Amy Makechnie's Blog, page 18

How to Pre-Order TEN THOUSAND TRIES!

hello readers.

Happy June. I am glad you are here!

We are just five weeks away from the release of my new middle grade book, TEN THOUSAND TRIES! In early review news, both Kirkus and Booklist have awarded TTT a Starred Review (thank you, thank you.)

You can now pre-order TEN THOUSANDS TRIES at any bookstore or online store, including Amazon.

Why Pre-Order? It is the very best way you can support an author because it alerts the retail business and publisher that there is interest. And of course it also means you will be the FIRST to receive TTT ON LAUNCH DAY, July 13th!

Pre-order from Gibson’s or Morgan Hill Bookstore, and you will receive a signed book (I’m also working on swag for the first 50 orders, which includes a raffle for a wicked-cool soccer ball and a one-on-one training session with Lionel Messi and Abby Wambach (JOKING about Leo and Abby…unless…maybe you can hook us up?)

Gibson’s:
Phone: (603) 224-0562
Gibsons@gibsonsbookstore.com

Morgan Hill:
(603) 526-5850
mhbs@tds.net

THE AUDIO VERSION OF TEN THOUSAND TRIES!
TTT is going to audiobook! Michael Crouch, an Audie Award-winning actor based in New York City will be narrating. He just started recording last week and I can’t wait to hear him as GOLDEN MACARONI and Lucy and Benny…sigh. So fun.
If buying a book is not in the budget, please consider requesting TEN THOUSAND TRIES from your library or classroom – word of mouth is still the best way to get a good book into the world.

I thank you so so much for your support and can’t wait to share this story with you! Stay tuned for many fun book things coming your way…


Happy Summer,
Amy

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Meet the New Baby…

Greetings, friends! It’s been way too long. A little update (that you have likely already seen if we are social media buddies)…

My new middle grade book, TEN THOUSAND TRIES is now available for pre-order! (hopefully you’re not disappointed that this isn’t a twins announcement). TEN THOUSAND TRIES will officially launch on May 18, 2021. Yippee! It’s been a long haul with this one.

I just turned in the copy edits to Clare, copy editor extraordinaire. The things she catches that my editor and I missed (for instance, the mother had two different names! and let’s not even talk about my math skills) …whew, thankful for the detail-oriented copy editors.

I’m EXCITED for you to read this book. Here’s a summary:

GOLDEN “Macaroni” Maroni is determined to become master of his eighth grade universe by channeling his hero: international soccer superstar, Lionel Messi. But first he’s got to survive middle school, win the soccer championship, and prevent Lucy Littlehouse from moving away. If he can do that, then maybe he can prevent Dad from losing to the three worst letters in the alphabet: A-L-S.

Golden will find a way. Even if it takes TEN THOUSAND TRIES.

You’re going to laugh, you’re going to cry, and you’re going to love it

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Friends, my blogging has waned over the years. In terms of content, I’m much more active on Instagram and creating a monthly-ish newsletter on all things books, new releases (from yours truly), events, writing, and creativity.

Please sign up for my AUTHOR NEWSLETTER HERE!

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Recent Reads & Recommendations!

Books read since January – there are some good ones!

CAPTAIN CLASS by Sam Walker: Want to be a better captain, leader, manager, or family member? This is how. LOVED it. Underlined nearly the entire book.

An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo: Gorgeous poetry inspired by Harjo’s return to her family’s Native lands.

OLIVE AGAIN by Elizabeth Strout: Cantankerous Olive is back in all her glory. Such a treat.

AT THE PULPIT: 185 YEARS OF DISCOURSES BY LATTER-DAY SAINT WOMEN by Jennifer Reeder and Katie Holbrook: Likely the most influential and personally empowering book I’ve read of late. Women are simply incredible.

ALL THAT’S BRIGHT AND GONE by Eliza Nellums: “I know my brother is dead. But sometimes Mama gets confused.” Told from a 6-year-old’s POV with a surprising and suspenseful twist!

FRINDLE by Andrew Clement: Why did I wait so long to read this?

THE BOY, THE MOLE, THE FOX AND THE HORSE: Oh wow, will you please read this book? It will take you 15 minutes. And you’ll be thinking about it for a long long time.

