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Special Announcement! You're Invited!!!        Friday, September 17th, 2010      5:30 PM      Alamosa Books      8810 Holly Ave. NE      NW corner of Ventura and Paseo Del Norte      Across from Trader Joe's      Albuquerque, NM  87122       You are invited to New Mexico's Award-Winning Author Kimberley Griffiths Little's "Bayou Book Party", at Alamosa Books in Albuquerque.  There will be gumbo, Cajun cakes, music, door prizes and a book talk, PLUS Kimberley will be autographing copies of The Healing Spell, published by Scholastic Press.     Everyone is invited!  Tell the teachers and librarians in your life, as well as your kids!     This highly praised novel follows Livie, an almost 12-year-old girl as she deals  with the tragedy that has left her mother in a coma as well as her own guilt as she tries to save her mamma before it's too late. Set in the rich Cajun bayou culture, Kimberley has woven a tale of magic, faith, and  the healing that comes from finding oneself.   ISBN: 978-0-545-16559-4 Amazon Barnes and Noble   Here's what the critics have to say about The Healing Spell:   "A special offering for readers seeking a challenge of the heart as well as the mind." - Booklist   "An interesting story with likable characters and a lot of heart" - Kirkus   "The fully realized sense of place adds dimensionality and atmosphere . . . intriguing." - Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books   "An incantational tale of Cajun magic" - Richard Peck, Newbery Medalist     Please visit Kimberley's updated website   Free Teacher's Guide   Free Mother/Daughter Book Club Guide   View the video Trailer for the book here!   And watch for our regular issues of Spellbinders starting in October! Join Our Mailing List! Mass Email Services Provided By Peifer Computing Solutions

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While reading your critiques and trying not to get depressed. . .

You whip out the credit card and jump up and down excitedly for a fabulous new book by one of your favorite authors - Barbara O'Connor, who hails from the South and writes the best MG novels ever.

Here is her newest book, launched just yesterday!

COVER LOVE! So perfect for Middle-Grade Readers!

My copy is on its way to me. TWO copies actually. One to keep and one to give away! And I may be buying more since I have nephews who love to read!
 
All you gotta do to win my extra copy of THE FANTASTIC SECRET OF OWEN JESTER is to tell me one of your favorite scenes from THE HEALING SPELL. 

Or tell me that you're going to give a child or teacher or friend or librarian THE HEALING SPELL for Christmas. Or just because! Because we love books - just because they're so fabulous!

Thanks for entering! Have a wonderful, book-alicious day!

While waiting for a critique . . .

So what does a girl (author) do while waiting for her first reader feedback on the manuscript for the Book Armaggedon deadline?

Why, she tries to be a professional writer and writes 90 pages of a new book. Yes, I think I've truly become insane . . . or driven . . . or something, I'm not quite sure what.

I just got the first crit back this morning, but the last few days, while on hiatus (ha, ha!) from the revisions that need to be done by this weekend, I cleaned up the first 90 pages of a brand new project: A YA Victorian Paranormal thriller thing.

I'm going to be brave and post a Tuesday Teaser Opening:

Essence

by

Kimberley Griffiths Little

Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 2 was giving me a mild case of insanity.

My sweaty fingers slipped on the keys like they had a mind of their own. The extraordinary April heat wave had made us all feel like limp rags tossed into the bin, ready for darning. Truly, I wanted to darn the damn ivories to the tips of my fingers!

Uncle Stuart would probably prefer a set of stitches than me ripping the keys off the pianoforte and throwing them out the window. Ironically, the very same window Mary, Queen of Scots had dangled from on a rope three hundred years ago to escape the thousand Scottish nobles surrounding Castle Hall to arrest her.

The open window now called to me like a mermaid’s siren.

Instead I tried to pretend I was having a flawless performance even though my corset was so tight—owing to the lacing Francesca had tortured me with earlier—I was numb clear down to my elbows.

My daddy's years of warnings also sounded in my ears. Ever since he found my thirteen-year-old self floating to the ceiling of my bedroom to swing from the chandelier.

