Kidlet#1 Reviews: Tears by Rita J Webb.

My eldest child, a book lover like me, wants to review some of her favorite books on my blog. So this is the first installment of… drum roll…

KIDLET#1 REVIEWS!

Please note that her opinions are 100% her own.

Kidlet#1 Review: Tears, By Rita Webb.

Review by Kidlet#1 (13 years old)

What was the book about?

It was about Lelea, a cyborg who was sort of insane because her mind lives in the past. And she started to rebel against her father, the evil Father General (muahaha!) by lying and then swearing her own oath to take him down and free her people. She goes on an adventure to find the dragon eggs and save the universe from her father.  Along the way, she finds love.

What did you like best about the book?

I like the adventure and description of the characters, I liked how immensely powerful the words are.

Did anything bother you about the book?

Nothing bothered me.

Who was your favorite character?

My favorite character was Jadon with her self-esteem & endurance.

How many stars do you give this book?  All the stars possible.

Kidlet#1 signing off...and read this book people, it rocks.

Wendy's note: She read the book in 1 day, then turned around and read it again the next. That never happens. It speaks volumes for how well this resonated with her.

Mrs. Webb, I'd say you hit your target audience spot on.

Here's some handy clicky links to find Tears on Amazon, or Goodreads. Rita Webb blogs here.

Variant Giveaway to Celebrate Writing Season

As you might have noticed, it’s November—my most favorite month of the year.

Goodbye farming, and hello writing season! I celebrated by attending an awesome writers retreat by Park City, with twenty other writers including Lisa Mangum, Kirk Shaw, Annette Lyon, Danyelle Ferguson, Ali Cross, C.K. Bryant, and many others from Authors Incognito that I'm grateful to call friends.  

Imagine 4 days in a condo/cabin by Park City, Utah, where everyone has a quiet nook of their own to plug in and write. There were enough of us there that we only had to help with one meal for the whole time. Can you imagine? Meals done, quiet time, no kids, almost no calls, and house full of people who shared your same passion for writing. After months of busting my rear on the farm, it was exactly what I needed. We also had prizes for word count sprints, early birds and night owls.

If you ever have the chance to go to a retreat, do it. You deserve it.

To celebrate writing season, I’m giving away 2 copies of Variant by Robinson Wells, a hot new YA dystopian that has been heralded as having the best YA twist since Enders Game. Also, Publishers Weekly has named Variant as one of the best books of 2011. That’s some high praise, my friends.

You can read the synopsis and some of its great reviews on goodreads here.

There are a couple of other great reasons why I chose to give Variant away. Bottom line: it’s an excellent book from a deserving author. If you’ve ever thought of buying it, today is a good day.

TO ENTER the Variant giveaway:

Follow my blog and leave a comment with your email like myemail AT wherever DOT com so spammers don’t find you.

If you would like to tweet or Facebook about the Book Bomb or this post, then you win good Karma and my appreciation for passing it on. J

I'll draw a winner on November 20th!

So, to all you crazy nanowrimoers out there, good luck! (and don’t forget to occasionally do boring things like eat, sleep, speak to your family, and bathe.) To everyone else, may you have a very excellent writing season. I know I will.

Grammar Thief, and the Hag Herself.

Grammar is an evil hag that haunts writer's dreams and laughs as they dither into the wee hours of the morning--staring at the computer screen with haunted faces, agonizing over punctuation.

We've had our disagreements, grammar and I, but over the years, we've learned to tolerate each other fairly well. We give each other our proper space and even, dare I say it, respect. She's learned to bend just a little now and then, and I've learned to stay on her good side whenever possible.

The good news is that the more time we spend together, the better we get along. I don't know that we'll ever be friends, but I think we have developed a good professional working relationship.

How is your relationship with grammar? Do you love her, obsess over her, hate her? How do you deal with all the rules?

COLORLESS took second...again!

Boy what a busy time this has been for me! I've been picking corn, harvesting other produce, making the corn maze, & hauling pumpkins. This picture shows one of the many loads we did today. Tell you what, the kids fell into their beds as soon as we were done.

But in the middle of all that, I entered the first chapter of COLORLESS into another contest and took 2nd place! This one was hosted by Authors Incognito. The cool part is that the other gals who placed 3rd & 1st are really wonderful, published authors. I'm happy to even be on the same page as they are.

Here's a look at the results...

The good news on the home front is that I'll be done with farming and back to writing full time on November 1st! Yay! I've registered for a writer's retreat that first week of November as my reward for working my rear off for no pay all year long.

It's great to get the feedback that people understand and enjoy my writing.

Have you ever gotten that one special feedback that just made your day?

DARK LIFE, One of the Coolest YA Books Ever

After much of the continent became submerged, people started prospecting and farming the only place left to find land: the bottom of the ocean. Ty lives with this family on their 400 acre farm and dreams of the day when he'll own his own land--except the common wealth says no one will get any land, or any supplies until the notorious criminals aboard the Seablite are caught. Ty tries to help Gemma, a girl from topside, find her missing brother amongst the ruff frontier folk while keeping an eye out for Shade, the infamous leader of the Seablight gang. He has a dark gift that makes him almost impossible to catch...and he's not the only one. 

WOW. If I could give six stars, I would. DARK LIFE is the most original and interesting YA book I've read in years. Take 2000 Leagues Under the Sea, mix in a little X-Men, and add a healthy dash of Kenneth Oppel's AIRBORN, and you've got DARK LIFE. 

I'm adding Kat Fall's to my list of favorite authors, and then I'm going to stalk her website to see when the next book, RIP TIDE comes out.

The Winner of POSSESSION by Elana Johnson is....

ALEX HOAGLAND!
Congratulations!

We gave each entry a different number, cut the papers up, and had my youngest girl pick a paper with her eyes shut.

Thank you to everyone who entered! I do a giveaway every other month or so--so stay tuned for more good things.

Happy Summer!

Summer Giveaway, POSSESSION by Elana Johnson!

Since summer is always more fun with a giveaway, I’m giving away POSSESSION, by Elana Johnson.

I met Elana at Storymakers writer’s conference 2010 and she helped me change my pitiful query letter into something worthwhile. I was impressed by her vivacious personality and contagious smile. You can’t visit with her and not smile. She’s that cool.

Elana's debut novel, POSSESSION, is available from Simon & Schuster now!

Elana's Bio:

"She wishes she could experience her first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill her desires, she writes young adult science fiction and fantasy.

"She is the author of From the Query to the Call, an ebook that every writer needs to read before they query.

"She runs a personal blog on publishing and is a founding author of the QueryTracker blog. She blogs regularly at The League of Extraordinary Writers, co-organizes WriteOnCon, and is a member of SCBWI.

"Elana is represented by Michelle Andelman of Regal Literary."

If you are struggling with getting good responses from your query, you should definitely check her out. She’ll rock your query.

If you like fast-paced, YA dystopian, then Possession would be a fun summer read for you.

Entering is easy! Just follow my blog & leave a comment with your email like this to prevent spammers: youremail AT wherever DOT com.

If you tweet or share this giveaway, let me know and I’ll throw in another entry for you.

I’ll draw a winner July 1st! Good luck!