Over Spring Break, my eleven-year-old was sick and stuck at home, meaning my seven-year-old was also stuck at home. Luckily, I had recently picked up the audio CD of Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff from our library. So even though we were stuck inside, we were able to listen to an entertaining story explaining Rumpelstiltskin’s side of things. The audio version, read by Maxwell Glick, was excellent and made being stuck at home not seem so bad. Poor Rump. His mother died shortly after he was born and was only able to say the first part of his name. It’s no wonder Rump ended up being “the…
-
-
Author Takeover
I’m excited to take part in an Author Takeover on my publisher’s Facebook Page tomorrow. https://www.facebook.com/SaguaroBooks/ I would love for you to stop by and say hi during my time if you are able or have you stick around for the whole thing and get a chance to meet some great authors and discover some new great books. I’ll be giving away one copy of The Gardenia Curse during my takeover time. Below is a schedule for the event. I’ll be taking over from 12:00-12:20pm (PST). Hopefully, I’ll see you there!
-
Fairy Tales, An #InkRipples Blog Post
This month’s topic for #InkRipples is fairy tales. I had planned on researching some popular retold fairy tales and sharing what I learned. Somehow the month got away from me though. So, instead, I figured I’d share two of my favorite retellings. There are so many, but I decided to go with a more popular fairy tale and one I had not heard of before. I love fairy tales in general and I love fairy tale renditions even more I think. So for the more popular one, I picked a retelling of the “Twelve Dancing Princesses” by the Brothers Grimm. Although this tale has been retold many times, I thought Heather Dixon did…
-
Cover Reveal for Pirate Island by Katie L. Carroll
I’m excited to help reveal the cover for Katie L. Carroll’s middle-grade adventure, Pirate Island. I just recently finished reading Carroll’s YA fantasy Elixir Bound, so can’t wait to read Pirate Island when it’s out in October. So, without further ado… PIRATE ISLAND by Katie L. Carroll (katielcarroll.com) Cover Illustration by Susan Tait Porcaro (susantaitporcaro.com) Coming October 2017! A thrice cursed island, a legendary pirate treasure, and one not-so-brave boy. What could possibly go wrong? For centuries, the whereabouts of Captain William Kidd’s lost pirate treasure has remained a mystery. When Billy’s best friend, Andy, proposes they look for it on nearby Pirate Island, Billy thinks it’s just another one of their crazy adventures.…
-
Saturdays at Sea Book Review
I loved this whole series. Saturdays at Sea by Jessica Day George was no different. It might even be my favorite one of them all. In Saturdays at Sea, we get to meet the family of Lilah’s betrothed, Lulath, as Celie and her family travel to Grath. The Ship (notice the capital S) is built and shows that it is definitely like the Castle. On the maiden voyage, Celie and her family are whisked away on another adventure, this time on the high seas. And there are unicorns involved. I applaud Jessica Day George on her unique take on unicorns. If you haven’t read this series yet, I highly recommend it. Although…
-
The Joy of Revision, An #InkRipples Blog Post
This month’s topic for #InkRipples is revision. I’ll start off with a little comparison I thought of late one night. Revisions are a bit like hidden gems. With hidden gems, you have to uncover them, dig them out and polish them to see their true beauty. With a revision, you have to uncover the best way to tell the story, dig through all the extraneous words and polish the piece until the words flow together bringing the beauty of the words to life in the reader’s mind. Now on to the post. I’m torn when it comes to revision. Part of me, OK, most of me is thrilled when I actually…
-
Tropes, An #InkRipples Blog Post
Most people are very familiar with tropes, even if they don’t know what the word means. To be honest, I was one of those people at the beginning of the month. I had never heard the word, but I am very familiar with themes that have been used over and over again in books. That’s basically all a trope is, a well used and well known theme. For a bit more in-depth definition and some examples, head over to Mary Waibel’s blog to see what she says about tropes. If you’re interested in reading about some favorite tropes, then head over to Kai Strand’s blog. To find out what makes some trope stories stand out as unique, read Katie…
-
Save El Lobo Writing Competition
Do you like to write? Do you want to help raise money for the Mexican gray wolf and possibly win a prize in the process? Then this competition is for you. It’s open to all ages and all genres. Go here to see the rules and prizes. But hurry, all entries must be received by March 31, 2017 11:59 pm, EST. Good luck!
-
Are Genres For More Than Just Finding A Book? An #InkRipples post
The topic for #InkRipples this month is genres. Growing up I didn’t think about genres. If a book looked interesting, I read it. To be honest, I can’t even really say when I started to think about genres. Maybe when I worked at Borders? This happened to coincide with the time I started thinking about taking my writing more seriously and attempting to write a novel myself. But what are genres really for? For me, genres are simply a nice way to find a book to read when I’m looking for something new. I have to admit, my go to genre is fantasy. Are you surprised? I love the elements of magic and…
-
Inspiration behind the Dreamland forest
I’ve been asked where I get my inspiration, so I thought I’d give you a glimpse of some things that helped inspire The Gardenia Curse in a series of ‘inspiration’ posts. I’ll start with some pictures of the forest walk that was around the corner from my house during the time I was writing about Eva’s forays into the Dreamland forest. I would often take walks through this forest with my family. On evening walks when the sun was just beginning to drop, the shadows were emerging, and the cold began moving in is when I felt Eva’s forest coming to life. These pictures and this forest helped inspire the section in…