Armageddon Book Deadlines

Today's post will make more sense if you read this one from a week ago first: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Publishing a Novel
So the problem with Armageddon Book Deadlines is having enough time to get any Feedback. Drafting a book in 2.5 weeks and then having only two weeks to read it through, clean it up, add more depth and characterization and developing scenes – in other words, 8,000 words - and then ONLY HAVING ONE WEEK in which to get a critique and then do any more changes from said critique doesn’t work when all your critters have vacations, jobs, school, etc. The two people I usually go to for critiques, caroleedean  and Nancy Hatch have LIVES. Carolee has a full case load in her job as a Speech and Language Pathologist, Nancy just got back from her first two weeks in Vermont as a new student at the MFA program there and is still traveling doing some summer/college kids travel so to ask them to read and critique in one week just isn't fair. And yet! Nancy agreed to in between her first Vermont packet and essays needing to be written. Bless you, Nancy!
I CRINGE to think about sending a manuscript to my editor without ANYBODY having read it. Not even my agent can read that fast because she's been gone 2 weeks on her vacation and is doing major catch-up. Thank goodness, the book is already under contract! I mean, I really am blessed (cursed?) to have that. Even if it meant writing TWO books to get ONE publishable one this fast. I hope - since Gorgeous Editor hasn't read it yet. Fingers and toes and eyeballs crossed!

I sent the manuscript by email to my very cute and smart Chemical Engineering college son. He's out of state, but agreed to read the thing for me and at least give me some general thoughts about the storyline and voice and continuity and any plot holes. Out of three sons, he’s always been my most fanatic reader, staying up way too late at night reading for hours and hours, buying original hardcover editions, and collecting books under his bed like other kids collect candy wrappers. By the time he graduated high school he had THREE huge bookcases in his bedroom FULL of books.

Of course, there are drawbacks to having an Armageddon Manuscript Critique from him. While he's really good at catching stuff and very smart about how a novel should be developed, he's also very HONEST. I get marked phrases such as, “Dumb, Mom,” “Your character is acting stupid!” “Eye-roll” or “You've already said this 10 times.”

Dern, he’s a hard-nosed reader!

But he’s really good at discussing issues with on the phone and in person he’s not near as ornery. Because then he’ll say, “It’s really good, Mom! I like it! I think it's going to be a great book!”

I love you, too, Jared.

In Other News: THE HEALING SPELL BOOK TRAILER hit over 1,000 views about a week ago – yippee! If you haven’t seen the gorgeous photography and the beautiful, perfect voice-over, please enjoy some Southern Atmosphere and Charm.

Mockingjay EARLY!

My copy of MOCKINGJAY arrived YESTERDAY MORNING in the mail from Amazon! BEFORE the Midnight Release!

Yep - they mailed it on Friday and it got here on Monday. I think they expected it to arrive today, on Tuesday, the actually pub date, but the mail was unusually quick.

Mwhahahahahahah!

So I got to see it and read it before the rest of the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazing stuff!!!!

Aren't I such a tease?!?!?!

But you can get yours today! 

Off to go wrestle it away from the rest of the family . . . hang on . . .

TAKE ME THERE by Carolee Dean

Carolee Dean caroleedean has been one of my good writer friends and critique partners for at least 10 years. We've been through So much together on this journey (angst) of writing and publishing. We both had our last books pubbed in 2002 (hers is COMFORT) and we both went through EIGHT YEARS of trying to sell our next novel. We both kept writing. And Writing. And Writing. And reading for each other. And wrote a book TOGETHER. And critiqued for each other. And changed agents together. And went to SCBWI conferences together.



(This is Carolee in the park, writing her FAB poetry.)

And then we sold our next books in the very same month - October 2008. And now, just two weeks apart, our newest novels hit the shelves. It's sorta like we're twins or something!

It's been an honor to share this writing and publishing journey with you, Carolee. 

And I'm so very, very pleased to show off her new book, TAKE ME THERE.


Gorgeous, eh? And provocative? And heart-swoony? And delicious?

TAKE ME THERE IS all that and more.

Gorgeously written, it's an important book about literacy and crime and prisons and how a kid caught up in events beyond his control, can change his life for the better. And it's a love story, and a family story, and  a thriller to boot with an incredible ending.

I have an AUTOGRAPHED COPY to give away as soon as I hit 100 followers on my Blogspot blog - or if you're an LJ reader, get your friends over here to add me to their list so I can hit 150.

That's it! Friend me, Follow me, check out THE HEALING SPELL, ask your library to order it. Just share the love of a writer's book journey. Yep, I'm also at http://kimberleylittle.livejournal.com

Carolee is also having aTAKE ME TO TEXAS BLOG TOUR with a prize package full of wowza goodies.

