Authors, Kai Strand & LA Dragoni

Today the World of Ink tour brings us our guest. Author, Sarah Sauer, is here to talk about her book, What Do You See When You Look at Me? About the book: In What Do You See When You Look at Me? the author engages her young readers with bright and colorful photos and invites them to see more than just an animal but to look at the beauty of each creature in detail. Kai: Welcome to Strands of Thought, Sarah. What age range is your book for? Sarah: 2/3 years to beginning readers 7/8 yrs. Kai: Can you share a memory of yours or a story of you from when you were within the age range of your target readers? Sarah: I remember frequent trips to the zoo with my parents. I loved animals. I loved any living creature. In fact, when I was about 3, I used to love to go outside and dig in the dirt to find ants and roly polys. I used to name the insects and called them my friends. I got my first ant farm when I was three because my mom found my ant friends living in my...

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 Katora from Elixir Bound. Welcome to Strands of Thought, Katora. Tell us a little about yourself and what your life is like. My name is Katora Kase, third in line of the five Kase siblings, but first in line to take over the family farm. We grow tiny fruit called essenberries, ferment them, and turn them it into essence, a popular but rare beverage in the Greater Peninsula. Each vintage of essences captures the mood of the growing season in a bottle. I love a good adventure, and am about to embark on the biggest one of my life. Ooo, an adventure! Why and where are you going? I thought essence was all we produced on the farm, but it turns out that Pop, my father, is the guardian of a secret healing Elixir. He called it the greatest healing Elixir ever a...

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 illustrator and author, Hazel Mitchell. (Isn't she adorable?) Welcome Hazel. Tell us about you, please. Originally I am from Yorkshire, England, but now I live in Maine, USA   creating books for children. It's my dream job! I went to art school in England, then got sidetracked, joined the Royal Navy, later ran a graphic design business and then moved to America and began illustrating. When I'm not drawing I love to sail, read, garden and look after my animals. I have 2 horses, 2 dogs, a cat and several snow shovels. I still miss England, especially fish and chips and mushy peas, but I'm learning to love lobster. See more of my work at www.hazelmitchell.com .      Mushy peas? Really? Ha ha. Can you tell us about your latest book? '1,2,...

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 Ava from Ava’s Tea Party. It’s lovely to have you with us, Ava. Tell us a little about yourself. My name is Ava, I’m five years old, and my favorite thing in the whole wide world is having tea parties. That sounds nice and serene. I can’t imagine any problems involving that. Is there anything that happens that is hard to handle? Sometimes after I go to bed, visitors come to my house and leave nice things for me. But since I’m sound asleep, I don’t get to visit with them. I want to find out what their favorite foods are and invite them to tea. What are some of the biggest stumbling blocks you’ve encountered trying to resolve this challenge? In the morning, the visitors are gone! How will I ever invite them to a party if I keep ...

  Captive Spirits Aztar is a planet where no one remembers a time of peace. Fear of those who wield a mystical cruelty holds people as CAPTIVE SPIRITS. All that remains is the waning belief in a savior who will someday come to restore peace to a blood soaked land. Zmeria, an ancient text recovered, brings a Prophecy to life. The leaders of each Region come together with a plan to reunite Aztar's divided people and make way for their savior. They arm themselves with the recently discovered revelation of peace long past. A dream is born and legends revived as Aztar’s people determine to fight the evil and Reclaim Aztar. The Evil’s grasp is strong on the CAPTIVE SPIRITS of Aztar. Leaders know this battle to free the will and spirit of the people will not be easily won. They decree a King must be chosen. One man of the entire world stands out from the rest. Si, the firstborn son of the house of Volcum, is well known for valor and victories in battle. A kingdom must be establishe...

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, Marilyn Levinson. Welcome Marilyn. Tell us a little about you, please. I was born in Brooklyn, New York, where I lived until my family moved to Long Island when I was in the ninth grade. Except for attending Syracuse University, I've lived most of my life on Long Island. Each move has taken me further east, leaving me to wonder if I'll end up residing in the Hamptons or Greenport on the North Fork. I taught high school Spanish for many years, and began writing short stories when my two sons were small. Soon I was writing books for children. I'm proud to say my first published novel, And Don't Bring Jeremy , was a nominee for six awards; No Boys Allowed was in print for almost twenty years; and Rufus and Magic Run Amok was an Internat...

I am coordinating an online book tour for the release of my middle grade novel, Beware of the White . Would you like to help me? I’ll include the book blurb at the bottom of this post in case you need to make sure the book is appropriate for your blog. The biggest day for posting will be on launch day, but I hope to keep my book traveling around the Internet for the month following the launch. I’ll be celebrating all month long with quick contests and an end-all giveaway, so I hope to make it fun for you and your readers! Definition of post types: Book Spotlight – I provide the book blurb, cover art, author bio, purchase links and a teaser (usually) unique to that post. Author Interview – I answer questions provided by the host Character Interview – A character from my book answers questions provided by the host Book Inspiration Post – The inspiration behind the writing of the novel. Guest post – I write a guest post of between 500 and 1000 words. Host can req...