A Critter-inspired Giveaway!

This has been a fun blog week! Fist it started out by lil ol' me winning an ARC giveaway on PJ Hoover's blog for the book "Girl Parts" YaY! I love winning books.

And starting today . . . . Author Tina Ferraro is offering a Critter-inspired giveaway!!!

Tina is the author of "Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress," "How to Hook a Hottie," and "ABC's of Kissing Boys" Not to mention, she's also a sweet-cutie-patootie as well.



Go on over to Tina's blog to show some luv for Tina, Critter and St. Jude, and win a chance for a free book or a 1st chapter critique from a fabulous author on top of it all!


Don't forget to become of Critter on Facebook! Click here to go to his FB fan page.

Books, books and more books! Here's a link to a giveaway!

OK, not only was Christina Farley an awesome host for Critter, but she's also a very generous gal. She's hosting a massive book giveaway. Go to her blog NOW to enter! Clickety-click right here!

I'm drooling all over this giveaway! Wowza!

Book Giveaway and an Author Interview with Tilda Balsley

I'm going to take a short break from sharing my conference experiences so we can have another Author interview and BOOK GIVEAWAY!

Author, Tilda Balsley has graciously answered a few questions about writing and reading and her picture book LET MY PEOPLE GO.

I was impressed with this book. This is a humorous and catchy picture book in rhyme. It's fun and memorable!

Leave a comment in the "comment" section below, so you have a chance to win a free copy of LET MY PEOPLE GO!

Comments will be accepted up until this Saturday at Noon. After that I will pull out my trusty tupperware bowl and draw the name of our lucky winner.

Until then, enjoy our interview with Tilda.

On Writing:

1) Can you share a little bit about how "Let My People Go" came into being. (ie: slush pile, assignment, etc.)

I wrote "Let My People Go" (a readers' theater/picture book) specifically for the children at our church who were studying Passover. They decided to perform it during church. Several friends-- who knew I was writing and submitting children's books --said "Well, have you sent out this one?" So I did. I chose Kar-Ben because their turn around time was so much better than anywhere else and I was reaching a "discouraged" point with rejections. I never had to send it anywhere else. From the very beginning, Kar-Ben has been wonderful to work with. Within the next few years, they will publish two more of my books: a readers' theater for Purim about Esther and Mordechai, and a book for Hanukkah (rhyming but not readers' theater).

2) Did you find it difficult to convey such a serious subject into a PB format?
While writing it, my goal was a fun, easy to read and remember, rendition of the plagues. I felt removed from the human tragedy. However, once it was published and my three year old grandson was sitting on my lap looking at the "bloody" water, I was struck with the seriousness of the themes. I found myself skipping over some of the harsher aspects. I never really intended the book for a three year old audience--but I've found they love that NO! NO! NO!. (And of course, it's meant to allow even a toddler to participate in a family seder.)

3) What do you hope people will get out of "Let my People Go"?

As with every picture book, every reader (listener) enjoys and benefits in a different way. As a former reading teacher, I know that the readers' theater aspect will improve the fluency of beginning readers. For readers at Passover, I hope it will enrich their Seder experience. For all readers, I hope it will be lots of fun.

4) What did you enjoy the most about writing this book?

I always love writing rhyme.

5) Do you have a current work in progress that you can tell us about?

I just finished a humorous collection of poems written from a dog's point of view. Children's poetry can be hard to sell, but children love dogs, laughter and sillly rhyme, so I'm hopeful.

6) What advice would you like to impart to aspiring authors?

Read what you have written over and over and over. Each time, be open to revision. Aren't we lucky to have computers to make this process easier?

7) How about a writing schedule? Do you have one?

I do not have a strict schedule, but I do some kind of writing (editing or researching included) every day, usually starting before breakfast. I'm a "half an hour here-half an hour there" writer. It can go on all day with other stuff interspersed.

