Authors, Kai Strand & LA Dragoni

For those of you who may not know, I am a staff writer for Knowonder. Knowonder is a leading publisher of engaging content that drives literacy; the most important factor in a child’s success. Parents and educators use Knowonder tools and content to promote reading, creativity, and thinking skills in children from zero to ten. Knowonder’s books deliver original, compelling stories and content, creating an opportunity for parents to connect to their children in ways that significantly improve their children’s success. Ultimately, Knowonder’s mission is to eradicate illiteracy and improve education success through content that is affordable, accessible, and effective. Volume 4 of Knowonder's story collections was published at the beginning of this month. It includes my short stories Bungling Lulu and Queensicle . As a treat for little ones, I've recorded myself reading from my story Queensicle . Kids love to meet the author. So have your child sit down in front of...

Kai Strand's new middle grade fantasy adventure,   Beware of the White , releases on May 17th (That's only 7 weeks!).  About the book:  As is tradition, Terra learns on the Saturday past her twelfth birthday that she is a Natures Spirit. It is her legacy to serve in the peaceful underground city of Concord. Learning she is named in a prophecy and being threatened by the leader of the death tribe…that part breaks tradition. The Trepidus are the death janitors of the Underworld, responsible for delivering fatalities with a smile and cleaning up after themselves, until Blanco, recent leader of the Trepidus, decides the day of reckoning for his species is coming. He begins organizing the creatures and leads them toward an uprising. The prophecy says there is one person who can stop him. Terra.             With Spirit of Security, Frank, protecting her, Terra attempts to complete her training and discover her Spir...

It’s Friday! Time for my blog feature, Building Character in which you get to meet a character from a book. Talking to a character outside of their book is fun! Huge. Amounts. Of fun.  This week Strands of Thought is excited to host Jenny from All Aboard: Jenny’s Story of the Mayflower Voyage. It’s so great to have you with us, Jenny. Tell us a little about yourself. My name is Jenny and I first lived in England. We had to get out of England because things were bad there for us because we worshipped in a different way and people didn’t like it. We had to escape and we went to Holland and left there in 1620 setting off for a land over the waters, which Pa called ‘our promised land’. We would be able to worship in peace there. It was exciting to go all that way by ship, but it was frightening too. There were not many white people where we were going but there were natives who belonged to this country called Indians. Sometimes they killed people, but we had heard of some fri...

Welcome to Three Times A Charm. I love meeting new authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the children’s publishing industry and sharing their careers with my readers. Today’s guest is author, Philip Coleman. Philip tell us a little about you, please. I’ve worked as a biologist for most of my life — in Ireland, Belgium and now in Switzerland, where I work for WWF (the panda people, not the wrestlers!). I used to write stories as a teenager, and even co-edited the school magazine, but I didn’t come back to writing until 2006 (and I won’t tell you how long after my schooldays that was!). This is my first published novel, after a couple of failed attempts. I wanted to capture the atmosphere of the time I spent living in Brussels, when my kids were around the same ages as Sean and Maeve in the story (though my kids are NOT like them and anyway they’re grown-up now. I live in the French Alps now; it’s a long commute to work but I’m surrounded my stunnin...

Today we welcome Jennings Wright, author of the young adult/new adult title, IXEOS. Hi Jennings! We are excited to have you visit. Can you please introduce yourself and your book? Thanks for having me! My name is Jennings Wright, and my latest book is called IXEOS. I live in North Carolina with my family, although I’m still a Florida girl at heart. I’ve got two kids, 16 and 20, and they are the reason I wrote a Young Adult/New Adult book this time around. I love that age! IXEOS is a sci-fi fantasy story a dose of dystopian thrown in for fun. I have had a blast writing the trilogy, and hope readers will enjoy it just as much. If you were to suggest the perfect beverage and snack to accompany the reading of your book by a reader tucked under a throw and curled up on the couch, what would it be and why? I think fresh made popcorn and an Icee would be perfect! I can picture a big bowl of popcorn being slowly grabbed by the handful, almost absentmindedly. (Popcorn is b...

Welcome to my blog feature, Building Character in which you get to meet a character from a book. Talking to a character outside of their book is fun! Huge. Amounts. Of fun.  This week Strands of Thought is host to Lia Weaver from Frost. Welcome, Lia. Tell us a little about yourself and what your life is like. My name is Lia Weaver. I’m the daughter of Eloise and _ Weaver, and like our name suggests, we are Weavers. I don’t have much time to talk, so keep it short. I understand. Why don’t you quickly share what challenges you are up against? My parents are dead. That leaves me to make sure the family—my twin brother, younger sister, and I—survive. We have to make our weekly quota, take care of the farm, and keep from starving. And we have to keep away from the monsters that roam the wilderness. They’re called Watchers, and they only come out at night. They’re deadly—they killed my parents. We don’t have time to think about anything else. We’re trying to stay alive ...

