Authors, Kai Strand & LA Dragoni

It’s Children’s Book Week! In honor of CBW, I wanted to focus on children’s literacy. I’m a firm believer that the most effective tool you can provide a child is comfort with reading. Everything we do in life, shopping, cooking, driving, learning and working requires reading and when a child develops a comfort with the skill they are so much better prepared to live a successful life. This week, I’ll be asking people from all walks of a child’s life why literacy is important. First brave interviewee is Bend, Oregon third grade teacher, Susan Deatherage. Thank you, Susan, for taking the time to talk to us about children’s literacy during Children’s Book Week. Do you celebrate CBW in your classroom?  No. I know from experience your school does have a lot of fun during Read Across America, however. Are there any other ways you celebrate reading with your students throughout the year?  Accelerated Reading program on the computer, Reading minutes at home with...

M E D I A  R E L E A S E CONTACT: Donna M. McDine Website: www.donnamcdine.com   Email: donna@donnamcdine.com For Immediate Release Children's Book Week: Celebrate with Guardian Angel Publishing Authors May 7-13, 2012 Established in 1919, Children's Book Week is the longest-running literacy initiative in the country. Each year, books for young people and the joy of reading are feted for a full week with author and illustrator appearances, storytelling, parties, and other book-related events at schools, libraries, bookstores, museums, and homes from coast to coast!   Visit Guardian Angel Publishing authors via their blogs as they celebrate Children's Book Week. Each stop includes special topics of discussion: teaching writing and grammar using children’s books, road to publication, professional critiques, educator guides, Skype and in-person author visits, what’s selling in children’s non-fiction, writing narrative non-fiction, interviews, book rev...

Our daughter, double majoring in music & psychology, called on Monday and said, “I think I forgot to tell you that my recital isn’t next week, the 8 th . It’s tomorrow night. So I called my husband, who was in Bakersfield, CA at that very moment and said, “You up for this?” Being the world’s best dad, he was all over it! So, he drove from Bakersfield, to Eugene, Oregon to drop off some family members, then home to Bend, Oregon. He got home about 1:30 am, slept a couple of hours, got up and went to work. We left at 12:30 pm and drove 5 ½ hours to Boise, Idaho. We got there about 7:00 pm and went straight to our daughter’s recital. I believe there were 9 recitalists (is that a word?). The music was lovely and they all did a beautiful job, but of course my daughter was the best. After the recital, we went to dinner with our daughter and a few of her friends. The people at the restaurant graciously let us hang out talking an hour past their closing. Around 11:00 pm, my husband an...

Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry. This week author, Danielle Kirrane is visiting with us.   Thank you for having me! Danielle, tell us about you. I am the author of the new children’s book, The fish who swam too far. I live in New Jersey with my husband and our two amazing daughters. I have a big goofy dog, an absolutely hysterical cat, and a lot of fish. I am a stay at home mom and I love every minute of it. Reading is a must in my house. I make sure that I read with both of my children every day. I think it is very important to build a love for reading with your children from an early age. I have been writing stories for fun since I was a little girl. It wasn’t until about a year ago when my oldest daughter suggested that I publish one. I could not be more grateful to her. She paved the way for my success. Tell us more about your new book. ...

Editing is a tedious process for me. I complain about it more than I should, I’m sure. I apologize if I sound like a whiner. But there is one editing tool that I couldn’t live without. Reading aloud. When I feel my story is fit for human consumption, I read it out loud to my children. I watch for reactions; laughs, furrowing brows, wandering attention. Sometimes I stop at certain points and ask what is going on in the story to see if they’ve picked up on a subtle story line. Or I ask what they think will happen next to see if the plot is too predictable. I offer as little information as possible (extremely hard for me, might I add!) Based on any comments they offer, questions they ask, or when I lost their attention, I go back to the editing process and tweak and tuck and cut and boost. Then I read it out loud again, but this time I record myself. I plug a microphone into my computer and record an audio file (or several if it is a novel.) I attempt to read in different char...

Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry. This week author, Chris Cloud, joins us as part of his virtual book tour. Welcome, Chris. Can you tell us a little about yourself.             I began writing fiction full time at the age of 66 after a long career in journalism and public relations. I graduated from the University of Missouri in 1967 with a degree in journalism. I worked as a reporter, editor, and columnist at newspapers in Texas, California, and Missouri. I was employed by a major oil company as a public relations executive, and later operated my own public relations agency. I created the board game Sixth Sense in 2003. I live in Joplin, Missouri, and enjoy golf and hiking. Fascinating career you’ve had. You just keep reinventing yourself. Tell us about your book, A Boy Called Duct Tape . `My g...

Geek alert:  the following is an admission of geek guilt! Proceed with an open mind. We’ve all got geek tendencies in some aspect of our personalities. Organize verb to systematize: to organize the files of an office. This is what I love about Windows7. The filing system that it has fits so well with my way of organizing.  My photos folder is like a mecca of organization and I feel a flutter of pleasure each and every time I have to go into it. Which can be several times a day. Constant flutters may explain my effervescent personality or perhaps the bubbly persona is the reason for the giddy pleasure over photo folders. It’s a chicken and the egg thing, I think. Anyway, My Photos is so well categorized, it’s SCARY. I have a folder titled ME. In the Me folder are pictures of … yes, me! There are also other folders inside ME with names like “Headshots” “Weaver” and “Wedding.” I have a folder named FAMILY with subfolders titled “Veteran’s Parade” “Wyo...