Roll Out the Red Carpet - It's Awards Day!

I have to admit, I have the greatest friends in the blogosphere. It’s true. I have recently started a new job and the office has literally exploded with work. The upside is overtime is automatically approved (sweet!) The downside is these hours are killing me, lol – work 10-11 hours at the office, come home to (*sigh* try to) blog and visit blogs and work on my freelance writing!! I need to escape to my world in the Netherscape – to go off on adventures with the Destineers. Soon. Very soon.

Anyway, I digress. These wonderful blog friends have still been visiting my blog, commenting and even bestowing awards. It is, indeed, an honor to receive Blog Awards.

Beverly Jean McClure, for example, has presented the One Lovely Blog Award to me. Here are the rules:

Accept the award, and don't forget to post a link back to the awarding person. (I am only too happy to link back to Beverly. She is an extremely talented writer for middle grade – young adult readers. She has a couple of new releases coming out this year too – stay tuned for updates!)
Pass the award on.
Notify the award winners.

Now for my nominations from some of my favorite and, most definitely, lovely blogs:

* Karen Walker for her very inspiring blog Following the Whispers
* Rebecca Camarena for the latest in books, author interviews and all about writing on Paperback Writer
* Vivian Zabel keeping us in touch with new writers and news within the writing world Brain Cells and Bubble Wrap
* Jane Kennedy Sutton for Jane’s adventures in writing through the ins and outs, ups and downs of writing, publishing and marketing through Jane’s Ride
* J. Kaye’s Book Blog where reading takes priority
* Cindy’s Love of Books gives us great insights and glimpses into the books she has read
* The Magic of Ink because as they say, “books can take you wherever you want to go”

Next, Elizabeth Spann Craig, mystery writer extraordinaire, and Helen Ginger my go-to gal for anything going on in the world of writing, have awarded me the Kreativ Blogger Award!

The rules for this award are simple: when passing the award to others, we list 7 favorites, so, naturally, here are seven of my favorite blogs that feature teens and young adult reading!

Kelly’s Young Adult Book Central for the latest reviews, interviews and giveaways of YA books
The Hip Librarian’s Book Blog keep in the know of the books teens love and loathe
Sheila Ruth’s Wands and Worlds fantasy and sci-fi for the discriminating teen
Kelly Parra & Tina Ferraro’s YA Fresh for what’s new in the world for teens
Teen Seen a hotspot of conversation about children and young adult books
Sarah Dessen one of the hottest YA writers out there today…
And, a real fun site: A community for Writers and Readers of Middle Grade and YA Fantasy: The Enchanted Inkpot

Click away my blogging friends - these are some fantastic blogs to enjoy!

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The Heart of a Character

Have you ever met one of those characters that capture your heart from the very first page and have you rooting for him through the whole book? That’s exactly what you have with Slob by Ellen Potter.

Owen Birmbaum is twelve years old. He is the fattest kid in his middle school and with an IQ of one point less than genius level, probably the smartest person in his school, too. He is an easy target for bullies (even his gym teacher falls into this category) but he engages you from page one and stays with you through the end.

This book totally takes you back to the miseries and drama of middle school – the cliques, the teachers, the sights and sounds. But it is so much more than a novel with funny stories of one disaster after another that happens in middle school life.

This little twelve year old kid teaches you compassion for others in the midst of all the havoc being shoveled upon you…even from someone you should be able to trust (a teacher).

This is the book reviewed by the Cybrarian this week. Why not pop over and check out the review, and the new template/look? Just a thought...


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Here's To Magical Beginnings

Like many others, I tend to take time in early January to reflect on the past year and contemplate goals for the New Year.


From a writing standpoint, 2008 was a good year. I hit several writing milestones in completion of projects and publications. You don’t understand. This is a REALLY big step for me. I never have problems meeting deadlines in the workplace or in my personal life where others are counting on me. Yet, somehow, I have a lot of difficulty completing…anything, deadline or not, when it is solely for me. And writing, until recently, has been just that – strictly for me. I enjoy writing. When writing for your own pleasure, you write what you want to write. When writing for business, you do not always get this luxury. I am blessed. I have had the incredible good luck to have writing projects that I have enjoyed immensely, had them published and been paid for it – the trifecta of writing.


