BOOK TRAILER for THE TIME OF THE FIREFLIES!

TADA! I'm very pleased with how it turned out! The right music and the right images and the right words bring it all together, but whoa, it's a lot of work, too! This has been tweaked to death! Whooeeee!!

Many thanks and love to my daughter, Milly, for all her hard work! Catch her very cute Logo at the end of the credits. :-)

Check out that STUNNING Full-Wrap Cover at the end of the trailer!!! Artist Erin McGuire is brilliant!

The new graphic below is especially apropos with the book trailer, yes?

Enjoy, everyone!

~Kimberley

Graphic *Teaser* #2 for THE TIME OF THE FIREFLIES

Book Launch day yesterday was wonderful! It's such a thrill to receive congratulations, kudos, and best wishes from friends and family around the country. Thank you so much!

I also celebrated by having a Twitter Party for the first time, a spur of the moment decision, with a prize-winner receiving a finished hardcover copy of Fireflies. It was loads of fun! 

Larissa, my main character lives in an antique store in Bayou Bridge (a renovated old house), a small town in the swamps and bayous of Louisiana. Her parents are struggling to stay afloat and the business is never-ending stress. It's a strange place to live and Larissa gets creeped out by some of the old objects - especially the doll cases filled with staring dolls - and *especially* after it gets dark. :-)

The Launch Party Giveaway ends Thursday at Midnight! Hurry and enter: The Time of the Fireflies is Zipping Your Way! 

Stay Tuned for tomorrow's delicious teaser! 

~Kimberley

Happy Birthday, FIREFLIES!!!

Today, my new Middle-Grade novel, THE TIME OF THE FIREFLIES is officially out in the world! 

I loved writing this book for so many reasons . . . the mystery and suspense, of course, but also weaving in time-slipping going back into Larissa Renaud's past for 5 generations, and featuring the strong women who are her ancestors. (I admit that the generational time-weaving scenes sometimes made me tear my hair out!)

The story revolves around an old plantation house first built before the Civil War on a bayou island and the heirloom doll that affects each girl beginning in 1912 and ending in the present day. Larissa must figure out how to break the family curse before she loses her Mamma and her baby sister. 

Of course, there's a beautiful doll with icy blue eyes, a curse, a lost fortune, and a family in crisis. 

For the next week I'll be regaling you with quotes from the book - to whet your appetite!  Here's the first one! Created by Jan Lewis of Author Sidekick.

Check out Artist, Erin McGuire's, blog with her other beautiful artwork! emcguire.blogspot.com. I absolutely adore her work! 

 

 

 

 

You can order the book here: 

Order THE TIME OF THE FIREFLIES on Amazon!

Order at Barnes & Noble!

Add your Review to Goodreads!

 

I hope you enjoy the Book Quotes this week! Enter the Giveaway going on right now  - and I wish you happy reading for the rest of your summer!

Warm wishes, 

~Kimberley

*Fantastic* Reviews for THE TIME OF THE FIREFLIES!

I'm thrilled to pieces. They are completely and utterly positive and gushing. And this marks my very first PW review! (Go here for a lovely giveaway to celebrate FIREFLIES release.)

 

From Publisher's Weekly: 

The Time of the Fireflies, Kimberley Griffiths Little. Scholastic Press, $18.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-545-16563-1

Little returns to the Louisiana bayou setting of The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets in a summer story that follows 12-year-old Larissa Renaud in her quest to save her family from past tragedies that are bleeding into their future. It all begins with an ominous call from a disconnected phone in the antique shop her family has moved into. “Find the fireflies. Trust the fireflies,” insists a mysterious voice that somehow knows who Larissa is. Her family has recently returned to her mother’s childhood town so Larissa’s mother can make peace with her sister Gwen’s death. After Larissa learns that the fireflies can transport her to the past, she tries to unpack decades-old secrets that may threaten her family in the present day and that seem to be connected to a doll that belonged to her mother’s late sister. Little’s strengths lie in building a strong sense of the history of a place, its inhabitants, and how one can greatly affect the other. A satisfyingly creepy mystery, wrapped up in the bonds of family. Ages 8–12. Agent: Tracey Adams, Adams Literary. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/16/2014 | Details & Permalink


From Kirkus: 

Disconnected vintage telephones occupy an entire section of Bayou Bridge Antiques. When one of them suddenly starts ringing, the eeriness quickly escalates.

