Stained by Cheryl Rainfield -- A Review and Giveaway and Overview of A Bird on the Water

Thought for the Day:

“I have rewritten — often several times — every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.”  ~ Vladimir Nabokov ~

Some Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Kathleen Temean gives us a story that is particularly motivating and interesting. All writers should read this one. Click HERE. 

We all know we have to make readers care about our characters or all is lost. You can find a great post HERE about making your readers care.

Anne R. Allen has a not-to-be-missed post HERE that examines the changing role of agents in this digital age. 

New Book on My TBR List: 

I am adding a new section here. There are so many great books coming out that I hope to get to soon, but don't know just when I can. But I think these sound interesting enough to mention here. So, for the first book in this section, I'd like to mention A Bird On Water Street by Elizabeth O. Dulemba. This middle-grade book is based on a fascinating (and scary) piece of history and is a cautionary tale everyone should read. This is what Goodreads has to say: A Bird on Water Street is a coming of age story about Jack, a boy growing up in a Southern Appalachian town environmentally devastated by a century of poor copper-mining practices and pollution. Jack is opposed to the mine where so many of his relatives have died, but how can he tell that to his Dad who wants him to follow in the family trade? Jack just wants his dad safe and the land returned to its pre-mining glory with trees, birds, frogs, and nature—like he’s learning about in school. After Jack’s uncle is killed in a mining accident and the Company implements a massive layoff, the union organizes and the miners go on strike. It seems Jack’s wish is coming true. But the cost may be the ruin of his home and everything he loves.

Last week I posted an offer to one of you to win a copy of Shane, the best western ever, in my humble opinion. The winner this week is Anne R. Allen! Congratulations, Anne!! Anne is a writer of romantic-comedy/mysteries and blogs about writing. I often link to her blog posts in my Gifts to My Writer Friends section. Coincidentally, I mentioned her posts both last week and this week. Anne is getting a lot of love around here! You can learn more about her (and about writing) by clicking her link above. Anne, I will get your book out to you this week.

Yesterday was our regional SCBWI conference and it was TERRIFIC. Great line-up of speakers and workshops. If you missed it, save May 2 for next year. The big thrill for me was a little visit at my critique group table from Melani Grube, who told me she loves my blog and never misses it! WooHoo! Made my day! (Hi, Melani!) I'm one of the volunteers, so I had a loooong day yesterday. This morning I had two airport runs for conference speakers -- at 4:00 am and 8:00 am -- and then my grandson had a double-header at noon. That said, I am merely going to run a review here I wrote for the San Francisco Book Review. The book is Stained by Cheryl Rainfield, and this is 5-star review I wrote. 

Sarah has lived all her seventeen years with a rather large port-wine stain on her face. Now, when she

Cheryl Rainfield

is finally to begin treatments to erase it, her father’s business has been ruined by an embezzler. They don’t have the money for the treatments. She is devastated. She really believed she could be normal, that the bullying and meanness could be gone from her life. She can barely get through the day, but after school faces the worst bullying incident she’s ever faced. Her best friend turns against her and joins the bullies. When Nick, a really amazing guy who is one of her few friends, offers to walk her home, she kind of blows him off. Brian, a handsome young guy who works for Sarah’s father, offers her a ride home. She refuses, but he drags her into his car and ties her up. Her life becomes hell and makes her earlier problems look like nothing. It will take all her strength and will to survive, and that may not be enough.

“I think I was trying to punish myself by staring at all those perfect faces. Punish myself for how I look, and for the way people treat me.”

Cheryl Rainfield has written a dark, edgy, realistic fiction that plumbs the depths of human evil and, at the same time, depicts what really defines heroes.

If you would like to win my gently-read hardback of Stained, all you need do is be a subscriber or follower, have a U.S. address, and leave a comment. Please tell me in your comment if you are a subscriber or follower so I can put you in the drawing. I'll put your name in my proverbial hat. If you want extra chances, post this link on your blog or Facebook or Tweet about the giveaway and tell me that in your comment and you'll get your name in the hat an extra time. Thanks for reading. I hope to see you here again soon.

