Steering Toward Normal -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

"It's never too late to have a happy childhood." Berke Breathed

Gifts for My Writer Friends: 

A good article can be found HERE on 10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Dialogue. 

Great article HERE on “Write What You Don’t Know.” 

And for another take on why you should write what you don’t know, click HERE. 

I didn't have a chance to post last week. I spent Mother's Day with my husband, our younger daughter, and our two grandchildren at a baseball game. I do love baseball, so it was a great way to spend the day. In the evening, my husband and I went to our older daughter's album launch party. If you love beautiful music, click HERE for Amazon or HERE for iTunes to check it out. You can sample on iTunes without buying anything. 8-) Anyway, it was a long, wonderful day with no time for blogging. 

If you are wondering why a couple of things are highlighted in white boxes, I have no idea. Sometimes Blogger just does these things, and I am unable to correct them.

When I did post last, I promised a signed copy of What Flowers Remember by Shannon Wiersbitzky. I am happy to announce that our winner is Carl R. Scott! WooHoo, Carl. I will be sending your book out this week. It pays to tweet the link for extra entries! Carl did and he's the winner. Stay tuned even if you didn't win, because I have another great giveaway this week.

This week I'd like to tell you about another really terrific book, Steering Toward Normal by Rebecca Petruck. First, I'd like to thank Rebecca for naming her book Steering Toward Normal instead of Steering TowardS Normal. (Using towards instead of toward is a pet peeve of mine.) Second, this is a book set in Minnesota, my home state, and made me ever so comfortable. Third, it's just a darned good book with engaging characters and a fabulous, rich, complex story line. Fourth, that cover just cracks me up every time I look at it!

Diggy Lawson is looking forward to his eighth-grade year. He has a great calf to raise to compete for a top prize at the Minnesota State Fair. He has great friends at school and in 4-H, where he gets to spend a lot of time with July, the girl he has a secret crush on. He and his dad, Pop, have a great time together, just the two of them. (Diggy's mom had left when he was a baby.) But the wheels start to come off when a guy from school, one Diggy hardly knows, Wayne Graf, is tossed out in their driveway by his father and told he should live there with his real father. This was news to Diggy and not very good news. Wayne's mother, who had been Diggy's third-grade teacher, had recently died. Now this! Sure Diggy felt sorry for Wayne, but that didn't mean Diggy wanted to share his life and his Pop with Wayne. To top things off, Wayne decides to get a calf of his own when he finds out the prize for Grand Champion is huge. AND July seems to pay a LOT of attention to Wayne now. So does Pop. Suddenly it seems to Diggy, he is on the outside looking in.

Rebecca Petruck

When you get around to reading this book, carve out some time. It doesn't have any lulls or good stopping places. It practically demands to be read straight through. It is fun, funny, poignant, sweet, imaginative, and very real. I am offering my gently-read ARC to one of you. All you need do is have a U.S. address, be a subscriber or follower, and leave a comment. If you are not yet a subscriber or follower, it's free and easy. Check the right-hand column to do either or both. Please let me know in your comment if you are a subscriber or follower. If you would like extra chances in the drawing, you can get the word out and link to this post by Tweeting, posting on your blog, linking on Facebook, or use some other social media and tell me about it in your comment. I will give you extra chances for doing so. It paid off for Carl R. Scott. It can pay off for you.

Don't forget to stop by the lovely Shannon Messenger's blog for links to more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday book reviews. Just click HERE to find your way.

A Review of Keeper of the Lost Cities

Thought for the day:

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."
~ Scott Adams ~

A gift for my writer friends:

 Here are some links I think you will find valuable – three great ones this week.

For a query letter that worked with agent comments, click HERE.

For 7 Ways to Add Subplots to Your Nove,l click HERE.

For Writer’s Digest Most Popular Articles of 2012, click HERE.

For my fabulous giveaway, the winner is Margaret Duarte! (Cue the trumpets!) Margaret, I will be sending you a copy of After Eli. Margaret is also a writer, working in the genre of visionary fiction. You can check out her blog by clicking HERE. The book will be on its way soon. Enjoy! I have no giveaway for today because I just can’t give this one away! But I still hope you will leave comments, and make sure to come back next week when I will have a giveaway.

I want to start by saying I am not a big fan of fantasy. Now and then, I will pick up a fantasy and read it, but it’s not my favorite genre. I read the first Harry Potter book, but was never interested enough to read the rest. It’s just not my thing. So when I find one that holds my interest, it must be awfully good.

I’ve been following Shannon Messenger’s blog for a long time. She’s the founder of Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday, and over the past year or so, she has written about her debut novel, Keeper of the Lost Cities, and the process of bringing it to the market. I was intrigued to see the book after following her journey, so ordered it up recently even though it is a fantasy. I’m glad I did. This is a fun read, and I think a lot more than kid-readers-of-fantasy will like this wonderful story. I sure did.

