New Releases and Giveaways from Laurel Garver and JL Campbell! A-Z is Coming! Camp NaNoWriMo is Almost Here!

Got some awesomesauce for you today!

This is my last post before the A-Z, as I'll be skipping Sunday. I've only got eight advance A-Z posts scheduled so far; thought I'd have 'em all done by now, but I ended this round of ROW80 with a bang - edited a short story and had it betaed in time to enter a competition! Now it's back to editing Druid's Moon in the next round.

I've joined Camp NaNoWriMo, so my fellow campers can spur me on!


Kait has a great challenge at the end of this ROW80 round: "I'm challenging you to change your outlook. Become, at least when dealing with your writing, someone who looks at the glass half full. At the end of each day, give yourself a pat on the back for what you DID do, even if it was just picking a new character name or plotting the next scene. Set yourself up for the positive, reinforce yourself for DOING. I promise it'll make it easier to condition yourself to work better, harder, faster."

She also had a question in a recent post on Nora Roberts: "How to strike that balance between authenticity and interesting and avoiding boredom"?

I'm excited for the Blogging From A-Z Challenge! Everyone's got such interesting themes! Michael, for one, is showcasing fellow bloggers' books!

My theme will be Twitter favourites: I went through all the tweets I'd favourited since joining Twitter a few months ago, from Commander Hadfield's photos from space, to band-related stuff, to book launches, to strange esoteric images and fun and intriguing randomness, and sorted the best ones in alphabetical order. Lots of fun stuff ahead.

There are, at the moment, 1397 of us participating in A-Z this year! Wow. Do you think you'll have a chance to visit everyone? I might try... But I'm also one of Matthew's Questionable Monks!


The other monks are the wonderful:

and

By the way, DL's first blogblitz went spectacularly! We all hopped over to PK Hrezo's - drop by if you haven't had a chance yet!

And now that I've rambled on a bit... I'm opening the floor to Laurel for an announcement!

Muddy-Fingered Midnights:
poems from the bright days and dark nights of the soul

This thirty-poem collection is an eclectic mix of light and dark, playful and spiritual, lyric and narrative free verse. In an intricate dance of sound play, it explores how our perceptions shape our interactions with the world. Here child heroes emerge on playgrounds and in chicken coops, teens grapple with grief and taste first love, adults waver between isolation and engaged connection. It is a book about creative life, our capacity to wound and heal, and the unlikely places we find love, beauty, and grace.

“In Muddy-Fingered Midnights, Garver seamlessly integrates unpredictable rhyme and alliteration to undergird the themes and strange beauty of these poems. The collection explores moments of cowardice and melting purity, ‘my only fruit / a cool ooze / that bubbles up / on blistering days,’  yet holds strongly onto faith as much as ‘Yankee girl grit.’ Even in dark times that are ‘glassy with misery,’ there’s a hidden reflection in the pane: hope.”

—Jessica Bell, co-founder of Vine Leaves Literary Journal and author of Fabric, semi-finalist, Goodreads Readers’ Choice Awards 2012: Best Poetry.

As if that wasn't enough excitement, Joy Campbell has a special visitor here today!


Howdy. I'm glad you've stopped in. My name is Christine and although I'm only eleven, I'm what some adults might call precocious. A lot has happened in my life, some of it bad, but like my dad used to say, good things can result from the bad stuff that happens to us.

To help me celebrate overcoming my challenges, a great gang of authors have teamed up and will be giving away copies of their books. Sweet, yes?

For a chance to win a pair of the books listed, you can do anything included on the Rafflecopter below or on Facebook. However, for those who'd like to win a $10.00 Amazon Gift Voucher, hop on over to the Jamaican Kid Lit Blog to enter for that.

Anyway, I tend to talk a lot, so before I carried away, here's my story:

Raised in a hotbed of arguments and fights, eleven-year-old Christine Simms is the victim of her mother's cruelty. A domestic dispute ends in tragedy, sending the family into a tailspin.

A shocking discovery sends Christine on a quest to find the stranger who left her behind in Jamaica. Determined to unravel the mystery of her birth, Christine uses every tool at her disposal and treads with courage where no child should.

Thanks so much for dropping in! I hope you win the novels of your choice. I should tell you that you get to choose books based on how the Rafflecopter does the drawing of the winners. So, if your name comes up first, you get to say which pack you want.


Available in ebook format at Amazon.

J.L. Campbell is a proud Jamaican, who is always on the hunt for story-making material. She writes romantic suspense, women's fiction and young adult novels. She is the also the author of Contraband, Dissolution, Distraction, Don't Get Mad...Get Even, Giving up the Dream, Retribution and Hardware (written under the pen name Jayda McTyson). Visit her on the web at Joy L. Campbell.

Are you participating in the A-Z?
How was your ROW80?
Wishing you all good luck on the two giveaways above!

Comments

Congratulations, Joy!
Michael's theme is awesome.
The Blitz was a lot of fun. I told PK welcome to my world.
And you are on an excellent team. Don't stress you don't have all the posts ready. I'm still working on mine.
Matthew MacNish said…
Wow! Favorite tweets? That's going to be seriously awesome. Can't wait!
DL Hammons said…
The blitz was a BLAST! Caught PK totally by surprise. :)

I'm all reved up and ready to go for the Challenge!!
M Pax said…
Congrats to Laurel and Joy!

Wow, you sound really busy. I have my AtoZ's loaded up and ready to go. I may have to add some tweaks... probably. Break a pen on your short shorty! :)
Pearson Report said…
Dropping in from Matt's place - congrats to you for signing on as one of Matthew's Questionable Monks (great moniker) - have fun.

I look forward to checking out your Twitter favourites - I find that part of social media quite intriguing.

Jenny @ PEARSON REPORT
Unknown said…
Sounds like you have a good theme for the A to Z challenge. I need to start writing my posts...

So glad you're doing Camp NaNo and that we're in the same cabin! ;)
J.L. Murphey said…
Good luck with A to Z and the mini.
Anonymous said…
Hey! Nice to meet you! I'm stopping by from Matt McNish's site and the A to Z challenge. Since my theme is positive thinking on Post-it notes, I'd like to invite you to stop by any time you need some motivation, some encouragement, and some positive thinking! I hope I can help someone through this and I will be referring back to it myself! Hope to see you around.

Jamie Dement (LadyJai)
http://writemotivation.we3dements.com
nutschell said…
What a fun theme, Deniz! I'm skipping AZ this year, But i'll definitely be dropping by my bloggy buddies :)
Nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com
LA Nickers said…
Your top tweets idea is a clever one.

I've tried NaNoWriMo, but it nearly killed me. I am returning to NaPoWriMo this month, though, for my Nickers and Ink poetry blog.

Ready to go with EIGHT blogs in the April A-Z Challenge! Mine are 475 - 483 on the A-Z list.

Two of these blogs (Simply Snickers and The Meme Express) will offer DAILY writing/blogging prompts and A-Z words throughout the month of April. The Meme Express welcomes A-Zers to leave daily comments, linking back to their alphabetic posts.

Thanks for helping with the hosting of the A to Z Challenge! Here we go-o-o-o!
I definitely plan on participating in the A to Z challenge next year :)
Nas said…
Looking forward to your A-Z posts, Deniz!

Congrats to Joy. I already love Christine! So strong for one so young!
Deniz Bevan said…
Thanks for coming by everyone! I'm getting sooo excited for A-Z!