AND!!! Just two weeks after the book hit the bookstore shelves - TAKE ME THERE has already gone into a SECOND PRINTING!

CONGRATULATIONS, CAROLEE!!!!!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Publishing a Novel

  

I've debated for three months whether to be perfectly honest about what I've been through the last few months and I decided that it's not really that big of a secret (except that at first I was just so humiliated and depressed and trying not to think I was the world's worst writer ever).

AND my agent assures me that I am NOT ALONE. That this sort of thing happens all the time.

Writers, I think, just do NOT want to talk about it. Because: it's humiliating, depressing and you think you're the world's worst writer ever. Or writers talk AROUND it.

But today w'ere gonna hit the writing/publishing nail squarely on the head about something that could happen to you. I SINCERELY HOPE NOT though!

So . . .  Come with me back in time for just a moment so you'll understand the scenario . . .

Fall of 2008, about 20 months ago:

After two decades of serious writing, classes, critique groups, 3 published books that went nowhere due to a HUGE number of reasons (being orphaned 3 times, Meh covers, publishing house getting gobbled up and disappearing, no ARCS sent out for reviews), the last book pubbed 6 years previously (and in a state of terror that I'm a *has been* who will never publish another book again), and two years of agent querying, I finally sign with my Dream Agent and she promptly sells a 3-book deal for me to a wonderfully warm and nurturing and talented editor at Scholastic aka Gorgeous Editor. (Lesson to be learned: Keep writing new books while waiting to sell a book. I got a three-book deal because I had written more books. Right now, at this moment, I have two more novels ready to be subbed with 2 more partly written.)

Breakdown of books Scholastic bought in the Deal:
1. Middle Grade Novel already written, The Healing Spell (July, 2010)
2. Synopsis of a second MG novel, set in the same world as The Healing Spell - yet to be written
3. YA, already written, Secret Rites of the Goddess, an edgy belly dance/goddess temple novel set in the ancient Middle East

Scholastic decides that it will be best for me and the books if we publish the two MGs a year apart so they can build on one another and we'll publish the YA after that in a different season. Sounds good to me! But it means I have to get my derriere in gear and write the second MG NOW which is only in synopsis form. After I finish the revisions and copy edits for THE HEALING SPELL, I have about 10 months to write the second book - which is doable, although still fast for ME to finish the research, write and revise/cleanup to sub to my editor by April 2010.

I get to work. I do it. It's 300 pages, polished up, a dynamite plot (probably my best ever), critique group is raving about it, my agent thinks it's delicious and spine-tingling.

April, 2010: I send it off to my editor on time. Whew.

May, 2010: BAD NEWS. The manuscript is not what Scholastic was hoping for. It's too old for one thing, more of a tweener book and middle school, not that 10-11 year old elementary age group that The Healing Spell is. They wanted a true companion book that will be put INTO THE SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB AND BOOK FAIRS. What I wrote has hoodoo magic and beauty spells and hexes and voodoo poppet dolls - and the clubs and fairs won't take it.

My editor and agent TALK.
My agent talks to me to explain the likes/dislikes
My editor and I talk to clarify. The *voice* of my character is wrong, the plot is too much REAL Southern magic. I finally *get it* that I have to START OVER FROM PAGE ONE AND WRITE AN ENTIRE NEW BOOK.

Can this really be happening?!? My past year's work has to be stuck in a drawer???

The date that this manuscript has to be revised with my editor and goes to copy edits passes - like dust in the wind.

Publication for Summer of 2011 goes "Bye-bye". This book will be delayed, perhaps up to 6-9 months. Can I write another book in 8 months or so?

I am depressed, stunned, numb, doubting myself, wondering WHAT AM I GOING TO WRITE ABOUT? I HAVE TO COME UP WITH A WHOLE NEW PLOT, NEW CHARACTERS!

June, 2010: Start doing some fast brainstorming. Meet with my two trusted crit partners. Brainstorm like crazy. Make notes. Start outlining. Go into CRAZY LADY mode to get ready for the launch of THE HEALING SPELL consisting of 18 hour days and a million tasks.

July 1, 2010: LAUNCH of THE HEALING SPELL - YAY! No time to celebrate though because I'm packing for an 11 day trip with family and getting ready for 5 upcoming launch parties and blogger interviews and hundreds of emails. I get a phone call from my agent. She and Gorgeous Editor have talked. I'm actually AT the grocery store getting food and snacks for the 14 hour car drive the next day. We talk in the parking lot.

