Authors, Kai Strand & LA Dragoni

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 Madeline Edwards from Isosceles. She is here as part of the Isosceles World of Ink Tour. Welcome to Strands of Thought, Madeline. Tell us a little about yourself and what your life is like. Hi, my name is Madeline Edwards, but you can call me Maddie if you’d prefer, everyone else does. Thank you, Maddie. It’s nice to have you. Tell us a little about your life. School, friends…whatever. I used to be best friends with this kid Sean McIntyre up through middle school, but we haven’t talked in years. I miss him sometimes. He weirded me out though by trying to kiss me after we played a game of MASH. Maybe someday we’ll talk again, I don’t know. Since that day though, I have had trouble trusting anyone, so I don’t exactly have a best friend anymore. I apol...

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, Tammy Lowe. Welcome Tammy. Tell us a little about you, please. Hi Kai, Thanks for having me on your blog today. I live up here in the Great White North with my husband of twenty years and our teenage son.  From September to June, I am surrounded by preschoolers and covered in glitter and glue. Once school is out, I grab my hubby and our son and we are off on some grand adventure. We’ve explored pyramids in Egypt and sailed down a river in rural China on a tiny raft.  We’ve slept in the tower of a 15 th century Scottish castle, searched for the Loch Ness Monster and have even dined at a Bedouin camp in the Arabian Desert. I love to explore this amazing world of ours.  That sounds amazing! I hope your son realizes how lucky he...

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 Dilly from A New Job for Dilly. It’s so great to have you with us, Dilly. Tell us a little about yourself.                         My name is Dilly, and I’m a little brown rat. My favorite thing in the world is pickles. The more sour they are, they better! I was dreamt up by Rena Jones in 2007. About a year later, Vivian Zabel from 4RV Publishing offered to tell my story through three alphabet picture books. Lisa Oakman brought my original image to life. And so — here I am. In my first book, A New Job for Dilly , I didn’t like stealing pickles. Stealing is wrong, and very dangerous for a little rat like me. I decided to get 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 author, S.X. Bradley. Susan tell us a little about you, please. I grew up in South Texas, about ten miles from the U.S.-Mexican border. As a child I spent the summers in Mexico with my grandparents and extended family. During these vacations, I frequently created mysteries for my siblings and cousins to solve. These mysteries were my first stories. Nancy Drew soon became my childhood hero and inspiration to write mysteries for young adults. My greatest joy is my daughter who is quite the storyteller and likes to come up with the characters’ names for my stories. When I’m not writing or studying, you can find me looking after my personal mini-zoo which consists of two fish, one thief of a dog, and hermit crabs. I love estates sales, traveling, spending time wi...

I’m sad to announce that Between the Covers, my town’s last local independent bookstore, has announced it’s impending closure. After we lose BTC, we will still have several used bookstores, but the only bookstore to offer a large selection of new books will be Barnes & Noble. As an author, my relationship with B&N has deteriorated over the past 3 years. When my first book was released by a small press, the manager of the children’s section ordered a few copies of my book for their shelves, but couldn’t give me the “local author” turn out, because shelf space in the middle grade section was too valuable. She suggested I get an article written about me in the local paper to drive traffic to their store. She wasn’t able to host a book signing either, but I didn’t mind because I had one scheduled at a local independent store (not Between the Covers). Since the release of my first book, the indie store that hosted my very successful signing has gone out of business, and B...

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...