Writers on the Move’s Authors’ Books for the Holiday Season

Ring-a-Ding. Ring-a-Ding.

Yup, the holiday season is just about upon us and many, who think ahead and have already started their shopping, are now looking for great holiday gifts for the adults and children in their lives.

Since Writers on the Move has very talented authors who offer everything from poetry to children’s books to mysteries to anthologies to historical fiction to non-fiction how-to books available as amazing gifts for just about anyone and any age, we’ve put together a list of MUST HAVE BOOKS to give you some ideas.

So, please scroll down to the bottom of the list and be sure to click on the links to find out more about each book.

Off we go.

Writers on the Move’s Authors’ Books for Holiday Season Gifts

Walking Through Walls
Children’s middle-grade/young adult fantasy adventure
Amazon Link 
Book Info Link: http://walkingthroughwalls-kcioffi.blogspot.com

Day’s End Lullaby
Children’s bedtime picture book with sheet music to lullaby included
Amazon Link
Book Info Link: http://daysendlullaby.blogspot.com

Karen Cioffi
http://karencioffi.com 
http://karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com

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Dancing With The Pen
A collection of today's best youth writing -- this groundbreaking anthology features stories, poems and essays by more than 65 kids and teenagers from all around the world. For each copy sold, a new book will be donated to a disadvantaged child through Write On! For Literacy. http://www.writeonbooks.org

3 a.m.
Award-winning collection of short stories has been featured on the PBS book talk show "Between the Lines" and has been acclaimed by both teenagers and adults.
Amazon Link

Dallas Woodburn, award winning author
http://dallaswoodburn.blogspot.com

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State of Wilderness
Book 1 of 50 in the JGDS, 50-state, mystery, trivia series
Amazon

Ma America, The Travelin' Maven (Elysabeth Eldering)
http://jgdsseries.blogspot.com

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The Cancer Prayer Book
Self-Help: A wonderful and meaningful gift for a loved one or friend going through the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. It has chapters on Diagnosis and Waiting, Family, Self Image, Healing, Seeking Wisdom, Keeping the Faith, and more.
http://dreamwordspublishing.com
ISBN: 978-1-4507-2599-6

Terri Forehand RN, author
http://thecancerprayerbook.blogspot.com
http://terri-forehand.blogspot.com

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Leap…Laugh…Plop
Kick…Catch…Buzzzz
Guess…Giggle…Wiggle
Children's picture books: These wonderful books keep children laughing and learning with each turn of the page.


Martha Swirzinski, M.A.
 http://www.MovementPlus.com

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Blooming Red: Christmas Poetry for the Rational
 By Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball
Cover watercolor by Vicki Thomas
http://www.budurl.com/BloomingRed
"This volume is full of delight." ~ Margaret Fieland, author
Discounted in quantities of 25 or more (for use as holiday greeting cards):
http://howtodoitfrugally.com/more_on_blooming_red.htm/

Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Instructor for nearly a decade at the renowned UCLA Extension Writers' Program
The Frugal Book Promoter ( http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo ) :
Web site: http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com

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Repulsion Thrust
Poetry: "Wonderful. The work covers a lot of ground while keeping a poetic sensibility, which is hard to do. We need more singularity-aware art." Ray Kurzweil
Buy it at Amazon

Sleep Before Evening
Literary fiction: Marianne is teetering at the edge of reason. “Buy this book. And relish every moment of it.”
Buy it at Amazon

Magdalena Ball
http://www.compulsivereader.com/html
http://www.magdalenaball.com

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The Golden Pathway

The struggle against slavery with no regard to one's safety - age 8-12
http://www.guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm



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The Women of Camp Sobingo
Historical fiction, WWII era

The Unexplored Heart
Victorian era, Historical romance/adventure

Forces of Nature
Suspense, Natural Disaster

Once a Brat, Always a Brat
Memoir with contributions from other Military Brats

Marilyn Celeste Morris, Author
Buy Link: http://www.vanillaheartbooksandauthors.com/Marilyn_Morris.html
http://mcmauthor.wordpress.com/ 

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Trouble on Earth Day
Children's picture book by Kathy Stemke
Purchase at http://shshshletthebabysleep.blogspot.com

More info on this author and Free monthly newsletter sign up: http://educationtipster.blogspot.com

