Love in Bloom Giveaway Hop

I am participating in Love In Bloom Giveaway Hop sponsored by Portrait of a Book and I Am A Reader, Not A Writer.  This blog hop is about the lighthearted/contemporary young adult romance and sweet, clean adult romance.

I write both young adult romance and sweet, contemporary adult romance. My sweet, contemporary adult romance novellas include LOVE’s CHRISTMAS GIFT:

STORY BLURB: Skipper Bill and Elizabeth have been friends forever. But, when Elizabeth is offered a job interview across the country, these two friends are going to need the help of a little mistletoe to find their holiday romance. Can mistletoe turn friendship to Christmas romance in this short holiday romance?

LOVE’s CHRISTMAS GIFT is available here.

And VINTAGE VALENTINE

STORY BLURB: Hailey has returned home to the Elmheart Hotel with her ten-year-old daughter. After years away, Hailey is happy to be back and celebrating her grandparent’s golden wedding anniversary. But, when Hailey finds former, high school boyfriend, Patrick, working as the hotel’s chef, she will have to find a way to tell Patrick the secret she has kept for ten years.

VINTAGE VALENTINE is available as an ebook novella here.

Now..the GIVEAWAY for  Love in Bloom Giveaway Hop, I’m giving away one, signed, print copy of my young adult romance, WEAVING MAGIC.

STORY BLURB: He loves magic. She loves romance. But the biggest illusion is the one Shantel and Christopher perform together.  Sixteen- year- old Christopher fights to stay sober while fifteen-year-old Shantel struggles in the aftermath of her mother’s death and seeks refuge in a fantasy world. But the unacknowledged roots of their problems refuse to stay buried and soon, the two are headed toward a deadly magic trick. Can Shantel and Christopher move beyond magical illusions to find love?

To be entered to win a signed, print copy of WEAVING MAGIC, leave me a comment with your email address below. US addresses only. One comment per person please.

Good luck!

Children’s Book Week Giveaway Hop

I’m very happy to participate in the Children’s Book Week Giveaway Hop sponsored by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and Kid Lit Frenzy & Mymcbooks.

What is Children’s Book Week?

Established in 1919, Children’s Book Week is the longest-running literacy initiative in the country. Each year, books for young people and the joy of reading are feted for a full week with author and illustrator appearances, storytelling, parties, and other book-related events at schools, libraries, bookstores, museums, and homes from coast to coast!

For more information please visit: http://www.bookweekonline.com/

To celebrate Children’s Book Week and participate in the Children’s Book Week Giveaway Hop, I’m giving away one, limited edition, print, signed copy of STAINED GLASS SUMMER! (US entries only). All you have to do is leave me a comment with your email address. One comment per entrant please.

Story Blurb: Twelve-year-old Jasmine adores her photographer Father and wants to be an artist just like him. But when Dad abandons the family, Jasmine is sent to spend the summer with her Uncle on a Pacific Northwest Island. Soon, Jasmine is learning stained glass from island glass artist, Opal, and thinking she might just be developing a crush on Island boy, Cole. But, it’s not until Jasmine finds herself mentoring another young artist that she can truly let go of her Father and call herself an artist by her own terms.

You can find a free study guide for STAINED GLASS SUMMER on my website here.

Also, on my website is a FREE PDF companion short story, ELF SHOES. You can download ELF SHOES here.

STORY BLURB: Fourteen-year-old Alexa loves to volunteer as an elf at the Island Santa Workshop but this year her costume elf shoes feel a little too tight. When childhood playmate, sixteen-year-old Samson, turns up to play Santa, Alexa finds herself trying to convince Samson to see her as more than just one of the “boys.” Can first love be found this holiday season at Santa’s Workshop? ELF SHOES is a companion short story to STAINED GLASS SUMMER. Alexa is Jasmine’s friend in STAINED GLASS SUMMER.

Creative Projects

Last weekend, I popped over to the estate sale which I blogged about here.

It was amazing. The woman had been a dressmaker and she had an entire building filled with boxes of old scrap fabric material. Good scrap material. I walked away with a large box of scrap fabrics, thread in many colors, and a lot of muslin.

But what to do with that scrap material?