A date has become available for the second MG novel, November, 2011 IF I can write the entire book in the next 6 weeks! And here I thought 8 months was pushing it!

It's a STEAMY July day, I'm standing outside in the sun, sweating, loading groceries into the car which is now making funny noises and needs to be taken to a shop before we hit the road and potentially break down. I'm leaving in mere hours for our trip and family reunion 700 miles away.

Me: "But--But-- I'm leaving tomorrow for 10 days, that's practically half of July! And the book has to be done by August???

I think I've gone over the edge because I actually AGREE to try this.

July 13: Return home to four of the 5 book launch parties/events and unpack and start trying to write.

July 23-25: Gone again for hubby's family reunion

July 26: Start drafting again.

August 4th: Majorly push myself and FINISH THE FIRST DRAFT, 45,000 WORDS!!!

August 5: Clean up the first 5 chapters

August 6: Send 5 chapters to Gorgeous Editor. Get ready for book event in the afternoon and another one the very next day. MAJOR FAMILY CRISES ARE ALSO GOING ON. I keep crying a lot. Feel like I haven't slept in a month.

August 9: Gorgeous Editor loves 5 Chapters! She's going on her summer vacation now.

September 4th: Full manuscript, critiqued and cleaned-up, to be delivered, to my editor.

So I have two more weeks. I am now reading it through for the very first time.

Then I'll have about 6 weeks to do revisions with Gorgeous Editor before it needs to go to copy edits.

When this book goes to copy edits it will have been completely drafted, personally edited and editorially revised within a 3-4 month period.

I think the verdict is in: I am certifiably CRAZY.

The other 300 page manuscript??? Is it totally wasted?

I don't think any writing is ever wasted. I learned a lot writing that book, about character (what not to do) and pushing myself on Plot. And both my editor and agent agree that it could be a true YA novel with some revisions. So it's *resting* temporarily and I hope CIRCLE OF SECRETS will still be a book someday. There's nothing else out there in the "paranormal" world like it, actually.

There's also 100 pages of a very cool Victorian Paranormal Thriller I started this spring, too.

My next hard decision will be to decide which gets worked on next . . .

Eeevvviillll Smiiiillle.


Love this little girl! I wanna write her into one of my novels . . .

Snorts and Secrets . . .

I'm sure you all read him, but truly I was rolling over laughing last night at Nathan Brandsford's post on How To Write A Novel last night:

"We should probably first agree that this is a rather large topic. One might even call it rotund, ginormous, massive, weighty, of-gargantuan-proportions, etc. But lately I have heard from several would-be writers with a very common sentiment.

"I want to write a novel, I think I can write a novel, but for the love of Tim Gunn, how in the world do you write a novel?"

And that brings us to the most important advice I can offer in this How to Write a Novel overview. If you try and hold the entire novel in your head all at once and attempt to imagine it in its entirety and all of its various ins and outs, your brain will suddenly become so heavy that you will topple over backwards and pass out."

Just the imagery set me off.


Lately, I think I am going to explode. I've been on massive book launch, book writing, family crisis overload for about 3 months.

Tomorrow's post: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Secret(s) of Publishing

Yes, I will reveal ALL. Stay tuned, my darlings.

The Book Trailer Manual is HERE! A MUST buy!

Darcy Pattison has written a BRILLIANT E-book about The Book Trailer.

Creating a book trailer is daunting, mind-boggling, time-consuming, $$$ consuming, hair-pulling, exciting and fulfilling - all at once.

THE BOOK TRAILER MANUAL is PACKED with information and ideas and tips and STUFF YOU NEVER THOUGHT OF BEFORE.

And I do NOT say this because MY book trailer has been mentioned and linked to and loved by Darcy. :-)

Really, I wish I'd read this book before I got started. It's just that good and thorough.

And it's an E-BOOK. Which means you can go buy it and have it in your hot little computer RIGHT NOW. No shipping fees, no waiting!

I LOVE the cover, too!


And don't forget to sign up for Darcy Pattison's amazing and awesome FICTION NOTES BLOG - if you don't already. It's wonderful. I read it faithfully and have for a couple of years. Such great tips on writing and publicity and blogging and, well, everything. She's got other E-books as well. She's a writing teacher, a conference speaker, and has published several books for children.

Darcy and I first met EONS ago on an old AOL Writer's Board. Back before blogging was even *thought* of. We lost track of each other for years, then met up again in the online world once more. The cyber world is very cool like that. And Darcy is totally cool. Go meet her!