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Cowgirl Dreams
Western historical fiction: Nettie Brady bucks 1920s convention with dreams of becoming a rodeo star. Based on the author’s grandmother, a real Montana cowgirl
http://www.trebleheartbooks.com/SDHeidithomas.html
B&N Nook Edition

Follow the Dream
Sequel to Cowgirl Dreams: Life during the Great Depression brings unrelenting hardships and challenges to Nettie’s family and lifelong rodeo dreams.
http://www.trebleheartbooks.com/SDHeidithomas.html
Kindle edition 

Heidi M. Thomas
http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com  
http://www.heidimthomas.com/books.html

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We're sure you'll find something from the books above that will be the perfect gift for this holiday season!

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Until next time,

Karen Cioffi
Author, Ghostwriter, Editor, Inbound Marketing Instructor

Writers Workshop: How to Enter Your Children’s Book into Award Contests with Award-winning author, Donna McDine

The world of book award contests is immense and the wealth of information cannot be covered in one workshop, so please mark your calendar and join us at the Working Writer’s Club on Thursday, November 17 at 11 am CST and December 15 at 11 am CST and join multi-award-winning children’s author, Donna McDine.


Her first children’s book The Golden Pathway has received numerous awards: Preditors & Editors Readers Poll 2010 Top Ten Children’s Books, Global eBook Awards Finalist Children’s Picture Book Fiction, and Literary Classics Silver Award & Seal of Approval Recipient. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from someone in the trenches of children’s book award contests as she reveals what she has learned along the way.

Here’s the scoop on this two-part LIVE Writer’s Workshop at the Working Writer’s Club:

Topic: How to Create and Present Effective Instructional Workshops & Teleclasses

Date: Thursday, November 17, 11:00 a.m. CDT

Presenter: Donna McDine, Award-winning children’s author

Cost: Free for Working Writer’s Club Members

$19.97 for Non-club members (includes both sessions)

Description: In this 55-minute writers workshop, we’ll learn and discover…

On Thursday, November 17, Donna will discuss:

• The importance of entering book award contests

• Where and how to research contests

• How far in advance should you research contest

• How to prepare your contest entry

• To pay or not to pay an entry fee

On Thursday, December 15, Donna will discuss:

• Estimating how many books you need on hand

• Author copies from your publisher, negotiate with your publisher

• Determining your budget

• The importance of having a prepared hard copy media kit and website presence

• Do contests payoff in the end

Not a Working Writer’s Club member? Register at the Working Writer’s Club http://www.workingwritersclub.com/events-2 for both sessions of “How to Enter Your Children’s Book into Award Contests” and receive an email invitation to this live event, PLUS the replay the day after for just $19.97.

About Donna McDine:

Donna McDine is an award-winning children's author, Honorable Mention in the 77th and two Honorable Mentions in the 78th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competitions, Preditors & Editors Readers Poll 2010 Top Ten Children’s Books, Global eBook Awards Finalist Children’s Picture Book Fiction, and Literary Classics Silver Award & Seal of Approval Recipient Picture Book Early Reader ~ The Golden Pathway.

Her stories, articles, and book reviews have been published in over 100 print and online publications. Her interest in American History resulted in writing and publishing The Golden Pathway. Donna has three more books under contract with Guardian Angel Publishing, Hockey Agony, Powder Monkey, and A Sandy Grave. She writes, moms and is the Editor-in-Chief for Guardian Angel Kids, Publicist for the Working Writer’s Club, and owner of Author PR Services from her home in the historical hamlet Tappan, NY. McDine is a member of the SCBWI.

Visit the Working Writer’s Club, and become a Facebook Fan today at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/The-Working-Writers-Club/221038321276421. By becoming a Facebook Fan it will ensure that you are updated on all of the valuable resources and articles at The Working Writer’s Club.

When You Can't Attend A Writer's Conference

We've all heard the advice that writers need to attend writer's conferences. I don't disagree with that advice. However, for the last two years my budget and family schedule have. So I've wondered if other writer's have the same dilemma. What options does a writer have when they simply cannot attend a "live" conference?

