Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Kid Lit Blog Hop #28

Welcome to the 28th Kid Lit Blog Hop.

Carpinello's Writing Pages interviews two great authors on this Hop. One is YA author Susan Royal and the other is MG author Jemima Pett.

We have a dynamic and engaged community of children's books bloggers, authors, publishers, and publicists, as well as parents seeking out their next great read. So, if you haven't joined us in a while, please pop in a post and hop around to meet some of the new bloggers who have joined the Hop. If you are one of our regulars - thank you so much and Happy Hopping to all! Joining us as co-hosts this week are The Stanley and Katrina Gang who are responsible for the fun middle grade book The Perpetual Papers of the Pack of Pets and Lisa T. Cresswell, author of the Storyteller series for middle grade and the young adult novel, Hush Puppy. Big welcome to Stanley and Katrina (and the rest of the gang) and Lisa! Please be sure to give each of our hosts and co-hosts a visit to say a quick hello and we'll be sure to visit you right back!

Happy Hopping everyone and enjoy the Hop!

Kid Lit Blog Hop
 

REMINDER: Kid Lit Giveaway Hop Holiday Extravaganza

As part of our Kid Lit community of bloggers and authors, we wanted to share with you information about the Kid Lit Giveaway Hop Holiday Extravaganza to take place December 6th to 13th, 2013. This event is hosted by Katie from Youth Literature Reviews and Renee from Mother Daughter Book Reviews. If you are a blogger who features children's or young adult literature looking to share copies of a fabulous book winter-themed or holiday-themed book (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc), you are welcome to link up. You can also offer a gift card instead! Just click on the button below.

Kid Lit Giveaway Hop Holiday Button

Sign-ups are on-going until November 30, 2013.  

Kid Lit Blog Hop Rules *Please Read*

1. We ask that you kindly follow your hosts and co-hosts. You can follow us any way you choose (Email, GFC, Twitter, Facebook, G+, Pinterest, etc.), but we've added our preferences below. If you could just give us a quick "follow" or "like" that would be much appreciated! Make sure to leave us a message if you are following us (i.e., on Twitter or Facebook or on our websites) and we will be sure to follow you back. Thanks! :-)
Hostesses:
Co-Hosts:
2. Link up any Kid Lit related post. This can be a link to a children’s book review, a discussion about children’s literature/literacy, or a post on a recently-read children’s book or one that you love from your childhood.
* Don't link directly to your blog, it must be a specific post*
* For Authors, we prefer you to link to your blog if you have one *
* Make sure you include an image relevant to the POST (e.g., book cover), not your blog button or photo of yourself.*
* Feel free to link more than one post.*
3. Please visit AT LEAST the TWO LINKS directly ahead of your own and leave them some love in the form of a comment. We are trying to build a community of bloggers, readers, parents, authors, and others who are as passionate about children’s literature as we are so please CONNECT and follow any or all of the blogs that interest you! 4. If you like, grab the button above and put it somewhere on your blog, preferably the post you're linking up. If you'd prefer, you can just add a text link back to this Hop so that others can find it and check out all these great book links! 5. It would really help us get the word out about the Kid Lit Blog Hop if you would be so kind as to tweet, share, and spread the word about the Hop!
Interested in co-hosting the Kid Lit Blog Hop? Please email renee @ motherdaughterbookreviews (dot) com and put Co-Hosting Blog Hop in the subject line.
Happy Hopping!
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Meet Middle Grade Author Jemima Pett

Carpinello's Writing Pages welcomes from the United Kingdom MG author Jemima Pett and her world famous guinea pigs Fred and George! Be sure to check out Jemima's special treat for readers of this blog near the end of her interview.

First, a bit about Jemima:

I was one of the science geeks at school, despite the fact I was also a bookworm and wrote stories or painted in my spare time. The careers advice I had was to do Maths at University – no thought of what I should do after that. As it happens, I shouldn’t have done Maths at university, and my maths mistress said I hadn’t got the right type of brain for it about a month before we left school. I was devastated!

