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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Give -Away Winner and a Book Signing in Less Than Two Minutes

Happy Wednesday!

The winner of the Trinket Swag Pack and book is:

Holly Anna

I'll be emailing you for your address, or you can email me at storyqueen at gmail dot com and we can work out the details.

So, this is what a booksigning looks like, in two minutes or less: 



Yes, those are my daughters dancing.  (Not the littlest one.  She is a student of mine.)

It was a lovely night--completely ran out of books, which is both good and bad.  A book event is kind of like a Punnett Square--four possible outcomes.  

No people/
No books
People attend/
No books
No people/
Books arrive
People attend/ Books arrive
As you can see, only one outcome is  favorable in terms of a book launch.  I was lucky.  Lots of people AND books.  Whew.  

I've got another event this weekend.  I'll be at the Orange County Kid's Book Festival.  I'll be on a panel called, "On the Tween End of Teen" at 9:45 at the Teen and Young  Adult Stage, and then on the Storyteller's Stage (sponsored by PBS) at 12:00ish.  I'll be signing at the Mysterious Galaxy Booth in between the two.  I cannot tell you what a thrill it is to say that I am on a stage sponsored by PBS.  I grew up with Sesame Street and the Electric Company, and my kids grew up with Arthur, Wishbone, and Reading Rainbow.  Such a huge contribution to the literacy of young children!!


So, if you are planning on going to the OC Kid's Book Festival, come by and see me.  I'll have bookmarks!

I've more to tell you, but it will have to wait.  I'm hungry and I've not had dinner and IT'S 9:37!!

A big thanks to everyone who came out for the Trinket launch.  Almost 300 Oreos were consumed, in case you were wondering.  (272 in actual fact.)

hrh

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Book Give-Away: The Seven Tales of Trinket

Hello.

I am going about a billion different directions at about a trillion miles an hour, but I thought I'd stop by to remind you about a couple of things:

1.  Launch Party for The Seven Tales of Trinket at Barnes and Noble, Oceanside!
          Thursday, Sept. 20th, 6:00 p.m.

2.  Cyber party (ies) for those who live too far away!
         Leave a comment, ANY comment, and I'll enter you in the Trinket Prize Pack give-away which includes the following:
El Book!  

Handmade Special Edition Trinket Box

Mini-Trinket-Notebook for writing those secrets close to your heart

A bookmark or two

And there are also a cool give-aways on Myrna's blog here and Tricia's blog here.

I'll close the entries on the contest on this blog on Monday, September 24th, which is my birthday, so it is only fitting that  someone gets a present, right?

I just remembered I need to sew up a hole that appeared recently in my cape...maybe it'll be okay if I use a stapler.  No one will notice....

hrh

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Book Launch vs. The Distracted Brain


I am lacking focus right now---and it seems very difficult to get it back.  I have ideas, many ideas for things, but are they coming to fruition?  No.  Not right now.  I feel like everything is a squirrel that passes me by laughing and I am stopping to look, when I should be head down, focusing!  But I can’t seem to.

 But here is some I have worked on this summer: 

1.  In the Kingdom of the Selkies-A middle grade novel that continues to surprise me as I write it.  I thought it was about one thing, but it turns out to be about something else.  It has sisters (I have wanted to write a sister story for a long time) and creatures that turn into seals and old feuds and magical oars.  It has enchanted potatoes and a treacherous fin-wife.  And it has a secret island.  And that is what I know about it so far.

2.  Dingle-This one is getting a major overhaul, fifty pages in.  Nooooooooooooooo!  But, alas.  I think I want to change the POV.  Dingle is one of the main characters, and I’ve not even gotten to him yet!!  I cannot tell you much about Dingle, for he has not yet introduced himself on the page, but I am compelled to write his story.  Compelled, I tell you!

3.Tales from the Good Knight-This is a chapterbook based on my dragons from the Good Knight books.  I love the idea of carrying them into the next level of readability, but I am not sure if I have the right tone yet.  I have dabbled with this…but that is about all.

4.  Picture book #1- Cannot even type the name because it makes me laugh too hard.  Oh, the silliness!

5. Picture book #2-Sweet little story.  I like it.  I know, not very forth coming.  Sorry.

6.  Picture book #3-Le Dud. Yes.  Sometimes there are duds. (Although now that I have typed, “Le Dud,” I find myself rather fond of it as a title…)
7. The Secret Society of the Poisoned Posey.  All I know about this is that the main character has a long, presumptuous sounding name.  And she is a bit of a “pip”.  Perhaps very naughty.  Possible tagline:  She puts the PUNK in Steampunk.  Not really.  (It does have a ring, though…) I have half of a page of scrawled notes about this.

Did you notice?  I listed seven.  Isn't that unusual how it worked out?  

Because this Thursday is my OFFICIAL BOOK LAUNCH PARTY for THE SEVEN TALES OF TRINKET. (And I have been so distracted with other things!)

