National #bepositive Day is coming up!!!

December 6th, 2012 

is

National Be Positive Day!!!!

(I can't post any photos because blogger says I've used up all my space.)  :(

The lovely and enthusiastic Roybn Campbell and I decided that we all should celebrate this wonderful day by going on twitter at least once that day and saying something positive followed by #bepositive.  At the end of the #bepositive day, I hope you will friend all the people who joined in and maybe do some retweets to inspire some other people on Twitter.

I hope you will join us...in our positiveness on twitter.

You can succeed! #bepositive

You have many talents! #bepositive

Something good is going to happen to you today! #bepositive

So who's in???

Disclaimer: Robyn and I made up this national holiday, but we believe it needs to be one!

So please join us in trying to make December 6th a very positive day on the web.

Speak Out Against... (& winners)

If you have ever been in a violent or controlled relationship, you probably recognize you don't want your children to be involved in that same type of relationship.  But what can you do? Talk to your children, WAY before they are teens.  They have to know they're valuable and deserving of love, respect and kindness.

I firmly believe books show kids how to treat others and how they should be treated.  Books can give them courage and show them a path to a better life.

If you are in a controlling or violent relationship it will effect your children...It's hard to leave a partner whether you are 16 or 60, but everyone deserves love, respect and kindness.  You are modeling what a "normal" relationship is, so what they see at home is really important.

There are places and people you can turn to if you are in this type of relationship.  If you belong to a church, a pastor may be able to counsel you.  A professional counselor could help too.  There are lots of organizations you can turn to: Help for Abuse, Dove, Inc, Domestic Violence, go to Google, there are lots of informational sites, more than I can even imagine.

If you suspect your teen is in a controlling or violent relationship, these sites have indicators you can look for and suggestions...

One of my writing friends Susan Oloier asked me to join her blog tour about his important issue.  Below are two books that involve teens in violent relationships.

Outcast

by  Susan Oloier

Noelle dreams of a different life, one where Trina Brockwell doesn’t exist. Trina has bullied Noelle since junior high. Now she’s tired of it. With the help of her black-sheep aunt and a defiant new classmate, Noelle seeks revenge. But vengeance comes with a price: Noelle risks friendship, her first love, and herself to get back at those who have wronged her.

Outcast is available at several sites.

Break from You

by Rebecca Green Gasper

Love shouldn’t hurt this much…Brooke Myers wants to believe she has it all: the perfect guy, the perfect relationship, the perfect life. She wants to believe it so much that she's willing to overlook the fear, the isolation, and the pain her boyfriend has caused her. She knows it isn't right but tells herself that love isn't always easy. However, when a fire destroys the restaurant during homecoming dinner, she forms an instant bond with the boy who saves her, one her boyfriend wouldn’t like. With the pain of a concussion reminding her of how bad things can get, she is forced to re-evaluate the relationship she has with her boyfriend and face the ghosts that haunt her. Brooke once believed love was all it took…but is it enough? Is it truly love when you've lost yourself in it?

You can find more out about Rebecca and her books on her blog.

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Congratulations to Carol Riggs for winner a copy of Chicken Dance by Tammi Sauer!

And Congratulations to Angela Ackerman and Kelly Polark who won Princess in Training buttons from Tammi.  

When you look in the mirror tomorrow, I'd like you to remember, you are special, you are valued and you deserve to be treated with respect!

Tammi Sauer is in house...A giveaway...And a winner

If you know me very well, you know I am a HUGE fan of Tammi Sauer's work.  Her new book PRINCESS IN TRAINING is soooooo much fun!  The illustrations are fantastic too.

Here's my little blurb:

Princess Viola is an awesome skateboarder, but not the "perfect" princess that the king and queen would like her to be.  So what would any good parent do?  They send her away to Princess Camp where she should learn how to behave like a proper princess.  But....it's not as easy as it sounds.  Viola tries hard, but has quite a few mishaps until a dragon comes along and her unprincess like skills cause her to save the day.

It's not only a fun read, but it  shows young readers that it is okay to be different or have different skills.  I give PRINCESS IN TRAINING five stars....ahem out five stars.  :)

I met Tammi several years ago in one of her workshops.  She is an amazing writer and I hope you'll hop to the link and see all that I learned from her.  I am always trying to pick her brain (because it is amazing) so I sent her a few questions and she agreed to answer them for us.

When did you begin writing?

I have always been a writer. As a kid, I was very big on getting mail, so I joined a penpal club. But those weren’t the only letters I wrote. I spent hours sending fanmail to various celebrities, including Loni Anderson and Barbara Mandrell.  Somewhere I have a collection of retro 8 by 10 glossies to prove it.

It wasn’t until 1997, however, that I began toying with the idea of writing picture books. I would write one day. Stop for 36 days. Write again for a week. Stop for four months. I didn't make a commitment to writing until the spring of 2003 when an illustrator visited my daughter's preschool. Seeing someone who was actually in the business inspired me to get serious about writing. That day I decided to devote my kids' nap time to writing. Even if my mom called. Even if Oprah was on. One year later, I got the offer for my first book—Cowboy Camp.

Do you have an agent?

Yes, my agent is Laura Rennert at Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

Can you tell us about the journey took until you reached publication?

When I first decided to try to become a children’s book writer, I would write something on Monday, send it out on Tuesday, and expect multiple offers by Friday.  Little by little, however, I learned more and more. I wrote. I read. I studied successful picture books. I attended conferences. I found a critique partner and a critique group. And those early stories? They were awful, but I never once thought of them as a waste of time. Those were my practice stories. It’s the same with sports or playing a musical instrument. The best way to get better at something is to practice.