Welcome to Three Times A Charm. I love meeting new authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the children’s publishing industry and sharing their careers with my readers. Today’s guest is author, Bob Dixon. Bob tell us a little about you, please. I am a two-time Guinness World Record holder for the world’s longest cartoon strip. I created and wrote a number of comic book titles for Pocket Change Comics, including   Assassinette: The Mind Stalker ,   Psyco Duck ,   Jester's Dead ,   The Holy Knight ,   Riplash ,   Shadow Slasher , and   Warzone 3719 . I have written two children books titled   Rooty the Tree Troll   and   Holiday Bunny.   I have written two novels   A Tough Call   and   Mouch and Company: The Dream Psychic   In addition, I am a certified special education teacher who works with children   who have   emotional behavior disabilities. You’re a b...

It’s Friday! Time for my blog feature, Building Character in which you get to meet a character from a book. Talking to a character outside of their book is fun! Huge. Amounts. Of fun.  This week Strands of Thought is excited to host Hazel Nutt from the What Squirrels Do trilogy. It’s so great to have you with us, Hazel. Tell us a little about yourself. Hi, my name is Hazel Nutt and I am a toddler who is nutty about the outdoors and nature, especially squirrels. I like to chat to squirrels and they tell me their secrets.  What the squirrels don't know is that with my parents' help, I have created 3 picture books exposing their best kept secrets! I am both the author and the narrator of these books and there is at least one picture of me in each of the books. I hope that my enthusiasm and love of nature is catching, and that I can encourage other young children to get nutty about nature as well. We’d love to learn more about you, Hazel. What would you say...

Welcome to the 2013 version of Three Times A Charm. I love meeting new authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the children’s publishing industry and sharing their careers with my readers. Today we welcome author, Kay Glass. It is always fun for me to host another Kai/Kay/Kae – there aren’t that many of us. Kay, tell us a little about you, please. I wear many hats- wife, mother, and author being the top three! I’m married to my high school sweetheart, and we have two beautiful children: an 11-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter. We have 2 dogs and 5 cats, so it’s never dull around here. I started writing a year and a half ago, and I haven’t slowed down since! I’ve recently branched out from the adult scene to young adult writing. As long as I have my laptop and mp3 player (with a good set of earbuds) life is good. My writing generally comes from phone conversations that start with, “Wouldn’t it be cool if…?” Tell us about your book. ...

To Love or Die in a Steamy-Reamy World 10 Tales of Steampunk Silliness and Spookery In the cozy seaside village of Steamville, New Hampshire, an unfaithful zombie, out of control werebots, succubi in corsets, and more wreak havoc in this short story collection from the author of Elemental. Purchase Just .99 cents Amazon  * Barnes & Noble Praise "Well written and very fast paced. You won’t get bored or find your mind wandering. I’d love to see a sequel to this collection and see what happens next. I give this book five out of five donuts." "This book starts off dipping its toe right into the heart of the story, not unlike Ms. White's YA novel Elemental, and the story never really slows down to a lazy pace; making it a very easy and fast read." "Ms. White wonderfully succeeded in instilling humor into ten short stories about vampires, zombies, ghosts, and one mad scientist. Each story is brilliantly linked. The Victorian era set...

Welcome to my blog feature, Building Character, in which you get to meet a character from a book. Talking to a character outside of their book is fun! Huge. Amounts. Of fun.  This week Strands of Thought is host to Sabah from Edge of the Falls. Welcome, Sabah. Tell us a little about you. My name is Sabah. I’m the oldest child the Mistress rescued after being thrown from the City. That sounds intriguing. What conflict are you currently up against? A society that threw me away as a child, and a guardian who has more secrets than any one person ever should. What have you learned about yourself or your friends while trying to resolve your conflict? No one is what they seem—people I have loved my whole life have been lying to me. When you can’t trust people that close to you, who can you trust? Oh, that is tough. Tell us about your best friend. Berg? Oh. Well. It’s complicated. He was adopted at the same time I was, and he saved my life. He’s always b...

Welcome to Three Times A Charm. I love meeting new authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the children’s publishing industry and sharing their careers with my readers. Are you kidding? I've only been interviewed once before (at Halloween), but that was by a long time reader-turned-blogger. So, as you can probably imagine, when I was told, out of the blue, "Someone wants to interview you for their blog," I almost fell over. When I was first given your contact information, actually, I thought fate smiled on me, 'cause one of my first novel characters (not in this work, but another that I'm putting through pre-edits now) is name Kai-Yun. Well, I’ll let you catch your breath. We don’t want you fainting on SoT. That’s really cool about your character’s name. Do you pronounce it “Ky?” Most people say my name like that, but it is actually pronounced like the letter “K.” Readers, our enthusiastic guest is author, Gerilyn Marin...