Rick Roberts’ Books: Song Stories and Lame Brain

At Written Dreams Publishing, we’ve had the pleasure to work with multiplatinum artist, Rick Roberts, and put two of his books into large print hardcover format for his fans.

During the 1970s, Rick Roberts’ songs topped the music charts when he was the lead singer of the band, Firefall. Now, Rick Roberts has put together a beautiful collection of his memorable stories and the lyrics he’s written over the years in Song Stories and Other Left-Handed Recollections. Included are some of Rick Roberts’ best-loved songs: “You Are the Woman”, “Colorado”, “Strange Way”, and “Just Remember I Love You”. Read along as Rick Roberts takes you back to the days with these nostalgic songs when he performed them with his band Firefall and other artists, and learn about what is yet to come for him.

 

 

 

 

A multiplatinum rock star’s life meets an unexpected detour when a bump on the head reveals itself to be a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Told with honesty and humor, Lame Brain: My Journey Back to Real Life is Rick Roberts’ story of his entangled afflictions of TBI and Alcoholism.

Approximately 1.7 million people experience a TBI in the United States every year, with accidental falls being the leading cause. TBI can strike anyone at any time, swiftly changing the course of life. For Rick, this meant losing his ability to walk (with doctors giving only a 50/50 chance that he would ever walk again), losing many of his innate guitar skills, and facing difficult decisions that he wasn’t quite ready to make.

Rick openly shares the story of how he confronted these challenges while simultaneously fighting alcoholism. True to his talent for writing award winning lyrics and melodies, Rick now gives the world a story of healing told in his own compelling voice. He details the routines he created to reclaim his mobility, coordination, and sobriety. Refusing to accept his circumstances as a game ender, he instead considers them to be merely setbacks. Within the pages of Lame Brain, readers will find inspiration to achieve their own miracles and increased awareness of TBI and alcoholism.

 

About the Author:

Rick Roberts is a 40-year veteran of the rock’n’roll wars. He began his recording career in 1970 with the Flying Burrito Brothers and was a major contributor to their last two albums. He went on to do two solo albums and then form the well-known band Firefall in 1974, with whom he played for seven years during their heyday. He has also been a member of Stephen Stills’ band and Linda Ronstadt’s band during his career, and has been awarded two platinum and four gold albums for his efforts.

He has had over 60 of his compositions recorded and performed by such artists as The Burritos, Firefall, Stephen Stills, Linda Ronstadt, Barry Manilow, The Dirt Band, and numerous others. He is the composer of the hit songs “Just Remember I Love You”, “You Are the Woman”, “Strange Way”, “Colorado”, and several more that graced the Top 40 at one time or another.

After suffering a debilitating brain injury in 2006 which left him in jeopardy of never walking again, it took him nearly four years of intense physical therapy to walk again without crutches or other aids. Rick currently lives and works in Longmont, Colorado with his wife, Mary, and their two dogs and two cats.

 

Death by G-String:  A Coyote Canyon Ladies Ukulele Club Mystery by C.C. Harrison

 A Coyote Canyon Ladies Ukulele Club Mystery

 

Can Viva Winter find the truth before it’s too late?

The Coyote Canyon Ladies Ukulele Club is gearing up for a ukulele competition when their flamboyant star player, Kiki Jacquenette, is found strangled to death with a G-string. Not only is a first place win in jeopardy, the entire folk music festival is put on the verge of collapse. A murderer on the loose is sure to keep tourists away.

Chronicle editor Viva Winter had hoped to make Coyote Canyon the folk music capitol of the Colorado mountains, and was also trying to raise money to help repay the townspeople bilked by her father’s phony investment scheme. With much to gain by Kiki’s death, Viva soon comes under suspicion, so she must uncover the truth before her whole life turns into one sour note, and a tourist trade boom falls flat.

 

Thanks to Heidi Swedberg for the mention of this book on her blog! https://sukeyjumpmusic.wordpress.com/2017/11/28/ukulele-holiday-2017/

 

 

About the Author:

C.C. Harrison lives in Anthem, Arizona. She is the author of hundreds of articles and short stories. When she’s not writing, reading, or working out at the gym, she can be found in the mountains of Colorado or in some far-flung corner of the Southwest. She has won national recognition with her suspense novels.

Resurfaced: A Sci-Fi Dystopian Novel by Lexi Jordan

A Sci-Fi Dystopian Novel

Before a large asteroid hit Earth and wiped out most of all humanity, survivors gathered in The Burrow, an underground community, with the hope of survival being the one thing on their minds. Realizing their fate, the Burrow dwellers developed a new society.

Over one hundred years later, a grave decision is made by the United Assembly, a group of representatives who make up the new government. They’ve decided to send every prisoner incarcerated to a land not touched in over a century.

Max is a teenage girl who has survived the end of humanity. She’s also a prisoner.

Sentenced to a life above ground, prisoners are put on a hovercraft with one destination. On her journey, the hovercraft Max is on crashes, leaving eighty-two young souls to fend for themselves in a new world. Their new world. It’s a new start for them, a liberation from a past they left back in the Burrow.

But there’s something bizarre about the way the hovercraft crashed, or how the radio stopped working when there were no signs of damage. Suspicions grow about the United Assembly’s real intentions of sending them away. Was it really an accident?

The crash is the least of Max’s problems when the group makes a shocking discovery. It contradicts everything the Burrow leaders told them about the surface. After all, the unknown kills.

 

About the Author: 

Lexi Jordan is a sixteen year old high school student attending Ashwaubenon High School in Green Bay, WI. She is currently working on her third book. Resurfaced is her first novel. Learn more about Lexi’s series at www.writtendreams.com or follow her on social media.

 

The Visitor by Barbara Raffin, A Supernatural Romance

 

“Intriguing, surprising, amazing. Well worth the read.” —S. C. Mitchell, Author of The Blarmling Dilemma

 

 

Copyright (c) 2017 by Written Dreams Publishing

Nine months after he’s been cremated, Rebecca Tierney’s husband shows up in her living room…naked.

Rebecca Tierney, now a widow, returns to the family home situated on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula bluffs nine months after her husband’s death to scatter his ashes on the largest, coldest, and most unforgiving of the Great Lakes—Lake Superior, one that never gives up its dead. Unable to handle the grief of missing her husband and the romance they shared, Rebecca becomes a recluse.

She soon finds out that there’s more than just memories in the old Victorian house than of a love ended too soon. A Visitor from afar has appeared and searches the house for the key that will stop his alien race from dying on his home planet. Rebecca can either help the clone reach his goal of finding a shipwreck, or let him die. When a young girl goes missing and someone from the clone’s past surfaces, hard choices must be made.

Only the long-forgotten secrets of the old house can free Rebecca from her grief and teach a man of logic that love is worth more than eternal life. Will she open her mind, and he, his heart to the unlimited possibilities?

 

 

 

Award-winning author Barbara Raffin lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  When Barbara’s not writing, reading, or daydreaming, she hangs out with her Keeshonden dogs, Katie and Slippers.

 

 

 

 

Writer Tip: Every emotion counts!

Characterization

Help readers empathize with your main character by giving them real situations that they can feel real emotions in, just like in life. In your novel, your main character should go through every emotion at least once: angry, frustrated, anxious, excited, sad, exhilarated, concerned, and terrified. When you’re thinking about these scenes, think about moments in your life when you felt this way. First, write down what you were doing when you felt that way. Next, write your story from the heart! Your readers will know it. 

Copyright 2012 by Sabrena R. Koren