DEAR EDWARD by Ann Napolitano: What if you were the sole survivor of a plane crash? This book. I’ve been raving for weeks.

THE REMARKABLE JOURNEY OF COYOTE SUNRISE by Dan Gemeinhart: A sweet and spunky and might-make-you-cry middle grade debut. Loved it.

All the Tomie Books: THE GIFT OF THE POINSETTIA, STREGA NONA, THE BABY SISTER, ART LESSONS…they’re all so good. Tomie passed away last week. Kitlit, adults, and New Hampshire, esp (I’m biased) mourns. The Delight and Sadness of Tomie dePaola. What an artist.

You know the drill – what are you reading and recommending???

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Women’s History Month – Alice C. Smith! (19)

Alice C. Smith (1913-2006)

Alice C. Smith graduated from Columbia University in 1934. In 1946 she attended Utah State University and earned a Master’s in Sociology and subsequently joined the faculty. She was an assistant professor until the mid-1970’s, when she resigned to serve with the Relief Society general board to do service work around the world. It’s said she brought a “cosmopolitan and scholarly perspective” to the board.

I particularly like these remarks Alice made about women in the 60’s:

“I used to protest about ‘Patty Perfect’ all the time. I used to say that’s not real, that’s not the real world, nor is it the gospel….I think the Lord meant be perfect in being loved. Be loving, kind, and merciful. He wasn’t talking about getting up in the morning and combing your hair.”

In 1979, Smith described herself as belonging “to the school that feels that Jesus was not a salesman but a teacher…I believe that he was there to create behavioral changes that were permanent.”

Alice was a great believer in the small acts of women to change the world. From the pulpit in Salt Lake City in 1969, Alice spoke to thousands of women from around the world about their role in relieving suffering:

“[Women] will help combat the loneliness which plagues our world and impersonality of the big cities. They will look after the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the wounded, and distressed…They will be needed as my grandmother was when she left her warm pioneer bed on stormy nights to drive miles with a horse and buggy in response to a cry of need. As my mother during the depression found the hungry, so will they…They will help relieve physical, emotional, and mental suffering. They will aid the sinner and comfort the sorrowing. They will carry a message of gospel love to all our sisters throughout the world. As their warm, tender care spreads its web around the world, they will become a standard to the nations.”

Prophetic!

Thank you Alice.

Sources: At the Pulpit, Reeder and Holbrook

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Women’s History Month – Elsie Talmage Brandley! (18)

Elsie Talmage Brandley
1896-1934

Elsie Talmage Brandley was the daughter of an impressive couple: May Booth Talmage and scriptorian scholar James E. Talmage.

At Brigham Young University, Elsie was student body vice president and associate editor of the White and Blue, a student periodical. Years later she became the associate editor of the Young Women’s Journal (which later became The Improvement Era of which she was the general editor). “The mother of seven daughters, she darned stockings in between writing paragraphs or reading over proofs for the magazine.”

She was a very popular speaker and championed young people. She encouraged youth to search and find answers to their own questions.

Just after the The Great Depression, of which she lived through, Elsie delivered a speech to the youth at Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah. Here is an excerpt:

“Youth must ask in order to find answers; youth must analyze and harmonize. Their very eagerness to do so is indicative of their interest; indifferent passiveness would be death…on the other hand, youth must admit the fact that it accepts much without criticism and doubt: fruit is eaten without knowing botany; stars are loved in ignorance of astronomy; telegrams are sent with no knowledge of the Morse code; love and friendship, home and books and nature become dear and of great value with little attempt to explain technical reasons. Let us not encourage youth to segregate religion as the only phase of life upon which to concentrate doubtful inquiry; let us help them to see that they accept certain conditions with no stronger proof of their doing so than that they provide joy and hope and faith and courage; can they not accept religion, up to a certain point, with the same composure?”

The whole speech is brilliant, from the great mind of Elsie Talmage Brandley.

Elsie died of a “sudden illness” just before her 39th birthday. Her youngest was 4-years-old. There was a great mourning for a great lady.

Source: At the Pulpit by Reeder and Holbrook

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Women’s History Month – Amy Brown Lyman! (17)

Amy Brown Lyman. Courtesy of Utah State Historical Society
1872-1959

“Women everywhere are leaders.” -Amy Brown Lyman

Amy Brown Lyman witnessed several tragedies in her young life due to a lack of medical care and vaccinations. This led her to a life of service and education. Social work was the defining cause of her life.