Lucky for me, at about the same time, I signed up to take one of Mixed Media Artist, Carla Sonheim’s, class, A Journal and A Purse. (I interviewed Carla on this blog here, and blogged about her book, The Art of Silly, here)

Carla’s class was all about making a journal and a purse from scrap pieces of fabric–right up my alley with all of my estate sale treasures.

I’ve posted my journal and purse made from that wonderful box of scrap material below! I have a lot more scrap material, so I might be making a few more of these and giving them away as blog prizes in blog hops!

Also, if you are a sewer, check out this fabulous project, Dress A Girl Around the World. A group of students at Cascade High School in Everett are participating and the Everett Herald wrote a great article about the project here.

But you don’t have to be in high school to participate! And the patterns are simple and posted on the Dress A Girl Around the World website here. So, if you have some old pillow cases lying around and a sewing machine…get busy! I know the next estate sale I visit, I will be looking for pillow cases!

Markets Seeking Children’s and YA Submissions

Happy Friday! A couple markets seeking children’s and YA submissions:

Owl Kid Books

Owlkids Books is currently looking for graphic novels, activity, non-fiction, and picture book manuscripts. For submissions of works longer than just a few pages, please only send a query letter and a few sample pages, not the entire work. Please describe your writing background and credentials in an accompanying cover letter. We are unable to comment editorially on the manuscript unless we are considering it for publication.

Submissions must be mailed. Owl Kid Books is a Canadian publisher and SASE’s to the States should include International Postage Coupons.

Submission details can be found here.

Blink Young Adult

A new imprint of young adult books from Zondervan. The imprint will target the general trade market for ages 12-25 and includes many genres (contemporary, paranormal, romance, mystery, fantasy). The Blink books are “hopeful, ethical, and convey real life issues, not dark.” Authors can upload at the online community of Harper Colllins, Authonomy.com

Author Interview–Rita Monette

I’m very happy to have middle grade author, Rita Monette join us on the blog today!

Rita Monette was born and raised in Southwest Louisiana. After retiring from her “real” job as an administrative assistant for the State of Michigan, Rita began doing what she always wanted to do…write and paint. Five long years later, Musa Publishing offered her a contract for her debut middle grade novel, The Legend of Ghost Dog Island, which also includes her artwork. Her stories are set in the beautiful, yet mysterious, bayous and swamps of her home state. Rita now lives with her husband, four lap dogs, and one lap cat, in the mountains of Tennessee.

Rita keeps a great blog, TALES FROM THE BAYOU

Or you can visit her website

Join her FB page

Twitter: @ritamonette

 

Moving is nothing new for ten-year-old Nikki Landry. Her fisherman father relocates their raggedy old houseboat several times a year in search of better crabbing spots. However, their latest move has brought her to a mysterious bayou where she feels something is watching her from a nearby island.

Nikki learns of a local legend about something sinister inhabiting those swamps, stealing the souls of dogs…which would explain the strange howling sounds. Papa reassures her there’s nothing on the island but gators and snakes. He would know. He’s spent his whole life trapping and fishing those bayous and swamps. But Nikki and her new friends uncover strange happenings from years ago that may have started the old legend, and town folks aren’t talking. Then her beloved beagle goes missing.

 Join Nikki as she seeks to discover the real truth behind the legend of Ghost Dog Island…before it’s too late.

 

 

You can find the LEGEND OF GHOST DOG ISLAND at Musa Publishing:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

1.    Can you tell us a little bit about your middle grade book: LEGEND OF GHOST DOG ISLAND?

The Legend of Ghost Dog Island is about a young girl whose father is a “swamper.” Nikki’s lifestyle of moving from bayou to bayou in their ragged family houseboat and having to make new friends and start a new school several times a year has made her pretty tough. She’s up for most any type of challenge, especially when her beloved dog, her best friend, goes missing.

 

Besides the main plot of discovering the mystery on the swamp island, Nikki faces many obstacles that are common, even if in a different place and time, to most kids. She faces the consequence of being dishonest. She faces being bullied. She learns about the ups and downs of friendships, and what it takes to be a true friend. She learns to understand and respect her father’s and mother’s struggles. But I think most of all, she learns that no matter what you hear or see, you should always seek the truth.