When we meet Sophie, she is a pretty normal twelve-year-old girl. Well, except for that “hearing voices” thing she has going on. She is inundated with the thoughts of others – a veritable storm of thoughts crashing into her mind. This had been going on since she fell and hit her head when she was five. While on a school field trip to the museum (she’s pretty bright, already in high school), she meets a cute guy, Fitz, who seems to know an awful lot about her. He takes her (traveling by light, of course) to meet his father, Alden, in an entirely different world. Sophie had never felt as if she fit in – not at school and not even at home. Now she knows why. She isn’t human. She is an elf. Not the helping-Santa or Keebler-cookie kind, but a highly evolved society in the new world she’s been taken to. Maybe this is where she belongs.

Shannon Whitney Messenger

Sophie soon learns it’s no easier fitting in at school in the new place, especially when you’re smart and mysterious. There are still mean girls and jealousies and cliques. But Sophie has to keep some of her talents secret while trying to pass her classes and fit in with a new family. Sophie had been hidden among the humans, but by whom and for what reason? And there are other problems in this new world, and there are real enemies trying to do her great harm. Someone has been setting fires in the human world and Sophie’s human family is in danger. When Sophie tries to investigate, she runs into one obstacle after another. Along the way, she has to break a lot of the rules of her new society, some unwittingly, and finds herself in all kinds of trouble. She faces grave danger and even drags one of her best friends into that danger as well. Her enemies are powerful, but Sophie’s talents and special abilities are also great.

Keeper of the Lost Cities is a real page turner. Shannon Messenger manages to endear Sophie to her readers in the first few pages, then takes us on a fantastical journey with her. This is the first book in a series, and I can’t wait for the next installment. There was just enough left unfinished to whet my appetite for a little more fantasy. I recommend this book highly and, sorry, folks, I just can’t bring myself to give it away.

Don’t forget to stop by Shannon Messenger’s wonderful blog for more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday links. Click HERE to find it.

Please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.           

After Eli - Review and a Giveaway

Thought for the day:

“If we had more fairy tales when we were young, we’d need less therapy as adults.” ~James Hillman~

A gift for my writer friends:

Here are some links I think you will find valuable – four this week. Just click on the word HERE after each description to be linked.

An extraordinary poem about life: HERE

Blog with some terrific writing tips from Norman Grock and Wilson Williams, Jr.: HERE

Two ways your brain is wired to undermine your story and what to do about it from Lisa Cron: HERE

Working with Archetypes: HERE

For my fabulous giveaway, the winner is Jennifer Rumberger! (Cue the cheering crowds!) Jennifer, I will be sending you a copy of The Candy Smash. Jennifer is also a children’s writer and participates in Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. You can check out her blog and a review of a brand new middle-grade book by clicking HERE. The book will be on its way soon. Enjoy! I have another giveaway for today, so stay tuned.

I’ve just finished reading one of the best books I’ve read lately. After Eli by Rebecca Rupp was an absolutely wonderful surprise. When I read a little about it, I thought it might be pretty darned serious and maybe even a little dreary since the story deals with a young boy, Danny, who lost the big brother he idolized three years before. Well, it is a serious book, but handled very lightly and with a surprising amount of humor. And there is nothing dreary about it.

Danny’s brother Eli volunteers to go to war, but promises he will be back. Since Eli accomplished everything he’d ever set his mind to, Danny has no doubt he will return. But he doesn’t. He is killed by a roadside bomb. And that bomb doesn’t just blow up Eli, it blows up Danny’s family as well. Their father disappears into his job and only comes home to share his anger and express his disappointment with Danny. Their mother disappears into a grief so deep and debilitating that it’s hard to believe she will ever return. Danny is really left on his own. He begins to keep a binder he calls The Book of the Dead in which he lists of historical figures – how they died and, more importantly, why. Did their death have purpose? Does any death have purpose? And, of course, he spends a lot of time thinking about Eli, and the reader gets to know Eli very well and learns why he is so loved by everyone.

Danny’s father wants Danny to go to summer school, but instead Danny takes a job working on a potato farm run by Jim, former crack addict and Eli’s best friend. None of this makes Danny’s father happy, but Danny finds a wonderful satisfaction in the work and in getting to know Jim and his girlfriend, Emma. That same summer, Danny meets an incredible girl, Isabelle, with whom Danny falls in love. He also gets to know a guy from school, Walter, who is something of an outcast, but becomes a true friend. These four people have a profound effect on Danny and help him find his way through much of his grief and into the beginning of adulthood. When Isabelle leaves at the end of summer, Danny reaches a crisis in his life facing another great loss.

I loved this book. I loved the characters and wanted another book so I could spend more time with them. And I wanted a prequel so I could get to know Eli better. And I loved the concept of a book that deals with such difficult problems in such a realistic and hopeful way. And I loved the writing – simple, elegant, and profound. It is not a perfect book. A few instances in the book, Rupp loses the male voice of Danny, and her “girlness” shows through, but only a very few. Other than that, I thought it was terrific. It transcends the middle-grade label put on it, and teens and adults will enjoy this lovely story. I highly recommend it.

I am giving away my gently-read hardback copy of After Eli. If you leave a comment, your name will go into the hat. If you post the link on your blog or on Facebook or tweet it, let me know and you will have an extra entry.

Don’t forget to stop by Shannon Messenger’s wonderful blog for more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday links. Click HERE to find it.

