Monday, July 22, 2013

Roam around the world with Sharisse Coulter...plus a book giveaway

Today we have Sharisse Coulter here to talk about life on the road and some of her favorite places and experiences. Not only is she an author, but she also does photography and videography. Her bio from her website says it better than we could, so we're including it below. She also has THREE e-books of her debut novel, Rock My World to share with some lucky readers worldwide! (But if you can't wait, it's only 99 cents for Kindle!)

Sharisse Coulter, originally from Lake Tahoe, started with a smidge of college in Paris (not Texas), a dash in Australia and, voilĂ ! A master’s degree in Anthropology framed and placed lovingly on a shelf, never to be dusted off again. Instead, she took the clear path to success, marrying a musician, becoming his manager and touring the country playing gigs, taking photos, and making music videos. Finally, she had a son (and subsequent identity crisis), which fueled the completion of her first novel, Rock My World. Now at work on her second and third novels, she’s concurrently embarking on A Novel Music Tour: a five month, 55 city national music/book tour while perfecting the art of Lego and enjoying her addiction to reading novels on her iPhone. It’s a wonderful life for an insatiable wanderluster.

Even though she's all over the place, you can find her at her website, Facebook and Twitter.

So, what's the book all about?

Jenna Jax-Anders hit rock bottom in high school, or so she thought. From rock star heiress to knocked-up has been, she turned it all around, marrying the punk rock baby daddy love of her life. The perfect Hollywood fairytale. Until the day she walked in on him kissing her best friend.

As she struggles to find herself and redefine the world around her, she faces the challenges of raising her over-achieving teenage daughter, the heartbreak of losing her best friend (backstabbing aside), and emerging from the shadows of two famous last names to find her own identity. Oh, there’s also the tiny issue of her husband’s record label, backed by an anonymous mogul whose morally ambiguous creative direction may ruin them all. But she doesn’t know about that yet.

"The essence of a compelling page-turner...real, and satisfying to the end." - Josie Brown, author of the Housewife Assassin and Totlandia series


No Place Like Roam by Sharisse Coulter

“Where do you live?” is the question everyone asks. My answer: Everywhere, USA.

Living on a tour bus challenges the traditional ideas of home and away. Since my home of the past six months is on wheels, I’m always, technically, home. But as the country passes by the IMAX sized windshield, we’re always saying goodbye to one place while looking toward the next. As an author/photographer and manager for my musician husband, I’m frequently on the go. In fact, more of my adult life has been spent traveling than settled and, even with our four year-old, we have found a way to make a life on the road.

Every night I sleep in my own bed, take showers in my bathroom, cook in my kitchen, make coffee (lots of coffee) and work at my desk. Sounds like home, right? But right outside my door, the temperature changes daily. From the perfect San Diego weather to the Southwest desert, to the snow-capped mountains to the depths of the Grand Canyon, to the swampy Louisiana bayous and tropical Miami heat, we changed climates nearly daily in our first month on the road. Fashion tip: layer! It’s the only way to adapt. But for all the scenic and cultural differences, one thing remained constant: people are people.

Everywhere we go, my husband performs his original acoustic music and I sign books. We end up at all sorts of different venues, from bars and listening rooms to bookstores and cafes. We even do house concerts. And the thing that has stood out most is that people are lovely and welcoming. They are always excited to share their hometowns with us—making delicious food, offering tourist tips and directions, helping to keep us out of the bad parts of town and uncovering hidden gems for us to discover. The other thing they have in common is a distrust of that next city or state over. “Oh people here are great,” they say, “but look out for those people. They’re a little…off.” “Oh, really?” we say. But then we chuckle, because, for all their misgivings, we are inevitably met with the same grace and hospitality in that next place as we were by them, whom someone else had previously warned us about.

So after these many months on the road we are often asked to pick a favorite. I hate that question. There is no way to choose just one. I loved the Carlsbad Caverns, the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls. I loved Macy’s Coffee in Flagstaff. I loved the beignets in New Orleans, the Spanish moss in the bayous, meeting new friends while waiting to go on TV in Birmingham, watching the sunset in Miami, seeing the Capitol for the first time, having the best steak ever on a date with my husband in New York, and especially hearing a stranger read aloud from my book at a nearby table in St Louis.

There are a million things we love about being on tour, taking our home, away. And at the end of this crazy adventure I know one thing for sure: we will keep every one of these far away places and the people in them with us wherever we end up calling “home.”



Thanks to Sharisse for taking us along on her adventures and sharing her book with our readers.  


How to win: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. If you have questions on how to use it, e-mail us.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Worldwide. Giveaway ends July 28th at midnight EST.

6 comments:

Jessica said...

1. The Boys of Summer- The Atari's
2. Gasoline- Airborne Toxic Event
3. Death- White Lies

Thanks!
-Jessica M
walkingcorpse11@hotmail.com

Nova said...

1. Ride Wit Me; Nelly
2. Take the Long Way Home; Supertramp
3. China Grove; The Doobie Brothers
sparkle40175@hotmail.com

bn100 said...

On the Road Again- Willie Nelson
Hit the Road Jack- Ray Charles
Dancing Queen- ABBA

Mary Preston said...

“Sweet Home Alabama” – Lynyrd Skynyrd

“Born to be Wild” – Steppenwolf

“Hit the Road Jack” – Ray Charles

Stephanie said...

My roadtrip playlits has tons of upbeat dance music- yes we dance in our seats...and lots of mellow chill music. Some of my must haves-

Groove is in the Heart- Dee Lite

5th Avenue Heartache- The Wallflowers

And being the HUGE NKOTB fan I am, gotta have them too-

Dirty Dancing- NKOTB

Stephanie said...

Oh and thanks for the shout out to the wonder of the world in my backyard- Niagara Falls! ;)