Feature: The Spaghetti Slurping Serpent by Laura Ripes

Today I have the pleasure of having the talented and amazing Laura Ripes with me. Laura's picture book The Spaghetti-Slurping Sewer Serpent is now available and for a limited time for every one of her books that's purchased, one will be donated to a child in Africa. Read on to learn more about this great program and how you can get your hands on The Spaghetti-Slurping Sewer Serpent. (I just love saying that!)

Please help me welcome Laura Ripes.

Cherie: Tell us about your picture book, The Spaghetti-Slurping Sewer Serpent.

Laura: I know this may come as quite a surprise, but The Spaghetti-Slurping Sewer Serpent is an alliterative picture book featuring the “Oh so slippery ‘S’ Sound”! It’s a tongue twisting mystery about a boy named Sammy Sanders who can’t sleep. He’s 77 percent sure that a spaghetti-slurping serpent lives in his sewer. So Sammy and his sister Sally set out with their slobbery dog, Stan to see this serpent for themselves.

I’d love to share some exciting news about my book with you! From December 1^st-24^th it’s being featured in an amazing program. For every one of my books that is purchased during this time, one will be donated by myself and Amazon Children’s Publishing to a child in Africa. There are tons of books that are participating in this program, so if you need some books for the holidays or teachers gifts, check out this link: http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=6066980011

Links to my website & glog (the group blog I’m part of)

www.lauraripes.com     www.worddisco.com

Cherie: What a fun book and a great cause! Where did you get the idea for your book?

Laura: There were definitely a few things that went into this book.  For one, I’m a voiceover talent (the people you hear talking in commercials who you do not see in the commercial) articulation and diction play a very important role in that industry. I always work on tongue twisters before I record, so I thought it would be fun to write a story that was both entertaining and would also help kids with the tricky ‘S’ sound.  The serpent in the sewer part came from my childhood.  We had a park by our house that had a huge drainage sewer. I was sure I could hear sounds coming out of the sewer. The fact that my brother used to tease me and tell me something lived in there did not help! I can promise you I kept my distance after he told me that. I was not as brave as Sammy, if something was living in there, I was going to let it be!

Photo provided by author

Laura was kind enough to share with us a page from the book. 

I can so see a big brother teasing his little sister about what's in the sewer!

Cherie: It must be fun to be a voiceover, and I love the story from your childhood. Are you working on anything new right now?

Laura: I have lots of stuff in the hopper, but since The Spaghetti-Slurping Sewer Serpents’ release, I’ve had several teachers and speech therapists, ask me if I have any stories focusing on other sounds as well. So I’ve been working on another alliterative story, that has several “tongue twisting chunks” (I like to call them) each featuring a different sound.

Cherie: I can’t wait to see what you come up with! Now for some fun questions.

Favorite animal?

That’s easy. . .Dogs! They’re loyal, lovable, patient, forgiving and soo darn cute! I could squeeze ‘em all day.

M & M or Skittles?

M & M’s for sure. My favorite way to eat them, is with popcorn! I love the salty and sweet combo, YUM!

Name one picture book you’ve read so many times you know it by heart?

That would have to be The Going To Bed Book by: Sandra Boyton. My three daughters LOVED that book. They are now 15, 13, & 12 and my husband and I still know it by heart from reading it so many times when they were little! I can even remember the inflection we used when we read it *sigh*, oh how I miss those days of snuggling in their beds reading to them  L

Favorite movie or television show?

I have to preface this by saying. . . I love to dance, when I was younger I danced Ballet, Tap, Pointe and Jazz for 9 years then did 4 years of Poms in High School. If I could go back and do it again, and be anything in the world I wanted, I would love to be a professional dancer on Broadway!

That being said. . . I can not get enough of Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition.  I can not stand the mom drama, or the way Abby treats them at times, but when I watch those kids dance, I’m transported to a magical place. 

What book are you the most excited to read?

A sequel. I hate when a book ends, I get so wrapped up in the characters lives, I’m sad when I don’t get to hear about them anymore. So I love to dive into a book 2 or 3 (or however long it goes), just to jump back into that familiar world. Love it!

I’m glad I’m not the only mom who missing the days when the children were little and wanted to be read to before bed. It’s been wonderful having Laura here today. 

To find out more about Laura and her books, 

please visit her website or Amazon. 

Embrace Book Tour

Hi Guys! Embrace is on tour this week. I'd like to thank my wonderful host, Celise from Incandescent Enchantments for putting together such an incredible tour and the amazing bloggers who are participating. There are fun prizes to win along the way so be sure to enter the giveaways.

Plus next week I'll be hosting a Birthday Bash to celebrate Embrace's book birthday so be sure to stop back for more way to win!

