Bookshop.org Raises Money For Local Bookstores

Very exciting! Draft2Digital partnered with Bookshop last February. I was so engrossed in my current project that I'm finally sharing the Bookshop links to my YA books. 

I finished the first draft of that project two weeks ago, a crime fiction about three sisters, and I'm celebrating by taking time for myself and completing other writerly-related stuff.  

The Unmoving Sky 

There's Nothing Darker Than the Woods Until You Meet Your Worst Fear.

 

Jackson Bower has much on his mind lately. His younger brother hasn't been the same since his mother's death. His father's drinking is out of control. Then there's his girlfriend and the grief that ties them together even as it threatens to drive them apart. He distances himself, hoping for a little perspective at the family lodge. But when his father gets drunk and dangerous, he and his brother Artie escape into the woods.

 

Night creeps in, and the rains come fast. Artie slips down a ravine. Wounded, Artie and Jackson seek shelter in a cave, only to find someone else already taking refuge there. A desperate man with plans to destroy their town. Jackson and his brother must get out of the cave and make it over the mountain in time to warn everyone – without getting themselves killed first.

 

"The rural setting's rich insights and smells grow ever darker as the characters come to life in this poignant tale. A coming-of-age story reveals the bonds between family & friends as the mystery unfolds. This little book is filled with emotion, hope, despair, and suspense."

 

Visions of Death: The Music Department Murders

Summer 1935 Ruby St. Claire is the Weston Music School's rising star with her swinging jazz quartet. Next stop is the Roseland Ballroom Competition. After taking a break from helping the police find murder suspects with her extra sensory vision, the images of death have returned. Girls from school are disappearing. Ruby has to act fast and find their killer even when all the signs point to her.

"I was deeply immersed in NYC’s jazz scene and the elegance, language, and culture of the 1930s, learning much about the era through small details and author’s notes. On top of that, its a great plot-twister and would make an excellent film or series."

Did you know?   

"Amazon Pulls Support for Perfectly Fine Older Kindles"

In an email to customers, Amazon announced that it would be ending service for Kindle devices older than the 2012 edition. Those devices will lose access to the Kindle Store.

WIRED article  

And that Bookshop raises money for local bookshops?  Now that is awesome! So it is Artimis II.  Okay, Artimis II wins in the awesome category. 

Smashwords Summer Sale Through July!

 Hello, Readers!

I’m excited to announce that my ebook, The Unmoving Sky, will be FREE as part of a promotion on Smashwords for July as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale! This is a chance to get my book and books from many other great authors at a discount so you can get right to reading.

You will find the promo here starting on July 1, so save the link:

https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos/

Feel free to share this promo with friends and family. And let the avid readers in your life know all about it! 

Thank you for your help and support!

Happy reading!

Visions of Death: The Music Department Murders

The first three episodes are free to read! 

Visions of Death: The Music Department Murders  takes place during the summer of 1935, the build-up to WW II is heating up, swing music is blasting from the airwaves, and seventeen-year-old, Ruby St. Claire is a rising star of Weston's music department with her swinging quartet. 

Next stop, the Roseland Ballroom Competition. She's helped the police find murder suspects since she was thirteen with her extrasensory vision, but after taking a break to focus on her music, the images of death have returned. Girls from school are disappearing. Ruby has to act fast and find their killer even when all the signs point to her. 

Click the photo to take you to the story!
Cover created with Canva.

In the author's notes at the end, I've added a couple of historical events that were happening at the time and influenced the story.  There are historical parallels to the current build-up of the authoritarian political climate we find ourselves in now. Not only in the US, as I thought when I began this project, but all over the world. We much squash white supremacy!   

After watching the Authors Guild Foundation's webinar about serialized fiction, I was inspired to try it. Have a look.

If you like it, please give the episode a thumbs up!     THANK YOU! <3 

The Unmoving Sky is Now Available in Paperback (Again)!

 

Just click the book cover and you'll be taken to Barnes & Noble or  HERE for select booksellers and most online libraries. You can also request that your library carry it. 

