Authors, Kai Strand & LA Dragoni

Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry. This week we are joined by author C Lee McKenzie. Lee, tell us about yourself. I'm   a native Californian who grew up in a lot of different places; then landed in the Santa Cruz Mountains where I live with my family and miscellaneous pets—usually strays that find me rather than the other way around. I write most of the time, garden and hike and do yoga a lot. I taught at San Jose State University and my field was Linguistics and Inter-cultural Communication which carried me to a lot of places in the world to explore different cultures and languages. I'm proud to say I know how to ask, “Where’s the toilet?” and scream “I’m lost!” in at least five languages and two dialects. Snort! Lee, that’s funny. Tell us about your books. In my books I take on modern issues that today's teens face in their daily live...

   Welcome to the Internet Book Fair Blogfest.     Browse more books by clicking on the button. Shopping for a child? Let me introduce my middle grade novel, The Weaver . About The Weaver : In a town of word weavers, Mary suffers through her third year of Novice Word Weaving. Mary thinks her troubles are over when she meets a gnome-elf who grants her a wish.  But instead of weaving a better story, she's weaving strange yarn charms to accompany her still pathetic tales. The Weaver has a little magic and a lot of storytelling. It is written for children 9 – 12 years old. What are people saying about The Weaver ? “ Do not pass on this one.  This story is so unique it begs to be read!  Kai Strand masterfully weaves a tale that engages and piques curiosity right down to the last line.” – book review by Biblio Reads "I really enjoyed The Weaver and the lesson that it teaches.  The simple nature of its chapters ...

I’m perusing the internet this morning, email, blog posts, Twitter (haven’t even gotten to Facebook yet) and I’m awash with all this love for my fellow kidlitters. Perhaps it’s because I slept an extra two hours this morning, but I’m inspired to share it with you. Think about writers of yesteryear. They sat in converted attic rooms and pecked away on stiff old keyboards. Their fingers got all inky when they replaced the ribbon. They used that strange eraser paper (before white out). They allowed spiders to spin webs in the eaves, so that when they mumbled or ranted, they weren’t talking to themselves. Writers of today have it so much better. They can take their laptop or ipad to the beach and only worry about dive-bombing seagulls while they work. Their cursor moves backward as much as, if not more often than, forward. But the most effective tool a writer of today has is social media. They can hop online and ask, “Would a 13 year old still take a stuffed animal on a sleep over...

Happy National Day On Writing! Celebrating writing sounds like a fantastic idea to me, but then again I’m a writer.   So I asked non-writers what writing means to them. For the record, this is a non-scientific study. Daughter (12, 7 th grade, loves to write): I like how you can think of anything and make it fun to write about. I like how you can imagine stuff and put it in your story. Can be anything, a big tower or cavern, and you can make it into a story. Son (13, 8 th grade, actually doesn’t like to write – really hard for me to understand): I like that other people are creative and write stories that I like to read. Husband (my age, out of school, not a writer): I like the plethora of emotion and thoughts that are called into being ( to which I rolled my eyes ) while reading different genres by creative writers. Like, when Lew Wetzel is running through the forest with the Indians on his tail, you feel excitement and fear. Or when Marvin the robot sings his ...

Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry. This week we are joined by author, Melissa Ann Goodwin, and her newly released book, The Christmas Village . Melissa, tells us about you. I treasure wonderful memories of a happy and carefree childhood growing up in the beautiful New England town of Andover, Massachusetts. I am especially grateful to the teachers there, who encouraged me to read the books that inspired me to become a writer. I now live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with my husband, artist J. Richard Secor. I have written many stories, poems and articles for children's magazines, and my non-fiction work has appeared in national magazines and newspapers. The Christmas Village is my first novel for children . Melissa, you have a new release out in the world. Tell us all about it. My book, The Christmas Village, is a middle-grade fantasy adventure. It is...

What is that smell? { sniff sniff } Is that the sweet scent of GIVEAWAY? Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry. This week we are joined by the lovely Kimberley Griffiths Little. Kimberley visited SoT last year when, The Healing Spell , released. Her fantastic and informative interview can be read here . But it has been 15 months since her blogview and she is celebrating a new book release. Let’s catch up on all things Kimberley: Kimberley Griffiths Little is the author of five novels for Middle-Grade and Young Adults, including the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell , which was named a Bank Street College Best Books of 2011 and received the Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010. She has also been the recipient of the Southwest Book Award. Two more novels with Scholastic Press will be forthcoming in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by...

Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry. This week, Annie Fox, joins us to talk about her many projects. Let’s learn a little about Annie: I am an educator who teaches through my writing. I’ve been fortunate enough to build a successful career doing a combination of things I love to do: helping kids, making up stories, and performing (my brand of public speaking). I’ve written and designed many award-winning computer games for kids, but my transformational career opportunity came in 1996 when I dreamed up the idea for a teen website featuring a relationship advisor Hey Terra! (aka, me). For the past 14 years I’ve been answering email from tweens/teens around the world. All of it highlights the social/emotional challenges of growing up with heart and self-esteem in tact. The kids’ email informs all of my writing and teaching. You’re a multi-published author ...

cross verb to move, pass, or extend from one side to the other side as in cross promote. Having a hard time coming up with content for your blog? Think before you say ‘yes’ because really it is a bit silly if you are. I’m going to assume that you are somehow involved in children’s publishing or writing whether it be as a writer, an editor, illustrator, or a book blogger. You do something that makes you care that people come to your blog and learn about you. So you struggle time and time again trying to think up a new topic to blog about. Or you take a topic that has been covered over and over in the blogosphere and desperately try to make it interesting. You invest a lot of time in your blog and yet you are still having trouble bringing people to your sight. Two words. Cross promote. You have a ton of people out there who are more than happy to spend a day on your blog. Invite them in. Get to know them. Find out what they do that is similar to you and ...