It’s Book Cover Reveal Monday! Check out this amazing cover for Pen & Quin: International Agents of Intrigue – The Mystery of the Painted Book.
I’m excited to show you the cover for the first book in my middle grade mystery series Pen & Quin: International Agents of Intrigue.
The Mystery of the Painted Book will be released April 30th by Vinspire Publishing. And here’s the amazing cover!
For more news on the book’s release, follow me on social media, subscribe to my author newsletter and check out Vinspire’s full line of books!
February is drawing to a close, and that means spring is almost here, but more importantly, so is the release of the new A Wrinkle in Time movie! The movie opens nation wide on March 9th, 2018!
Not excited yet? Check out the trailer and you will be!
Director Ava DuVernay’s portrayal of L’Engle’s classic story has many people, including me, pretty hyped up. The cast includes Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling and Chris Pine, plus Storm Reid as Meg Murry. The movie looks to be an amazing blend of L’Engle’s original story with the creativity and diversity of DuVernay’s long held vision to bring this movie to life.
To celebrate the movie’s release, I’m having a GIVEAWAY. Whoo-hoo. Enter to win one of two prizes. (Yes, two winners!)
Prize 1 – A Wrinkle in Time book – movie edition. The original book with the updated 2018 movie cover. You can read it before you see the movie, or see the movie and then enjoy the story. Either way, you’ll want to hang on to your copy!
Prize 2 – A $15 Fandango movie gift card you can use to purchase your ticket to see the movie! Plus, Fandango is running a sweet deal to nab a free Be A Warrior movie poster when you buy your ticket. So your entry could lead to two cool prizes!
*The Rules*
You must be a resident of the U.S. and 18 or older to enter. Winners will be chosen randomly at the end of the giveaway.
The Mad about Madeleine Wrinkle in Time Giveaway begins March 1, 2018 and ends March 8, 2018. Winners will be notified through information collected by Rafflecopter. I will also post the two winners on my blog on March 8th.
Good luck and please enter below! Thanks for celebrating Mad about Madeleine Month with me!
Reading has always been one of the joys of summer. As a kid, I relished the long days of swimming and reading, two of my favorite things. My reading time is shorter these days as I chase around an increasingly mobile kiddo of my own, but I still make time to do some summer reading. Here’s what’s on my list for the rest of the summer.
I just finished Madeleine L’Engle’s first book in the Crosswicks Journal series, A Circle of Quiet. The four books in this series were written mostly from her journal entries she kept while living at her farmhouse in Connecticut and apartment in New York. They cover the time period in her life I now find myself in, raising young children, trying to write and publish, and running headlong into the challenges and joys of both. I’ll probably pick up the other three journals throughout the rest of 2017. L’Engle always inspires and comforts me at the same time.
Next up is the middle grade adventure The Mysterious Benedict Society. I’ve read fellow Arkansas author Trenton Lee Stewart’s series before, but this time I’ll do a close read to see how he’s brought his multiple characters to life. One of my current stories juggles multiple characters on a similar adventure. The best way to figure out how to write your story? Learn from those who have already done it.
Then it’s on to a few non-fiction books for a little inspiration. I received Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic for Christmas, along with Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly. I’m hoping one will inspire me to write and the other to dream big. You decide which is which! I just ordered Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s (yes, that Lindbergh) 50th anniversary edition of Gift from the Sea on the recommendation from my cousin that every woman should read this book. I’m sure it won’t disappoint!
Finally, I hope to get to a few books that have been on my list for awhile. Ta-nehisi Coates’ book Between the World and Me as well as Kwame Alexander’s Newbery winner The Crossover (basketball playing twins, yes!) and the follow up, Booked (this one’s about soccer. Woot!) Hopefully I’ll close the summer with Sherman Alexie’s new memoir You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.
I’ll be happy if I get halfway through this list and continue reading on it in the fall. What’s on your summer reading list?
Some of my earliest memories involve biweekly trips to the library in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. I loved walking inside this older, red brick building where the smell of books greeted you, along with the librarians.
There’s nothing like that booksy smell? Am I right, fellow library lovers?
Some of my earliest memories involve biweekly trips to the library in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. I loved walking inside this older, red brick building where the smell of books greeted you, along with the librarians.
There’s nothing like that booksy smell? Am I right, fellow library lovers?
My sisters and I would rush to the kids’ section to choose our 4-5 books for that trip. I always wanted to know what my twin pulled off the shelf because I knew I’d be reading her books once I finished my own. I always perused the Newbery Honor books first, then the regular shelves. I loved the way the afternoon sunlight spilled into the large windows and sent golden specks of dust motes dancing through the air. It added to the magical feel of the library.
These days are busy ones for me as I pursue writing my own books, raising a daughter and helping with the farm, but I married someone who loves books just as much as I do, if not more (don’t ask to borrow his books and not return them in pristine condition), and we try to get to the library often. My daughter has already joined us on these trips. Mostly she loves to watch other children race around and look at books right now, but I know soon she’ll be interested in wandering through the shelves and pulling out books on her own.
Isn’t that a wonderful legacy? And it wouldn’t be possible without our libraries. So celebrate National Library Week this week. Visit a library, donate books, volunteer, or simply check a book out with a young person and pass on that love of reading.
In this month of thankfulness, the second author I’m thankful for is C.S. Lewis. It seems like I was always rereading one of the Chronicles of Narnia as a child.
Lewis’ seven book series about the world entered through the wardrobe, the painting, the magic rings and other ways fascinated me. What child doesn’t want to discover a secret world where animals can talk and children can meet Santa Claus and fight in battles?
I loved that you never knew how or when an adventure to Narnia might begin. It could happen at any time, so you had to be expectant, watchful, ever dreaming of the next adventure. I found that true in my life as a child, and just as true as an adult. You don’t know when the next adventure is beginning. It could be just around the corner.
I’m not sure when I first made the connection between Aslan and Jesus. It probably wasn’t the first reading, and maybe not the second, but somewhere in those many readings, I realized Lewis was drawing a parallel between Aslan’s decision to let the White Witch kill him and the crucifixion of Jesus. I began to search for other parallels in the writing, and the books took on a new thrill as the deeper meanings of Lewis’ stories began to unfold before me.
There’s something magical and inviting about the world Lewis created that strengthened 
my faith in this world. I like to think that parts of his stories are in some ways true, if not here, then in a world I haven’t discovered yet, that world where talking animals do exist and I will get to meet Father Christmas face to face. That world where Aslan is king, both as the lion Lewis created and the man he personified.
“Africa Lion” Image courtesy of tiverylucky at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
“Lantern on Snow” Image courtesy of papaija2008 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net