Stacy Juba's Blog, page 105

25 Years Ago Today: Friendship Pins, the Silly Bandz of the 1980s

Twenty-five years ago, friendship pins adorned kids' tennis shoes across America. When I was in elementary school back in the mid-1980s, I proudly displayed the safety pins, decorated with small colorful beads, attached to my shoe laces.

Today the hot trend is Silly Bandz, a brand of silicone rubber bands with shapes including animals, objects, and letters. They are distributed by BCP Imports and are generally worn as bracelets by middle school, high school, and elementary students.

If you...

25 Years Ago Today: Novelist and Short Story Writer Maria Savva

I'd like to welcome my guest Maria Savva, who has written some truly fascinating works of literary and contemporary fiction. Maria lives in London and is a qualified solicitor, as well as a writer.

Her published novels are Coincidences and A Time to Tell, and she has also published the short story collections Pieces of a Rainbow, and Love and Loyalty (and Other Tales.)

A Time to Tell is a family saga spanning 50 years and three generations of one family. Pieces of a Rainbow is a collection o...

Free Giveaway – Order Your Complimentary Copy of U.S. Flag Picture Book Just in Time for Holidays

In celebration of Flag Day and the Fourth of July, I am excited to announce a very special free offer. From now through July 4, 2010, I will give away an unlimited number of electronic PDF copies of my children's picture book The Flag Keeper, about a spunky little girl determined to create her own "Independence Day" and prove she is old enough to treat the U.S. flag with respect.

I wrote the text of the story and my father, Larry Drumtra, an extremely talented artist, created 24 pages of...

25 Years Ago Today: Mystery and Suspense Author Darcia Helle

I'd like to welcome my good friend, talented mystery/suspense author Darcia Helle. It's hard to believe that Darcia and I just met a few months ago, through the web site LibraryThing, as she's one of those rare people it feels as if you've known forever. Darcia has five novels published and is at work on number six, and I can tell you that her books are quite addicting. You can't read just one!

Darcia grew up in Massachusetts, then moved to the Tampa Bay area of Florida in 2002. She is...

Talented Authors Share Special 25 Years Ago Today Moments

Coming from a newspaper reporter background, I was trained to write "advance" stories and "follow-up" pieces. As a result, I plan to write a monthly blog entry that touches on the highlights from the previous month and that looks ahead at coming attractions.

Kris Langley as seen in the Twenty-Five Years Ago Today Book Trailer. Click on the picture to view You Tube trailer.

In May, my Twenty-Five Years Ago Today heroine Kris Langley was "interviewed" on author Darcia Helle's blog "A Word...

25 Years Ago Today: Beth Solheim, Author of the Sadie Witt Mysteries

I'd like to welcome my fellow Sister in Crime Beth Solheim. Like the main character in her Sadie Witt mystery series, Beth was born with a healthy dose of imagination and a hankering to solve a puzzle. She learned her reverence for reading from her mother, who was never without a book in her hand.

By day, Beth works in Human Resources. By night, she morphs into a writer who frequents lake resorts and mortuaries and hosts a ghost or two in her humorous paranormal mysteries. Raised and still l...

25 Years Ago Today: Childhood Lessons on the Craft of Writing

While organizing my bookshelf, I stumbled across a special book that I haven't picked up in years. It bears a quill pen designed onto a simple brown hard cover and the title "Writing: Unit-Lessons in Composition." I bought this college textbook from a used bookstore when I was about 11 years old.

According to the handwritten names scrawled on the inside cover, it previously belonged to students named Tom and Donna. I remember marveling at the vivid excerpts that opened each chapter...

25 Years Ago Today: Susan Whitfield, Author of the Logan Hunter Mysteries

I'd like to welcome Susan Whitfield, author of the intriguing and award-winning Logan Hunter Mystery series. A native North Carolinian, Susan lives in eastern NC with her husband and near their two sons. The fourth and possibly the last in the Logan Hunter series, Sin Creek, will be available in Fall 2010. Susan is currently working on The Goose Parade of Old Dickeywood, not part of the series. She also has plans to write an historical mystery about an ancestor who was a Knight of the Bath ...

Twenty-Five Years Ago Today Book Trailer Featured in May Contest

The book trailer for Twenty-Five Years Ago Today is entered in the May 2010 YGR Best Trailer contest over at YouGottaReadVideos.Blogspot.com. The contest is designed for fun and to help book trailers gain more exposure.

Readers, if you enjoy watching book trailers to find prospective titles for your to-read list, you'll find a gold mine of videos for your viewing pleasure. If you're an author, you might be interested to know that they sponsor monthly book trailer contests. Submissions are...

25 Years Ago Today: Guest Blog Guidelines for Published Authors

Over the coming months, I will be featuring guest authors of mystery, suspense, thriller, literary fiction, romance, non-fiction and other genres on this blog. Published authors who are interested in writing a 25 Years Ago Today column, please e-mail me through my web site.

Please note that this is a family-friendly blog and I need to keep the post content and book covers PG-13. Here are the guidelines below:

1. Use this question as a springboard to write a short article, about 200-250 words: ...