One option is to purchase session tapes/CDs from a past year's conference. First, it's a lesser monetary investment. Second, you can take much better notes from it because you can stop and restart wherever and whenever you want. Third, you can chose the ones that will most help you at this juncture in your writing career. Another similar option is to review any CDs you currently own from conferences you previously attended. Generally these are CDs from sessions you could not sit in. If you have enough, you can create your own personalized conference right in the comfort of your own home. I've done that with a set of CDs from a conference I attended two years in a row. I'm still getting mileage from those CDs.

Another idea is to attend an online conference.The one I try to attend every year is The Muse Online Writers Conference. It's as good as if not better than conferences you need to travel to. There are teaching sessions, chats and even agent and publisher pitch sessions. Did I mention that it's free? Check out the website and sign up for next year's conference. You'll never regret it. There are a few others that I've listed below you might also want to check out.

http://writeoncon.com/
http://jillwilliamson.com/2011/07/nextgen-online-writers-conference-free/
http://christianwritingconference.com/2011/


Finally, don't underestimate the value of online writing classes, workshops and webinars. Most magazines geared toward writers offer classes. One example is Writers Digest.  Classes range from genre based to grammar related to writing mechanics. Some universities also offer online classes. I've listed a few resources to get you started.


http://www.writers.com/classes.html
http://www.thewritersworkshop.net/onlineclasses.htm
http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/
Christina Katz Classes
http://www.writerstudio.com/pages/page_cn.php?page=online
https://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/courses/onlinewriters.php




So even if your budget or schedule won't allow travel to a conference, don't give up hope. There are plenty of other options available. Choose what works for you and enjoy conferencing at home!

About the author:

 Marietta "Mari" Taylor is the the author of Surviving Unemployment Devotions To Go and is monthly blogger for the GoAskMom blog at wral.com. Find out more about Mari at her blog or her website, www.mariettataylor.net.

Interview with Gretchen Maurer, author of Mary Tudor, “Bloody Mary”

Gretchen Maurer's writing has been published in Frances Mayes' The Discovery of Poetry, and in Adventure Cyclist and Highlights for Children magazines. She also co-wrote a short film, Alma, that has won multiple awards. Mary Tudor, "Bloody Mary" is her first picture book. She lives in Northern California with her family.

Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Gretchen: I live in Northern California with my husband and three kids. I’ve taught high school and college English, and my writing has been published in The Discovery of Poetry and A Cup of Comfort for Mothers to Be. I co-wrote the screenplay, Alma, a short film that has screened in film festivals throughout the country, and I’ve written for several magazines, including Adventure Cyclist and Highlights for Children. Mary Tudor "Bloody Mary" is my first picture book. It’s a biography for 9 to 13-year-olds, published by Goosebottom Books.

Describe your desk/workspace.

Gretchen: My big, white, Ikea desk, just off the kitchen, is my base. But when no one’s home, I prefer to write with my laptop at the kitchen table, because I like the view of the trees and the valley below. I used to share an office in town, and I loved that, but I gave it up a few years ago because I couldn’t justify the expense. Sometimes, when I really need to concentrate and I’m getting distracted in my house, I park my minivan in a shady spot somewhere in town and work from my car. It sounds crazy, but until my neck starts to seize up, it works.

Do you have a favorite quote?

Gretchen: This quote by Ira Glass is long, but I find it encouraging and motivating: “Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

 

What are you currently reading?

Gretchen: State of Wonder, by Anne Patchett

What is the best advice you've ever received?

Gretchen: I’ll go with my mom’s mantra: Be Yourself. It took a while to know who that was, but I always knew it was something to shoot for. I’ve realized that it’s essential to Be Yourself as a writer, too. See the world as only the way you see it, and share that—your perspective; your take on a person, character, or event—the way only you can.

If you could have coffee with anyone (living or dead, real or fictional), who would it be and why?

Gretchen: I’d want to meet my maternal great grandmother. She lived in Norway and raised my grandfather there before she and her husband, my grandpa, and his siblings moved to Minnesota (I think my grandpa was six at the time). When my grandpa was in his nineties, he slipped and fell. His brain swelled, and the doctors found fluid in his brain. I visited him in the hospital, and to my shock, he spoke to me Norwegian—on and on, something about the free church. I’d never heard him speak Norwegian before, so listening to him was interesting and upsetting at the same time. Later, I started thinking more about what my grandpa’s childhood must’ve been like, and wishing I could meet his mother—to talk with her, sleep in her house, and taste her lefse and fish cakes.