 

2.      How did your childhood experiences play a part in your book?

 This book is historical in nature. It is based on my childhood, except I wasn’t as brave as the character that represents me. Nikki is much tougher, braver, and more adventurous.  Therefore, the many predicaments she encounters are a work of fiction.

 

3.      You keep a wonderful blog, TALES FROM THE BAYOU. Can you share a little bit about your blog? What is one of the most interesting posts you’ve written?

On my blog, I try to bring in a fellow writer on Sunday (Sunday dinner on the Bayou) where a visitor can learn about a new book and pick up a delicious recipe at the same time. Wednesdays are my Louisiana Tidbit days, where I post interesting facts about my home state, usually tied to my book in some way. The most interesting and the most visited post I did was about the bottle trees. (You can read that post here)

http://ritamonette.blogspot.com/2010/12/legend-of-bottle-tree.html

 That was a couple of years ago, and I still get several visits a day on that one. I learn so much doing research for these posts, such as the water moccasin, Spanish moss, and my latest, the nutria rat. All these are mentioned in my book as well.

 

4.      What did you find the most challenging about writing THE LEGEND OF GHOST DOG ISLAND?

The most challenging was keeping the suspense going. I could tell the story of my childhood, but that was sort of boring. I had the keep the characters on their toes, and move the story forward.

 

5.      What words of advice do you have for teen writers?

 Think like a kid and you will find your voice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun Friday Writing Prompt

There has been a huge estate sale taking place near me the last couple weekends. Some of the items on sale this week include:

Vintage clothing, vintage fabric, hats, costume jewelry, vintage film projectors and speakers, vintage patterns, typewriters.

Here is a listing of more items and information about the sale if you live in the area.

WRITING PROMPT: Your character finds an item at this sale. What is it? What is the item’s history? Why is it important to the character? Does anyone else want the item? Is the item stolen from the character? What happens when the character brings the item home?

You can view a video of some of the items and pretend you are walking around the sale!

Teens’ Top Ten Books

YALSA has announced the nominations for the Top Ten Teen Books in 2013.   View the 2013 list of nominated titles (pdf). This is a great list to check out what are the current favorite books of teens. It’s also a good list to read from if you are writing for young adults and want to study the market.

The Teens’ Top Ten is a “teen choice” list, where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year! Nominators are members of teen book groups in sixteen school and public libraries around the country. Nominations are posted on Support Teen Literature Day, the Thursday of National Library Week, and teens across the country vote on their favorite titles each year. Readers ages twelve to eighteen will vote online in August and September; the winners will be announced during Teen Read Week.

You can meet the 2013 – 2014 Teens’ Top Ten book groups, who will choose the nominees for the next two years.

Random Facts About Me

I’ve spent the last two weeks doing author visits, and I’ve just been asked to talk to a group of high school kids about having a career as a writer.  I really love the author visits. They give me a chance to get inside different schools and do a little research. I check out what the kids are wearing, what they are talking about, and what they are reading.

In one of the schools, there was a small courtyard which could only be accessed by opening a window from the library. It was a nice, spring day, and a couple of the library TA’s, opened the window and climbed into out. I was fascinated by the courtyard and thought it would make a great scene for a mystery story.

One of the things I do at the visits is share ten facts about me. Here is my list from the last couple weeks:

 

Ten Facts About Me.

1.       As a high school Freshman, I was a wrestling cheerleader. My Mom made my skirt and I sat next to the mat and pounded out cheers. I only did this for one year, but I did like riding the bus with the wrestlers to the matches, and met one of my best high school guy friends on that bus.

2.       My favorite job has been working in the Games Department at Six Flags. I did this for two years and worked my way up to being an Assistant Foreman. To this day, I can still tell you how to win many of the amusement park games.

3.       Favorite books as a child: The Frances Picture books, Mandy and The Little Princess

4.       Favorite books in middle school: Dicey’s Song and Homecoming

5.       Favorite books in high school: Danielle Steele books

6.       Currently Working on: Kids in Orange: A Collection of Voices—This is a story about my experience working with kids in detention in the poetry workshop. It’s told through vignettes, poems, and flash pieces. I’ve been working on a post-graduate semester with Vermont College the last five months, and I am almost done with a good, solid draft of the story as well as the post-grad. The post-graduate semester gives me the credits I need to keep my teaching certification current in Washington State.

