Author of . . .

Hey! Thanks for clicking here to see what I wrote. I'd like to start by saying - "Nope, I'm not one of those fancy-has-a-book-agent-or-published-by-a-large-publishing-house kind of authors. Nope, none of my books are movies or tv shows. Yet." 😁😁 I say "yet" because I am determined that one day - I will have one of those things . . . or all. I'm not picky. And then, even if not, I have stories that need to be told and I just can't stop that because I'm not a fancy author everyone knows about. I'm an author in a small town with lots of room to grow, super duper perseverance, and the fiery passion to keep on keeping on. 

So, that said....let me introduce you to my novels I have out as of Jan 2022--

Circle of Secrets - A women's fiction novel about two women who are sent on their own journeys of discovery when secrets are revealed that flips their lives upside down. Lots of family drama, mystery, and a small love story within. 

    This was my debut novel - and shows my very green writing.  I knew nothing about nothing and nothing about publishing that's for sure. Long, drawn out descriptions (said one review), overly Christian sounding (said another), a story I could not put down (said many more others. 😃) It was quite the learning experience. I was published through a small vanity press (no idea what that was at the time, all I knew was I had a publisher!) and for a short time did okay. I guess? Not much to compare it to. I thought I'd hit the big times. (stop laughing) Either way, I'm still proud of this novel and it was completed and written in honor of my mother who passed in 2007. She had this plot idea for a movie and wanted to write a screenplay. I could not get that done, but I knew I could take the plot and use it for a novel, to create a story she wanted to tell. I wrote fan-fiction at the time and with the insistence of my mother-in-law, I decided it couldn't be that hard. *Cue Legally Blonde line - "What like it's hard?"* 

    HAH! Elle Woods, in fact it IS indeed hard. The more I learned about the publishing world, the more I wondered if I'd done the right thing. After all, this was a lot of work. I was responsible for advertising my novel. It wouldn't just pop on Oprah's book club just because I WANTED it to. Sadly, in 2015 this vanity press closed its doors and gave me the rights back to the manuscript, not the cover art. So, I submitted to publishers and got rejection after rejection. I stopped writing for a long while. Went through some crazy things in my life. 2018 came around and I still hadn't done anything with it. The urge to write came back to me and I decided to give self-publishing a try. I relaunched Circle of Secrets with new cover art and hit the road running. 

    So I kept writing. And being a mom and stay at home wifey. One day my son was watching Mickey Mouse clubhouse and I was zoned out, in a daze as I had this daydream. A woman was being burned at the stake and she made eye contact with this man. No words were exchanged but they both expressed such love, longing, and pain that it hurt my own heart. What was this story? Their story? How'd it come to this? I grabbed my laptop and wrote out the Prologue to The Awakening.   

    This story was set in 1693 Salem at the time of the witch trials. I thought, wouldn't it be crazy if there *were* actual witches in Salem? So, I added my characters to the nonfictional world that was in the history books, dove into tons of research - for two months - and wrote out an outline. I wrote this story as if I were watching a movie play out in my mind. I was super proud of this book and all I'd poured into it. I ended it on a cliffhanger and actually giggled with delight of how mad readers would be to know they had to read book two to see the final resolution. The Reaping followed not long after, set in 2018 New Orleans. It turned out to be a great tie up for this duet . . . .at the time. With more and more readers who beg for more of this story, point out possible plot holes that could give me material for more, and scold me for killing certain characters, I've began to think on this and I'm leaning to adding more to this eventually. A novella, perhaps that will go with this duet.

In between editing and writing other things, I signed up for some Anthologies. They are all released now for 99 pennies on Amazon. The anthologies are no longer for sale or publication as they are short term released as anthologies. 

• Grave Importance 
• Moonlight Masquerade
• The Huntress

After that, I joined a collection called the "Ice Cream Shop Series", where 31 authors got together and released a book a day in July. Each author was assigned a flavor ice cream and had to incorporate this flavor in their stories and titles. I wrote Salted Caramel Hideaway, which was about a bride left at the altar on her wedding day, who then goes on her honeymoon alone and has an adventure with the British bartender, Eddie. It's a sweet, short read rom com. This was when I really began to find my voice as an author - and gained an amazing editor - who I really learned so much from. 

While editing "The Reaping", I had a dream of this couple for about three months. I watched their lives play out in my dreams and because of my editing and writing Salted Caramel, I had to put it aside but kept writing notes about the dreams. This was such a heart shattering novel to write! The Hardest Goodbye is about a married couple who faces a tragedy and how it impacts their marriage. Real emotional rollercoaster. My editor and I spent hours laughing and crying (from editing and from reading) It has become my favorite work to date because of how raw and real the emotions were that I was able to capture in written word. This book came with three trigger warnings and every reader who buys print copies from me gets a small pack of tissue on the house. (HAH) 

I have a bunch of other works in progress on the burner and recently launched a pen name for the spicier reads 😉 I aim to have more releases in 2022! 

www.laurentisdaleauthor.com has all the links for purchase or you can find me on Amazon. Most of them are available on all major platforms. Circle of Secrets is in KU and on Audible. The duology is also on Audible. Salted Caramel Hideaway and The Hardest Goodbye will be on audible in 2022!