Roberta Lee

Roberta Lee (born 1953) is an American artist, writer and podcaster who currently lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She grew up in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania and attended the Pennsbury School District, graduating in 1971. She lived in Los Angeles, California from 1971 to 1982, where she attended the University of California and graduated with a degree in Fine Art. She then returned to Pennsylvania, where she has resided since. She is the author of the Suburban Sprawl series of novels and The Language of Tarot and is noted as a pioneer in using new media to publicize her paintings and books. Roberta Lee’s novels combine character study with the elements of several genres, including erotica, social satire and the paranormal. She is also well known as an expert on Tarot and I Ching, and a painter who works within the framework of traditional plein aire technique. of publishing, What makes this especially noteworthy is that Lee began marketing her paintings using the internet in the earliest days of the World Wide Web. In fact, the original version of her website was among the first artist-owned domains ever created. Promoting her books in the same way was a natural extension of a process she had started a full decade before--and a decade is a very long time when it comes to technology.
Novels
Roberta Lee currently has six novels in print: , The Chilling Effect, Owning Betty, The Suicide Tour, Leviathan and Switch. All exist within the Suburban Sprawl framework and follow each other chronologically; all are set in a highly fictionalized version of the author’s familiar Bucks County, Pennsylvania, an exurb 40 miles north of Philadelphia.
The novels of Suburban Sprawl follow the exploits of an ever-expanding cast of characters as they struggle with both the mundane details of life and the intrusive presence of murder, mayhem and the paranormal. Widowed ex-stripper Laura Greggor, alcoholic bad boy Jack Marin, inadvertent novelist Debbie Bloom and I Ching-quoting drug dealer Tommy Chiaravallo are the pivotal characters, but Lee has added new characters with each novel.
Among these characters is the ghost of Laura Greggor’s late husband, David Marabelli, whose presence in the novels evolves in pace with the over-arching story line. Sean Gonzalez is the seemingly indestructible villain, a chameleon-like serial murderer whose erotic obsession with Debbie Bloom propels much of the continuing plot line. Layered over the stories of these central characters is Lee’s acerbic view of contemporary suburban life, which imparts the humorous tone that leavens the series’ distinctly dark tone.
Non-Fiction
Roberta Lee began reading Tarot cards while she was in her early teens with coaching from an aunt who read cards professionally. She taught Tarot reading both in the classroom and online and eventually saw her private journals of Tarot readings, notes and observations as the backbone of a book. She began revising those hand-written journals in 2005 and published The Language of Tarot in 2008. At 435 pages, The Language of Tarot covers all aspects of Tarot, including its history, her own unique definitions of the cards, and instructions for doing Tarot readings.
Lee is currently writing a guide to reading I Ching, The Language of I Ching. Estimated publishing date for this book is the summer of 2011.
Podcasting
Lee was first introduced to podcasting in 2008, and she immediately recognized it as a way to introduce her novels and non-fiction projects to a wider audience. The xml feeds for her podcasts can also be found on numerous other internet sites. It is impossible to posit a number of downloads due to the podcasts' wide availability on many different sites, but a conservative estimate based on the number of iTunes subscribers alone would be twenty to thirty thousand downloads as of the beginning of 2011.
Lee’s podcasts are multimedia projects that include not only the audio files during which she reads her novels and excepts from The Language of Tarot, but also numerous companion videos and PDF files.
The Language of Tarot Podcast
Roberta Lee’s free podcast for The Language of Tarot consists of excepts from the book and consistently ranks among the most popular podcasts on the subject. It is the number one podcast on the topic on iTunes and has held that spot for the past nine months (as of 2/2011).
Suburban Sprawl Podcast
Lee's free podcast for Suburban Sprawl consists of the entire first four novels in the series in audiobook format and has consistently held its place in the first three podcast novels on iTunes for the past two years (as of 2/2011). The subsequent volumes in the series are available on her website as pay-to-listen podcasts. Roberta Lee is credited with having successfully made the transition from free to paid content podcasting, a change most podcasters have found challenging.
Books by Roberta Lee
· The Liar’s Guide, 2007, Pooka Productions, ISBN 1441461876, EAN-13: 9781441461872.
· The Chilling Effect, 2008, Pooka Production, ISBN 1441498117, EAN-13: 9781441498113.
· Owning Betty, 2009, Pooka Production, ISBN: ISBN 1441498311, EAN-13: 9781441498311.
· The Suicide Tour, 2009, Pooka Production, ISBN: ISBN 1449558607, EAN-13: 9781449558604.
· Leviathan, 2010, Pooka Production, ISBN: ISBN 1453694056, EAN-13: 9781453694053.
· Switch, 2011, Pooka Production, currently available only as an eBook (2/23/2011)
· The Language of Tarot, 2007, Pooka Production, ISBN 1441480412, EAN-13: 9781441480415

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