A Weird and Wild Beauty -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader. Not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”

~ E.L. Doctorow ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Greg Pattridge has come up with a good method HERE to avoid slowing your story down with too much back story. 

Overused words? Erika Wassal has a guest post on those HERE on Writing and Illustrating. Check it out. 

Kristen Lamb writes great posts for writers and the one HERE is just plain fun, telling us 13 Ways Writers are Mistaken for Serial Killers. 

Last week I promised an ARC of Cici Reno: MiddleSchoolMatchmaker by Kristina Springer to one of you. This week's winner is Janet Smart, a children's writer and blogger from West Virginia. If you haven't checked out her blog, Creative Writing in the Blackberry Patch (Don't you love that title?), you can do so now by clicking HERE. I recommend it. Congratulations, Janet. I will get the book out to you this week. 

One of my grandkids is already out of school for the summer, and the other will be out next week. It's that time of year when people are planning vacations and getting away. My family's favorite excursions would include any national park we could get to. Our National Park system is amazing. In honor of the vacation season and our National Parks, this week I am offering an ARC of A Weird and Wild Beauty: the Story of Yellowstone, the World's First National Park by Erin Peabody. Here is the review I wrote for the San Francisco Book Review. 

The very first national park in the world was Yellowstone National Park. The bill passed by congress and signed into law by Ulysses S. Grant in 1872 set aside more than 2 million acres of spectacular wilderness for people to enjoy. But how did this all come about? The area had been largely ignored by white Americans. It was hard to reach, particularly in the winter, and it was an area used for hunting and held sacred by Native Americans, who fiercely protected it. But when gold was discovered there, white settlers were willing to go, and they discovered a land of wild and strange beauty with bubbling mud, hissing hillsides, roaring rivers, and great wildlife. It took a wealthy railroad magnate, geologists, other scientists, conservationists, artists, and more to bring about this amazing bill to protect this wild and beautiful place. 

“Hayden’s small party bound for the land of bubbling fountains departed on the morning of July 31. The excitement must have been palpable as they contemplated upcoming wonders that Langford had described as ‘entirely out of the range of human experience.’”

There have been histories of this great park written, but never one for the middle-grade crowd. This book, with lively writing, great research, and

Erin Peabody

wonderful photographs, maps, and other graphics, deserves a much wider readership than its intended audience and should find a place in libraries and classrooms everywhere.

I have a gently-read ARC 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.

Cici Reno -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“A good novel tells us the truth about its hero, but a bad novel tells us

the truth about its author.”

~ G. K. Chesterton ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Steven Pressfield has a good post HERE on the difference between subject and theme. I wish I had had this when I was still teaching. I had such a hard time convincing my students that Theme could never be expressed in one word but needed to be a statement. Check it out. 

Steven Pressfield continues his discussion of theme in a post called The Hero Embodies the Theme HERE. He gives some great examples. 

John Yeoman from Writer’s Village has a post HERE on how to bring your characters alive. Sure, he tries to sell you something, but the info is good.  

Well, I'm back at last. We lost my sweet husband Dave three weeks ago. It was as good a passing as we could have asked for as he was surrounded by family and didn't seem to be in any pain. I am so grateful for the friends and family who were here for us, helping in so many ways. And thank you for your patience as I took some much needed time. But now it's time to get back to work. 

I was offered a chance to receive a copy of Cici Reno for review quite awhile ago. I meant to get to it sooner, but I got to it as soon as I could. I know a lot of folks have already reviewed it, but I will still put in my two cents. I almost passed this one up because I had my doubts that the idea of Cyrano de Bergerac retold with a middle-school girl as the protagonist would work. I'm happy to say that it works really, really well. 

The modern-day Cyrano -- Cici Reno -- is a good and faithful friend to her BFF, Aggie, even though they both have a crush on the same boy. After all, Aggie had a crush on Drew first. It's only right for Cici, advice giver extraordinaire, to help Aggie get together with Drew. Cici carries on a live chat with Drew, first anonymously, then as Aggie, until the romance is pretty well set. But then the wheels start to come off.

What I love about this book is how real the characters are -- fully conversant in a modern, technical world, in the throes of moving into a pubescent world, and filled with hope and angst. Cici has a normal family and lots of interesting

Kristina Springer

friends. She's bright and funny and completely endearing. The writing is crisp and the voice is dead on for a girl of that age. If you haven't read this clever book yet, I suggest you make time for it. It's just plain fun, and I suspect middle-grade girls will gobble it up. I think Kristina Springer has written a real winner.

I have a gently-read ARC 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.