Natasha Wing's Blog, page 11
December 2, 2014
December 1, 2014
The Night Before The Night Before Christmas – Book Giveaway
A new children’s book just came out with the same title as my book only this story sees the night before Christmas Eve from the elves’ point of view. Get both books and compare what people and elves are doing to get ready for Christmas.
The other The Night Before The Night Before Christmas – Book Giveaway.
Filed under: Natasha Wing Tagged: Christmas books
November 25, 2014
Santa’s Silly Sleigh Team Try Outs
I want to shout it out to the world, I LOVE THE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THIS BOOK!
When Blake Ross’s youngest child asked, “Daddy, why doesn’t Santa use elephants?” the question sparked an idea. What if Santa had different animals try out for the position of sleigh puller?
In Daddy…why doesn’t Santa use ELEPHANTS? Ross has published a hilarious take on why Santa had to rule out other animals before deciding on reindeer to pull his sleigh. He sets this book up as an alphabetical tryout of animals and why they weren’t suited to help Santa. For example, monkeys drove Santa bananas. Giraffes were a pain in the neck. And skunks…
Because the illustrations are so clever and full of energy and humor, I can almost forgive him for not including an animal from every letter of the alphabet, missing the mark of marketing this as an alphabet book as well as a Christmas book. Still, kids will love the silliness and adults will get the hidden humor. The large format of the 40-page book (10″x12″) is wonderfully suited to the dynamic art that seems to burst from the page.
Ross is a graphic designer who has ventured into self-publishing children’s books. I would love for him to illustrate one of mine! His work has a child-like sensibility that naturally brings a smile to one’s face. Plus he’s great at playing with the borders of the physical book. This book begs to be read before Christmas and would prompt a fun art project for kids by having them draw different animals pulling Santa’s sleigh. I wonder how a Pushmi-pullyu would do?
To purchase a book click here.
Filed under: Natasha Wing Tagged: Blake Ross, elephants, Santa, sleigh
November 24, 2014
November 20, 2014
The Story of My Thanksgiving Story
When I was a kid growing up in Connecticut, Thanksgiving was spent in Massachusetts either at my grandparent’s farm in Littleton or at my Aunt Loe’s house. I loved the excitement of traveling up to the farm, passing open fields where deer were grazing, and stopping at the Hebert candy mansion for some toffee and fudge. But most of all I couldn’t wait to see my cousins.
My mom comes from a family of seven children so I had a lot of cousins. While the turkey cooked, we played Risk or Hide ‘n’ Seek or rummaged in my grandpa’s barn that was filled with antiques, tools for anything needing fixing, and old cars. When it was time for dinner, the cousins all sat at the kids’ table while the grownups sat together at the big table. Then in Norman Rockwell fashion, Grandpa, standing at the head of the table, carved the turkey and the feast began.
There are many scenes in The Night Before Thanksgiving that were inspired by childhood memories.
That night we were nestled
all snug in our beds,
while visions of turkey legs
danced in our heads.
The turkey legs were coveted among our family, perhaps because there are only two. I always hoped that there’d be some dark meat left by the time the platter made its way to the kids’ table. Then I’d plop a big blob of mashed potatoes on my plate next to the turkey meat, press an indent in the top of the mound with my spoon, and fill it with gravy. After saying grace, I’d slice the side of the potato crater with my fork and gravy would spill down onto my turkey like lava.
All were assembled
except Uncle Norm,
who called us to say
he was stuck in a storm.
Every once in a while there’d be a snow storm either the night before or on Thanksgiving day that inhibited a family from attending, or made for a long drive to get there. Usually it was my cousins in Pennsylvania. But I can remember driving up in snowstorms and all of us being super anxious about making it.
The very next morning -
Thanksgiving – yippee!
We got up and watched
the parade on TV!
We kept the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on in the background while the dinner was being prepared and oh! The pageantry! The floats! And Santa Claus!
When Mom wasn’t looking
we stuck olives on fingers,
said they were puppets
and grand opera singers.
What kid hasn’t stuck olives on their fingers? In the book the kids have green olives, but we had black. Mom always scolded us for doing it, but we thought it was hilarious.
We ate and we ate,
yet last but not least…
the very next day
was a leftovers feast!
Our family didn’t wait until the next day. The cousins went outside to play football while the uncles smoked cigars and watched football, and soon people were helping themselves to a turkey sandwich and another slice of pie.
I hope you make lasting wonderful memories of this holiday that you can pass down to your children.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving feast.
Win a 4 lb. chocolate turkey from Hebert. Enter here.
Filed under: Natasha Wing Tagged: cousins, Hebert candy, leftovers, Macy's Parade, Night Before, Thanksgiving, The Night Before Thanksgiving
November 19, 2014
Christmas Wish
Dear Santa,
This Christmas I am wishing for a new house. We are living in a rental and this morning our cat peed on the bed because she’s out of sorts after the move, I found a bug in the refrigerator, and the furnace man told us there’s a colony of black widows living under the house.