What are your top three favorite books and why?

Gretchen: It’s hard to pick three favorites, but here’s three off the top of my head: The Beet Queen, by Louise Erdrich, because there are some scenes in that novel that are just perfect; East of Eden by Steinbeck, because of the characterization and setting; and The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing, by Melissa Bank, because of Banks’ humor and restraint.

What was your favorite book as a child and why?

Gretchen: The Velveteen Rabbit. I loved imagining that rabbit coming to life, and thinking about the question the story poses, What is Real?

What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

Gretchen: I don’t know if it’s interesting, but I’m co-writing a novel right now with a friend, and now that we’re at the editing stage, we’ve noticed that our characters tend to breathe and nod too much. We’re in the process of editing a lot of it out, to keep our book from being hijacked by hyperventilating bobbleheads.

Do you write full-time or part-time?

Gretchen: part-time.

What are your current marketing strategies for Mary Tudor, “Bloody Mary”?

Gretchen: I’ve been giving talks and doing book signings at bookstores, book fairs, and literacy conferences. I will soon be visiting classrooms, too and I look forward that. I also have a Facebook page for my book: http://www.facebook.com/MaryTudorBloodyMary. There’s also information about my book and the other books in the series, including the link to the publisher’s facebook page, at www.goosebottombook.com.

Could you share about any current writing projects?

Gretchen: I’m finishing up a novel I’m co-writing with a friend, targeted at the women’s fiction market. We’ve been at it for a while, so I cannot wait to complete it and send it off.

What would be the best way for readers to contact you?

Gretchen: They can contact me directly by email: gretmau@yahoo.com.

They can also check out my Mary Tudor “Bloody Mary” Facebook book page: 

http://www.facebook.com/MaryTudorBloodyMary

Where can people find your book?

Gretchen: You can click here to order Mary Tudor “Bloody Mary” from the publisher’s website: http://goosebottombooks.com/site/BookDetail_s2b3.php, or the distributor’s website: www.ipgbook.com. You should also be able to find my book in your local bookstore. The bookstore can order it from their distributor if they don’t already have the book on their shelf

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

  

Gretchen: Thank you!

Natasha Yim’s current book, Cixi, The Dragon Empress and Gretchen Maurer’s current book, Mary Tudor, “Bloody Mary” are two of the six books (all written by different authors) in Goosebottom Books’ series, The Thinking Girl’s Treasury of Dastardly Dames. The series profiles six women in history who have earned dastardly reputations.

You can find out more about Natasha Yim and Gretchen Maurer’s World of Ink Author/Book Tour schedule at http://storiesforchildrenpublishing.com/YimandMaurer.aspx. There will be giveaways, reviews, interviews, guest posts and more. Make sure to stop by and interact with Yim and Maurer, along with the hosts at the different stops by leaving comments and/or questions.

In addition, come listen to Blog Talk Radio’s World of Ink Network show: Stories for Children at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/worldofinknetwork. The hosts VS Grenier, Kris Quinn Chirstopherson and Irene Roth will be chatting with Natasha Yim and Gretchen Maurer about their books, writing, the publishing industry and experiences with virtual tours. Yim and Maurer will also be sharing writing tips and trials, and tribulations of the writer’s life. The show will be live November 14, 2011 at 2pm EST.

Rewriting Completed Stories?

Rewriting Completed Stories for a Totally Different Audience
by Elysabeth Eldering

Once a story is written, is changing the story from one genre to another or from one audience to a completely different one a good idea?

When I had a vision of a house one day a few years ago, I wrote two pages of a story that was supposed to be a past lives/metaphysical story for adult readers. I put the two pages aside for a couple of years. When I came back to it, the secret passages and the secret messages kept urging me to write the story. I created secret coded messages and urged my character to follow the paths and find the clues as to why the house was so important to her. I finished the story. I had worked long hours and many nights on the codes and secrets of the house. When I felt it was ready for my editors to give me their feedback (at the time I had two friends who are also writers who were big sources of encouragement as well as being great editors), I sent them the story. The first comments I got back were, "The story is too complicated; I stopped reading about a third of the way through." "I got bored with the details of the codes and all that stuff you had there." The second editor said I needed to turn the story into a children's story, in other words, completely change my thinking on the story and rewrite it. When I got those comments back, I felt like the story wasn't worthy of being told. So, again, the story went on the back burner for a year or so.