 Contemporary Young Adult Thriller for Readers 13 - 18.

eBook:  9798201298234   $2.99

 Print:  9798201285258  $9.99 

There's Nothing Darker Than the Woods Until You Meet Your Worst Fear 

Jackson Bower has much on his mind lately. His younger brother hasn't been the same since his mother's death. His father's drinking is out of control. 

Then there's his girlfriend and the grief that ties them together even as it threatens to drive them apart. 

 He distances himself, hoping for a little perspective at the family lodge. 

But when his father gets drunk and dangerous, he and his brother Artie escape into the woods. 

 Night creeps in, and the rains come fast. Artie slips down a ravine. Wounded, Artie and Jackson seek shelter in a cave, only to find someone else already taking refuge there.

 A desperate man with plans to destroy their town. Jackson and his wounded brother must get out of the cave and make it over the mountain in time to warn everyone. Without getting them both killed.

THANK YOU! <3 <3 <3 

My Response to “Diversity is not our Strength” tweet by Steve King (R-Iowa)

“It’s a small world after all … “ the song went as my boat ride passed children of all ethnicities, holding hands across the world at Walt Disney. It was Diversity. Inclusivity. Love. 

It's a Small World Walt Disney 

My mother, an immigrant from Greece, had become single by the time we moved to Florida. I was 8-years-old, my brother three years younger, and she had little help from anyone aside from friends. She taught belly dancing, and her friends from Syria, Turkey, or Lebanon turned our place into the United Nations. Memories of whirling dervishes, their laughter, and joy shared among these women, echoes in my heart and memory. They found each other in an otherwise isolated existence living in Central Florida and formed bonds to last years.

This was the early 80’s, my mother was tall and beautiful in a striking way. Exotic. She stuck out of every crowd. Her broken English I never noticed until someone pointed it out, or if I were away a while I’d hear it.

At 13-years-old, we moved to Key West after my mother married her friend, Kamal, from India, and we lived there for a time. Turned out Kamal was gay. (Long story there) I have fond memories of his sister’s Tandoori Chicken, unable to sleep, but the stomachache was well worth the indulgence.

While we lived in Key West, my mother met a Cuban man, and with the help of his son, translated the passions running between them. We moved to Miami and she learned to cook arroz con pollo and café con leche. I had a new family, five brothers and a stepsister, all born in Puerto Rico. I loved learning about their cool jobs, and wild adventures. I was 15 when my stepsister told us she was gay. My oldest stepbrother was also gay, the one who explained dreams and astronomy, and understood the abstract ideas I enjoyed talking about. The youngest of my stepbrothers lived with us. Close in age, we bonded over teasing and taunting, while forced to share a home for a year, before I left for college.

This is my America. Diversity is my America. In the melting pot of New York City, I’ve found a home., and now married with children to a Jewish man.  

 Dear Steve King (R-Iowa)

 I have no trouble calling out racists or bigots. 

We have but faith: we cannot know;
For knowledge is of things we see
And yet we trust it comes from thee,
A beam in darkness: let it grow.

-->

Diversity strengthens ME! I have faith in the good people of the earth moving toward unity. #OneLove   

The Unmoving Sky is Moving into Bookstores.

"Paperback Writer ..."   the song that's been ringing in my ears.


THE UNMOVING SKY now available in Paperback at Barnes & Noble 


And in one of my most favorite Indie Bookstores McNally Jackson Books!    ~ Yay!

I go a little cross-eyed when holding my books! They're real. 

If you don't see The Unmoving Sky in your local bookstore, please, pretty please Ask!
You can even ask your librarian. I have a lot of legwork ahead, and now without a publicist, I could use every little elf available.  

Now to sling word-count for my NaNoWriMo Draft!    

Happy Writing and Reading, friends. 

Review: The Wood by Chelsea Bobulski

The Wood by Chelsea Bobulski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A repost from my review on The Kidliterati 

I  received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.




Do not travel on the paths.
Do not linger after dark.
Do not ignore the calling.

Sixteen-year-old, Winter, is a guardian of the wood, the same wood that took her father. She protects the travelers who pass through, making sure they return to their time period. Otherwise, the world could implode.