7.       Under a writing deadline for: A July 4^th Story in the Elmheart Hotel Sweet, contemporary romance story series.  The story, Fireworks Forever,  is outlined and ready to be drafted. It needs to be turned into my publisher in a couple weeks. I’m not sure it will make the upcoming blog hop, but it will be available by July 4^th!

8.       Waiting On: Response from an agent about my chapter book submission.

9.       Currently Reading: Shelter Mountain, book #2 in the Virgin River Contemporary romance series by Robynn Carr. I didn’t enjoy the first book, Virgin River, but the second one is going much better.

10.   Upcoming travel plans: I just booked my registration for the Fall RWA Georgia Moonlight and Magnolia Conference taking place in Atlanta in October. My sister is traveling with me and we’re going to Savannah for a few days after the conference. I cannot wait. Savannah has been on one of my to see places for years!

Markets for Young Adult

Happy Friday! Here are a couple markets for young adult writers:

Fable Press: Seeking speculative fiction for YA. Aliens, parallel universes, things that go bump in the night, Fable Press is on the hunt for speculative fiction! Submission guidelines here.

Spencer Hill Press is seeking both New Adult and Young Adult. The editor shares what types of New Adult stories she’d love to see in her inbox here, and if you think you’ve got the perfect love story featuring college-aged adults, you can submit your manuscript to Spencer Hill Contemporary here.

Harlequin Digital First is seeking Young Adult Novellas-Harlequin is opening a new line called Harlequin Digital First and is seeking YA romance novellas at 10,000 words or more. Stories will only be published digitally. To read all the guidelines including other categories they are seeking in the digital first imprint go here for submission guidelines.

The Celtic Hearts Romance Writers, a RWA special interest group focusing on all things Celtic romance, is now open to submissions for their Golden Claddagh Contest. The contest asks for partial manuscript submissions from a variety of genres (including YA). You do not have to be a member of RWA to submit to this contest. First prize is cash! Submissions close May 1. Read the guidelines

You do not need an agent for these submission opportunities.

Good luck!

I Am Poetry

April and May are busy months for school visits and author book signings. Last week, I visited with students at Homelink School in Lake Stevens, and this week I’ll be at Kamiakin Middle School talking to seventh graders. I’m also doing a book signing at a teen art night at the Schack Center. This is a FREE night for teens to make lots of really great art. I’ll be on hand to sign copies of WEAVING MAGIC and STAINED GLASS SUMMER. I’m also bringing along a couple of magnetic poetry kits to create a little poetry!

April is also National Poetry Month, so I try to tie in a poetry exercise when I visit with teens in April. However, one of the challenges in a school visit is I see one group of kids for an hour to an hour-in-a-half. After I finish sharing about my author journey and talking about the process of publishing (including cover art, and editing), I don’t usually have a lot of time left.

But I can usually squeeze in an I Am poem from Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge’s book, Poem Crazy.

The poetry writing exercise is called the I Am poem, but it’s not like traditional I Am poems which are often used in classrooms. This I Am exercise asks each writer a series of questions including:

If you were a color, what color would you be?

If you were at tree, what tree would you be?

If you were a shape, what shape would you be?

If you were a sound, what sound would you be?

If you were a movement, what movement would you be?

The writers make a list responding with the first word that comes to mind for each question. Then, they combine those words into a poem beginning each line with I Am. I always tell the writers, they do not have to use every word in their list as this can make the poem pretty murky!

This is a sample I Am poem one of the teens at Denney Juvenile Justice Center wrote. I often share this poem in the school workshops.

Teen Girl

I AM

 

 

I am a blue diamond spiral.

I am a Cadillac Escalade Infinity and beyond.

I am Skittles from the rainbow.

I am a blue berry tree with emotional pain.

I am a microphone from California.

I am a bed where thugs cry.

I am a pit bull who buzzes around town.

 

 Published in Call It Courage, August 2006.

 

You can read more poems by the teens in detention at their poetry blog here.

Or, you can read some of the poems written by the teens in the D.C. Freeminds Writing and Book Club at their blog here.