Kimber An's Blog, page 6

Young Adult Books for Gifts

HARRY POTTER continues to rule the bookshelves in our house during this age.

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But, our hearts are plenty big enough for YA Science Fiction too.  Think you've heard the last twist on vampires?  Check out PEEPS by Scott Westerfeld!  It will totally creep your younger friends with a scientifically plausible explanation for everything having to do with Blood-Sucking Dead Guys.
Okay, that will do for the younger set.  I'll post favorite adult books tomorrow.

Middle Grade Books for Gifts

Be sure to scroll down and read the previous post, because children vary on reading ability and interest during this stage.  Of course, this is when the age of HARRY POTTER begins.
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But, there are other awesome books too!
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Like the PERCY JACKSON series.  More into Science or Steampunk, try the LEVIATHAN series by extrordinary SF YA author, Scott Westerfeld.

Gift for Early Readers

Don't stop reading to your child once she learns how to read on her own! 
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HUMPHREY THE LOST WHALE by Wendy Tokuda.  This is a true story!
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For your little early reading Star Wars Geek, DK puts out graded readers, including ones based on STAR WARS!
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The AKIKO series will encourage your girl to keep going with her love of science and adventure as she enters a stage of development when it's often lost.

Once they've mastered those, they'll be ready for THE GUARDIANS OF GA'HOOLE series by Kathryn Lasky and the WARRIORS series by Erin Hunter.  

Gift Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers

This age group can handle and, indeed, will demand longer read out loud times.  They're also very much into pre-reading.  Don't be surprised if they learn before the official age of five.
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G IS FOR GOAT by Patricia Polacco.  In fact, she has a huge backlist of books for most age groups.  You really can't go wrong giving her books.  Just make sure the one you choose is age appropriate.
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IS YOUR MAMA A LLAMA?  by Deborah Guarino  My second daughter wore out several copies of this one.

Holiday Gift Books for Babies

As a former nanny, present homeschool mom, and a former book reviewer, I always post about good books to give for the holidays.  Remember, when you give a book to a child of any age, you may very well be saving her life and her heart, building his courage to follow his path to greatest, and encourage parent/child bonding through the read out loud experience.  Books are the perfect gift for any occasion!
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HAND, HAND, FINGERS, THUMB by Al Perkins
http://www.amazon.com/Fingers-Thumb-Bright-Early-Board/dp/0679890483
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GOING ON A BEAR HUNT by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury
http://www.amazon.com/Were-Going-Bear-Hunt-Celebratory/dp/1416936653/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323920267&sr=1-2
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Board books by DK, the same folks who put out DK Eyewitness for big people.  They're all great, you really can't go wrong getting these ones for the babies you know.

New Contract Signed! 'Valentine's Day in the Hardware Store Parking Lot'

Hey, gang, it's a done deal.  I just signed with Noble Romance for what will be my very first regular adult published story as well as my very first published Short Story.  'Valentine's Day in the Hardware Store Parking Lot' is about a woman who has worked very hard at finding her Happily Ever After, but she's done it using everyone else's gameplan but her own.  Needless to say, her quest was a bust.  Then, she takes a chance and seeks out the wisdom of a little old lady who can find the right guy for every girl just by looking at his truck or car.  This will be for the Sweetheart Line, so it's all in The Chase.  No nookie.  My YA girl loved it, even thought the Heroine is almost thirty years old.  So, I think it might have broad appeal.  More news as this moves through the process to release.
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Here's Martina McBride to help celebrate!   My Baby Loves Me Just the Way That I Am

'So Many Stories?'

I'm at Fab ePubs talking about character archaetypes and mythology today.   http://fabulouslyyoungepubs.blogspot.com/2011/12/so-many-stories.html

One Story At a Time

It's so hard when there are so many stories logged away in my imagination and I love them all the same!  After much soul-searching and emailing with my editor, I've decided to put off Manic Knight yet again.  I just can't do it justice and get the next book in the Ophelia Dawson Chronicles in a timely manner too.  The Chronicles are a series and it's a good idea to get books in a series out in a quick lock-step, so readers don't forget in between because each story is connected.
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Manic Knight could be the start of a series too.  I got more ideas.  However, it's a different kind of series, more episodic so each book would stand completely alone.  It's like comparing the Star Trek movies (same characters, same 'universe,' but different stories each,) with the Star Wars movies which are all interconnected stories in one big saga.  I like both kinds of series. 
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One thing I learned from my daughter is how the saga is constructed.  She's totally into Harry Potter.  I love that 'universe' too, but she knows where all the type-ohs and kissing scenes are by book, page number, paragraph, and sentence.  Anyway, she pointed out to me that the Harry Potter novels are all like one humongous novel and structured accordingly.  So, I went through and discovered she was right.
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This means my next step in the Ophelia Dawson Chronicles needs to be me beating out the entire series like it's one big screenplay, ala Blake Snyder's Beat Sheet from SAVE THE CAT!   That's how to bring the saga around to a satisfying conclusion.
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I'll miss Manic Knight.  It's been waiting its turn for several years now.  But, I will get to it one day.  Here's Alicia Keys to accentuate my sigh-   'No One'
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And here's 'How Harry Potter Should Have Ended.'  You'll know why we love this one by the second to last scene when Snape says, "No, I mean a reeeeeally long story."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsYWT5Q_R_w

War on the Homefront, Then and Now

Good morning, Blog Buds. 

I've been watching 1940's House in an effort to decide if I have the gumption to revise a novel I wrote called Manic Knight.  I've already told my editor about it and she said she'd like to see it.  Manic Knight was the third novel I sent through Queryland and it almost made it.  Sugar Rush was the fourth novel I sent through Queryland and it scored my first publishing contract.  In any case, Manic Knight is a Science Fiction based Time Travel story about a biracial girl, Angelica, who is called from the present day back to 1940 Britain to take her white father's place as a Bedivere Knight after he's killed in battle.  If you've read any of the Ophelia Dawson stories, you know that Ophelia's true love, Adrian, is the son of a Bedivere Knight too.  I decided, early on, to connect my different series by 'world-building' because it's so huge and vital in the Fantasy and Science Fiction genres.  Why build a new fictional universe when I can just expand the same one?

The thing that strikes me the most about 1940's House is the different experience of people back then during wartime and people right now.  The United States has been at war since September 11, 2011, but, for the most part, most people are free to ignore that fact.  We haven't had to walk instead of drive so that the military can have our oil to drive the engine of war.  We can walk into any Walmart and have a couple dozen brands of shampoo to choose from.  We don't need to black out our windows to keep bomber planes from destroying our homes. 

Some people say modern Americans have it too easy, that we're too soft, and we could never handle another time period like World War II.  We'd sit down and cry for our iPads and starve to death when the government ran out of food to put into our crying little mouths.

I disagree.  I think that resourcefulness and determination is still there.  A lot of Americans would be sent reeling for a while, I think, but we'd find our feet and come back swinging.

We're like a sleeping dragon you really do not want to wake up, because we'll be seriously pissed if you do.

The lesson I take away from the 1940's House is plant a garden, keep my bike in good condition, learn to catch, gut, and cook fish, learn to be self-sufficient, even if we don't need to and we don't actually live that way all the time.

I think the dragon should keep at least one eye open at all times.
http://www.ready.gov/

P.S. You should be able to find 1940's House on video or DVD at your local library or you can buy it off Amazon.com.  It's tied for first place with Frontier House as my favorite Historical-Reality series.

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