So I did all sorts of things trying to work out what I should be doing, some of them were mundane, some more exciting. I kept studying for my careers too, and have a Degree in Maths, a Diploma in Personnel Management, a Diploma in Earth Sciences and a Masters in Environmental Technology, which was my real calling. But I kept writing things for work or in my spare time, mostly newsletters and manuals, and eventually started writing the stories about Fred and George. It was three years after I wrote them that I started thinking about publishing.

Why did you pick to write books for MG?

It was more a case of MG picking me. I wanted to write the stories about my guinea pigs, Fred and George, and their exciting fantasy adventures. So I wrote them, in an old fashioned sort of way, like books I would enjoy reading. Which is just as well since I do enjoy reading them! The books aren’t easy reading, though, and appeal to younger readers whose reading age is more like 14.

What types of books do you like to read?

I like older MG books, and books for 12-15 years olds that are adventures or animal stories. I also read crime novels and have always enjoyed fantasy and scifi, although I find a lot of today’s scifi a bit disappointing and the fantasy formulaic. I don’t go for vampires or zombies. What I like about MG is that they are clean interesting stories with some complication in the plot, enough to make you think!

When you are not writing, what do you like to do?

In the morning, before I settle down to write, I look after my guinea pigs – which takes me hours!  They are great characters and all of them have lap time and a run in the morning while I clean their cages and get their breakfast. Then it’s time for my breakfast! I also enjoy gardening, birdwatching and golf. In fact I like a lot of outdoor things and don’t spend enough time doing them these days.

Tell us about The Princelings and the Pirates, and how the story came to be.

I originally thought of writing a book about Fred and George as the Princelings of the East, and very quickly decided it should be a trilogy. For some reason I decided on the titles long before I wrote them. I suppose it was a case of “What situation can I put them in to make a good story”. At that stage of my writing things were very character driven, which means the characters did things because they were who they were, not because I was driving the plot. I found very quickly that they were driving the plot, and I was just writing it all down. The biggest problem in Pirates was finding a problem the Princelings have to solve. It’s not a big problem – the wine hasn’t been delivered to the castle – but when they go and investigate, they get captured by the pirates and it all goes from there and a whole load more problems turn up. In a way, I wrote it too soon - I could have made a lot more of the Pirate King. I did an interview with him for my blog in summer 2012 (there was a whole character interview series) and I discovered he was a very scary character indeed. Maybe we’ll come across him again, I don’t know.

Here's a peek at The Princelings and the Pirates:

The Princelings of the East is a trilogy relating the adventures of unlikely heroes Fred and George. Two innocents abroad, they solve problems caused by unintended consequences, commercial greed, and blind prejudice—and still find time to engage in troubled love affairs and nearly blow themselves up with their own inventions.



The opening of The Princelings and the Pirates, the second book in the series, finds Fred and George happily pursuing their interests and enjoying the hospitality of Castle Buckmore. When Prince Lupin of Buckmore announces his unhappiness with the wine, they set off to discover what has gone wrong at the winery. Captured by pirates, shipwrecked, and in danger for their very lives, the heroes are drawn into the Battle of Dimerie, where Fred meets his true love and George gets more than he bargained for.



Suitable for confident readers ages 10 and over, The Princelings and the Pirates is a fantasy adventure where guinea pigs rule the world. It combines a generous amount of swashbuckling with a dash of concern at society's ills spiced with the stirrings of a first love interest.

Have you written other books? If so, tell us a bit about them.

The Princelings series now has the trilogy, which stars Fred & George, and takes them through three adventures but also lead the pair to their destinies by the end of book 3. Then the fourth in the series stars the baddie in the first book, who is really very charming, and just misunderstood! The fifth is a bit different, and shows things are a bit darker in the princelings world than we’ve seen so far. It’s been suggested that it is YA or even adult, and I think it is for older children, in the same way the last few books of Harry Potter aren’t really MG any more.

What’s next for your writing? Are you working on a new story?