I want a charming home with a writing studio that I can decorate with my children’s artwork. I want bookshelves galore, and a writing desk I can stand up at. And I want a door that I can close so I can separate my working life from my relaxing life.
Is that asking too much, Santa?
Yours truly,
Natasha
Filed under: Natasha Wing
Paleo Pie Crust
Since I wrote my pie book, A Slice of Humboldt Pie, I have gone gluten-free which means I can’t eat a single crust in my book. But with Thanksgiving coming, I cannot go without having some kind of pie. So I (gulp) bought a frozen gluten-free pie crust to try this year figuring if I don’t like it, then I didn’t waste the expense of buying all the ingredients.
My nutritionist gave me this recipe as an alternative that I’ll try on my husband and me later instead of on my friends for the first time on Thanksgiving. But if you’re up for it, here’s a printable allergy friendly (nut and egg free) paleo pie crust recipe that uses coconut, honey and flax seeds.
If you want traditional pie crust recipes check out my book.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Filed under: Natasha Wing Tagged: A Slice of Humboldt Pie, paleo pie crust recipe, pie crust recipes
PiBoIdMo Day 19: Kelly Light Wants to be the Hardest Working WO-Man in Show Business (plus prizes!)
Inspiration from the tireless late James Brown.
Originally posted on Writing for Kids (While Raising Them):
by Kelly Light
“I want to be The Hardest Working WO-Man in Show Business”
But I’m tired. Are you?
It’s been an insane few months in my life. My book, Louise Loves Art, came out September 9th! Then I went on a 27-day book tour.
When I sit down to work and I have A LOT of work…sometimes, I got ‘nuthin.
Sometimes we feel like we just can’t go on.
We can’t do no more.
But you can. You can get back up. Like James.
You can find it in yourself. You have come this far.
You can still dance and spin.
You’ve got more ideas inside of you, dig. Dig deep.
Throw off that cape! Pull yourself up.
Let’s channel a little James this year.
Watch this:
James Brown.
The hardest working Man in show business.
Even he just has to fall on his knees and ask… Please.!?!?
Please…
View original 440 more words
Filed under: Natasha Wing
November 18, 2014
Blog Tour Begins
I’m doing a blog tour to let people know about my new book, The Night Before Hanukkah. There will be reviews, interviews, and giveaways so check out these posts:
Nov. 18
Guest Post on The Children’s Book Review
The Angel Forever Tuesday Tales
Upcoming links will be updated when they go live:
December 1 Interview Patricia Stoltey
December 2 Giveaway Kosher on a Budget
December 5 Review ReaderKidz
December 7 Interview ProvatoEvents
December 8 Review/Giveaway Tara Dairman
December 11 Guest Post Michelle Edwards Blog
TBD From Tots to Teens
TBD GeoLibrarian
TBD Review MommyRamblings
TBD Review Sandra Bornstein
Filed under: Natasha Wing Tagged: chanukah, Hanukkah, Kosher, The Angel Forever, The Children's Book Review, The Night Before Hanukkah
Stars Go Blue Review
My interest in this book is that Laura Pritchett is an award-winning Colorado author who lives outside of Fort Collins. My book club is reading this for their next selection and I’m looking forward to the discussion. Also, my aunt’s husband has Alzheimer’s disease and so does the main character in Pritchett’s story.
The novel is about an elderly estranged couple living in different quarters on their Colorado ranch. Like the ranch, Ben Cross’s mind is declining and he’s having trouble remembering and identifying things. His hardened wife, Renny, is a reluctant caretaker and is pushed to her brink. In the meantime, they find out that the man who killed their daughter is being released from prison and that stirs up bad memories for them and the daughter’s children. While Ben still has some cognizance, he plans to revenge the killer and sets off in a snowstorm to find him armed with reminder notes in his pocket, some cash he stole from his wife, and two syringes to get the deed done.
This story is emotional in how much a relationship can deteriorate and be strained as a result of Alzheimer’s, and is touching when there are break-through remembering moments. It also brings up the question of how can one die with dignity after being an able, intelligent person. The Renny character struck a chord since she reminded me of people I know who are hard on the outside, but aching for love in the inside.
The setting is palpable, you get a good sense of life on a ranch.
I recommend Stars Go Blue particularly for people who know someone with Alzheimer’s disease, couples who are estranged, and ranchers. There are some gentle reminders that there is still a human being underneath all that forgetfulness, and that love still exists, even when life gets hard.
Word is there’s a movie option on this book so let’s hope it makes it to the big screen. I had thoughts of the movie Nebraska while reading this.
Counterpoint, June 2014
Buy it on Amazon
To learn more about Laura and her books go to her website.
Filed under: Natasha Wing Tagged: Alzheimer's, Colorado writers, Laura Pritchett, ranchers
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