Writing is often a very personal thing. It reflects your work, your time and talent. It is not always easy to share what you have written with others. Face it, it’s a critical world out there, and to have someone else read your work and pass judgment on it is not an easy thing to handle. Often as writers we baby step it, first showing a piece we’ve written to our closest circle of friends and family – those people in our lives who know our short comings and stick around anyway. The problem with this is we sometimes get feedback that is slanted towards what we want and need to hear (thank you kind hearted friends and family) but not necessarily what we may hear from someone who is not concerned with sparing our feelings. When we make that giant leap of faith to show our work to professionals in the industry it can be a very big and scary step. I’ve been baby stepping this leap of faith offering certain projects for critique to my writing group, reworking areas and polishing it and sending the piece out into the big world of publishing. So far, I have been fortunate – haven’t found homes for everything of course, but have gotten off to a pretty good start.


To those of you who know me, you know the Destineers stuff is my baby. For anyone who may not know about the Destineers, here are some links. The website link is http://Destineers.com and the forum link is http://Cybrarie.com Please feel free to join in the fun. We love new friends! These are my playgrounds and you are most certainly invited to come join in and play there with me, Ryan (the leader of the group), his brother Brady (who is fanatical about dragons…especially since he found a dragon egg in the Netherscape), Sean (the self proclaimed comic relief of the group) and Kylie (the writer of the group who keeps the journal of all they have learned and their adventures).


In a few weeks we are releasing the Destineers Journal of Fantasy Nations. This is the Journal as recorded by Kylie, her “field guide” of the various fantasy beings they have learned about in class. It’s filled with tidbits she has learned in class [from Professor Noah Washington who is, by the way, a goblin] about the various Nations of Fantasy as well as her own observations from meeting these folks. It’s sort of a prequel to the novel – a sample of the types of characters from the quests. We hope you will join the fantasy and the fun.


Please take a moment to stop by the website (at http://Destineers.com) and the forum (at http://Cybrarie.com) and join in the fun.


Thanks, and have a magical week!

Sam's Quest CONTEST AND BOOK GIVEAWAYS!! [X-POST]

Hey guys!! I was reading a really cool blog over on MySpace. They are having a contest and giving away a copy of book 1 and 2 in this series! Follow the link to the BLOG AND CONTEST to enter to win!

I'll repost the blog and book review here so you can see what it's all about. The books sound GREAT and we all know how much I love to read. I am definitely going to check this out! Enjoy!

The publisher of Black Hawk Press is Ben R. Furman, a former FBI counterterrorism chief, who has drawn on this experience to write about high-tech terrorism, chemical, biological, and nuclear threats, and transnational criminal cartels. During his career he investigated kidnappings, extortions, bank robberies, led SWAT teams and was the FBI counterterrorism chief assigned to address threats against the United States by terrorists of all stripes.

He also writes fantasy adventure novels with positive messages for the young adult, juvenile market.

He is the CEO of Rexus, a company that conducts international corporate investigations involving industrial espionage, internal theft, business due diligence and background screening.


Ben is giving away a copy of Book 1 and Book 2 of his series.






To win a copy of the above book and of 2, The Royal Trident, leave a comment on the MySpace blog at the above link with your working email address so that they can contact you. If you blog about this contest, leave a comment there, telling them where you are blogging about it and they'll give you an additional entry. Contest ends November 30th. The winner will be announced on the MySpace blog on December 1st. Good luck. See the review posted below for more information about the storyline:


Book Review:


Eleven-year-old Samantha "Sam" Mae Costas expects the summer at her grandfather's farm to be boring, as usual, unless she can find her own adventure. She never dreams she'll be expected to save a world, however. But on the second day there, Sam and Patch, her grandfather's dog, are exploring the nearby woods when she discovers a "tiny boy no bigger than her thumb" trapped in a spider web. She rescues the boy, and is soon caught up in a battle between the Awokians who live in Innerworld and the Zogs who the Awokians banished to Bottomworld some 1000 years ago and who now want to escape.

The boy, Prince Buznor of Awok, has been looking for her. She bears the red, diamond shaped birthmark of the one who will keep their world from being destroyed. To do so, she must recover the Crimson Crystal that King Kaylan, Buznor's uncle, hid in a cave in the Land of Geffen, but the King and the Crystal have disappeared and without the crystal Innerworld is doomed.

So begins the story of an unlikely heroine. Beginning with Sam's doubts in her ability to save the Aowks, to being ambushed by dwarfs, attacked by bats, and facing Drogon, leader of the Zogs she faces each challenge with courage to help her new friends. Who will win the battle between the Awoks and Zogs? You'll have to read the book to find out.

Sam's Quest for the Crimson Crystal is an exciting adventure that proves you don't have to be the biggest, the strongest, or the bravest to be a hero. Young readers should enjoy traveling with Sam through the magical lands of this book, cheering for her when she succeeds, urging her on when she falters.


This sounds like a great series and exciting contest - be sure to check it out!
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~CHECK OUT THE DESTINEERS WEBSITE TOO~
www.destineers.com