I wrote the sixth book in the Princelings series, or its second draft, since I abandoned it three years ago, at Camp NaNoWriMo in July. It stars Victor, who is a hero in books 1 and 2 and probably gets the ‘most popular character’ vote in the trilogy! He’s grown up in this book, and working as a business consultant. I think it’s still a tween book, but the plot is about inventions and investment and spies and smuggling, so I have no idea what you’d categorise it as! It takes us back to the people from the trilogy, as well – and the baddie from book 5 is in it, causing trouble in the background.

I’m also working on a biography of my father, who did exciting things in Africa in the 1930s, helping to set up the route for flying boats that went between London and Durban, and London and Australia.  So if anyone wonders why Princeling George is so into flying machines, including inventing a flying boat, now you know!

What advice do you have for other authors?

Keep writing. Sometimes you get stuck and don’t know what you should write next. It doesn’t matter as long as you write. Your characters do things because of who they are. You can tidy it up later. You’re just telling their story! But it does help to keep a timeline of who is doing what in parallel with others. If someone is taking two days to do something, they can’t turn up the next day with someone else. And if you have werewolves in your story, make sure you have a full moon every 28 days. I’m a details person. One of the things that irritates me about Harry Potter is the way it’s dark at Hogwarts in June about 7 pm, much the same as at Halloween. Anywhere in the UK is light until at least 9pm in June, and in Scotland (which is clearly where Hogwarts is) it’s more like 10 or even 11!

Anything else you want readers to know?

I quite often write short stories about the Princelings world, so it’s worth following my blog and the website to get to see those as they happen. 

A special offer for readers of Cheryl’s blog – you can get The Princelings and the Pirates FREE at Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/157450 with the coupon code WT24A – valid till 12/31/13.

And if you like the fact that they are guinea pigs, you can follow the real guinea pigs at http://guineapigging.wordpress.com or http://facebook.com/georgesgpworld

 Where can readers find you and your books?

My blog: http://jemimapett.com
The Princelings website: http://princelings.co.uk
My Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Jemima-Pett/e/B006F68PVE
My Smashwords author page: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jemimapett
(also on B&N, Kobo, iBookstore, and more)
Twitter: @jemima_pett
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/jemimapett
Facebook: http://facebook.com/princelings
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Meet Texas YA Author Susan Royal

Carpinello's Writing Pages welcomes YA author Susan Royal and her fantasy adventure/romance In My Own Shadow. Susan is our second Texas author this month! Go Texas!!

First, a bit about Susan:

Born in west Texas and raised in south Texas, Susan makes her home in a 100-year-old farmhouse in a small east Texas town that comes complete with a female ghost who has been known to harmonize with her son when he plays guitar. 

Susan is married, with three children and four grandchildren. Her family is rich with characters, both past and present. She spent her childhood listening to her grandmother’s stories of living on a farm in Oklahoma Territory with three sisters and three brothers and working as a telephone operator in the early 20th century.  Her father shared stories of growing up in San Antonio in the depression, and through her mother’s eyes she experienced how it felt to be a teenager during WWII.

Why did you pick to write books for YA?

I’m guessing you would say my books are just on the other side of YA, in that the MC is twenty-something. Just past the angst of teenage years, but not quite settled into adulthood yet. Why did I pick it? I didn’t. It picked me. I wanted my MC to be young enough to still be in awe of her experiences, yet old enough to take it in stride—well, most of the time, anyway.

What types of books do you like to read?

I read urban fantasy (think Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, Ilona Andrew’s Kate Daniel’s series). I read time travel (Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series), historical fiction (Mary Stewart’s Merlin Series), historical romance, historical action, thrillers, some horror and mysteries. I love classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and Gone with the Wind. I also love young adult (The Hunger Games, Divergent).

When you are not writing, what do you like to do?

I live in a 100 year old frame farmhouse that is in a constant state of remodel and repair. We are about to tackle the kitchen. I paint with acrylics, create greeting cards and sew. I’ve had a long going love affair with repurposing even before it was popular. I love garage sale finds. I have four grandchildren who give me lots and lots of exercise. I love to shop, and my husband and I like to read, watch movies, and our entire family loves music. Everyone plays a musical instrument except for me—hey someone has to be the audience!

Tell us about In My Own Shadow and how the story came to be.

