Search
  Roberta L Smith Books
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Book Trailers
  • Appearances

Distorted 2 Kindle E-book Giveaway Has Begun

5/11/2022

0 Comments

 
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 price
  • The number 255 holds significant meaning for a dying woman
  • Greed leads to a lesson learned, but then again, some people never learn
  • Longing for another time, another place makes up for feeling unfulfilled
  • Someone thinks revenge done right is poetry in action
​

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Distorted 2 by Roberta L. Smith

Distorted 2

by Roberta L. Smith

Giveaway ends June 01, 2022.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway
0 Comments

Distorted 2 Promo Video & Kindle E-book Giveaway

5/7/2022

1 Comment

 
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.    
1 Comment

Latest Short Story Collection to be Released Soon

4/27/2022

1 Comment

 
Picture

​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.

1 Comment

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

3/28/2022

1 Comment

 
Picture
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. 

 


1 Comment

Weird Ruth Likes Stupid Things

3/25/2022

1 Comment

 
Picture
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.

1 Comment

What's in a name?

3/24/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
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?
​
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.
​
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.” 

0 Comments

Ghost Mortem

8/18/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
This is a very easy read. It has some good things going for it, mainly a lot of likeable characters, but in the end it felt disjointed. The story begins with Everly finding out her jerk of a husband is cheating on her, and the more you learn about the guy as the story goes on, the more it is impossible to understand why a smart girl like her would have married him in the first place. She thinks they might possibly work things out, but immediately he divorces her. I mean, like the day after she discovers him in bed with her best friend, the papers have been drawn up and she signs 'em --- just. like. that. Did I call her smart? Okay, maybe not.  So she moves back to her home town. That's it for this part of the story. I would have liked to see this husband get some sort of karmic slap in the face for how he treats her after she discovers what he's been doing, but no. That's it for him.

Now everything happens fast in this story. I mean impossibly fast. Too fast to believe, really. She finds a job, but at first might not get it because she's never had a paying job so thinks her last few years heading up a not-for-profit foundation where she "coordinated a series of projects that raised several million dollars for various charities" isn't valid. And once she has the job, that seems to be urgently needed, it isn't so urgent and because of the way the boss is, she can run around and get all sorts of personal errands done instead of being cooped up in the office.

There's a murder and she's supposed to solve it.  I was worried that the book would end before I learned who the murderer is and that this was going to be part of a ploy to get me to buy book two. Luckily, it is solved, but again, so very, very quickly that it feels rushed. And there is a storyline that is left hanging to try to get the reader to buy book two. I never buy book two when an author does that to me.

​I'm glad I read it, but I'm moving on.
0 Comments

Mexican Gothic

8/16/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Thank you to my niece for giving me this book to read.  We are in the middle of the Covid pandemic, I have time to read, but I don't. So I'm glad I read this book.  It is very atmospheric, a bit slow at first, but still held my interest. Bizarre characters and I kept wondering what the hell was going on.  It all comes together with an ending I found rather satisfying. If you like horror you'll probably like this book. I gave it five stars on Goodreads.
0 Comments

American Morons

7/18/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture
I bought this book from the author at my writers' club meeting.  I gobbled it up in three days, which says something for me. I wanted to get home from whatever I was doing so I could read more.  I found the stories amazing, especially Safety Clowns. I had to ask myself, “What would I have done?”  Like a Lily in a Flood made me go “ah-ha!” With the author’s use of one word, the entire meaning of the story was released. The story about the amusement park made me uneasy and when the characters made a decision that surprised me (I don’t want to release a spoiler here), I was surprised, and even more uneasy. The last story, The Muldoon, provided a twist ending which I really enjoyed.  If you are looking for in-your-face horror, look elsewhere. But if you like smart writing with everyday situations that hold a surprise, then do read. My only criticism is that sometimes I didn’t understand a line, or I had to reread to make sure of the imagery I had in my head. But mostly, I found myself savoring the descriptions which always promised that something a little dangerous was around the corner. 

1 Comment

Brinkley the Kind-hearted Ghost

5/9/2019

0 Comments

 
My new children's book is now available on Amazon. It is always gratifying to start something new and have it come to fruition. In three days I have received over one-hundred and thirty likes from strangers on my Facebook post about this release which tells me the cover is doing something right. Still looking for that first review! 
Picture
Picture
0 Comments
<<Previous
    Picture

    Here goes . . .

    I write novels. I've written screenplays, short stories, newsletters, business communications and articles. I'm not great at thank you notes. My sister is, but she doesn't know it. I'm not much for blogging. Don't have something to say worth reading everyday. But this is a blog and we'll see what turns up.   

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    August 2020
    July 2019
    May 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012

    Categories

    All
    Book Review
    Ghosts
    Haunted Hotels
    Interview
    Old West Mining Town
    Publicity
    Stanley Hotel
    Virginia City

    RSS Feed

Copyright 2018 - BertaBooks - Roberta L. Smith - All Rights Reserved