Meeting Jennifer Cervantes!

Last week I did a book signing at Bookworks in Albuquerque (and which I still need to show pictures to y'all - how about tomorrow? :-)).



Yesterday I headed back over there for Jennifer Cervantes' signing for TORTILLA SUN (Chronicle, 2010) , her debut middle-grade novel.

Isn't it pretty?


Jennifer and I met online, she lives about 4 hours south of me - and she is absolutely gorgeous and delightful and so friendly.

Here she is! (She also has stunningly beautiful daughters, too. Me, I have three BOYS.)


Jen and me with our brand new books, pubbed mere weeks apart. See, we're buds now. I already call her Jen, not Jennifer. If you go to her website, you can call her that, too. :-)


See the inside of my autographed book . . .


I love the blue sparkly interior!

And the book is set right here in beautiful New Mexico about magic and baseball and grandmothers and secrets and Hispanic curenderos - which are amazingly close to traiteurs (Cajun French folk healers) in Louisiana in my book, The Healing Spell. So I think me and Jen have the same wave length going on. I'm just not sure if SHE knows that yet . . .  I'd better ask her what her next book is about and make sure we're not channeling each other . . .

Crazy Excited About Books!

Hey, guys, you really need to enter the Goodreads Giveaways.

I've entered just a few, but so far I've won TWO books!

First I won NUMBERS by Rachel Ward:


Then I entered the giveaway for the brand new, PICTURE THE DEAD. There were, like, 3000 people entered. I WON! I WON! I WON!!!


I couldn't believe it. I just stared at the email telling me I won in disbelief. I'm so psyched! Adele Griffin, an author I love to read, mailed the book right away - and it's signed. Lookee, lookee!


It says: "For Kimberley ~ Embrace the Unexpected"

I LOVE this title page! And the book is gorgeously designed. I DEVOURED the story in the car on our last trip.

I've always been a big fan of historicals and the added mystery and photography and spookiness blends together in a fascinating story. Highly recommended!

An interesting sidenote: A paranormal thriller I started writing a few months ago takes place just a few years later than PICTURE THE DEAD in the Victorian Era.


I ALSO won a book from SHRINKING VIOLETS PROMOTIONS!!!


LOVE AND POLLYWOGS FROM CAMP CALAMITY

Since I'm currently writing another MG, I can't wait to read this. I have a whole bunch of Middle-Grade novels in my stack for inspiration.

 

Write ON!!!

 In case you haven't heard . . . WRITE ON CON IS THE COOLEST, BIGGEST, MOST AWESOME ONLINE Writer's Conference ever!

Go here: www.writeoncon.com

Posts by in-the-know authors, agents and editors on every subject about writing and publishing and promotion.

PLUS LIVE CHATS!

PLUS very cool VLOGS!

It's all archived, too, so you can go back and read and enjoy and take notes or save.

Tuesday - Thursday THIS WEEK! 


P.S. I LOVE the music on the Vlogs!

Book Launch Parties!

So the partying keeps on going! It's been a great, blessed few weeks.

Here are some pictures from a book event at the brand new Tome Community Center near where I live. I met the woman who runs it when I spoke at the Los Lunas Library and I was their very first event at the center! I'm honored!

It was a delightful afternoon! I spoke, showed lots of pictures, we gave away cute plush baby gators, had food and punch, and played "Name The Gator" and the kids all got to take home pictures of the gators from the swamps.

UNFORTUNATELY, I did not get any pictures until it was all over! But here are a few of the room and the tons of balloons and the food and the cute girls and their grandmother who put the event together. We had a nice turn-out for such a small town, too. And I sold lots of books!







These cute pictures were on all the doors!





It got really windy as we left and the balloons were being quite unruly!




Since I'm six feet tall in my heels, I got down on my knees so I wasn't a giant next to these very cute girls.



THANK YOU Regina Griegos and the TOME DOMINGUEZ COMMUNITY CENTER!!!

Remind Me Not to Do This Again . . .

Having a book launch in the middle of summer vacations while under a TIGHT, TIGHT, TIGHT deadline for the NEXT book has been mind-blowing, crazy-inducing. I think I'm developing a split personality disorder.
elissacruz called my all-of-a-sudden deadline BOOK ARMAGEDDON. That *really* describes it.

Yeah, I got three weeks to turn in 8 chapters of a new book.