During the time the story had been brewing or maybe it was stewing, I started on my state stories. I was at the beginning of my publication route when I decided to pick Kelly back up and think about rewriting her story. I had been participating in NaNoWriMo as a cheerleader and source of encouragement for my friends for several years, not really tackling the task of writing my own novel during that time. (And for those of you not familiar with NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month, it is basically the month of November where the goal is to crank out 50,000 words of a novel or several stories in 30 days. We are almost halfway through the month at the time of this writing and there are some impressive numbers being posted on the NaNoWriMo site. This is a time when writers from all over the world keep their heineys in the chair and just write like the dickens during the month. But don't let that 50,000 word goal throw you off, you can set your own personal goal, which can be less or more, but you will not receive the winner's certificate at the end of the month if you don't write at least 50,000 words during the month. This isn't my reason for participating in NaNo; rather, my thinking is to hobnob with other writers and hope to be inspired to write a novel one of these days.) In November of 2008, after having had my first state mystery published and taking on my big promotion task (this meant traveling to different events trying to get my name out there) and sort of participating with Mr. Hughes' class during the little bit of time I could spend with the class at the beginning of November, I decided to rewrite Kelly's story.

I didn't start rewriting the story until the middle of November and completed it 30 days later, with the awesome cheerleading skills and encouragement of my two editors, topping out at about 56,000 words. Wow! I wrote a novel or 50,000 words in 30 days. That was a major accomplishment for me since all my previous stories for contests and even my state stories had not been longer than 10,000 words, and maybe not even that long (I think my longest story at the time was just over 8,000 words). I was very proud of how the story turned out. Yes, I totally started over so none of those 56,000 words were part of the original story other than the character's name staying the same and the house being full of secrets and enticing Kelly to find out what the secrets were. The theme was there; it was no longer a "past life" story but it did involve a ghost of sorts. And I totally went from a story geared for adult readers to a story geared for the young adult reader.

What, you may ask, did I come up with? A YA paranormal mystery called Finally Home. I took Kelly from being a 30something-year-old going into a house that she had been in before in a previous life to a 14-year-old who is uprooted when her father's company moves them to a podunk town and she is immediately attracted to a house across the street from where they are living. There is something in the house that beckons Kelly and with the help of Emma, the nosey busybody neighbor kid, Kelly finds out all the secrets. The house is more than an eyesore that needs to be torn down and Kelly finds out why. Did I make the right decision in rewriting my story for a totally different audience? I feel I did.

I finally finished the revisions on Finally Home (see last month's posting on this blog about revising) and submitted to my illustrator/graphic designer for her magic and received my first proof copy two days ago. I have gone through the proof copy and made some requested changes, sent them back to Heather and she has done her magic fixes. The ms is now back at the printers (I use createspace to self-publish my stories now) for review (usually within a few hours or a day or so, I get a notification that the book meets their specifications or not and then have Heather fix, if necessary, or go ahead and order a proof copy). I am now waiting for the review to be completed so that I can order the second proof copy, and barring no errors that I can detect on the read through (I will find them after I release the book I'm sure, so if you order a copy and find any errors, it's okay to let me know - lol), Finally Home will be released to the public, just in time for the gift giving season. I am taking preorders now so that as soon the book is released I can just place the order and have copies in your hands before you plan to give to someone as a gift. Orders may be made on my website. Copies are just $15 and that includes shipping.

See you all in the postings - E :)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ms. Eldering is the award-winning author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series. Her stories "Train of Clues," "The Proposal", "Tulip Kiss", and "Butterfly Halves" all placed first, second, or runner up in various contests to include two for Armchair Interviews and two for Echelon Press (Fast and ... themed type contests). Her story "Bride-and-Seek" was selected for the South Carolina Writers' Workshop (SCWW) anthology, the Petigru Review. Ms. Eldering makes her home in upper state South Carolina and loves to travel, read cross-stitch and crochet. When she's not busy with teenaged children still at home, she can be found at various homeschool or book events promoting her state series and her YA paranormal mystery, Finally Home.

Elysabeth's everything blog
Elysabeth's other writings website
JGDS Series blog
JGDS Series website