About the Book
Book: Hollywood is Not Home
Author: Annmarie M. Roberts
Genre: Contemporary Christian Fiction – Romance
Release date: July 13, 2021
Would you trade fame for privacy?
Movie star Maggie Malone has a glamorous lifestyle with everything money can buy—except privacy. Hounded by the paparazzi and ridiculed for her faith, Maggie secretly struggles with severe anxiety and loneliness. All she desires is to be herself—southern girl by birth, ranch lover by heart.
When an anonymous benefactor invites Maggie to participate in a secret project, will her hopelessness find a new direction? Or will she become another celebrity travesty? What if she discovers Hollywood is not Home? Her faith, family, love, and future hang in the balance.
Click here to get your copy!
About the Author
Annmarie M. Roberts is an author, copywriter, and scriptwriter. She is a wife and mother of two. Her soul grew to love writing at a young age. In grade school, she could hardly wait to receive her first writing assignment, “What I did over summer break.” She just loved to impress her teacher with a detailed descriptive read of a summer filled with wonder and fascinating adventures, some of which were true. Writing has been her passion in one form or another ever since. “There is nothing like the power of expression through words to create a moment in time or an imaginative place to magically transport your reader,” Annmarie mused when asked about why she loves to write. When she is not working on commercial script writing, she spends time with her family and volunteers with her church in the community.
More from Annmarie
Fall in love with a faithfully blessed story and characters that grew from my heart and surely bound to find a place in yours!
This has been a long-time coming friend. It all started about fifteen years ago from a very old desktop computer and a rickety put-together desk that you buy in a box. In the beginning, it had highlights of Hollywood but no traces of the southern influence yet. We hadn’t moved to the south when I started my novel, so the blessings that were about to bestow upon me were still in store. Maybe it came from the handwritten letter from my new pastor in my mailbox the first day I arrived, or the first time I heard a shopping cart called “a buggy”, either way, I knew I was home when I landed in South Carolina. So much of my story is influenced by good Christian women I met in church, delicious southern food that will knock your socks off, and the abundance of faith that runs here like the rivers.
If you are reading this, know I appreciate you. If you read my book, I know you will feel the love, friendship, family, laughs, and tears that I belted out as I wrote it.
Find a special place like I have on the covered deck near my kitchen whereas I write now I hear the inviting sound of wind chimes tickling in the soft Southern hot-humid breeze accompanied by a greyed over cloud pending the usual afternoon downpour. Southern afternoon rains are fast and furious, but they kiss the grass and the trees and delight our eyes with forever green tapestry.
Sit in this place soon with a cool glass of fresh-made lemonade and some homemade lemon butter cookies, just like Maggie Malone would.
Alternate cookie and lemonade in one hand and my new novel, Hollywood is Not Home, in the other.
Fall in love with my characters and get to know me as a writer through them. Share your thoughts with me about my book but never share those homemade lemon butter cookies…those are for you. You deserve them! Enjoy!
Author Interview with Annmarie M. Roberts
What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?
The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall. It gets some appreciation but realizing the gifts of life, as Jim makes you discover in this novel, is very important to living a lifewith things in proper perspective. The true gifts of life are all the blessings we sometimes overlook in our busy world.
How do you select the names of your characters?
The name of my lead male character, Jake Ryan, is the first names of both my nephews; Jake and Ryan. My lead female character Maggie, well I have always liked the name Maggie. All the Maggie’s I have ever known are very smart and sassy with a kindness people are drawn to, just like the Maggie in my novel.
If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better writer as an adult, what would you do?
I would have surely worked on publishing some of my early works, poems, and teenage life lesson stories. I think I would have grown earlier on in editing, copywriting, and story development if I had put more effort into those early pieces.
What comes first, the plot or characters?
In my novel, the plot evolved with my move to the South. I had a general outline for a plot, but the South and its loving kind church families and soul filling delicious food made its way as a focus. So, I guess, plot first to give structure. Ah, but the characters, so close to my heart in every sense. I feel if people read my book and find kin in my characters, then my heart is full. Your plot and characters should carry each other through the story, whereas the reader continues to fall in love with both simultaneously.
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
I love to spend time with my family, and my pugador, Charlie. I enjoy volunteering at church for outreach programs and church functions. For extra fun in an artistic measure, I like to dabble in turning used items of clothing and fabric into costumes for theatre productions, events, and holidays.
Blog Stops
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, January 7
Susan K. Beatty, Author, January 8 (Author Interview)
For Him and My Family, January 8
Texas Book-aholic, January 9
Locks, Hooks and Books, January 10
deb’s Book Review, January 11
Inklings and notions, January 12
An Author’s Take, January 12
Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, January 13
Vicky Sluiter, January 14 (Author Interview)
By the Book, January 14
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, January 15
A Modern Day Fairy Tale, January 16 (Spotlight)
Musings of a Sassy Bookish Mama, January 17
Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, January 18
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, January 19
Artistic Nobody, January 20 (Author Interview)
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Annmarie is giving away the grand prize package of a themed gift basket with various items that have inspirational sayings on them like a mug, bookmark, an autographed copy of the book, and a copy of The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
https://promosimple.com/ps/17193/hollywood-is-not-my-home-celebration-tour-giveaway