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Showing posts from October, 2012

Three Times A Charm with K. Michael Crawford

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Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry. Happy Halloween, everyone! This week writer and illustrator, K. Michael Crawford joins us. Michael, thank you so much for coming! I love hosting illustrators. Can you tell us about you? Once Upon a Magical Life Once upon a time… How fun those words are to me, because with those four words anything and everything is possible. Those four words, even though they are used less today, still hold true with today’s stories and books. One moment you’re just your average Joe eating your oatmeal and the next, the whole world is there to explore just by opening a book. What adventures a child can have just by going on one magical journey through someone else’s words. Once upon a time… I pretty much have and had a normal life. Well, maybe not. I don’t know too many people who got to be in a Walt Disney parade and hold a human brain. N...

Three Times A Charm with Lisa Ard

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Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry. This week author, Lisa Ard, is visiting with us. I met Lisa through LinkedIn. Lisa, can you tell us a little about yourself?   Writing is an adventure for me. It's been a long and winding journey to authoring children's books. Here's some of that journey's highlights: I grew up in Wenatchee, Washington. Better look it up on the map, because it's the Apple Capital of the World! As a kid I played lots of sports, enjoyed art and photography, read lots of books (still do) and dreamed of traveling the world.  I left home to study at the University of Washington where I earned my B.A. in German. (And yes, my dad asked me "what are you going to do with a degree in German?") After a couple years living and working in Seattle, I went back to school. Now, you may be ...

Three Times A Charm with Marilee Brothers

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Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry. This week you get to meet an author I met in person at the Northwest Author Fair. Young adult author, Marilee Brothers visits this week to talk about her books. Thank you, Marilee, for agreeing to be a part of my weekly feature, “Three Times a Charm.”  You’re welcome. Thank you for inviting me. Tell us a little about yourself. A former teacher, coach and school counselor, I live in central Washington State and write full time. My books include Castle Ladyslipper , a medieval romance, The Rock and Roll Queen of Bedlam , winner of the 2010 Booksellers Best award for romantic suspense, Moonstone , Moon Rise, Moon Spun, Shadow Moon and the soon to be released, Midnight Moon , the last in my young adult paranormal Unbidden Magic series. I’m a member of the Romance Writers of America and the Society of Children’s Bo...

In A Blink of an Eye - Sad Simplicity

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While I was driving this morning a snippet of a conversation replayed in my mind. Me to kids: “You don’t have school on Friday. Well, she doesn’t.” I nod to daughter. Son (freshman in high school): “Whhaat?” Daughter (eighth grade): “Ha ha ha.” Me to son: “Don’t worry, there will be days you have off and she’s in school.” This isn’t the first time I’ve had to keep track of multiple school schedules, events, concerts, etc. As a matter of fact, I’ve had kids in multiple schools for at least a decade! But it hit me this morning, after chuckling about the exchange, that this is the last year I will have to keep track of multiple school schedules. Tears sprang forward when the truth struck. Next year my youngest will enter high school. She will graduate only one year after her brother and then my husband and I will be finished with the school aged years of parenting. I know I’m not done yet, but already it’s significantly easier than it has been in the past. Heck, one ...

QR Codes – Where Have You Been All My Life?

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I attended a local writers guild meeting last week. Author, Paty Jager gave a great talk on promotion. Some things I knew and already do, some things I knew and choose not to do, but there was one thing I never even thought to do. I’m still scratching my head and wondering, “Why didn’t I know about this sooner? How did I miss this information before?” QR Codes are two dimensional barcodes that act like hyperlinks when scanned with the proper app on a cell phone. The code can take your browser directly to a website, a social media page, a google map. You can use it for many different reasons.  But for this blog post purposes, I’m going to focus on writing. When my third middle grade novel was published, I had new bookmarks printed that included the cover of each book and a blurb. Across the bottom of the bookmark is my website. Then I learned about QR codes. DOH! I created a code to take people directly to the middle grade page on my website, which offers downloads and th...

Three Times A Charm with Illustrator, Ilene Richard

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Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry. This week illustrator, Ilene Richard joins us. Ilene, thank you so much for coming! I love hosting illustrators. Hi Kai, Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to share my work with you and your readers.  Can you tell us a little about yourself? I received my B.F.A. in illustration, graphic design and jewelry design, from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. After graduating, I decided to pursue a career in jewelry design, and was fortunate to have exhibited in galleries all over the country including many one-woman shows in and around Boston and New York.  After investing fifteen years in the jewelry business, I still held a passion for children’s book illustration, and was motivated to find a way to fulfill my dream of having my work published. I attended the DeCordova Museum School, and the M...

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

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This is Week #16 of The Next Big Thing Blog Hop. I want to thank C. Lee McKenzie for inviting me to participate. When you are finished reading, be sure to 'hop' over the her site and see her post from last week. (The inspiration behind her book is awesome!) For those of you unfamiliar with a blog hop, you get to follow links to other blogs to learn (in this case) about other books, published or works-in-progress. It's like mining diamonds! Now, my turn to tell you about MY next big thing: What is the working title of your book? Published in August, my book’s title is Save the Lemmings Where did the idea come from for the book? It formed while I slept. I didn’t dream about it, but I woke before the sun one morning with a fully formed idea. I wasn’t even at home! I was sleeping on the couch of a hotel suite I was sharing with my sisters. I quietly slid my laptop out of my bag and powered it up to capture the idea. What genre does your book fall ...

World of Ink Book Tour Schedule

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I'm excited to announce that my World of Ink virtual book tour starts today! I hope you'll tour along with me over the next two months as either me or my books visit several different blogs around the internet. My tour stops are listed below. If you find a review or a particular guest post or interview that you really enjoy, feel free to share the link with your friends and family members. I also invite you to join in on any conversations by commenting. And please try your luck in the giveaways. You can click on the tour banner to visit my tour page on the World of Ink site. Below is where you will find me over the next couple of months. See you around the internet! World of Ink Tour Schedule for Kai Strand (October/November 2012) October 1 st World of Ink Network – Spotlight http://worldofinknetwork.blogspot.com October 5 th Bless Their Hearts Mom – Interview http://blesstheirheartsmom.blogspot.com October 8 th Writing to the Hearts of Children—Spot...