The voice on the line orders Larissa to follow the fireflies, and when she obeys, she is transported through time to witness scenes from various moments in her family’s past. As she tries to puzzle out what is happening to her, Larissa realizes that there is a constant in all of the riveting vignettes she witnesses: the presence of a beautiful, perhaps-magical doll that is now one of her mother’s prized possessions. Larissa must figure out how the doll figures into her family history, which has been plagued by tragedies, including Larissa’s own near-drowning, before her mother and unborn baby sister become the next victims. Suspense builds quickly and doesn’t falter until the mystery is solved and restitution is made for long-ago transgressions. Larissa’s first-person narration is fresh and engaging, and the richly evoked south Louisiana setting serves to ground this ethereal tale in a real time and place while contributing to the mysterious mood it requires.
For those fond of exceedingly creepy but not-too-violent stories of the supernatural. Fans of Mary Downing Hahn (The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall, 2010, etc.) will devour this one. (Paranormal thriller. 9-12)

 

School Library Journal – May 2014

 

 

Gr 4-6–Larissa Renaud’s scar burns down the side of her face every time the doll her Mamma keeps locked in the upstairs cabinet looks at her. The angry slash reminds Larissa of her terrible accident at Bayou Bridge, the same bridge where her aunt Gwen drowned as a young girl. The scar warns Larissa not to play with or talk to any of the kids in the town who forced her off the bridge. The scar makes Larissa think that her Mamma, pregnant and anxious, doesn’t think she is beautiful anymore. Then Larissa starts getting phone calls on an ancient telephone in her parents’ antique store—a phone that has long been disconnected from the wall. “Trust the fireflies,” the voice tells her. Believing that the message is a matter of life and death for her family, Larissa lets the fireflies swirl her across the dangerous river to travel back in time to her ancestor’s rich sugarcane estate. Bouncing through the generations, Larissa begins to piece together the history of the blue-eyed heirloom doll, Anna Marie, that her mother keeps. Bought on the Island of the Dolls and infused with a powerful spirit, the doll that Larissa’s great-great-grandmother stole from a servant girl became a curse for each generation thereafter. The evil doll has been at each tragic, untimely death, and Larissa soon figures out it is her Mamma and her newly born sister, Emilie, who are the next targets. Can Larissa find a way to save her family, and perhaps heal her own wounds? This is a haunting, well-constructed tale that keeps readers guessing until the end. The feel of the old bayou infuses the story and the well-developed characters fit into the landscape, moving along in a plot filled with suspense, adventure, and mystery. A perfect choice for lovers of ghost stories, historical fiction, or just a good yarn.–Clare A. Dombrowski, Amesbury Public Library, MA

 

 

The Time of the Fireflies is zipping your way - and First Giveaway!!

This year has been filled with so much excitement and huge giveaways every single month for my Young Adult Trilogy debut, FORBIDDEN (Harpercollins, Nov) that I haven't hardly mentioned my newest Middle-Grade book with Scholastic launching in a few days!!

The illustrator of my last 3 books, Erin McGuire, outdid herself with the stunning cover art!

Saturday, August 2nd at 10:30 am at Bookworks bookstore in Albuquerque, New Mexico is my launch party - including the amazing MG writer, Nikki Loftin driving in from Austin, Texas to party with me and celebrate her newest MG, NIGHTINGALE'S NEST!

Brownies (from the book), creepy dolls, glow-in-the-dark firefly necklaces and Very Cool Presentations. And, of course, book signing! Please come!! If you can't make it or live far, far away you can order autographed copies by calling Bookworks: 505- 344-8139

To celebrate the release of THE TIME OF THE FIREFLIES I've got a wonderful giveaway for you! 

TWO Winners! One will receive an ARC and one will receive a Finished Copy and both will get a gorgeous set of Book Club Cards, a Book Club Guide to easily create your own party, other swag and goodies. Awesome, eh? 

Enter here and spread the word for more points!


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Enjoy, and catch a firefly this summer for me! 

~Kimberley

 

Photography by Vincent Brady (www.vincentbrady.com)

 

JULY Giveaway for "My YA Debut Year Celebration of FORBIDDEN!"

**The Winner of June's Giveaway is Connie Dowell - Congratulations, Connie! Happy Reading!**

It's July, which means hot, sultry days. Fireworks. Thunderstorms. Ice Cream. Movies in air-conditioned theaters. Vacation. Family. Reading delicious YA novels. 

I also recently turned in Book 2 of the FORBIDDEN trilogy. Currently waiting on my editor's first revision letter and playing around with ideas and my 3x5 cards for Book #3 and rereading research. I even got the first 5 pages of Chapter 1 drafted! Go, me! 

We also have a title for Book #2 - BANISHED. It fits the story! It's a great verb! If it sticks . . . with publishing, you never know! Marketing may come up with something totally different - but totally awesome. We know it will be that.

JULY'S PRIZE PACKAGE: 

This month I'm mixing it up but good! I'm giving away a copy of THESE BROKEN STARS, one of my favorite books from 2013, a signed ARC of FORBIDDEN, 10 gorgeous Book Club Cards to share with your friends, family, neighbors or Book Club! Three packages of goodies - including Hot Tamales because it's hot and sultry and sexy in the deserts of FORBIDDEN - beautiful belly dance earrings, a gorgeous notebook from Paper Blanks books AND drum roll, please . . . a beautiful hand crafted tote bag with red and gold trim to take to the beach in August! That's NINE Prizes all in one!!!

Please Sign-Up for My Newsletter so you don't miss any news about FORBIDDEN or my upcoming Fall Book Tour. 
 

ADD TO GOODREADS!!!

Pre-Order here! 

July Prize Package!!!

 

Enter until July 31st at Midnight!  


A Rafflecopter giveaway

Enjoy a cold lemonade and a picnic!

~Kimberley