Closing Blog

I have such a small following on my blog that I will be closing it soon. It seems no one, including me, reads blogs anymore.

You can still find me:

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New Books: Freerunner, Catching Hope

I hope that those of you who have children who have come from a hard spot will help me in promoting my new book, Freerunner, when it comes out. I haven't gotten an actual date. I have heard that you are lucky to sell 200 books with this company, but I think that would depend on the interest the book generates. Once it has been edited the first time, it will be available in PDF for those who review books on their blogs or other places.

I need a street team who will help me launch it.

I think I mentioned that these two pictures will be used in some form for the cover and inside.

In the meantime, I have sent Elk Lake a proposal for another book called Catching Hope. In Catching Hope, Lexi and her twin brother Levi, who is on the autism spectrum, have finally gotten what they always wanted, a forever family. And a good one at that. But on their very first family vacation, a trip to Haiti where their new father is going to help out at a clinic, Lexi, Levi, their adoptive brother Chad, and their snooty cousin Jen are kidnapped. They have to work together to escape the kidnappers and then in turn rescue their parents.

I am hoping that the editor likes the idea and is willing to take a chance on it. Send up some prayers for me.

Anyone there?

Is anyone still reading? It's very silent on here.

The Box Game

I wanted to take pictures of the girls, but I needed them to stay in one place. So I created the box game. I bought a bunch of boxes and a few small token gifts and candy. I put a gift for each in one box, then handed them the whole pile. They had to find which box the gift was in. It kept them amused for more than long enough to get pictures.

Please Vote for the Book Cover Photo

Please go on Facebook to my author page and vote for which picture you think would make the best book cover.

YA Book Freerunner

In the last post I mentioned that I was at Felicia's house to work on some projects. While I was there, we were talking about my upcoming Young Adult book, Freerunner. It's issue based, and most Christian publishers were hesitant to publish it. After all, nice Christian stories shouldn't be about girls who are abused about their grandfathers, right? Ummm, wrong. The general market has loads of books for teen about all kind of issues. Why not add a faith base and some hope to the story?

In Freerunner, Kia doesn't come from a nice two parent Christian home. She has a single mom and an unknown dad. And no church background. Another combination most Christian publishers aren't looking for.

But here's the thing. Girls do get abused. Sometimes that abuser is let back into the house. It happens. You can shut your eyes to it, but ask any foster parent. Junk happens. It's not going to go away if we pretend it doesn't. 

Stories heal. So my goal is to write stories that teens will read that deal with real life issues but add a touch of hope. I don't really have an official mission statement, but if I did, it would basically be what I just said cleaned up a bit.

A small publisher, Elk Lake Publishing Inc is publishing my book, but they are small enough that I have to buy my copies and promote it myself. I can certainly use help with getting the books into the hands of teens who may need the story, librarians, counselors, foster parents and so on.

Here's a short synopsis of the story:

Night is Kia’s favorite time. It’s when she can be anonymous as she runs to outdistance the voices in her head and the ugly images that are never far away. The abuse Kia suffered at the hands of her grandfather when she was six has left invisible scars that have never healed. Only her best friend Thorn knows how damaged she feels.

When her Grandfather not only returns to town, but moves in with Kia and her mother, Kia’s world is shaken. Freerunning, a creative way of running that incorporates gymnastic and acrobatic stunts, helps Kia flee both memories and the unanswered questions she has. Questions about the father she’s never met.

When former reality television star Terrence Jones arrives at the school as the new head track coach, Kia decides to try out for the team. What can it hurt? And maybe being part of a team will help her feel more normal, although normal was stolen from her by her grandfather.

But making the track team only causes more turmoil. Why does the assistant coach, Cassandra Clark, dislike Terrence Jones so much, and even more troubling, why does Coach Clark dislike her so much?

When Terrence Jones starts a freerunning club at a local church and asks Kia to help, things seem to be looking up. Then Kia realizes her grandfather’s true intentions and knows she must face the past and act if she wants to save another child from the fate she suffered.

Back to Felcia and me. I was telling her that Larissa would be a great Kia and asked if I could take some photos of her. So Felicia, Larissa and I went to a park to see what we could do. Larissa is not a freerunner, but she gave it a go. Felicia took photos with her iPhone and me with my Nikon. And those are the photos you've seen on this post.

For more book updates, like my Facebook author page 

I don't get notifications when someone comments on a post, so it make take me a few days to realize I have a comment on a post. Be sure to check back.

A Trip for Sanity's Sake

Sometimes you need a trip just for the sake of a trip and to get away from real life. And that's what I did a couple of weeks ago. I packed myself and some craft projects I needed help with and headed to Felicia's. She can work wonders with projects.

I don't have a lot of pictures because the kids were in school. Mostly I have pictures of project progress. We worked on two dollhouses and three stools!

Felicia working her magic.

The inside was really horrible. The whole thing was painted dark brown and black when I first got it. It took a full bottle of paint remover gel. Then I started painting it Christmas colors.

Then Felicia added all the cool paintings and lettering.

And I added a lot of things inside both for looks and in some cases to hide the dark areas in the corners where I couldn't get the old paint off.

And these two plain brown tables became the tables in the photos below.

It was a really short trip. Here are the few photos I have of the kids, three of the girls and Miguel, one of Felicia's grandchildren. We also took a ton of Larissa as my book character Kia in my YA book which will be released through Elk Lake next spring/summer. They were interested in actually using our photos, but they say the resolution is too low. Too bad I don't have time for another trip! I work every Sunday and cannot miss any so it makes for a short trip anywhere I go.

Second Half of Weekly Activities

I just realized that I never posted the second half of the pictures from the week the girls stayed with us.

Jasmine and I took them to the zoo Friday. None of the colleges around here have school on Friday, which means Jasmine and I get to hang out.

River caught her own bird while we were focusing on helping Winter get one!

So grown up getting the bird by herself!

 We did several craft projects

 And we had some pumpkin fun