Authors, Kai Strand & LA Dragoni

It’s Friday! Time for my blog feature, Building Character in which you get to meet characters from a book. Talking to a character outside of their book is fun! Huge. Amounts. Of fun.  Be sure to click through and enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway at the end of the post! This week Strands of Thought plays host to Queen Cataleen from The Outlanders. Great of you to join us, your majesty. Can you tell our readers a little about yourself, please? I am Cataleen, Queen of the Outlands, born of the queen’s blood and chosen to rule by Luna, former queen of the Outlands. I consider myself a private person, so be honored I graced you with my presence. Of course we are honored. There is so much responsibility in being a queen. As well as a lot of expectation. Is there anything about you that people are always giving you a hard time about? How do you feel about it? No one understands the role of a queen. It is my job to protect and defend my country. If there are a few collate...

I'm very excited to share with you my newest book release, The Lumpy Duckling - Another Weaver Tale . Lumpy is the third standalone title in my Weaver Tale series. It's about friendship and expectation, transformation and doubt. Wheezy over thinks things to the point of making them happen. Lumpy is humble, sweet and (thank goodness) persistent. If you have a middle grade reader in your life, I think you'll be happy you shared this book with them. Lumpy may be hefty with a misshapen mouth, but he’s funny and the most loyal friend Wheezy could ask for. When she meets Unwanted, she casts a wish for people to be able to see her best friend like she does. Her wish nearly kills him. Available in hard and soft cover and electronic formats: Guardian Angel Publishing ,   Amazon ,   Barnes and Noble . Add to   Goodreads What people are saying: Kai Strand explores friendship, perception, and the consequences of wishes in this fast-paced read. –Amazon Custom...

Today on Three Times A Charm we welcome author, Conda V. Douglas. I love introducing my readers to the people who work in children’s publishing. Great of you to join us, Conda. Can you tell us a little about yourself, please? Growing up in the ski resort of Sun Valley, Idaho, my childhood was filled with authors, artists and other creative types. I grew up with goats living in the kitchen, buffalo bones in the living room and rocks in the bathtub (long story). I've traveled the world from Singapore to Russia (in winter!) and my own tiny office, writing all the while. Now my life is filled with my cat, dog, permanent boyfriend and writing. The rare times I'm not writing, I love to read, teach exercise classes, bike and swim, hoping to stay in physical and mental shape for more writing and sometimes succeeding! Rocks in the bathtub, huh? Interesting. Tell us more about your books. In my popular tween fantasy Mall Fairies series the first two in the...

STAR OF THE TEAM MG contemporary I'm posting a rare review today for a spirited middle grade book by Beverly Stowe McClure. Beverly is a valued critique partner of mine, but this book made it into the world without me seeing it first. I've been SO excited to read it. Beverly is such an inspiration to me and I love her quiet and kind writing style. She says so much through her characters while you (the reader) grin like a loon—not even aware of the fact that you've learned an important lesson.  My review: Star of the Team by Beverly Stowe McClure has many of my favorite middle grade elements. Our main character, Kate, is a perky and likeable kid, who loves to play basketball. New girl, Emily, joins their team and her gloating attitude rubs Kate the wrong way. When Kate is injured and can’t play, she worries that Emily will out score her and earn the Star of the Team honor. I enjoyed the genuine dynamics among the kids and with the adults. Kate works...

It’s Friday! Time for Building Character in which you get to meet characters from a book. Talking to a character outside of their book is fun! Huge. Amounts. Of fun.  This week Strands of Thought plays host to Meg Flannigan from Perfect For You . Glad you could join us, Meg. Can you tell our readers a little about yourself? I’m Meg Flannigan, a senior at Treemont High. I’m the second best player on the tennis team, and I’m dating Asher Davidson, the quarterback of the football team. Nice to meet you, Meg. It sounds like things are going real well for you. Congrats. A lot of kids your age are all dealing with all sorts of drama and conflicts. But not you, right? I sort of have a few actually. I’m still trying to get over my sophomore-year boyfriend dumping me by kissing another girl in front of my locker. It sort of screwed me up. But I’m with Ash now, and he’s amazing. Things would be near perfect if Noah Turner—as in THE Noah Turner, most sought after guy at Treem...