It has been years in coming. I started writing it long before I had a home computer, and it was the first story I ever finished. The idea swirled around in my head for a long, long time. I wanted to write an adventure that had romance, fantasy elements and involved a quest. Finally one day I decided if I was ever going to get the thing written I needed to start it and keep writing until it was finished. So I did. At least three times!

Here's a peek at In My Own Shadow:

Talk about the worst first date ever! Lara lets her friend Carrie talk her into a blind date, only it turns out the handsome stranger waiting for Lara after work isn’t Carrie’s cousin after all. And, when they’re chased through a portal to another world, Lara realizes Rhys really is out of this world.

Rhys believes Lara’s alternate in his dimension, Lyra, has left clues in her subconscious to the whereabouts of the Book of Secrets which explains the mystery of time travel. Power-hungry telepaths pursuing them will stop at nothing to get it, even if it means breaking Lara’s mind. To complicate matters, Lara gets tangled up in her feelings for Rhys while exploring her connection with Lyra.

With Rhys as her guardian, a bear of a man named Azle to guide her, and the spirit of Lyra haunting her dreams, Lara must find the Book of Secrets before it falls into the hands of those who want its power. Only then can she return to her world safely.

Enjoy this excerpt (I had to read the whole first chapter. Couldn't stop!):
 
-->
Someone coughed. I jerked my head around to see a man standing near the reception area, a canvas duffel bag at his feet.  That’s got to be him.
My heart thudded with relief. “Sorry I’m late. I hope you haven’t been waiting long.” I motioned toward the rain spattering against the windows. “This weather is awful, isn’t it?”
The man watched me with a self-assured air that left me feeling like an awkward teenager.
So much for witty conversation.  At least Carrie hadn’t exaggerated when she said he was good looking. His sensitive mouth held the only trace of softness in a finely chiseled face. Broad shoulders and powerful hands. He would have been right at home on the cover of a sports magazine. Was I drooling? “Umm…” His intense stare made me squirm. “I should introduce myself. I’m—”
 “Lara. My name is Rhys.” We shook hands briefly while his eyes flickered over me. My height intimidated some men, but it didn’t seem to bother him. “I never imagined you’d be so—”
“Don’t bother with flattery. Surely Carrie told you I’m immune.” The grin across my face was so he would know it was a joke, but his stern expression remained unchanged.
Doesn’t this guy know how to smile? “Umm…My car’s across the street. We really should go before it starts pouring again.”
Without a word, he grabbed his bag and followed me through the big glass doors. The wind had picked up, and thunder rumbled in the distance. Streetlights flickered on, a halo of light crowning each pole. We crossed the street and hurried toward my car parked beneath one of the lights in the middle of the empty lot.
  I stuck my umbrella under my arm and dug in my purse for the keys. “Do you like Italian food?”
Rhys drew his eyebrows together and frowned slightly.
Doesn’t he understand plain English? Funny how Carrie never mentioned he was the silent, brooding type.  I’d get even with her for this. “Okay, what about Chinese? There’s this great little place not too far from here…”
He jerked his gaze away from mine and stared into the darkness behind me.
A finger of cold traced its way along my spine. “Did you hear something?” We were alone in an empty city parking lot after dark. Not the safest place in the world.
 He grabbed my arm. “Quiet.”
          I flinched in surprise and pulled away. Rhys was beginning to give me the creeps. “What is it? Did you hear something?”

Have you written other books?

If so, tell us a bit about them. My first book is a time travel adventure/romance, Not Long Ago, and it was released in June of 2012. Right now I’m finishing up the sequel. I hadn’t really planned on writing one, until my daughter insisted there was more to the story. And she was right.

What’s next for your writing? Are you working on a new story?

I have a coming of age WIP about a young man in the sixties. When Eli goes to live with his grandparents in a small town in the Texas hill country, he starts seeing ghosts. What’s more, they carry on conversations with him. I’ve had a lot of fun researching paranormal for this one.

What advice do you have for other authors?

Don’t ever give up. If you have a story to tell, keep working on it until you get it right.

Anything else you want readers to know?

