Double Giveaway -- The Diary of Minnie Bonner and That Time I Joined the Circus

Thought for the Day:

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." ~Ernest Hemingway~

Some Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Here are some links I think you will find valuable.

Click HERE for a terrific post on creating maximum conflict in your fiction.

If you are searching for an agent, click HERE for a post listing the top 25 agents by the number of deals for children's books they made last year.

For the seven deadly sins of self editing, click HERE.

Last week I had a chance for someone out there to win a copy of New Lands, the second book in the Chronicles of Egg series. Our lucky winner this week is ....Ta Da!..... Joanne Fritz!!  Joanne is a blogger and writer who can be found HERE. Hop on over and see what she is up to. Joanne, I will be in touch to arrange to have New Lands sent to you. Congratulations!

Now I must tell you, I have been pretty unbelievably busy making a dirndl. Really. My granddaughter's teacher announced last week that the kids should wear a costume tomorrow that represents from where their ancestors emigrated. Faced with watching my daughter pay a LOT of money to rent a dirndl or digging through my massive store of fabrics and making one sans pattern, I chose to make one. I'm cheap even with other people's money. And no one asked me to do it. I volunteered. So I've no one to blame but myself for being totally exhausted this evening. And it turned out pretty cute. I should have an official photo tomorrow and will try to remember to post it next week. 

This is all by way of saying I just don't have it in me to write a review tonight, so instead I will link to two book reviews I wrote recently for the Sacramento Book Review and I will be giving them both away. 

The first is a middle-grade book, part of the Dear America series. This one is The Diary of Minnie Bonner: A City Tossed and Broken, San Francisco, California, 1906. It is an uncorrected proof, but I don't remember seeing any problems. I really love this series, and this book is no exception. You can see my review by clicking HERE.

The other is a YA, but certainly not a hard-core YA. More sophisticated upper-middle-grade readers might well like it. It is That Time I Joined the Circus. You can find my review by clicking HERE.

To have a chance to win, all you need to do is be a follower and leave a comment. If you would like extra chances, you can Tweet the link to this post or post it on Facebook or on your own blog. Just let me know and I will give you extra chances in the drawing.

Don't forget to check out the original Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday blog run by Shannon Messenger. It's always fun to read and there are usually other giveaways there as well You can find it HERE.

For the giveaway, it is for U.S. readers only. Sorry, I fund this myself and can't afford to send out of the country. Thanks for understanding. But please leave a comment. I love to hear from you.