Are all your books published by the same publisher?

I work with a variety of wonderful publishing houses—Bloomsbury, Disney-Hyperion, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Simon & Schuster, and Sterling.

What one thing would you say to prepublished authors?

With a lot of perseverance, some talent, and a little luck, YOU can sell a picture book. (In my experience, an unlimited supply of frozen Milky Ways also helps.)

Do you have any special news you’d like to share???

I am really excited about my upcoming book with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt called Nugget and Fang. This book is illustrated by the oh-so-amazing Michael Slack. It focuses on the unlikely friendship between a minnow and a shark.  I am hoping Nugget and Fang make a huge splash in spring 2013.

And finally the all important question:  What is your favorite kind of cheese?

Wow, that’s like asking me who my favorite child is. I am crazy about cheese. I should totally move to Wisconsin in my support of cheese.

Here are some places you can learn more about the awesome Tammi Sauer.  (I bet that makes her blush!)

website: http://www.tammisauer.com/

blog: http://tamarak.livejournal.com/

her books

I am giving away a copy of Tammi's awesome book, CHICKEN DANCE...

and Tammi is giving away two of her PRINCESS IN TRAINING buttons (so cute) on November 15th.

Now for a winner of WE HEAR THE DEAD by Dianne Salerni:

Janet Johnson

And the winner of a signed bookmark for her upcoming book CAGED GRAVES:

Kelly Polark

Thanks for dropping by!

Hugs to all!

WE HEAR THE DEAD...(insert scary music)...with Dianne Salreni and a giveaway

I have a special guest for the spookiest holiday of the year...

Please welcome Dianne Salerni!

 I have nine quick questions for Dianne...and she has some really cool news...plus I am giving away my gently used copy of her book WE HEAR THE DEAD (which is awesome) and a signed book mark for her upcoming release of THE CAGED GRAVES.

Dianne, when did you begin writing?

I’ve been writing since before I could write. I illustrated my first book, THE GIRL AND THE DRAGON, and my father took dictation for the text. I think I was about 4 years old. But if you want to know when I started my quest for publication, I’ll have to cite my unsuccessful submissions to Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine in high school and my husband’s attempts to get two (really awful) children’s books published when I first got married.

Do you have an agent? If so, who?

My agent is Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger, and she is amazing.

Can you tell us the journey WE HEAR THE DEAD (Which is totally awesome!) took until it reached publication?

Originally, I had an idea about writing a MG book about séance frauds. But when I started researching séances, trying to learn more about them, I kept coming across the story of the Fox sisters, who are credited with the invention of spiritualism. When I learned that one of the teenaged sisters became embroiled in an ill-fated celebrity romance, I decided I had to write this story. So, ultimately I switched from a MG humorous tale to a YA historical romance. Originally, I self-published the book (back in 2007 when this was still taboo), and the good reviews attracted the attention of Sourcebooks, who offered a traditional publishing contract. In 2010, the book was published with a fresh edit and a new title.

(Here's a link to the book trailer....cool stuff)

Is there anything special you would like to share about WE HEAR THE DEAD???

Yes! Around the same time Sourcebooks contacted me about publishing rights, an independent Hollywood producer emailed me after stumbling across my indie book on Amazon. I ended up selling her a film option in a separate deal – which may now be coming to fruition. The producer, Amy Green, has acquired funding through her company ARC49 Entertainment, to produce a film short, tentatively titled THE SPIRIT GAME. Hopefully I will have more information to share about the film and casting later this fall!

When does your next book, THE CAGED GRAVE, come out? 

THE CAGED GRAVES comes out in May 2013 from Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and it is my first agented deal. THE CAGED GRAVES is about 17-year old Verity Boone, who returns to her hometown in 1867 to take part in an arranged marriage, only to discover her mother’s grave confined in a cage outside the cemetery walls and the secret behind her death likely to put Verity in a grave right beside it.

What one thing would you say to prepublished (I love that term. It sounds so much better than unpublished.) authors?

Do not EVER give up – and do not stop writing! Persevere with your projects, but not to the point of excluding new projects and even new genres. If I were to make a list of the manuscripts I’ve written, you would find that the first ones written were not necessarily the first ones sold, and my biggest deal is not in the genre/audience I started with.

Do you have any special news you’d like to share???

HarperCollins has just bought my MG fantasy THE EIGHTH DAY in a 3 book deal, proving the point I made above. THE EIGHTH DAY is about a mysteriously orphaned boy who discovers a secret day hidden between Wednesday and Thursday and a reclusive girl living next door who exists only on that eighth day, hiding from people who’d use her to destroy the regular seven.

What is your favorite holiday?

Summer vacation. That counts as a pretty important holiday when you’re a teacher trying to become an author.

One last question and it’s an important one:  What is your favorite kind of cheese?

Sharon, how can I possibly choose? It depends on what I’m eating it with, or if I’m eating it alone, and what kind of mood I’m in. There’s extra sharp Vermont cheddar, baby Swiss, mozzarella, shaved Parmesan, feta and port wine cheddar – and goat cheese with honey is a local specialty in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Thanks so much for having me here today, Sharon!

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I so appreciate Dianne for being here with us.  If you haven't checked out her blog, please hop over...If you would like to check out her author website here it is.

If you don't win my copy of Dianne's book and the signed bookmark on November 8th, here is a link where you can purchase it... (It's really good...but you guys know I'm a sucker for historical fiction...)