Chasing Secrets -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists

of writing or thinking about writing.  

~ Eugene Ionesco ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

The post HERE from the Teaching Authors blog on female protagonists is FASCINATING and should be read by everyone who writes for young people. 

The devil is in the details and Anne R. Allen has a great post HERE on how to create memorable characters with interesting details. Check it out. 

I found this link on Fiction University, so it has to be good, eh? It is on my favorite topic — cutting words from a manuscript that is too long, and it has lots of good tips. Click HERE to check it out. 

Last week, I offered a slightly used paperback copy of Ida B by Katherine Hannigan to one of you. This week's winner is Carol Baldwin of the famous Carol Baldwin's Blog which you can find HERE. Carol is a North Carolina writer who works with author Joyce Moyer Hostetter on the wonderful newsletter for parents and teachers called Talking Story. See the latest issue HERE. Congratulations, Carol! I will get your book out to you this week. Please read on. I have another giveaway.

So here I am again a bit late to the party. Nearly a year ago I read and reviewed a wonderful historical novel by Gennifer Choldenko, and somehow I never got around to featuring it here. It's terrific. The book is Chasing Secrets and here is the review I wrote for the San Francisco Book Review.

Lizzie Kennedy, thirteen years old, lives with her doctor father and older brother, Billy, in San Francisco. It is 1900 and the world is changing. Billy is saving to buy a horseless carriage and disappearing at night and coming home hurt. Lizzie has trouble making friends at the snobby finishing school her aunt insists she attend. Lizzie wants to go to medical school, not marry and raise a family, but science is not an acceptable path for a young lady. Rumors begin to fly about the plague being in San Francisco, and Jing, a favorite and most loyal servant of the Kennedy’s, disappears, and strange noises in the attic lead Lizzie to an astonishing discovery and further mysteries to solve.

“Papa is in the hall, talking to them in his soothing 

voice, but the bigger girl has a wild look in her eyes.

She won’t stop long enough to hear him. I can’t

understand a word, but her message is clear.”

Any writer who wishes to learn how to engage a reader from the first page

Gennifer  Choldenko

would do well to read this riveting historical novel by Gennifer Choldenko. The subject matter is fascinating, the characters well-drawn, the conflicts believable and compelling, and the writing is mesmerizing. Any reader who likes historical fiction and mysteries will love this book. The story is complex and completely satisfying. Though marketed to the middle-grade crowd, this deserves  to have a much larger audience.

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.

Ida B -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

"One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell

myself that I’m going to do my five or ten pages no matter what, and that

I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I’ll have lost

nothing — writing and tearing up five pages would leave me no further

behind than if I took the day off."

~ Lawrence Block ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Writer’s Digest sent me a post HERE by Robert Lee Brewer with good tips from copywriting that will help you with your novel. A l. ot of good reminders in this one. 

Kristin Lamb always entertains and edifies. HERE you will find a great post on dialogue. Enjoy! 

While at the poetry workshop at Highlights, one of the attendees spoke at length the first evening at dinner about how poets and all writers have to “put in the work.” He talked about how Jane Yolen writes a poem every day — every single day. Her stuff doesn’t just happen. She puts in the work. I found Steven Pressfield’s blog post HERE a very similar message. It’s important for us to remember that that is how it happens. 

And speaking of the poetry workshop, it was wonderful. David L. Harrison is very possibly the nicest person on the planet, and he led a wonderful workshop with plenty of stellar speakers. It was a very good workshop, group, and kickstart for me (I hope). I can't recommend the Highlights Foundation Workshops enough. They really know how to take care of their attendees and make sure they have the best experience possible. On first glance, they seem expensive, but when you realize housing and meals (spectacular meals!) and transportation to and from just about any airport in the area are included, it's really very reasonable. Click HERE to get more information. 

My daughter Maggie and I completed our cross country tour with no problems. I had a wonderful couple of days with her in NYC after the workshop. We rode the Staten Island Ferry (it's free!) on a gorgeous day and followed that up with a Broadway show and late dinner. Perfect day. The show we saw is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night. This is the most amazing play I think I have ever seen. So different! Wonderful performances and a terrific script. See it if you ever get a chance. But now I'm home and it is time for me to get back to work, starting with a review and giveaway here.

I took a passel of books with me on our road trip, but I didn't get nearly as much reading done as I thought I would. Maggie introduced me to Radiolab, a wonderful show that is on NPR. She had a bunch of podcasts on her phone, and we listened to all she had along the way. If you are not familiar with Radiolab, click HERE to listen to my favorite. I now have 142 podcasts of Radiolab on my computer. All I need is time. Anyway, one of the few books I took along on the trip that I actually found time to read is an oldie (published 2006), but a real goodie. It is Ida B...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan.   Isn't that a great title? I had never read it before and, since there may be a few others who missed it, here is my review.

Ida B. Applewood is a smart cookie and perfectly happy in her everyday life, but then she has to start school where the teacher refuses to call her by her real name, and the teacher has rigid rules about the silliest things, and Ida B can't be outside when she wants to. She is miserable until her parents decide to homeschool her. Then she can be where she wants with her friends the trees and the babbling brook and where her imagination thrives. After four years, her mother gets cancer and has to have treatments that make her sick and weak. Then the worst happens. Even though her parents had promised she would never have to go back to regular school, she will have to. And they need to sell part of their property with some of Ida B's favorite trees to strangers. Ida B reacts in typical, selfish-child fashion and creates some real problems for herself, her parents, and even for some others. 

I really like this book a lot. The voice of Ida B (the story is in first person PoV) is

Katherine Hannigan

pitch perfect and the story is more about learning to deal with disappointment and learning how to forgive than it is about dealing with an ill parent, which, frankly, would have been pretty predictable. The writing is terrific and the voice of Ida B is still rattling around in my head. If you missed this one, please try to find time to get to it. It's a very quick read, but worth your time. My copy isn't as gently-read as usual since it travelled to the east coast and back, but it's in good shape and I will give it to 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.