Feel free to email me and let me know what you think of my books. I love hearing from you. I also want to offer a free ecopy of In My Own Shadow if you comment and leave an email address.

Where to find Susan and her books:

Susan:
http://susanroyal.moonfruit.com  

http://susanaroyal.wordpress.com

MuseItUp Publishing:

In My Own Shadow

Not Long Ago

Both books are also available on Amazon and B&N.
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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Meet MG/YA Author Kai Strand

Carpinello's Writing Pages welcomes Middle Grade and YA author Kai Strand. Kai is a fellow MuseItUp author.

First, a bit about Kai:

Kai Strand writes fiction for kids and teens. She is a (very lucky) wife and the mother of four amazing kids. The most common sound in her household is laughter. The second most common is, "Do your dishes!" She and her family hike, geocache, and canoe in beautiful Central Oregon, where they call home.

Why did you pick to write books for MG/YA?

I write both young adult and middle grade. I jump between the two because the middle grade years are so formative. Kids are really figuring out who they are, who they want to be and learning some of the uglier truths of life. Reading is really important in those years to help them figure it all out. With young adult there are no limits. All subjects are open, all means of telling the story are available. The readers are smart and dialed in to the story and passionate about what they love. That passion is what I truly love about young adult readers – regardless of their age.

What types of books do you like to read?

Again I fluctuate between middle grade and young adult, and I try to read all the genres within that: fantasy, contemporary, mystery, horror, humor. I also try to alternate between books published by traditional big publishers, self-published books, and books from small publishers. There are so many good writers and now that there are choices out there for authors, you can find gems everywhere.

When you are not writing, what do you like to do?

I’m a mother, so I like to do the things that mothers do: taxi service, grocery shopping, cooking, laughing at – oh, I mean helping with homework. I’m a wife, so I spend a lot of time adoring my husband.  Great guise to sit and relax. I’m a compulsive walker, so I try to walk 3 miles, 5 or so days per week. I love to be outside, gardening, reading, wandering downtown.

Tell us about Beware of the White and how the story came to be.

My latest middle grade novel is Beware of the White: A Concord Chronicles Book. I recommend it for fans of Narnia because it has an alternate reality, magical abilities, fantastical creatures, prophecy, and adventure. I wrote this book while waiting for the fifth Harry Potter book to be released. I was so enamored with the world of Hogwarts and I thought, “I can create a world of my own while I wait.”

Here's a peek at Beware of the White:

As is tradition, Terra learns on the Saturday past her twelfth birthday that she is a Nature’s 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, leader of the Trepidus, decides the day of reckoning for his species is coming, at Terra’s hand. 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 Spirit talents. Together, they go on a rogue investigation to learn out how to defeat Blanco. In the end, it comes down to a battle of the minds. The future of Concord is at stake. Will Blanco, the older, more experienced being win? Or will Terra, the young, new Spirit earn back the peace of the city?

Have you written other books? If so, tell us a bit about them.

I have a middle grade series called The Weaver Tales. There are currently two books in the series. Both books are set in the fictional village of The Tales filled with storytellers called Word Weavers. The people speak in story, so the books are lyrical and offer several examples of different types of storytelling. The Weaver, the first book in the series, was a finalist in the 2012 EPIC eBook Awards. In The Weaver, Molly Wordsmith lives in a town of storytellers, but can’t tell a good story to save her life. The Wishing Well: Another Weaver Tale is similar to Cinderella because the main character Molly has a horrible mother and two terrible sisters. In both books our girls meet a strange gnome/elf, named Unwanted who grants them each one wish, but it doesn’t solve their problems; it might have made them worse. The books don’t have to be read in a specific order.

Save the Lemmings is a contemporary fiction for the older middle grader or tween reader. Natalie is a young inventor and her latest invention makes her an overnight sensation. At first the media adores her, but then they turn on her and start to print lies. Natalie has to figure out how to take back control of her life.

