And the ARC goes to...

First, let me say thank you to everyone interested in reading Three Rivers Rising! I wish I had an ARC for everybody.

After a heated contest of Rock, Paper, Scissors, in which Paper was the victor, my older daughter was the one to chose a slip of paper from a 100% wool Blue Ombre hat with decorative rows of garter stitch and a long braid with a tassel on top (my first time knitting continental)...and the name was...drumroll...

Photomonk!

So let's get your address and I'll put the ARC in the mail!

Thanks for participating in the giveaway. It was a lot of fun.

ARC Giveaway---Don't Forget to Comment

The last day is almost here! Put your name in the comments to win a random drawing for a Three Rivers Rising ARC (advanced reader's copy).
You can see, I only have a few and they're mostly spoken for...here's your chance to get one of a dwindling number, put it on your shelf with your other ARCs and let them have an ARC Party! That's what I'm gonna do.

2k9 Giveaway

Would you like to win a copy of Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry? Who wouldn't right? Well, Jenn has one to give, over at (closed), but act fast because the comments close today. Good luck, I hope you win. Ok, that's a lie--I hope I win.

More News

If you're like me and you find yourself obsessively revisiting my amazon listing, go ahead and click the option for them to alert you when Three Rivers Rising is available.

If you can't wait that long and you want to read a little essay right this very minute, click this link for Roominations about the house I grew up in.

And if you'd like to be in the Hand Knit Hat Drawing for an ARC of 3RR, scroll down and comment in the previous post.

The ARCs Arrive!! A Giveaway Follows!!

The ARCs arrived before I even had a chance to obsess about when they would get here! A lucky break! You can see it is rather a smallish pile, and they are mostly accounted for...but one precious copy should go to a reader of this blog, you know who you are, but you gotta leave a comment. That's how the random drawing works. Readers leave comments, I put all the names in a hand knit hat, and the lovely lady shown above will pull one out. (I know there are electronic ways to do this, but I try to leave room in my head for more important things like...like...like...)

Now this drawing is just for the ARC, kid not included, but I am taking offers. She comes complete with two inhalers, 15 Rainbow Magic Fairy books, and an assortment of Webkinz and food allergies.

Let's close the comments in one week, June 24. Then I can put it in the mail that Friday or Saturday*.

Ok, you know what to do...GO! (Greenlight!)

* U.S. only.

Pick the Pic

Ok, the picking's actually been done. Here's the official smiley-er me.

Guess What's Coming?

My Advanced Reader's Copies (ARCs) are coming very soon. A week or two. Two-ish. I'm not sure how many I will get, but if there's an extra...what would you say to a giveaway? A random drawing? Maybe from the blog comments? Or maybe a trivia question? Oooooh, I love trivia...

"ARCs?!!!...Did she say ARCs?"

Let's hear your ideas. And check back soon for the actual drawing/contest!

The Fairies of Goodland: Part III

Here's the third installment of my eight-year old daughter's first novel. There's more to type still, but writing is finding some steep competition from Erin Hunter's Warrior series. And Star Wars: Episode 6 coming to a small screen near us this weekend. Let's see if she can jump back in the flow after being out for several days.

I said, "It's no surprise you're so good at writing: you have two writer parents." She said, "I have Mr. S. to thank. He's such a good teacher." Just making sure I don't take more than my share of credit. As my mom used to say, "You keep me humble, kid!"

The Fairies of Goodland: Part III

“No. Where should we check?”

Suddenly a chubby devil ran by. Lola fluttered behind the girls as they zipped up behind the devil and grabbed onto his rough crimson skin. He lumbered towards a tube, which a devil had just jumped into. Then the bulging devil hopped into the tube but with trouble. He had a hard time wiggling down to a scary place. The tube was a transporter to the Fire Castle of Unsa Kula.

The devil landed with a plop on the dark cloud and almost fell through it. He bounded toward the castle, heaving in deep breaths as he went towards the blazing hot castle. Two immense clouds encased him in a safe suit to protect him fro the entryway of the castle. When he stepped in, the suit burned away. The girls and Lola jumped off the dingy devil and escaped behind an old tapestry where no one could see them.