On the book giveaway, this is for U.S. only. Sorry, but it would be too expensive for me to send books out of the country. But please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.           

Another Great Book by Kathryn Fitzmaurice and a Giveaway

Thought for the day:

 “[A] piece of creative writing, like a day-dream, is a continuation of, and a substitute for, what was once the play of childhood.” ~ Sigmund Freud ~

A gift for my writer friends:

 Here are some links I think you will find valuable.

Always a hot topic, Adventures in YA & Childrens Publishing posted 13 Steps to getting an agent -- http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.com/2012/10/wow-wednesday-jay-kristoff-with-13.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2Fkidlit+%28Adventures+in+Children%27s+Publishing%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Something I always need to think hard about, the old bugaboo, Lay vs. Lie – http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/lay-vs-lie?et_mid=585141&rid=3028165

This one is just plain fun and I want one!! – http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/famous-small-offthegrid-worksp-140587

An Announcement:

My first actual published work, other than the book reviews I write for Sacramento Book Review, is now out. An anthology called A MiracleUnder the Christmas Tree: Real Stories of Hope, Faith, and the True Gifts of the Season, published by Harlequin, is now available for early Christmas shopping. My story, Christmas Without Snow, is part of this collection put together by Jennifer Basye Sanders. To check it out, just click on the title.

For my fabulous giveaway, the winner is Christina Mercer! (Cue the trumpets please!) Congratulations to you, Christina. I will be sending you an AUTOGRAPHED copy of The Year the SwallowsCame Early. It is a terrific book, and I know you’ll enjoy it. I have another giveaway for today, so stay tuned. By the way, Christina is also a writer and has a wonderful blog with great links, so stop on over and check it out by clicking HERE.

As I mentioned last week, I won The Year the Swallows Came Early. When the author, Kathryn Fitzmaurice, sent me the book, she also sent me a copy of her newer book, A Diamond in the Desert! How cool is that? I had already promised to review TheYear the Swallows Came Early, and didn’t know when I might get to A Diamond in the Desert, but when I noticed it was historical fiction, a favorite of mine, AND had baseball, also a favorite of mine, I packed it along when I went on vacation recently. Let me tell you about this wonderful book.

It is 1942, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and American citizens of Japanese descent are being herded onto trains and buses with only what they can carry, to be transported to internment camps around the western United States. Twelve-year-old Tetsu Kishi is sent with his mother and little sister, Kimi, to Gila River, Arizona. But Papa is arrested and is being sent elsewhere. The family doesn’t know for how long.

“Her eyes searched mine, and I could see they were telling me the part she couldn’t say aloud: how she’d given away everything she treasured, a lifetime of things, and she didn’t know when my father was coming back, and she couldn’t take losing one more thing.”

Tetsu is a baseball star in his neighborhood, a terrific first-baseman and a solid hitter. He is the captain of his team. Besides his family, baseball is the most important thing in his life. Now he has to leave everything important to him behind, and he has no idea when or if he will play again.

The camp is a dismal place, but Tetsu and his family try to make the best of it. Tetsu makes friends with George and Horse, a couple of kind of tough guys who seem unlikely friends for a boy like Tetsu. Kimi catches lizards and makes pets of them, but she misses their dog terribly. Mama takes a job in the mess hall to earn some money and is gone often, leaving Tetsu to deal with his sister's needs. Two boys move in next door. Both boys play ball, and their father is a baseball coach. The coach vows to build a team and a baseball field to give the boys something to work for and give them some joy. But the lack of privacy and stark living conditions set up some problems for the family that take a terrible toll. Tetsu becomes impatient with his sister and runs off to play baseball, but he has to grow up in a hurry and decide what is really important to him when Kimi goes missing. A most unlikely hero steps up.

This is a quiet story told with absolutely beautiful writing, spare and poetic, rich and complex, a true surprise for what is really a boy story with sports in a very barren setting. The characters are complete and realistic in every way; the story is compelling and believable. It is clear Kathryn Fitzmaurice did her research. She has written a story that is destined to become a classic and will be read and enjoyed by boys and girls and adults. It is the kind of book kids will read over and over and will never suspect they are getting a big dose of history along the way. A Diamond in the Desert is a remarkable, memorable piece of work that should be in every library and on every middle- and high-school class reading list. Were I still teaching, I would certainly be using it in my class. If you don’t read another book this year, well, first of all, shame on you, but really this is the one to read. I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!

This is the kind of book that would usually have me saying, “I can’t part with this one, so, sorry, no giveaway this week," but I happen to have two AUTOGRAPHED copies (an embarrassment of riches!), so I am giving away one. Just leave a comment and I’ll put your name in the hat. Blog, link on Facebook, or Tweet a link to my blog and let me know for an extra entry. If you are looking for more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday books, hop on over to Shannon Messenger's blog by clicking HERE. You can also check out her brand-spankin'-new book Keeper of the Lost City there as well.

And don't forget to check out my story in A Miracle Under the Christmas Tree.

On the book giveaway, this is for U.S. only. Sorry, but it would be too expensive for me to send books out of the country. But please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.