Esme Dooley and the Kirkkomaki Circus -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” 

~ Bill Gates ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Feeling overwhelmed by writing? Anne R. Allen’s post HERE will help you set up process goals to make your writing more manageable. 

Searching for words? The new Merriam-Webster has added 250 new words HERE this year. This is pretty fun. 

Agent Joyce Holland has written an excellent essay HERE on what NOT to do when finding an agent. 

I had a wonderful experience recently. I don't know how many of you write in rhyme, but I have some picture book manuscripts in rhyme and some story poems I work on now and again. I've even had some success with these. Sometimes things just demand to be written in rhyme, but try as I might, I never seem to solve all the problems of meter on my own. I read about a service somewhere -- can't remember where -- but I gave it a try. The service is called Rhyme Solutions and woman who runs it is Jess Carroll. Her service is so affordable, it was a no-brainer for me to try it. My manuscript came back quickly with exactly the help I needed on it. I sent her another, and got the same great, fast service and a big BONUS! On my email signature, I have the link to my daughter Maggie's crowdfunding campaign for her cancer treatments. Jess Carroll went to the link and not only made a donation (Thank you, Jess!) but also committed to donating a portion of every contract she gets for her rhyme service until Maggie's campaign is fulfilled. How cool is that? So if you have anything that rhymes that you need a little help with, please check out Jess's service HERE. I have used her twice and will be sending more work her way soon. This community of children's writers is really fantastic.

If you are anywhere near New York City, Maggie's show will open off-Broadway the end of the month. They are in previews now. I won't be here blogging two weeks from now because I am flying out for the opening. HERE is the link to more info about the wonderful new musical. 

Last week I offered a double giveaway -- a signed copy of Caleb's Lighthouse by Tracy Schuldt Helixon and They Didn't Teach THIS in Worm School by Simone Lia. Our winner this week is cschwanke2013. Congratulations to you! I will get your books out to you soon. For the rest of you, I have another giveaway this week, so please keep reading.

This week's offering is Esme Dooley and the Kirkkomaki Circus by Jane Donovan and Holly Trechter. Here is the review I wrote for the San Francisco Book Review. 

Esme Dooley is only eleven years old, but that doesn’t mean she can’t solve mysteries. She and her cousin, Tommy, are best friends as well as cousins, and Tommy stays with Esme through thick and thin as she follows clues and tries new, daring ventures. Their grandmother, Papuza, announces she is going to take the two of them with her as she goes on a journey to find someone she thought was dead long ago. Papuza tells them how, when they were children, Arthur was Papuza’s cousin and best friend, just as Esme and Tommy are now, but Arthur has been gone for sixty years. At least that’s what Papuza thought. Her adventurous childhood had included working as a miner and in a logging camp, where she had become friends with a girl named Katrina Kirkkomaki. Katrina always wanted to have a circus. When Papuza sees a newspaper ad for a Kirkkomaki Circus, she sends a telegram and discovers it is her old friend who runs the circus, and Katrina had been contacted by a detective looking for Papuza. The detective has news of Arthur. Papuza, Esme, and Tommy embark on a journey to meet the circus, see Katrina, and get in touch with the detective.

Complicating everything is old Aunt Hatch, a hateful relative who seems to want Esme dead. The three travelers leave town quickly after an incident with Hatch. They travel in a gypsy wagon and have lots of adventures along the way. They run across animals that seem to have escaped from a circus, and when they finally arrive there, they discover there are all kinds of strange and dangerous things happening at Katrina’s circus. It seems someone is trying to destroy the circus. Esme decides it will be up to her and her self-proclaimed sleuthing skills to find out just who the culprit is. This is no easy task. People are being injured, and some injuries are life-threatening. Every time she turns around, Esme seems to find a new suspect, and Tommy is finding just as many. There are enough red herrings in this mystery to populate a town.

Co-authors Jane Donovan and Holly Trechter have written a fast-paced, episodic adventure with an amazing cast of characters who are quirky and perfect to populate an old-time circus. From a snake charmer to a bearded lady to a sage, an old fortune teller to a mermaid and more, there is something for everyone in this book. There are so many characters that it would have been a welcome addition to have a character list to refer to, because some characters disappear for longish periods and the book is much longer than is ordinary for the middle-grade audience for which it is intended. It will take focused, robust readers to complete reading this one. The charming silhouette illustrations by Jane Donovan add nicely to the story.

I have a gently-read paperback of this 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.

Greek Myths: Three Heroic Tales -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader

and from the reader the writer learns.” 

~ P.L. Travers ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Dialog, dialog, dialog. I can’t get enough of good posts about making it better. HERE is a great one from M. L. Keller. She does use a few, ahem, bad words (although I don’t think there is any such thing as a bad word as long as it does its job), so be aware of that. 

K. M. Weiland has two posts on plotting problems. See HERE if your plots are too flat and HERE to help you with plots that are too complex. 

Janice Hardy, it seems, has a second site called Romance University. Who knew? Anyway, she has a wonderful post HERE on An Easy Way to Create Conflict in Your Novel. 