Finally, I recently broke into the world of young adult with my most recent release King of Bad. Everybody loves a bad boy, and Jeff Mean is King of Bad. A self professed pyromaniac, Jeff wears his bad boy image like a favorite old hoodie, until he is recruited by Super Villain Academy  - where you learn to be good at being bad. When the fellow students in your school can suck all the water out of your body or perform psychic sex in your head, bad takes on a whole new meaning. Is Jeff Mean bad enough for SVA? I’m thrilled to say that King of Bad is a #1 bestseller for Whiskey Creek Press!

What’s next for your writing? Are you working on a new story?

The second book in the Super Villain Academy series is under contract with Whiskey Creek. I’m finishing a contemporary young adult that I like to say is a cross between National Treasure and Wuthering Heights. And finally, I’m writing a Concord Chronicles novella. This will be Frank’s story, which will make more sense after you’ve read Beware of the White. All I can say is, sigh, “Ah, Frank.”

What advice do you have for other authors?

Read a lot from the genre and age range you want to write for. Never stop reading books, magazine articles, graphic novels written for that target audience. Read the good and read the bad, and learn from it all.

Anything else you want readers to know?

Feed an author, buzz their book. With everyone online these days, it is so easy for readers to share their favorite books. They don’t have to be eloquent writers and leave lengthy professional grade reviews, just share their opinion in a one line review on Amazon or the publishers website or even share the link with their facebook friends and say, “What a fun book!” Your friends value your opinion and sharing it is GOLDEN for that author.

 Where can readers find you and your books?

I’m online all the time (blushes). So whenever someone wants to talk books, they can find me on Facebook, Twitter, or send me an email. All of my contact information and the blurbs, buy links and companion materials for my books can be found on my website: www.kaistrand.com.

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Meet Middle Grade Author Ann Swann

Carpinello's Writing Pages welcomes Texas author Ann Swann and her Middle Grade novels centering around Stevie-girl.

First, a bit about Ann:

Ann lives in Texas with her husband and rescue pets. Her children and grandchildren live nearby so they can keep her out of trouble. Ann works part time as a researcher for an online journal. She taught fifth and sixth graders for a number of years before leaving to devote more time to her first love—fiction. Reading with children was always her favorite part of teaching.

Her Middle Grade books, Stevie-girl and the Phantom Pilot and Stevie-girl and the Phantom Student, were published in 2012. The third book in the series, Stevie-girl and the Phantom of Crybaby Bridge, was published in 2013.

Why did you pick to write books for MG?

I think I’m just a kid in a lumpy, grownup body.

What types of books do you like to read?

I love stories with characters that make you care what happens to them. Some of my favorite books were animal stories such as the Silver Chief stories, Charlotte’s Web, and The Bridge to Terabithia, and all the books by James Herriot. I also read adult speculative fiction. Stephen King has always been a favorite author, along with JRR Tolkien, Edgar Allan Poe, and Mary Stewart. I could go on and on.

When you are not writing, what do you like to do?

I love to listen to music while I’m walking the trails around our university. I also love spending time with my family, going to movies, and playing games.

Tell us about Stevie-girl and the Phantom Pilot and how the story came to be.



I was sitting at my computer one night—all alone in the house—when a small plane flew very low over my house. It was very loud, and then it went silent. I ran outside to see if it had crashed, but I saw nothing! That did make me wonder what it would’ve been like if it had crashed . . . and so the story was born. After it was published and got great reviews, I discovered Stevie-girl wasn’t done with me. So Book Two, Stevie-girl and the Phantom Student, practically wrote itself. Then Book Three, Stevie-girl and the Phantom of Crybaby Bridge, came about just as easily. I think it may be my favorite one of the three!

Here's a peek at Stevie-girl and the Phantom Pilot:



It was the late 60s: the Beatles had washed across America like a British tsunami, Vietnam was a grainy, green and black dose of unreality on the evening news, a bunch of hippies had taken over San Francisco, and there was a heck of a rainstorm pouring down on Woodstock. But I didn’t know all that then.
            I was a little bit lost, looking for something. I swear I didn’t go looking for a ghost . . . well, okay, maybe I did. But I didn’t expect to find one. Heck, I was just a kid. I didn’t expect much of anything.
 



Have you written other books? If so, tell us a bit about them.

