Sunday, July 30, 2017

The Tapper Twins Tear Up New York -- Review and giveaway

Thought for the Day:
“Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts.” 
~ Larry King ~
Gifts for My Writer Friends:
If you need some tips for writing superbad villains, HERE is the post for you from The Creative Pen. 

Michelle Keller at Just Write… has a great post HERE that will help you make your dialog sections much more interesting. 

The Writer Magazine has a terrific article HERE on rejecting rejection. It’s a good one. 

I took the last two weeks off to spend some time traveling with my grandchildren. Gehrig, 15 and 11/12ths, just got his driver's permit and was thrilled to go with a grandma who wanted help with the driving. Gracie, who turned 12 while we were on the trip, was pretty content to watch scenery and supply us with her personal playlist for our listening pleasure. I'm happy to say she is heavy into 80s music. Great stuff. 

We left early and drove to Salt Lake City the first day, then on to Denver to stay with my best friend from college, her wife, and their three odd little dogs. Using this as home base, Gehrig and I had tickets for a Rockies game. This is where blogging came to be a blessing. Through the years, I have faithfully read Greg Pattridge's wonderful blog, Always in the Middle, and he has faithfully read mine. We became blogging buddies, and he had asked me to get in touch if I made it to the Denver area. I did, and Greg got a ticket for the Rockies game near where we were sitting and graciously drove Gehrig and I to the game and back. The traffic in Denver is CRAZY and, if you don't know where you are going, pretty intimidating. What a gift! If that weren't enough, he hosted the kids and I for lunch at his home and gave us all books. Thanks, Greg! It was so much fun. 

After a few days in Denver, we drove through the mountains to Montrose, Colorado, to visit with family. My son Mark and his wife, Cindy, hosted us and took Gehrig fishing every morning we were there. He was one happy guy.They also had a lovely birthday party for Gracie. Mark spent some time as a chef and is a great cook. Cindy is no slouch. We ate incredibly well (probably way too well), had a lot of fun, but after eight days away, we were ready to head home. Gehrig got over a thousand miles of driving under his belt and is well on his way to getting his license, and I had a simply wonderful time with my grandkids. 

I will likely be gone again next week. I am going to be attending the Mendocino Coast Writer's Conference. I submitted a writing sample and won a scholarship for half the registration fee. I'm very excited. I will be attending a series of workshops led by Lewis Buzbee! I LOVED his book Steinbeck's Ghost and hope to read something else by him before I get there. Attendees were able to submit short pieces of fiction for a contest. I entered an adult short story and came in second in that category where they had 60 entries. Smiling here! I will get a check for that when I get there and the story will be considered for publication in the Noyo River Review. As a bonus, the temperature will be hovering around 100 degrees where I live next weekend, and it will be around 70 in Mendocino, a beautiful little artist's community on the northern coast of California. Still smiling!

When last we met here, I offered an ARC of Women Who Dared: 52 Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, and Legends by Linda Skeers. Our winner this time is Joanne Roberts. Congratulations, Joanne! Joanne is a writer/illustrator from Pennsylvania. You can find out more about her and see some of her wonderful art HERE and read her blog, Bookish Ambition, HERE. Joanne, I will get your book out to you soon. For the rest of you, another give away, so please keep reading.

This post has gotten way too long, so just a quick few words about The Tapper Twins Tear Up New York. I have reviewed some of Geoff Rodkey's books, including an earlier Tapper Twins book HERE. I love his stuff. It is funny and smart and just the kind of thing that will get kids reading, no matter how reluctant they are. This is no exception. Claudia and Reese are back at their bickering best. Claudia decides a scavenger hunt is a great way to raise money for a charity and manages to get the whole school involved. What could go wrong? The words "just about anything" come to mind while reading this fast-paced, screwball comedy written in choppy tween-speak conversation and text messages. Lots of funny pictures add to this very quick, very fun read. 

I have a gently-read ARC of this book to share with
Geoff Rodkey
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.

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Women Who Dared -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:
“You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, 
the farther you get.”  
~ Michael Phelps ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:
Jane Friedman has a wonderful post HERE on How to Immediately Improve Your Query Letter’s Effectiveness. 

Adventures in YA Publishing has some good, instructive posts. The post HERE will help you Strengthen Your Verbs and Your Writing. 

Greg Pattridge has another great post HERE about editing — searching for problem, over-used words. 

Last week, my daughter Maggie was in town from New York. We had a lovely family dinner, and I never got around to writing my blog post. Next Saturday morning, I will load my two grandkids, Gehrig and Gracie, into my Prius and move on down the road. We are driving to Denver for a couple days, then on to Montrose, Colorado, to visit friends and family. I will be on the road for the next two Sundays, so I won't be blogging. See you here again in three weeks.

For those who need reminding how much patience is needed in the business of writing, I have a story for you. I had an email about ten days ago from an editor at Humpty Dumpty magazine. She reminded me I had sent them a little story in 2015 and wondered if it was still available.They wanted to buy it for their September/October issue. I had given up on finding a home for that little story. So hang in there. You never know when you'll find a little success.

Last time I posted, I promised one of you an ARC of Wicked Bugs by Amy Stewart. The winner this time is Jenni Enzor. Congratulations, Jenni! If you don't know Jenni, she is a writer from Oregon who blogs HERE and has great book reviews and posts for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. It's definitely worth a look. Jenni, I will get your book out soon. For the rest of you, keep reading. I have another fun book to giveaway. 

I've been on a bit of a non-fiction kick lately and have another one for you this week. The Manhattan Book Review had Women Who Dared: 52 Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, and Legends by Linda Skeers on their review list recently so I grabbed it. I love reading about these interesting women. Here is the review I wrote for the Review. 

What do a wing walker, a wrestler, a cosmonaut, a lighthouse keeper, and a spy all have in common? They are all women who did these things long before it was acceptable for women to be in such professions. Author Linda Skeers has gathered the stories of 52 women who did amazing and wonderful things with their lives in times and places when, according to their societies, they had absolutely no business doing them. Take Rose Fortune for instance. She was a former slave who escaped to Canada with her family in the late 1700s. She was an entrepreneur who built a business on transporting luggage and making wake up calls. This is just one example of these many fascinating women. Each has a full-page biography with some fun graphics, created by illustrator Livi Gosling,
Linda Skeers
and a full-page drawing of the woman. Young readers, ages eight and up, will find wonderful role models and their compelling stories in these pages that may give them the impetus to try new things and take the steps they need to create their own daring moments in life. The writing is snappy and the illustrations fun. This is a winner.

I have a gently-read ARC of this book to share with 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.