Still a Work in Progress -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“The mind of a writer can be a truly terrifying thing. Isolated, neurotic, caffeine-addled, crippled by procrastination, consumed by feelings of panic, self-loathing, and soul-crushing inadequacy. 

And that’s on a good day.” 

~ Robert De Niro~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

I have long been a fan of fractured fairy tales. HERE is a terrific post from Group Blog with good advice for writing them. 

Janice Hardy at Fiction University does it again. The great post HERE is about the important difference between a surprise and a trick. 

From the Mixed Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors you will find a great post HERE on subtext. 

Still having spacing problems. I can't figure it out. Someday maybe I will move to WordPress. I have heard good things.

Last week I offered a copy of The Slowest Book Ever (such a funny and good book!) by April Pulley Sayre to one of you. This week's winner is Jenni Enzor. Congratulations, Jenni! Jenni is a writer and a blogger. You can check out her blog HERE where she posts reviews of middle grade books and also posts about the writing process. Check it out. It's worth your time. I do have another giveaway this week, so stay tuned.

I don't remember where I first heard of Still a Work in Progress by Jo Knowles, but as soon as I read about it, I requested it for review. It sounded like such a good book. I was not disappointed. Here is the 5-star review I wrote for San Francisco Book Review. 

Seventh grade isn’t easy, but for Noah it’s especially hard. He has great friends—Ryan and Sam—but things are changing. Sam has a girlfriend, and Ryan seems so angry that the three of them are having trouble just being friends. And, of course, The Thing They Don’t Talk About is like a dark cloud over Noah, his sister Emma, and his parents. He worries about it all the time and wonders if it’s his fault or if he should have done more or if it will happen again. And no one, not even his best friends or his teachers or anyone else, seems to worry or care about it. And then it happens all over again, and Noah feels incredibly responsible and alone. 

Author Jo Knowles has written a beautifully crafted novel about a very tough

Jo Knowles

topic, encapsulating it in a laugh-out-loud, very real story of a young boy. Noah tells his story in the pitch-perfect voice of a boy who worries about pimples, girls, farting, a hairless cat, homework, and his best friend, his sister Emma, who seems to be disappearing. This is a profoundly important book that should not be missed.                                I know I said this last week, but it's true again. I kind of hate to give away my copy of this one, but at the same time I feel it deserves to be shared, so I have a gently-read hardback for one of you. To win, all you need do is have a US address, be a subscriber or follower, and tell me that in a comment you leave on this post. If you are reading this in your email, click HERE to go to the blog so you can leave a comment. If you would like extra chances, please spread the word by posting the link on a Tweet, blog post, Facebook, or any other way you like. Let me know what you have done in your comment, and I will put in extra chances for you for each that you do.

Don't forget to check out Shannon Messenger's wonderful blog HERE for many more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday reviews and giveaways.