DOUBLE Giveaway -- Gingersnap and Road Trip

Thought for the Day:

“In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” ~Albert Schweitzer~

This week I have four links for you that all have to do with dialogue. If writing good dialogue is important to you, and if you’re writing, it should be, it will be well worth your time to read all four of these:

For a great post on writing dialogue, click HERE. 

For another great post on writing dialogue, click HERE. 

This is probably the best example of subtext in dialogue I’ve ever seen. Don’t miss this! Click HERE.

And the icing on the cake is a wonderful post on writing dialect. Click HERE for that one.

The lucky winner of this week’s drawing for an ARC of The Fourth Stall Part III, (Spin the disco ball!) is Meradeth Houston!! Meradeth is a writer, blogger, and has a new ebook out called The Chemistry of Fate. You can find out more about her and her book by clicking HERE. I LOVE the name of her blog. Check it out and you will see why. Meradeth, I will get the book out to you this week.  

If you didn’t win, read on. There will be a DOUBLE giveaway this week.

This weekend our SCBWI regional conference, Spring Spirit, took place and it was FABULOUS!! We had wonderful speakers and workshops and critiques and food and fun. Kelly Milner Halls was one of the speakers, and

Kelly Milner Halls on the left

if you EVER have a chance to see her, do it. Uh-Maze-Ing! And she is an absolute hoot. Her books are just as amazing as she is. Click on her name and check out her site.

I did a little work on the conference and also made some airport runs to pick up and drop off editors and an agent. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much sleep and I think I’m fighting s bug of some sort. Anyway, I’m not feeling up to snuff today, so I’m going to be a little lazy and post two reviews that I wrote for the Sacramento and San Francisco Book Reviews. The good news for you is, first, they are both terrific books, and second, I am giving both away. So some lucky winner is going to win hardcover copies of BOTH Gingersnap by Patricia Reilly Giff, a really sweet book, and Road Trip by Gary Paulsen and his son Jim, a terrifically funny book.  

To read the review of Gingersnap, click HERE. Don't you just love that cover? It really suits the book.

To read the review of Road Trip, click HERE. 

I’ll bet you’ll all be wishing I would get sick more often! For a chance to win these two terrific books, please be a follower and leave a comment below. If you are not yet a follower, it’s easy to become one. (I’m trying to get to triple digits on my followers, so…) Just go to the right hand side of my blog, find where it says Followers, and click the Join This Site icon. I’d appreciate it. Also, if you tweet my link or link it on your blog or share it on Facebook, let me know, and I will put your name in the drawing an extra time for each one.

Don’t forget to stop by Shannon Messenger’s wonderful blog for more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday links. Click HERE to find it.

On the book giveaway, this is for U.S. only. Sorry, but it would be too expensive for me to send books out of the country. But please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.