Congratulations to Connie Saunders for winning REFUGEE. I haven't added it up, but I believe Connie gets the prize for winning the most books off my blog. Her secret? She always shares my posts on Twitter! I love finding a book which make a setting so real to me that I look it up on… Continue reading Indigo Girl: An Audio CD Review and Giveaway
Congratulations to Rosi Hollinbeck, my California blogger counterpart, who won FUZZY on last week's blog. REVIEW FIRE, COLOR, ONE by Jenny Valentine is about as different from FUZZY, the book I reviewed last week, as you can get. Jenny Valentine's edgy young adult novel is a serious portrayal of Iris, a young woman caught up in… Continue reading Fire, Color, One: An Audio Book Giveaway, Review, A Look at Flashbacks, PLUS Story Innovation
Congratulations to Joyce Hostetter who won LOVING vs. VIRGINIA from last week's blog. This week's blog post comes courtesy of Recorded Books (who provided FUZZY) and Elizabeth Sims, contributing editor to Writer's Digest, whose article, "Stepping Up Your Sidekicks" in the February, 2017 issue, prompted the template for this review. Tom Angleberger, best known as the author of… Continue reading Fuzzy: A Review, A Mini-Lesson on Sidekicks, and an Audio CD Giveaway!
One of the highest compliments you can give an author is to finish their book and want to read it all over again. In the case of The Hired Girl, by award-winning author Laura Amy Schlitz, that's exactly what I did; happily spending hours on a recent car trip reliving the world of Janet Lovelace,… Continue reading The Hired Girl: A Review and an Audio Giveaway
Congratulations to Clara Gillow Clark who won "Diary of a Waitress" off last week's blog. ******* Fans of Between the Lines, a young adult novel that crosses back and forth between fantasy and contemporary fiction, will be happy with the recent release of Off the Page (Delacurte Press, 2015); the companion book which Jodi Picoult wrote in collaboration with… Continue reading Off the Page by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer
I wish this book didn't exist. What I mean is that I wish Rose Under Fire, a brutally honest book about a young American pilot imprisoned in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, didn't demand to be written. But unfortunately, it did. Rose Moyer Justice is an 18-year-old American Air Transport Auxiliary pilot ferrying planes for the British government. Although World War II… Continue reading Rose Under Fire: A Review and a Giveaway!
Congratulations to Ann Eisenstein, a fellow SCBWI-Carolinas writers, who won an autographed copy of Sheri Levy's novel, Seven Days to Goodbye. Thanks to all of you who entered. Here is another book to try and win! At a recent SCBWI-Carolinas conference, I took an informative workshop with Emma Dryden on world building. First, Emma instructed us… Continue reading The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill AND a Giveaway!
Congratulations to Sheri Levy who won an autographed copy of Lisa Kline's book, Eleanor Hill from last week's giveaway. For those of you who didn't win last week, here's another chance! ********** I've been a fan of Nikki Grimes' poetry ever since reading Bronx Masquerade; I love how she juxtaposes words and images. This is her second… Continue reading Words With Wings – Audio Book Giveaway!
Minni's heart soared as the small plane's wheels lifted from the ground. She loved being up in the clouds with Keira, Mama and Daddy, the never-ending blue-gray ocean, and the rugged mountain peaks. Gliding, like a bird on the wind. Keira sank her nails into Minni's arm. It hurt, but Minni didn't pull away. It wasn't… Continue reading Multi-Racial Read #18: The Other Half of My Heart
Congratulations to Ann Eisenstein who received a copy of Odette's Secrets in last week's giveaway. In this ongoing mini-series of blog posts, I share more nuggets from my online writing class, Plot and Structure, with instructor Bethany Nuckolls. ******** As our class proceeded into analyzing Act II of our novels, Bethany explained the concept of Shock:… Continue reading Plot Elements and What Happened to Goodbye: Part I