On Reading:

1) What books or authors have inspired you the most? I'm inspired by other picture book writers (and illustrators). I still love those "old" Dr. Seuss books like "The Foot Book" and "The Eye Book." And I love Shel Silverstein, Lauren Child (That Pesky Rat), Mem Fox (Tough Boris etc.), and scores of others. >

2) What is the last book that you've read?
I just read Wendell Berry's "Hannah Coulter." It was wonderful.

Thanks for your interest in my book.




Now . . . Start leaving those comments for a chance to win an autographed copy! :0)

Leave a Comment to win an autographed book!

Welcome to my very very very first EVER book giveaway!!!!! Thanks for stopping by!

Leave a comment in the "comment" section below for a chance to win an autographed copy of Persian Dreams.

Persian Dreams is a historical novel about love and revolution. The time-line of Persian Dreams covers three generations of family members. This generational span gives the reader a birds-eye view of the hardships women faced in Persia (AKA Iran) and how they have developed, changed and molded the lives of Persian women.

The aspect of seeing the world through the eyes of different generations was the most eye opening to me. I felt like I was able to step out of my cultural mindset and understand on a different level what life is like/was like, for the women of Persia. My heart ached for the hardships that the characters endured and I was reminded of the freedom and equality that women in America so often take for granted.

Interview with The Author of Persian Dreams, Maryam Tabibzabdeh

Thank you for answering these questions, Maryam. I'm excited to look into the thought and motivation behind Persian Dreams.

1) What prompted you to write Persian Dreams?
I want the world to know that we as a nation have suffered from the changes Iran has experienced in the last 100 years. I wanted to express the story from the inside, to counter the perceptions that the world holds about our country. I believe that we as a nation have suffered more than the world community can comprehend, and that this information is not finding its way to the public in the right ways. I would like for people to know where we come from, how we got here, that we have had both good and bad come about from the course of historic events. I want people to understand that we have a civilized past, but that we also have many things that need to be changed in the future.

2) What do you hope your readers will gain from this book?
I hope that they will be enchanted. The story is told in the style of folklore, and I created the characters and imagery to enhance the epic quality of the family's tale. We feel uplifted by the victories and crushed by the terrible circumstances and drama that the characters undergo. We share their pain and anxieties, we identify with their various situations.

In short, I believe that readers will be touched by the simple and honest language of this story of the trials and tribulations of a nation through the eyes of one family, under the shifting and unsteady political landscape of the time.


3) Would you like to speak on how the events in this book tie in with your own family history?
The story is loosely autobiographical. Many of the characters are based on people that I knew growing up. The shifting landscape also came easily, from stories my father and grandmother told me as a child. The personal events in my characters' lives however, are mostly fictional.


4) What is your writing routine like?
I don't really have a routine for writing. I write when I have an urge to write something, and can only write when I am feeling a deeply about something very important in my life. I write poetry, short stories, and in this case, a novel. Poetry and short stories are more one-dimensional and can be written quickly, not needing the research novels often require. Generally, I prefer writing short stories the most, because they allow my diverse ideas a chance to manifest in short form. I like it because it is quick. Sometimes, I see or feel something and that is enough to write it out in the form of short story. Then, once in a while, I take these ideas, and pull them together into a novel.


5) Do you have a new Work In Progress that you are working on now?
Can you tell us a little bit about it?

I have hundred ideas and yes, I am working on them. Two novels in particular:

The first is about a missionary medical doctor stationed in Iran in 1980's. While working in the a Hospital, he falls in love with a married woman. After many episodes she finally gets a divorce from her husband, thinking that they will be free to live together happily. Unfortunately, they are caught and as a result are sentenced to death.

The second is about a western woman in the west with traditional ideas and her reaction to her children's choices of homosexuality and interracial marriage. I have the idea and doing research on it.

You can visit Maryam's web-site at www.persiandreams.org/

Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win an autographed copy! You have until Noon on Friday to enter. The winner will randomly be selected via the highly sophisticated process known as "drawing names out of a tupper ware bowl."

So, if you don't have a login name, be sure to leave a username that can be easily identified!