I also write adult novels for 5 Prince Publishing. They are contemporary romance and romantic suspense.

What’s next for your writing? Are you working on a new story?

I just finished a YA horror novel—TAKERS. It will be released in a few months—it has to be edited first.

 What advice do you have for other authors? 

Just write. Don’t worry if it isn’t perfect—that’s what revision is all about. But first, you just have to finish the story.

Anything else you want readers to know? 

I have a Middle Grade sci-fi story on Amazon called CHEMS. It is about a blue, chemically altered soldier who is on the trail of a killer. It’s a little bit gory if you like that sort of thing . . .

Where can readers find you and your books? 

www.annswann.blogspot.com  or www.annswann.net

Amazon

Kobo

Sony Reader
 
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Kid Lit Blog Hop 27

Welcome to the 27th Kid Lit Blog Hop.

Carpinello's Writing Pages interviews two great authors on this Hop. One is Middle Grade author Ann Swann and the other is MG/YA fantasy author Kai Strand.

We have come a long way since then with many familiar faces that visit on a regular basis as well as new bloggers and authors who join us all the time. All in all, we have managed to create a dynamic and engaged community of children's books bloggers, authors, publishers, and publicists, as well as parents seeking out their next great read. So, if you haven't joined us in a while, please pop in a post and hop around to meet some of the new bloggers who have joined the Hop. If you are one of our regulars - thank you so much and Happy Hopping to all! Joining us as co-hostesses this week is Ang from Juggling Act Mama and Stefani from Our Barefoot Adventures. Nice to have you again Ang and a big welcome to Stefani who is joining us for the first time as co-hostess! Please be sure to give each of our hostesses a visit to say a quick hello and we'll be sure to visit you right back!

Happy Hopping everyone and enjoy the Hop!

Kid Lit Blog Hop
 

Kid Lit Giveaway Hop Holiday Extravaganza

As part of our Kid Lit community of bloggers and authors, we wanted to share with you information about the Kid Lit Giveaway Hop Holiday Extravaganza to take place December 6th to 13th, 2013. This event is hosted by Katie from Youth Literature Reviews and Renee from Mother Daughter Book Reviews. If you are a blogger who features children's or young adult literature looking to share copies of a fabulous book winter-themed or holiday-themed book (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc), you are welcome to link up. Just click on the button below. Sign-ups are on-going until November 30, 2013. Kid Lit Giveaway Hop Holiday Button  

Kid Lit Blog Hop Rules *Please Read*

1. We ask that you kindly follow your hostesses. You can follow us any way you choose (Email, GFC, Twitter, Facebook, G+, Pinterest, etc.), but we've added our preferences below. If you could just give us a quick "follow" or "like" that would be much appreciated! Make sure to leave us a message if you are following us (i.e., on Twitter or Facebook or on our websites) and we will be sure to follow you back. Thanks! :-)
Hostesses:
Co-Hostesses:
2. Link up any Kid Lit related post. This can be a link to a children’s book review, a discussion about children’s literature/literacy, or a post on a recently-read children’s book or one that you love from your childhood.
* Don't link directly to your blog, it must be a specific post*
* For Authors, we prefer you to link to your blog if you have one *
* Make sure you include an image relevant to the POST (e.g., book cover), not your blog button or photo of yourself.*
* Feel free to link more than one post.*
3. Please visit AT LEAST the TWO LINKS directly ahead of your own and leave them some love in the form of a comment. We are trying to build a community of bloggers, readers, parents, authors, and others who are as passionate about children’s literature as we are so please CONNECT and follow any or all of the blogs that interest you! 4. If you like, grab the button above and put it somewhere on your blog, preferably the post you're linking up. If you'd prefer, you can just add a text link back to this Hop so that others can find it and check out all these great book links! 5. It would really help us get the word out about the Kid Lit Blog Hop if you would be so kind as to tweet, share, and spread the word about the Hop!
Interested in co-hosting the Kid Lit Blog Hop? Please email renee @ motherdaughterbookreviews (dot) com and put Co-Hosting Blog Hop in the subject line.
Happy Hopping!
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