, Kimberly Field, your name was chosen at random from all the commenters today, so you are the winner of the Pat Conroy cookbook and a signed print copy of Blink Twice if You Love Me. Laurie will be in touch with you! Thanks to Kimberly and everyone for stopping by the blog–we love having you here and joining in our conversations!
Oh, mes amies, I’m so thrilled to welcome back one of my very favorite new writers! Laurie Beach is an extraordinary voice in the world of Southern fiction; Tule Publishing is so lucky to have her and I’m so lucky to be her copy editor. I got to meet and spend time with Laurie when we met in person at the July Tule Author Retreat in San Juan Capistrano, California. She is a delight to talk to and just as charming as you might expect. If you haven’t discovered her books yet, you absolutely should.
Laurie is a former news reporter, advertising producer, and political press secretary who, after raising four children, is parlaying her love of reading and writing into a career as an author. She is a sucker for elderly people, grumpy animals, and happy endings. Having grown up in Alabama, she loves novels set in the South. Laurie now lives in California with her husband and their spoiled old dog.
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She’s here today with her newest release, Blink Twice if You Love Me, book 2 in her Crickley Creek series and she has a fun giveaway. Take it away, Laurie…
Thank you, Nan, for hosting me again!
For those of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting Nan in person, I’m happy to report that she’s just as warm and welcoming as you’d expect. She naturally invites people in, and for me (an author who tends to write books centered around the theme of belonging), I especially appreciate people like Nan.
Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong—either in a place or with a group of people? Brene Brown says there’s a difference between belonging and fitting in. She says, “Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming who you need to be to be accepted. Belonging, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are.”
In Blink Twice If You Love Me, the second book in the Crickley Creek series, Krista Hassell has spent a lifetime trying to fit in. Born in the Lowcountry to a poor family with a bad reputation, she lives in a shack on the undesirable marsh side of town. Her mother is the town drunk and her little brother is wasting away from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. How does a girl overcome all of that? She can’t even figure out a way to fit in, so is there any hope that she will ever truly belong? It takes an outsider to finally see Krista’s value, and his belief in her ends up changing the world for both of them.
For a chance at a print copy of Blink Twice If You Love Me and a Low Country cookbook written by Pat Conroy, please tell us: Is there a place where (or a person who helps) you feel most genuinely yourself? We’ll draw a winner in the continental US on Saturday morning.
Blink Twice if You Love Me
She’s determined for her rags to riches story to have a fairy tale happy ending.
Krista Hassell might be a member of the poorest, least respected family in Crickley Creek, South Carolina, but she believes deep in her soul that character counts. She’s finally curated the perfect plan—and boyfriend—that, together, will save her societal standing and rewrite her future. That is, until a family tragedy strikes and her mother goes off the rails…again. If only Krista could show her community who she really is beyond her old, crumbling shack on the marsh, she could find the inner peace she yearns for.
Army veteran Johnny Merrick came to Crickley Creek for a wedding and decided to extend his stay in the quaint town, renting the small house next door to Krista for the summer. As their friendship grows, Krista is forced to rethink the very relationships her plan needs to succeed—and yet it might be exactly what she needs to fully embrace what fills her soul most: the marsh she’s trying to escape.
But only if she makes her move before the fireflies disappear for the season…
20 Comments
bn100
with family
Laurie Beach
Family is the best!
Kimberly
I miss fireflies, having lived in California for over 30 yrs, they still delight me, when I happen to catch them, when I visit family in Indy. I am lucky I am to be myself with most everyone as far as friends and family are concerned. But there are social situations that I wish I could be more myself and felt like I belonged a little more. I used to be much more extroverted than I am now. Best wishes for much success with your new book, it sounds like a fabulous story.
Laurie Beach
Thank you, Kimberly! I live in California now and miss the fireflies too!
Cherie J
When I am with my twin sister, I am most genuinely myself. She is the person that understands and accepts me the most.
Laurie Beach
You are so fortunate to have a twin! I have twin daughters and the bond is so special.
Debra Pruss
I feel most like myself in my own home. We live in the house where I grew up. We moved in when my Mom was no longer able to take care of herself. She went into a nursing home a couple years ago. She went to the Lord in January. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.
Laurie Beach
Debra, I’m so sorry for the loss of your mom. How wonderful that you get to live in the family home!
Latesha B.
This sounds like such a great story. I don’t have any one place or person that makes me feel genuinely myself. I think that’s why I love books. I can become whoever I want to be when I read.
Laurie Beach
Thank you, Latesha! I agree about the books. They can be magical!
Joannie Sico
I don’t really go any where unless I have to and the only people I’m mostly around are my parents and daughters so of course I can be myself with them. I would like to think I would be myself with anybody and everybody but I’m sure there are times I would have my guard up though.
Laurie Beach
It’s so nice to have family around!
Laurie Beach
Hi, Janine! Thank you for your kind words and reviews! I’m so happy you have a safe place with your husband. You deserve a world of happiness! ❤️
Sue Farmer
I have loved both of Laurie’s books. She makes the characters so real and genuine and her descriptions of Crickley Creek makes you feel like you are there. My husband Bob helps me to feel most like myself. We will celebrate our 40th anniversary in October.
Janine
I absolutely love Laurie’s books. I am so happy she signed with Tule or I might not have heard of her books. I am going to say my husband makes me feel like myself the most. I have shared things with him that even my own family doesn’t know.
Laurie Beach
Thank you, Sue! I appreciate your support and recently read the great review you posted! Glad you have a person with whom you belong. ❤️ Good people deserve good people. Happy 40th anniversary! WOW!
Roseann McGrath Brooks
Intriguing summary and great discussion about “belonging.” I’m blessed to have several people in my life with whom I feel I belong, especially my husband of 40+ years!
Laurie Beach
Hi, Roseann! Sounds like you have a fabulous support system. ❤️ Thank goodness! And, congratulations on your over 40 year marriage! Wow! What an inspiration!
Liz Flaherty
I loved Krista in THE FIREFLY JAR and can’t wait to read her story! I hope, as we used to say before electronic books, “It flies off the shelves.”
Laurie Beach
Thank you, Liz! She was a fun character to pull out and make the protagonist. One of my favorites, actually. I hope you enjoy it as much as the first. And, thank you for the review and the good sales positivity!