She served as Relief Society President, was a secretary for the National Council of Women, was an excellent business woman, volunteered with Chicago Charities, attended the lectures of Jane Addams (a prominent crusader against poverty), worked with The Red Cross, established a social welfare program within the church, taught welfare classes at BYU, and served in the Utah House of Representatives passing a bill to provide funds for maternity and infant care.

Whew! Makes me feel like a slacker.

Amy Brown Lyman was also a woman of great faith. The following is from a speech she gave in April 1926 at Temple Square, in Salt Lake City, Utah:

“Sublime faith is one of the greatest of all gifts. Let us pledge our allegiance to our faith…For I have observed that those who have no faith, and who tend to undermine and destroy faith in others, never, so far as I know, leave anything constructive in its place. Let us not be influenced…by the wave of doubt and despair filling the earth today. Let us cling to the belief that faith with good works is an asset, a comforter, a blessing; it is the power of God…”

Stay tuned for more great women!

Sources: At the Pulpit by Reeder and Holbrook, utahwomenshistory.org

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Women’s History Month – Jane Manning! (16)

Jane Manning via Wikipedia

Jane Manning was a remarkable woman.

In her Life Sketch, recorded in 1893, Jane wrote of walking 800 miles to Nauvoo to be with people of her new faith. She recalled, “We walked until our shoes were worn out, and our feet became sore and cracked open and bled until you could see the whole print of our feet with blood on the ground.”[5] When Jane and her family arrived in Nauvoo, they were welcomed by Joseph Smith himself (Joseph Smith was the prophet of newly organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).

“Brother Joseph sat down by me and said, ‘God bless you. You are among friends.”

Jane, her husband, and children, were part of the the first Mormon pioneer company to enter the Salt Lake Valley in September 1847. She was the first documented African-American woman to come to the Utah Territory as a pioneer. “At the time of their settlement in the Salt Lake Valley, they made up a third of the 12 African Americans living in Utah, and were the only ones who were free.”

There’s a story of Jane written by Eliza Partridge Lyman (an ancestor of mine!) Jane and her family lived in poverty, but in 1849, when her neighbor Eliza had no food for her family until the harvest while her husband was on a mission to California, Eliza wrote: “Not long after Amasa (husband) had gone, Jane James, the colored woman, let me have two pounds of flour, it being half of what she had.”

Jane and her family became quite prosperous and were able to hold property and animals. After Jane’s husband left her, and she was a single parent, things became much harder. She sold her farm and worked as a servant.

The thing I most admire about Jane is her charity and love for a religion, even though she was not able to participate in all of the blessings afforded to white members of the church. She was told to wait. The church’s theology at the time did not give the same blessings to African Americans as it did to whites, for instance attending the temple. It’s a bit infuriating and hard for me to understand.

She died without the same privileges as whites had within the church, yet she remained on good terms with her brothers and sisters of the church because she believed the gospel was true. At her death, the prophet spoke.

Jane is very revered in the LDS Christian faith today. In June 1999, a monument to Janes’s life was dedicated near her grave in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. On it is a quote by Manning:

“I try in my feeble way to set an example for all.” -jane manning

Stay tuned for more amazing women in history.

Sources: Wikipedia

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Women’s History Month – Susan B. Anthony! (15)

Susan B. Anthony (seated at center) met with Western suffragists, including Utahns Martha Hughes Cannon (standing, far left), Electa Bullock (seated, far left), Sarah M. Kimball (standing directly behind Anthony), Emmeline B. Wells (standing to Anthony’s left) and Zina D. H. Young, (seated directly left of Wells), at the 1895 Rocky Mountain woman suffrage convention in Salt Lake City. Photo courtesy of Utah State Historical Society

Happy Women’s History Month!

Susan B. Anthony is the most well-known suffragist in history. She, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton traveled extensively to speak in favor of women’s suffrage (the right to vote). Together they co-founded the American Equal Rights Association, and “in 1868 they became editors of the Association’s newspaper, The Revolution, which helped to spread the ideas of equality and rights for women.”