It’s a dangerous job. Winter works all day to ensure the travelers are guided back to their threshold. But, if she’s caught in the wood after sundown, the shadows, called Sentinels, rise; the icy cold follows their razor sharp teeth.

The wood is ill, black tar drips from the leaves, and it’s spreading. Travelers are found in bad shape, stricken to their core by the darkness of the wood and the poison and the shadows.

Winter isn’t alone. She worries about her mother, while her mother worries if she’ll return home each day, or if the wood has taken her. There’s Uncle Joe, who’s worked closely with her father, and more like brothers through the years as guardians of the wood. Uncle Joe watches over Winter. He wants to protect her where her father left off.

So when a boy passes through the wood from the 18th Century, a mortal, begging for help, who might know where her father is, she listens. Reluctant, at first, helping him goes against the most important rule of the guardians: No traveler can pass through a threshold into a time that is not their own.

Together, they set out to save the wood, and find his parents, Old Ones who disappeared that may know what’s happening to the wood and how to stop it. But the ancient one, Varo has returned, an outcast 500 years ago. Could he be darkening the wood, and using Dragon’s Bain, the one thing that could kill an immortal guardian?


A fun fantasy with a time-travel twist, a forest that comes alive with dark forces, magical benevolent fireflies, friendship, sacrifice, and a satisfying conclusion, make for an absorbing read. The action writing and the pace were effortless.

Recommended for readers 13 and up.
Release date: August 1, 2017 by Feiwel & Friends







View all my reviews

Book Review: It Started With Goodbye by Christina June

It Started With Goodbye by Christina June
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A reblog from Kidliterati. 

I received this ARC for an honest review.

Christina June’s young adult book IT STARTED WITH GOODBYE, charmed me from the start, and I found myself sitting comfortably in the author’s beautiful writing, like an old friend sharing a story. Familiar, and relatable, this was a fun contemporary take on the Cinderella story, which explores finding your place in life, even when it feels everyone’s against you.

Falsely accused of a crime, sixteen-year-old, Tatum Elsea (TLC) winds up under house arrest. Her father leaves town, leaving Tatum with her step-monster, Belen, and perfect stepsister, Matilda, who won’t even look at her, much less speak. Her best friend, Ashlyn, has been sent to a boarding school since the criminal charge and isn’t writing back. Tatum tried reaching out to her. It wasn’t Tatum’s fault. Ashlyn’s questionable new boyfriend, Chase, got them into serious trouble, and now they face grand larceny charges.

“In terms of life events, my getting arrested was either pretty horrible timing or pretty perfect, depending on who you were talking to.”

Sentenced to probation and community service, Tatum’s thankful it’s the end of the school year, and wouldn’t have to listen to the rumor mill blow everything out of proportion for long. Maybe it would help her focus on the budding graphic design business, new friend Abby suggested, after the great work Tatum did on her blog.

Abby encourages Tatum to find more clients. Tatum’s inspired. When her stepsister, Matilda, the ballet dancer has a recital, she takes the opportunity to leave the new business cards at the school that didn’t accept her art portfolio. She literally bumps into a mysterious and keen-witted boy, and the two have an inspired conversation while critiquing the art on the walls. Tatum flees before either catches the other’s name. A student from her stepsister’s school, she wouldn’t dare tell either, wanting to stay anonymous. She also wants to keep her budding graphic design business under wraps for now.

Waiting for her best friend Ashlyn to write back, and with her stepmother watching every move and calculating her car’s mileage, the boy at the gala fades into the background. Tatum begins corresponding with SK, her latest client. Leaving her business cards at Matilda’s school proved fruitful. He plays cello and she begins work on creating the perfect promotional flyer for him.

But Belen, the stepmother, pulls the reigns in tighter, and the only recourse Tatum has, is her step-grandmother, Blanche, who came to stay and help Belen keep tabs on her. She has wise words to share, compliments of The Golden Girls. A breath of air in Tatum’s otherwise suffocating life. Blanche lessens the blow of her daughter, Belen’s unreadable demeanor. Tatum soon discovers she’s not the only one in the house, keeping secrets. A wonderful young adult debut for all ages, and I look forward to the author’s next work.