Tour schedule:

December 10

http://mymiscellaneousbookshelf.blogspot.fi/ - Review

http://www.captivatedreading.com - Excerpt Reveal

http://andreaheltsley.blogspot.com - Review

http://littlelibrarymuse.blogspot.com - Review

http://booksbonesbuffy.com - Review

December 11

http://thegeekgirlreview.blogspot.com/ - Excerpt Reveal

http://youngadultbookaddict.blogspot.com.au/ - Guest Post

http://iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com - Promo Post
Booksterscafe.blogspot.com - Author Interview

December 12

http://adreamwithindream.blogspot.com - Review

http://threeboysandanoldlady.blogspot.com/ - Promo Post -

December 13

http://www.kainas.com - Review

http://www.readergirlsblog.com - Review

http://www.booknerd.ca - Review

December 14

http://booksbycenteno.com - Excerpt Reveal

www.yanovelties.blogspot.com - Author Interview

http://bookwormsavenue.blogspot.com/ - Review

December 15

www.thecosydragon.com - Review

http://thebookloversreport.blogspot.com - Review

Http://www.crossroadreviews.com - Review

www.danasquare.blogspot.com - Review

http://www.fortheloveoffilmandnovels.com/ - Promo Post

www.thewitchesbrew.biz/blog - Author Interview

http://bookaworld.wordpress.com - Review

Feature & Follow Dec.7th

Feature & Follow is hosted by Alison of Alison and Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View. It's a fun way to make new friends and to interact with old ones. Click the links above to learn more and to join the fun. 

Q: Activity! Who do you want to be? If you could choose any character from a book. What do you think that character looks like and what do you have in common?

I've been asked this before and my first answer is Hermione. I know Alison also picked her, but Hermione is an awesome character. She's smart, a great friend, brave, nice. Oh, and she's a witch. I've always thought it would be fun be able to do magic. What we have in common would be a love for books and I'd like to think I'm sort of smart. 

So who would I pick if I couldn't be Hermione? Mystic from X-man. She's incredibly smart and she's able to turn herself into anyone. She also fights for what she believes in.

So who would you choose?


Hey guys, I want to make you aware of the amazing giveaway my publisher, Omnific Publishing, is hosting. They're giving away not one, not two, but THREE Kindles, each one loaded up with hot, sweet, rule-breaking romance! Each day they will feature a new holiday themed post with some of their great characters.  Click here to find out more.

Do your characters have insecurities?

It’s the first Wednesday of the month, which means it’s time to talk about insecurities. Before I do that, I’d like to thank Alex Cavanaugh for hosting this wonderful meme.

I decided to do something different with this month’s Insecure Writer’s post and talk about our character’s insecurities. Since people have insecurities, so should the characters in a book. Harry Potter doubts he’s powerful enough to defeat Lord Voldemort. Bella Swan doesn’t feel she has anything to offer Edward. These flaws help readers relate to them. I mean, would Harry be as likable if he felt he could charge in and kill the most feared wizard of their time? And Bella would have been a completely different person if she felt she was as beautiful as the vampires who are supposed to be flawless.

Insecurities help to add depth to our characters. Readers can find bits of themselves in a character that’s nervous about speaking in front of a crowd, worried that a decision they made ruined someone else’s life, or insecure about being liked at a new school.

In my young adult paranormal thriller/romance, EMBRACE, Madison hates change. She would prefer it if everything stayed the same, because for her change has never been good. Of course, change is inevitable and everything around her is changing. It’s just one trait that helps to bring her alive. In the middle grade novel my agent is shopping around Zach moves to a new school where he discovers he’s not as quick to jump into new situations without his best friend at his side. It’s just one layer of his personality and an obstacle he won’t be able to overcome until he faces the guilt he’s been harboring over something that happened between him and this same friend.

Some of the greatest characters in literature were insecure: Hester Prynne in the Scarlet Letter, Dorian from The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights.

So make your characters insecure about something. Give them fears and quirks. It’s these flaws that make them likable—sometimes hated—but always more human.

Hey guys! My publisher is hosting an amazing giveaway. They will be giving away not one, not two, but THREE Kindles, each one loaded up with hot, sweet, rule-breaking romance!

Each day they will feature a new holiday themed post with some of their great characters.  Stop by every day to visit and get extra entries!

Click here to find out more.

Plus, there's still time to enter to win an eBook of Embrace plus a $15 Amazon gift card. For more information click here or on the Birthday Bash icon on the right side of this blog.

The Shitty First Draft

Why would anyone want to write a shitty first draft? Why pour hours of hard work into something that you know isn't going to be good enough to share with even your most trusted readers? The answer is simple. When you’re done you have a beginning, middle and end. You've gotten to know each of your characters. You've created their world. You've discovered what’s important to your characters. What they will face. How their actions affect the people around them. You started a journey and made it to the end, a task some writers never accomplish.

I think it’s important to get the first draft written. It creates a foundation you can build on. I've found that by the time I reach the second half of a first draft I've learned so much about my characters that I hadn't know when I began their story. By pushing my way through the first draft I discover little hints that can be woven into the beginning chapters to foreshadow things to come. I know exactly what needs to happen in that chapter I stumbled through.

The revising process is when I look at my work with a critical eye. I add sensory detail that I may have missed. I add in the necklace that is important to my character because it represents the memory of her mother or the brief encounter with a quirky neighbor that explain something that happens later on in the book. And I add the missing details needed to allow readers to draw a picture of each scene in their minds as they read.

Everyone has a process that works for them. Over the years I've discovered that there’s no need for me to stress over what my characters discuss at the breakfast table in chapter two because the answer will come to me as I work my way through the first draft.

How about you? Do you polish each chapter as you write them or do you let the words flow and go back later to do the polishing?