The Mendocino Coast Writer's Conference last week was amazing. If any of you ever have a

Lewis Buzbee

chance to take a class of any kind from Lewis Buzbee, do it. He is simply wonderful. We had twelve in our workshop (three morning workshops of about three hours each), and I learned a great deal not only from what others had to say about my writing, but from what everyone had to say about all the writing we looked at. In addition there were pitch sessions with critiques by agents and editors, readings by all workshop leaders and many of the attendees, and other workshops such as the ones I attended on dialogue and screenwriting. And of course, Mendocino is just a spectacular place. So, my writing well is a bit fuller than it was before, thanks to that terrific three days.

Amandine's birthday picture

I have a new resident at my home. I saw several pleas on our neighborhood email group for host homes for exchange students. When my daughters were still at home and in school, we hosted five exchange students -- three from Germany, one from Sweden, and one from Yugoslavia. The experiences were great and I thought it might be nice to offer my home now. I contacted them and they had a young woman in Belgium who had not yet been placed. After checking me out, the organization decided I probably am not a serial killer, and they sent her to me. Amandine Crabbe arrived last Sunday night, we celebrated her 18th birthday on Monday, and she started at the local high school on Wednesday. I think it should be a fun and rewarding year for both of us.

When last we met, I promised an ARC of The Tapper Twins Tear Up New York by Goeff Rodkey. This week's winner is Tudy. Congratulations, Tudy! I will be getting your book out to you soon. For the rest of you, please keep reading, I do have another wonderful book to give away this week. 

This week I will share my love of retold myths. I ran across a middle-grade book for review

called Greek Myths: Three Heroic Tales by Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden and illustrated by Carole Henaff. It is a real winner. Here is the review I've written for the Manhattan Book Review. 

Hades steals the beautiful Persephone to be his bride, but her mother, Demeter, is so heartbroken she withholds all her gifts to the earth of growing things. Zeus demands Persephone’s return but only if she hasn’t eaten any food in Hades. But Persephone had eaten six seeds from a pomegranate, so a compromise is reached allowing her to live six months above ground, saving the earth. The story of Theseus and the Minotaur is one young people will especially relate to with such a young man who seems to be a hero, then turns out not to be. Justice in the world of the Greek gods is swift and painful. The third tale, that of Orpheus and the love of his life Eurydice, is simply a lovely story that will enthrall readers.

Authors Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden retell these ancient stories in beautiful, lyrical language putting their own stamp on them with unusual details. They include back-matter for each to familiarize young readers with the stories’s origins.Illustrator Carole Henaff completes the stories with art that hearkens back to ancient Greece, reminiscent of art found on vases and amphoras of that period. Middle graders will love this.

I have a gently-read paperback 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.

Drive Me Crazy -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“Do or do not. There is no try.”

~ Yoda ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Feel like your manuscript disappeared into a black hole? HERE is an excellent article by Elizabeth Law on how to follow up with agents and editors.

Pat Miller clarifies different types of historical fiction with great examples HERE on the Group Blog.

Janice Hardy at Fiction University always has something interesting going on. Your assignment HERE is to watch a horror film. I don’t watch horror films, but I think I will have to make an exception for this one. I think I can learn a lot about writing. 

Now and then I like to recommend a book I'm not reviewing here, but one that I have enjoyed immensely, usually an adult book. I just finished reading a wonderful debut novel, a cozy mystery, that is fun, fresh, and smart. It is A Murder of Magpies by Judith Flanders and it's set in the publishing industry in England. Fun stuff.

Last week I offered an autographed copy of Nancy Herman's wonderful historical novel, All We Left Behind: Virginia Reed and the Donner Party to one of you. This week's winner is Joanne Fritz. Joanne is a writer and blogger from Pennsylvania who also does book reviews and sometimes gives away books. Her blog, My Brain on Books, is really worth checking out, and don't miss her "About Me" section. Absolutely fascinating. Click on the title to check it out. Congratulations, Joanne. I will get your book out this week.

As a tip of my hat to the beginning of summer, I think I've found the perfect book. Drive Me Crazy by Terra Elan McVoy is a terrific middle-grade book that is a great summer read. Here is the 5-star review I wrote for the San Francisco Book Review.

Lana and Cassie met at the wedding of Cassie’s grandmother and Lana’s grandfather. The two girls might both be twelve years old, but that is about all they have in common. They couldn’t be more different and don’t particularly like each other. Suddenly they find themselves stuck in a car together for a week, accompanying their grandparents on their honeymoon, of all things. Lana thinks she’s been sent away because her mother is sick, and her parents don’t want to tell her what’s going on. Cassie is pretty high maintenance and has friends who are even more high maintenance and not very nice. Can these two girls make their peace or even become friends without destroying their grandparents’ honeymoon?

“Maybe this would be a time to tell her that my life isn’t near as perfect as she assumes, but she starts crying harder, and it breaks my heart.”

This is a great concept for a middle-grade novel, and Terra Elan McVoy does a

Terra Elan McVoy       Photo Credit Jamie Allen

terrific job bringing it to life. The dual point of view is perfect with Cassie and Lana, each with a very distinct and pitch-perfect voice, telling her own story in alternating chapters. All the characters are interesting and well-rounded. The story is compelling and fun and the writing excellent. Young readers will love this one.  

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.