“Where is MY MEDALLION? You have failed me Noofen! Come back only if the medallion is with you, so you cannot give it to the fairies. I shall break it with my own BARE HANDS if I have to!” Unsa Kula boomed in his loudest voice. He banged both fists twice on the arms of his throne.

“Don’t disappoint me again!” It almost seemed as if steam poured from his ears.

“By the way, Devils are extremely scared of Small Rodents! Even Unsa Kula is!” Abigail whispered excitedly.

Just then an announcement was heard. “Cleaning Day,” it said. The tapestries rolled up super fat. The red long carpet was pulled back. Everything was bare. Unsa Kula ordered the smallest devils to clean. They saw something around his neck that caught their eyes. The words on the front said, “Search-it.”

Lola waved her wand and invisible sparkles surrounded the girls. Their fairy wings were back. Again they were fairies. A good thing too, or else a small devil would have discovered them just then.

The girls flew around the palace to get to Unsa Kula or his Gadget. Being the largest devil in history made him extra scary, extremely tall and every part of his body was massive: his feet, legs, hands, arms, belly, nose, ears, head or (shy?) body part imaginable. They flew up to his knee, but when they reached it, their wings were sore.

So Abigail Alexa and Lola had to do it the hard way: climb. They grabbed at his skin and pulled themselves up steadily. Alexa lost her gripping and almost fell to her death. Luckily they made it to his chest. A big red hand reached over to scratch his hairy chest.

“Get out of the way! He’ll hurt or kill you!” screamed Lola. The girls dodged out of the way just in the nick of time. They finally reached his gigantic neck. They were holding onto the “Search-it” Gadget. Abilgail flew to the back of his neck and undid the knot. Lola pulled the gadget free of his gruesome neck.

“What the...!? Give that back!” hollered the irate Devil King. The three girls were out of his ugly hands’ way. They swiftly flew off the cloud back into the human world, Goodland.

“Lola, it’s lunch time. Could we change back to human size and eat something. Then we’ll use the thing (?) the medallion,” Alexa pleaded.

The Fairies of Goodland: Part II

If you haven't already read the beginning, scroll down please to start at the previous post. If you read the first piece already, you are surely dying to know what will become of our heroines, if they will escape the evil clutches of Unsa Kula (pronounced cool-a) and help the fairy, Lola Nature find the Nature Medallion.

Maybe there should be a new game show, "Are You as Prolific as a Third Grader?"

And now the next installment:

The Fairies of Goodland: Part II

“We’ll help you get the Nature Medallion. Send us to town.”

Then Lola added, “His devil minions are keeping guard of it in the Devil’s Castle on Storm Cloud. Thank you.” And with that, she gave a wave of her wand and both girls felt funny.

Once again the sparkles flowed and swirled around in a tornado containing the two young girls. As they were shooting downward, they grew to human size and parachutes appeared, surrounding them and safely they dropped into bushes where their parachutes disappeared into thin air. They climbed out of the bushes, brushing off leaves, dirt and twigs from their bodies.

All of a sudden, Abigail and Alexa both felt a sharp tug on their arms.

“Ow!” Abigail cried as she jumped up in pain.

“Yow!” Alexa winced, as she too hopped up in pain. It was night and it was hard to make anything out. But then Abigail and Alexa noticed at the same time the curly nutmeg hair, jeans with a hole, and brown tank top.

“What are you guys doing out this late? Have you heard about the demons? They could be in the bushes or anywhere! You better get home!” Megan Sapeln harshly whispered.

The girls dashed down Elm Street towards the yellow house where Abigail lived.

“Do you think the demons are actually the guardian devils?” Alexa whispered curiously. She opened the green door and pushed Abigail inside, and slammed the door very hard.

There were scratching noises from upstairs. “Heh-ha!”

The girls crept up the stairs, but only to find a guardian devil snooping around to find the Nature Medallion!

“It’s not here! I searched everywhere!” shouted a devil to another devil. The devils were crimson with sharp horns and menacing long tails with arrows at the end. They crawled down the stairs slowly.

When the girls saw the tip of their horns coming down the stairs they ran to Abigail’s bedroom.
The two mischievous devils stomped towards the front door, opened it and slammed it so hard a picture frame fell and broke.

“How are we supposed to explain this?” Abigail spread her arms wide to show what she meant. “At least the picture is safe. Mom has an extra frame just like this one that we could use.”