Today on Three Times A Charm we welcome author, Jax Spenser. I love introducing my readers to the people who work in children’s publishing. Great of you to join us, Jax. Can you tell us a little about yourself, please? Greetings, Earthlings! Prepare to be conquered! Okay, I’m kidding… mostly. I’m author Jax Spenser and I’ve been working in the story biz for quite a while. First as a creator of excuses back when I was a youngin’ and then most recently as creative exec (an awful term, it’s very close to being an oxymoron) in Hollywood. I’ve spent years developing my stories and enjoyed quality time in Southern Florida with a phenomonal group of writers discovering and honing my craft. Many of those people have moved on to successful careers as authors and I’m proud to be associated with them. I absolutely love reading but feel I must be one of the worst readers on the planet, not for any illiteracy reason, but because I have the focus of a sand gnat (which, I pronounce gah-nat...

It’s Friday! Time for Building Character in which you get to meet characters from a book. Talking to a character outside of their book is fun! Huge. Amounts. Of fun.  This week Strands of Thought plays host to Rosa from Sons of the Sphinx. Glad you could make it today, Rosa. Can you tell our readers a little about yourself, please? Hi! I ’ m Rosa. I ’ m 15 years old and a sophomore in high school. I ’ m your typical teenager — well, almost. I don ’ t have many friends anymore, but it ’ s hard to blame the other kids. If I was them, I ’ d probably steer clear of me too, at least most of the time. No one is ever mean to me; I ’ ve grown up with most of them, and on my bad days, they try to ignore me. Wish I could do the same to those who talk to me. Mostly I just shake my head and carry on. Well that sounds sort of sad, Rosa, but I admit, I ’ m really curious about why you ’ re on the outskirts. What kind of conflict are you up against? OMG. That is a loaded question...

Today, thanks to Pump Up Your Book tours, we get a sneak peek at ESCAPE THROUGH THE WILDERNESS by Gary Rodrigiuez.  Title: Escape Through the Wilderness Author: Gary Rodriguez Genre: Tween/Young Adult Christian Adventure Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Tate Publishing (June 2014) ISBN-13: 978-1-63268-201-7   Purchase at: https://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=9781632682017 and at http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Through-Wilderness-Gary-Rodriguez/dp/163268201X/   About the book: Sixteen-year-old Savannah Evans walks with a slight limp thanks to a gymnastics’ accident that dashed her Olympic dreams, but didn’t stop her from attending an adventure camp in Idaho. At Camp Arrowhead, she quickly befriends Jade Chang and Rico Cruz, but Conner Swift taunts Savi because of her injury. When the four are teamed together for an overnight white-water river rafting adventure, Savi refuses to get in the same raft with Conner. Unfortunately, the director wil...

Today on Three Times A Charm we welcome author, Michael Thal. I love introducing my readers to the people who work in children’s publishing. So nice to have you join us, Michael. Can you tell us a little about yourself, please? I’m the author of four published novels— Goodbye Tchaikovsky , The Abduction of Joshua Bloom , and The Koolura Series— The Legend of Koolura and Koolura and the Mystery at Camp Saddleback . Since 2009 I have been a columnist for the Los Angeles Examiner writing articles about parenting and education. Moving from the frigid Northeast to comfy Southern California in 1973, I taught elementary and middle school for 28 years until a freak virus left me deafened at the age of 50. I reinvented myself as a writer composing over 80 published articles in print magazines as well as novels for middle grade and high school aged students. You can learn more about me on my website at www.michaelthal.com . My books can be purchased on Amazon.com and Barnes ...