Please visit Shannon Messenger's blog (HERE) for more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday reviews and giveaways. 

 

 

Shane -- the real Best Western -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“Start early and work hard. A writer’s apprenticeship usually involves writing a million words (which are then discarded) before he’s almost ready to begin. That takes a while.”
~David Eddings~

Some Gifts for My Writer Friends: 

Anne R. Allen, whose name you see here quite often, has a terrific post for writers about building a platform. There are a LOT of misconceptions about this. Click HERE to read this helpful, honest post.

The women at Writers Helping Writers have a really important and useful post (don’t they always!) on creating unlikable characters the reader will care about. That’s a tough assignment, but they can help you with it. Click HERE to see this great post.

Writer’s Digest posted an interesting article called “5 Writing Lessons Inspired by Famous Writers.” It’s fun. You can find it by clicking HERE. 

When I last posted about a non-picture book, I promised a gently-read copy of Seeing Red by Kathryn Erskine to one of you. The lucky winner tonight is Janet Smart! WooHoo, Janet!! If you don't know her, she writes children's books and writes about her journey to become a published writer at her blog, Creative Writing in the Blackberry Patch, which can be found by clicking HERE. Janet, I will get the book out to you this week.

A little over three years ago when this was a baby blog, I wrote a post about the wonderful western True Grit. I had read it for the first time. If you're interested (and how could you not be interested?), you can read that review HERE. I ended that post by saying good books find ways to get into the hands of a new generation of readers. Now one of my favorite books has been reprinted by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt with a nice, new cover so a new generation of readers might find it. 

When I was very young, I saw the movie Shane. I think I had a crush on Alan Ladd and thought it was a pretty cool movie. I had never read the book. Many years after that, I was poking around the dusty book room at one of the high schools at which I taught, looking for a book that would capture my sophomore students' interest. I found a stack of copies of Shane by Jack Schaefer. No one used them anymore, but I thought a western might be fun. And it had a movie to show while I graded the papers the kids would write while reading it. So I took a copy home and read it over the weekend. 

Oh, my. What a book. This is the kind of novel teachers dream about because is it so well crafted it has everything a teacher wants to teach about looking at literature. Even better, it is a great story told by a young boy and very accessible to young people. And it is based on one of the least known, yet most fascinating chapters in the history of the West -- the Johnson County Wars.  The only problem with it, as my students pointed out to me, was once you had read this rich and riveting story, the movie is frankly bad. I had to agree. I wondered if the screenwriter had even read the book. 

The story is a simple one. Young Bob Starrett lives with his parents on a farm in Wyoming in the late 1800s. One day he is sitting atop the fence of the corral and sees a stranger riding through the valley. That stranger, when he comes to a fork in the road, chooses to go to the right, which takes him to the Starrett farm, rather than the other path that

Jack Schaefer

would take him to the Fletcher ranch, home of all the villains in this book. And there are truly villainous villains, and plenty of them, that must be taken on by Bob's father and that stranger, Shane. There are great heroics, a hint of romance, and a true coming of age story. This is a little book -- 176 pages -- one you can read in a day, but you will find yourself savoring it long after.  And do yourself a favor -- when you finish the last page, go back and read the opening section. It's worth doing. 

I received a copy of the new printing of Shane that I reviewed for the San Francisco Book Review. (It is no longer the Sacramento Book Review.) I got to re-read one of my favorite books and got a new copy just for doing a review! How sweet is that? I have a couple other copies, so I am going to give away this gently-read copy to one of you. All you need do is be a subscriber or follower with a U.S. address and leave a comment. Please tell me if you are a follower or subscriber, and I'll put your name in a drawing.  If you want extra chances, spread the word by linking to my post on Facebook or your own blog or Tweet about this. Let me know you've done that and get an extra chance. 

Don't forget to check out Shannon Messenger's blog for lots of Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts. You can get there by clicking HERE.