 But here is your official invitation:
I know!  It's too big!  It doesn't fit!  I don't care!

There will be door prizes!  There will be Irish Dancers!  There will be Singing!  There will be Oreos!!!  (Yes, my monkey puppet Oreo refuses to be left out of the fun--he wants you to come and have a cookie with him!)

I might tell a story, and I might read a teensy bit from the book.  Please come if you can! Even if you only know me from my blog--it won't be awkward. I promise.  The evening is a night for stories and tellers and lovers of tales.

The event is also a book-fair fundraiser for Jefferson Elementary School.  15% to 20% of all items sold will benefit the school. (You will need a coupon--I can get you one if you come to my table.)

Hope to see you on Thursday! (But if you can't come...stop by the olde blog....I just might be giving stuff away here, too!  I can't leave my cyber-buddies out in the cold just because they are far away, now can I?)

edt--Fabulous blogger Myrna is already having a Trinket giveaway!  And she is also giving away the most adorable seal trinket box ever.  Click here to enter!

But wait!  There's more!  Amazing blogger Tricia O'Brien is holding a Trinket giveaway, too!  Click here to enter!

hrh

Saturday, September 8, 2012

7 Back to School Books

There's something lovely about books that take place in schools. (Okay, I am a teacher...school is my life. I live, breathe, and eat it most of the time)

Anyway, in honor of the release of THE SEVEN TALE OF TRINKET (which does not take place in a school--I need to get out sometimes :), I am highlighting seven "schoolish" books.  (Part of my 7 posts with 7 things each series.)

So, going from picture-book to chapter-book to novel, here are some great stories to start your school year with:

Being the parent of a "Wemberly", I loved this book!  Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes is THE  I-fear-going-to-school-because-I-fear-lots-of-things book.

Captain Underpants=the best principal EVER!!  Except when he's not saving the world and actually being kind of a jerk...

Ah, Wayside School!  You had me when Louis ate that apple off of Mrs. Gorf's desk....(If you've read this, you know what I mean!!)  This book is great for kids moving from chapterbooks into novels.

This book is brand new!  Look at the title written in spooky tree branches!  The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy is sure to be a favorite among kids who like a little mystery with their education.

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls is also brand new!  Oh, give me a good boarding school story any day!  Love the old-fashioned creepiness of the cover. ...something is not right here....

Did someone say creepy?  Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children is classically creepy.

And my favorite school of all...Hogwarts.  I love Hogwarts, with its house points, quiddich, pumpkin juice and the like.

As I type this up, I realize that one of the things I like best about books that take place in a school setting isn't only the school part, it's the friendships that the characters have.  George and Harold. Ron, Harry and Hermoine.  The entire class in Wayside School...

School + Friendship + Danger (real or feared) = awesome!!

What are some of your favorite schoolish books?


hrh

Monday, September 3, 2012

Happy Birthday, Trinket!



Well, she's here.  My 10th book baby is ready to go out into the world.

This is what she looks like:
The lovely front cover.

The fabulous green spine.  (The green surprised me--but somehow I always knew it would be green.)

The back cover--blurbs and praise!  What a pretty baby!

So, on her birthday, I am offering 7 celebratory pictures regarding Trinket's entrance into the world.

1.


September issue of Family Fun Magazine.  Why am I showing you this?  You'll see.

2.

What's that in the top left corner?  Does that say, "Our favorite things?"  I think it does!

3.

Yes!  A Page-turner!  

4.


A home-made Trinket Box for the launch party (9/20)

5.

Mini-notebooks (since Trinket collects stories, you can, too!) for the launch.

6.




Bookmarks for launch and events (she makes a nice twin....)

7.

So, not all of the fun has to wait until the launch.  These swag bags are for my class tomorrow.  A book mark, bubbles and an eraser birthday cake!  Happy birthday, Trinket!

Due to the craziness of the beginning of the school year, I am waiting to do my launch party until September 20th.  You are all invited!  Not only will there be some unique door prizes (as shown above) but there will be some pretty awesome entertainment as well.  (But that is top secret for now...I will not tell.  Stop looking at me with those puppy dog eyes....it won't work, I tell you!)

Well.  There it is.

I find myself getting a little misty.  When I started this blog, Trinket was just 80 pages of an almost forgotten idea trapped inside of a Mac that broke in 2003.  I never retrieved those pages...just the idea....just the soul. Back then, I read Neil Gaiman's blog every day (I think he blogged every day, back then) and he said he had the idea for THE GRAVEYARD BOOK for  many years (like maybe 20) before he wrote it. This gave me courage.  Most of the time that is the reason that I read blogs--to gain courage.  And so I silenced the part of me that said I wasn't good enough to write this story and wrote a page a day, sometimes two or three, until it was all out of me.


And now....here she is.

Thank you, my blog friends, for taking this journey with me and always reminding me that I was not alone.  I couldn't have done it without you.

hrh