Expected publication: May 9th, 2017 by Blink/HarperCollins






View all my reviews

My Book Review: The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett.

This is a repost from my review on Kidliterati blog from June.  
Chelsea Sedoti's book is too good not to share again! Kudos to the author. 

I read an ARC on NetGalley. 

From the first page, I was intrigued by what was happening to Lizzie Lovett. I had to know, and the MC's voice impressed more urgency for me to know. The author, Chelsea Sedoti’s voice is spot on, creating much tension and curiosity.

Quirky seventeen-year-old, Hawthorne Creely has a lot of thoughts, and when she learns that perfect Miss Lizzie Lovett, whom she once had an unpleasant run-in with, during her freshman year, has disappeared, her curiosity takes over. The mystery of Lizzie’s disappearance snags Hawthorne and doesn’t let her go. She goes into full detective mode. She learns about Lizzie’s camping trip with the boyfriend many would blame. Say he killed her and hid the body. Surprised a girl like Lizzie would even go camping. Hawthorne goes on a search, and her unique view of the world helps snag the twenty-something boyfriend Lizzie Lovett left behind, convincing him that Lizzie turned into a werewolf. She did have a wolf necklace and liked wolves.

He pushes her away at first, but Hawthorne convinces him (with that ever-convincing way of hers) and he follows along. They search for Lizzie until they come closer to an answer. Confusion and more thoughts rule Lizzie’s mind. She has some pretty creative thoughts, almost like poetry on occasion. A couple of my favorites:

“I knew that even though someone seemed perfect it didn’t mean they weren’t hurting inside.”

“It was a little crazy to think about. That while you were envying other people, they could be envying you too.”

“Nothing ends; it just turns into a different story.”

Chelsea Sedoti has a great teen voice, with the added doubts and troubles, a little obnoxious, she says what’s on her mind. Often getting her in trouble (sound familiar?) There’s so much to love in this book. I was eager to know what happened to Lizzie, and by the end, I was glad to have closure. There was a good amount of suspense, and I raced through this because the voice was so intriguing. I would have followed it anywhere. Glad to have this unique book to read. Hawthorne is a great character, with feelings many of us can relate to.

Pub date: January 3rd, 2017 from Sourcebooks. 

BookHounds Interviewed Me on their Blog This Week!

Do you obsessively plot out each point or just go with the flow? 

I go with the flow for the most part. When I get stuck, or the tension slows, I break and make an outline of possible worst case scenarios and head down that path, until I get stuck again and repeat the process.


Read more.     

Tacho and Coco came with me. 

Bower Boys Survival Tips: Rose Hips.

The Bower Boys from my YA novella, THE UNMOVING SKY, publishes with Leap Books, is about two brothers, 17 and 15, lost in the woods, who are found by a stranger with destructive plans. The "Bower Boys Survival Tips" are some of what they might find in the woods and could consume for energy (food), and, or medicine. 

   

They'd find the red berries in the late autumn, and the petals during June, which can be eaten too. 

I'm updating this post from a couple years ago, and you'll have plenty of time for preparations. I bet you can find a few dried red berry still on the vine. 

After they bloom, do not deadhead your roses and you'll have rose-hips for teas, jellies, and tarts come  fall and winter.

Wild roses are abundant here in the northeast. In June, plumes of intoxicating fragrance linger throughout my yard. Their heady fragrance overflows the parkway, intoxicating my drive North from NYC.

If you don't pick the flowers, (their kind of small) and allow them to seed, you'll have delicious, nutritious rose hip tea any time of the year. The rose hip has more vitamin C than citrus.

After the first frost they turn orangey-red (see above photo) Pick and dry out, either in sun or a dehydrator.  That's it, use as you please.

Remember, of course, never pick where you suspect any pesticide runoff. 

 After you dry the rose hip completely, you can seal in an air tight jar and save for the long winter months, though this collection won't last very long.

I'll be making high in vitamin C, and bioflavonoid, tea for a few weeks with these lovelies.

You can make jams. 

Or anything your heart desires.

ENJOY.