She was a great friend of Emmaline B. Wells at a time when much of the country spurned Utah over the issue of religion. It was was with Anthony’s help that Utah’s voting rights for women were reinstated 17 years after being taken away.

In 1872, Anthony was arrested for voting. She was tried and fined $100 for her crime. But in the end, this helped her cause as it brought anger and attention to the suffrage movement.

Susan and her brothers and sisters were abolitionist activists, largely due to the influence of their mother and father (whose was friends with William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass).

Ms. Anthony worked with Harriet Tubman in the Underground Railroad; Tubman later joined Anthony in the women’s rights movement.

In 1876, she led a protest at the 1876 Centennial of our nation’s independence. Her speech—“Declaration of Rights”— was written by Stanton and another suffragist, Matilda Joslyn Gage, where she said:

“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” -susan b. anthony



Courtesy of betterdays2020; illustration by Brook Smart

How can you not love Susan?!

If you enjoyed this please consider sharing! Stay tuned for more stories of incredible women.

Sources: Utah Women’s History, womenshistory.org, betterdays2020, illustrator Brook Smart

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Women’s History Month – Emmaline B. Wells! (14)

Emmaline B Wells



“I believe in women, especially thinking women.” -Emmaline B. Wells

Happy Women’s History Month! I’m taking comfort in reading about some remarkable women of the past. They too did hard things! Let me tell you about an amazing woman of the suffragette movement and her contribution to women gaining the right to vote!

Emmeline Blanche Woodward Harris Whitney Wells has a remarkable place in history, both in the early Christian faith, and in the women’s right movement. She earned her teaching certificate at age 14, was a journalist, editor, poet, women’s rights advocate, and diarist.

Her first husband disappeared and she never saw him again. Her first baby died at age 5 weeks. Her first daughter was born in a wagon bed in the middle of a treacherous winter storm. She was a widow at age 22.

Now this is where it gets really (personally) interesting. Alone and bereft, Emmaline approached Daniel H. Wells (my great great great grandfather) and asked him to consider marrying her. Wells was the mayor of Salt Lake City and already had six other households. He consented, but had little time for her and she wrote of her great struggle and loneliness.

At the age of 82, she became the fifth Relief Society General President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving from 1910 until her death.

Fun facts:

Invited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, Emmaline represented Utah women in the National Woman Suffrage Association for nearly 30 years!Remained a lifelong friend of Susan B. Anthony (Anthony sent Wells a gold band as a token of their friendship)Lobbied in Washington, D.C. for statehood for UtahMet with several presidents in the White HouseRepresented American women in international conferencesMet Queen Victoria in London in 1899Was the editor of the Woman’s Exponent for 37 yearsAccepted Brigham Young’s challenge to lead an effort to save and store thousands of bushels of wheatThis wheat was used for relief during and after WWIPresident Woodrow Wilson paid her a personal visit in 1919 to thank her for her workPublished a book of poetryLeft a life story in 46 diariesAt her death, the Utah state flag was flown at half mast – one of the first times it had ever been done for a woman.



Welcoming envoys from San Francisco Exposition carrying national suffrage petition to Washington D.C., on steps of Utah Capitol – October 16th, 1915. Front (L to R): Maria. A. Kinderberg (driver of the automobile), Ingeborg Kindstedt (machinist), Emmeline B. Wells, and Sara Bard Field (messenger). Image courtesy of National Woman’s Party
 Source

She was small, but wielded great power with her pen. (YES!) This was especially true when it came to writing about a woman’s right to vote and run for public office (which she did – against Martha Hughes Cannon; Martha got the vote.)

Emmaline wasn’t perfect, nor maybe “easy” to be around all of the time. I read that she suffered from “strong emotion” due to her many trials.

But she was also this:

“Her mind is keen, her intellect sure, her powers unbending,” wrote Susa Young Gates. “She possesses a rarely beautiful spirit … is an eloquent speaker, a beautiful writer … is exquisitely pure — no unclean thing could enter her presence or remain in her atmosphere. She is beloved by all who dwell in the church, all who know her and their name is legion.”

Read more about her HERE and HERE, where it is said that her life was “more glorious than fiction.”

If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing. Stay tuned for more amazing women!

Sources: Deseret News, Zion’s Suffragists, Utah Women’s History

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