Well, I actually got about 5 weeks, but two of those I was headed out the door for a big family reunion and launch party out of state  - on the very day THE HEALING SPELL launched!

It *is* sort of fun to have your agent and editor talking ON LAUNCH DAY about your next book - but I was launching and having blog contests and writing interviews and getting ready for bookstore events - AND packing to leave for 10 days.

I've been trying desperately to keep up with all of you here, but this past week I have failed miserably. I HOPE I haven't missed any spectacular news! Drop me a note and tell me if I have! Please!

I AM THRILLED TO PIECES over the reviews I've been getting in various places and on Goodreads and Amazon.

Makes the 6 years I worked on THE HEALING SPELL all worth it. But then, in the end writing is always worth it.

My FIRST LINES or LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT post is up on FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES . . .  OF MIDDLE-GRADE AUTHORS!

And adorable Heather Vogel Frederick, author of the Mother/Daughter Book Club books had me on her blog for MELT-IN YOUR-MOUTH APPLE PIE day and a fun interview. The questions were different than the usual ones, which I loved.

We have a WINNER!!!

I'm sure you've all been waiting with baited breath to see if YOU are the ultimate Prize Package LAUNCH DAY WINNER OF THE HEALING SPELL and LOTS OF GOODIES!!! :-)

But I waited until Monday to post the winner so nobody would be out of the loop on the weekend and miss it.




Here is the Magic New Mexico Name Pot (handmade by a friend):


I had dozens and dozens of entries and put everyone's name into the pot.

See the slips raining down???



AND



IS THE WINNER!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Please email me, kmrwriter, and give me your snail mail address so I can send you your amazing prize package!

If you didn't win . . .

I would be honored if you could ask your local library/school to order a copy. Here is the amazingly fantastic Teacher's Guidel, too!

I've always felt that this is one way we can support books and writers and literacy by asking our libraries to buy particular books. I do it all the time - and it works!

 

Lots of Stuff!

First, I want to thank everyone for all the love and support shown me here and around the blogger world the past two weeks since my book's launch. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and readers and supporters! THANK YOU for the love and reviews!

Thank you and WELCOME to all my new followers, too! And entering my giveaways!  MIDNIGHT TONIGHT for the prize package for THE HEALING SPELL'S official launch day. Between Blogger and Live Journal I've had a ton of people enter which makes me very excited and feel very loved.

BUT DON'T FORGET: You need to post a comment and let me know if you've been forwarding the book trailer to all your friends, family, followers, etc for the THREE Prize Packages for that contest. Tell me how many people you've sent the book trailer to. There is still time. Depending on the entries I receive today for that contest I may extend this one . . . since no one has posted their numbers yet . . .and truly it is the easiest contest on the Internet right now for some very wonderful prizes. I believe in easy. If a contest is too hard to figure out what/how to do it, I don't enter myself. :-)


You MUST read TAKE ME THERE by my good friend Carolee Dean. It is AWESOME!!! And follow her LIVE, BLOG Tour that begins this NEXT week! Just go to the link! She's driving all over Texas and meeting LIVE with bloggers you all know and love.

TAKE ME TO TEXAS BLOG TOUR!

And I bought these books at the brand new bookstore, Alamosa Books, at our SCBWI schmooze Tuesday night. Can't wait to read them!

Partying on Home . . .

I'm back from my family reunion where we rode four-wheelers, swam, barbecued, set off fireworks, rode horses, shot guns at those disc thingys, ate and talked and ate and talked and stayed up super late playing games and ate and talked and made s'mores and a campfire and went to the Golden Spike Railroad Museum and just hung out, too. 

There were 32 of us for 5 days! My brother was so kind to have us all there. The adults got bedrooms and the kids sprawled all over the floors upstairs and downstairs and in the office and anywhere a sleeping bag could fit. 

And I had my first book launch party at the fantastic The King's English in Salt Lake City! I brought Louisiana refreshments and did a book talk and there were tons of people and I sold about 80 books!!! Lots of hugs and talking and mini-reunions with family and old and new friends.

Don't forget to enter my MAJORLY COOL Giveaways which celebrate my book trailer launch as well as THE HEALING SPELL launch! You have until Thursday, Midnight, July 15th to enter both!!!
BOOK TRAILER - THREE PRIZE PACKAGES

The Healing Spell Book Launch with VAVOOM!

Major prize packages!

Hope your summer is going great!
xo,
Kimberley