Showing posts with label YA fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label YA fiction. Show all posts

Monday, September 08, 2014

Monday Morning Musings

First I want to invite you to visit the Bookbrowsing blog by PJ Nunn, where I am a guest today. I wrote about my experience collaborating on the mystery, Doubletake - the challenges and the fun. 

Next, I'm excited to share some news from Terry Odell, author of several mystery series. I especially like her Blackthorne, Inc. series and her latest, Windswept Danger, is available for preorder. To celebrate, she's offering Windswept Danger at a low introductory price of 99 cents. When it goes "live" on October 26th, it'll be $3.99. But if you'd like to have the book ready and waiting on your Kobo, Kindle, iPad or other compatible device, you can order it now.  You can read a sample chapter on her Website, and then decide if you want to order the book.
Buy at Kobo * Buy at Amazon * Buy at Apple

In case you missed my announcement last week, the revised edition of my YA  novel Friends Forever  is also available for preorder. Preording helps improve the book's ranking on Amazon, which is so important as we try to gain visibility for our work.

What I'm Reading: A fascinating book about the oil industry in South America. Law of the Jungle will be published on Sept 23 by Crown, and I was sent an ARC for review. It, too, is available for preorder. The book is about the 20-year legal war between indigenous tribe members in the rain forest in Ecuador and the multinational oil company Chevron. At the center of the tale is Steven Donziger, an American lawyer whose campaign on behalf of the Ecuadorians and the Amazonian environment went horribly awry.

I will be doing a review late in October, and so far I am finding the history and the facts quite intriguing.

What I'm Dismayed About: We hear a lot about the Keystone XL Pipeline and the dangers it poses in pushing Tar Sands Oil through pipes across the middle of America, but we don't hear enough about other pipelines that have already been approved, such as one by Enbridge that will go across Illinois. According to Doug Hayes, an attorney with the Sierra Club, “There’s been a pretty deliberate attempt to try and avoid the permitting process and public involvement. While everyone was paying attention to Keystone, there were all these other projects being approved behind closed doors.”

What I'm Happy About: We are only into our second week of full rehearsals for the original play "Bonnie & Clyde in Winnsboro" that I adapted and am directing, and already the cast is starting to get into character. Here is the Barrow Gang.

Clyde in front, Bonnie to his R. Brother Buck behind on R, Hank on L and Blanche on Hank's L
Now the Joke For the Day
A young man goes into a drug store to buy condoms. The pharmacist tells him that the condoms come in packs of three, nine, or 12, and asks which ones the young man wants. "Well," he says, "Ive been seeing this girl for a while and she's really hot. I want the condoms because I think tonight's the night. We're having dinner with her parents and then we're going out. Once she's had me, she'll want me all the time, so you'd better give me the 12 pack!"

The young man makes his purchase and leaves.

Later that evening, he sits down to dinner with his girlfriend and her parents. He asks if he may give the blessing and they agree. He begins the prayer, but continues praying for several minutes. The girl leans over and says, "You never told me that you were such a religious person."

He leans over to her and says, "You never told me that your father is a pharmacist."

Monday, August 18, 2014

Monday Morning Musings

WHAT I'M READING: Hangman by Faye Kellerman. I do love her ongoing series with Detective Peter Decker and his wife Rina Lazarus. I have read almost all of the books since the first in the series, and enjoy spending time with them and their family.

WHAT I'M SMILING ABOUT: Some good news on the publishing front - my publishing front. Friends Forever, My YA novel for young teens has been updated and re-released by a new publisher, White Bird Publishing. The official release date is September 16, but it is available for preorder for Kindle and Kindle apps. The new cover was made by the talented Dany Russell.


 WHAT I"M DISMAYED ABOUT: The violence and looting in Ferguson, Missouri following the police shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black teen who was unarmed. Why do some people think the best response to any perceived injustice is violence? I have never understood it, and agree with this man who was at the scene. "It's not serving the purpose," said James Bryant, a 31-year-old from St. Louis, as he watched a young man rummage through a mobile-phone store after smashing a glass door. "The cause was to prevent police brutality."

Kudos to Michael Brown's family and friends who have been holding peaceful demonstrations and vigils and call for an end to the looting and rioting. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon imposed a curfew on Saturday in hopes of stemming the violence.  "This is a test, the eyes of the world are watching," Nixon said in an interview with ABC News. "This is a test to see if this community can break the cycle of violence and replace it with peace."

Amen.

AND NOW JUST FOR FUN: The following is from the comic strip Luann by Greg Evans.


Luann's parents, Nancy and Frank, are sitting on a sofa watching television. Nancy hears the bip, bip, bip, of some electronic device going off, and she says to Frank, "Your phone is bipping, Hon. I think you missed a call."

"That's your phone. I changed my "bip" to "bloop" cuz you were using "bip" for calls."

"No," Nancy says. "I use "whoosh for calls. I thought you used "bloop" for your alarm."

"I used to. But it sounds too much like "zoop." So now I use "doink"."

"You can't use "doink" honey. I use that for calendar alerts."

"I thought you used "poing" for that."

In the next frame the parents have their phones out and Nancy says. "Ugh! We need to re-coordinate. I'll change my "doink" to "tinkle"."

"I use "tinkle" for mail. Do you use the "dong"?"

Luann pops in from the kitchen. "Did you guys make popcorn? The microwave's bipping."

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Taking a Week Or so Off

Due to a family emergency, I will be offline and not doing my regular blog posts for a while. Carry on without me.

If you are in the mood to pick up some bargain books, my publisher is putting two of my titles on sale the rest of this week and into next.



My short story collection, The Wisdom of Ages, is on sale for only $.99 for three more days for Kindle and Kindle apps. My novel for young teens, Friends Forever will be going on sale March 27 - April 3. The books are available for Kindle worldwide and the sale prices are
effective in the UK, too.
 

Saturday, June 09, 2012

Free Kindle Book

Surprise, surprise. I don't normally post on Saturdays, unless I'm doing the A to Z challenge, but I had to pop in today to let you know about a free book this weekend.

The Corner Cafe A Tasty Collection of Short Stories is described on Amazon:  Sweet, dreamy, steamy, and sometimes slightly seamy, this multi-genre collection of short stories includes something for every taste. Prepared by the BBT CafĂ© authors: Marian Allen, Shonell Bacon, Karen Casey Fitzjerrell, W.S. Gager, Helen Ginger, Dani Greer, S.B. Lerner, Audrey Lintner, Morgan Mandel, Maryann Miller, Bodie Parkhurst, Bob Sanchez, Mary Montague Sikes, Red Tash, Christine Verstraete.

During the month of June we are doing a blog tour and the authors will be visiting blogs to talk about their stories, their writing, and sometimes some little known facts about themselves. I hope you can find the time to visit a few of the blogs and meet these terrific authors that I am honored to share pages with. Here is a link to Dani Greer's blog with a list of all the tour stops. We hope you join us each day to read more about how The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories evolved.

Today and tomorrow the book will be free for Kindle. The good news is you don't need to own a Kindle to download and read the book. You can download an app for another gadget at this link and it's free:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

So happy reading all, and if you download the book and like it, it would be wonderful if you would let us know by writing a short review.  My story is titled "Over the Threshold" and is a cross between noir mystery and "The Twilight Zone."

My Y/A novel, Friends Forever is also free today, Saturday.  This is book for tweens dealing with the issues of friendships lost and friendships found and the consequences of bullying.