The girls didn’t know, but they now possessed a locket that had a picture of Lola inside.

The girls stepped cautiously up the stairs, Alexa holding her travel tote bag in one hand, her friend’s hand in the other.

Abigail pulled on her puppy nightgown and Alexa tugged on her kitten nightgown. Alexa climbed into the guest bed in Abigail’s room. Abigail crawled into her bed.


Soon it was morning, the same time they noticed the silver lockets. Abigail went to the backyard and opened the locket. Alexa soon walked up to her friend in amazement. The air in front of them started to shimmer and glow. In the blink of an eye, Lola Nature was in front of them.

“Lola, guess what! We saw two guardian devils last night and they were looking for the medallion!” Alexa wailed.

“Yes, they have come to the human world to search for the medallion because Unsa Kula got mad because the biggest guardian devil was making rain which was putting out the Fire Castle,” Lola cried. “The medallion could be anywhere! The devils didn’t find it, did they girls?”...

Get This Girl an Agent!

If you've been checking in from time to time, you're probably scratching your head and saying, "I thought she had two kids...where's the other one? No funny sayings? No silly pictures?" And the answer is going to seem obvious once you hear it: that child has her own blog. Oh, of course! She/we unfortunately don't update it very often. But that's going to change. She has started her own debut novel with the words, "How many pages do I need to win a Very Good Sticker?"

It's in the vein of the Rainbow Magic series: there's a certain amount of emphasis on what everyone is wearing, the MCs can shrink down to fairy size and grow wings, and the bad guys are goblins (in this version they're...well, you'll see).

Am I thrilled? Am I proud? Am I having a Stage Mother Moment?

Notice her vocabulary. Her balance of Description, Action and Dialog. Her strong verbs. Remember she is eight-years old. (What were you writing in 3rd grade?) Look out Daisy Meadows (if you are in fact a real person and not a carefully scripted pseudonym for committee-written product): you've got some competition!

Here's the opening of The Fairies of Goodland:

The Fairies of Goodland

The burbling stream rushed against her toes as Abigail Omana splashed through the waves of the water. Abigail was wearing an emerald tank top with her favorite worn-out jean shorts. Fishes fled as her feet plunged into the water with every step. Her friend Alexa Spooca tried to keep with her best friend. Abigail had brown hair that had been pulled into a barrette. Alexa had blonde hair that usually covered her eyes but was pulled back in a headband the color of the blue sky. Alexa had a yellow short sleeve shirt with brand new shorts. Abigail and Alexa rushed in to the shack Abigail’s father built out of pinewood planks.

“Get off!” exclaimed Alexa as a beetle landed on her shoulder. As the wind whistled through the trees, Alexa swatted at the bug.

The shack was old, it had been made at the beginning of their friendship which was seven years ago. It started when both were four years old. Now both were 11, and old enough to go to the stream themselves.

“I’ll get the folding chairs. You drag over...that small table? Where did that come from, Abigail? Did your dad sneak in here with it?” Both girls were too slow and big to notice that the shack was growing. Actually, they were shrinking. Wings like fairies’ appeared on their backs.

“What the heck! What happened?” Swirls of fairy magic surrounded them and they were suddenly whisked up in the air towards the clouds.

“Where are we? H-helloo? What is that?” Abigail pointed to a beautiful, glittering, shiny, immense castle before them.

Standing in front of them was King Cloudian and Queen Cloudsa. “Welcome Abigail and Alexa. Our special fairy Lola Nature needs your help.”

The pretty queen stepped aside and behind her was Lola. “Hi!” she yelped in a meek, small, scared, shy voice. She was trembling slightly.

“What’s wrong Lola? I noticed that the wind blows when its supposed to be sunny, the grass is gone, and the trees are puny. Why?”

Lola looked at the girls for a long moment. Finally, she spoke up, “Unsa Kula, the devil, stole my Nature Medallion. Without it, life in the wild is just not right! It’s even wrong in Cloud City! All of the other fairies are miserable. Even the animals her are very unhappy!” She pointed a small finger in the direction of a sad-looking ladybug. “Sorry I interrupted your club. Would you like to go to Goodland Town or your shack? Which one?” She still sounded shaken.

“We’ll help you get the Nature Medallion. Send us to town.”