Mindy Hardwick's Blog, page 28
March 29, 2014
Sweet Romance Event on Facebook
I’m participating as one of the sweet romance authors over at the SWEET ROMANCE EVENT on Facebook this weekend. I’ll be on a Q and A panel on Saturday evening at 9 p.m. (EST). This is 6 p.m. for my West Coast readers.
And I’ll have my own slot on Sunday evening from 7 p.m to 8.30 p.m. (EST). This is 4 p.m. for my West Coast readers.
This is my first Facebook Event and I’m really excited to participate. I’ll be giving away one signed copy of my print book, ROMANCE FOR ALL THE SEASONS, as well as ebook copies of one of my Elmheart Hotel novellas.
Facebook reader events are really fun and you can stop in at any time during my time slot. I post questions for readers to respond to.
The SWEET ROMANCE EVENT event has been going on all week and growing daily with new readers.
For those who don’t know, sweet romance is romance that is clean and focuses on the couple falling in love. They are stories you can hand to a teen or older person without any worry of material that might not be suitable for them. All of my romances are sweet romances.
I hope to see some of you there!
The link to the SWEET ROMANCE EVENT on Facebook is here.
Also, if you can’t make the event and you haven’t a chance to read my sweet romance story, NEW YEAR HEART SONG, this story is FREE on Amazon this weekend. It’s been running in the top ten of Amazon’s Free Holiday stories this weekend. When I wrote this post, it was number seven on the list!
Yea! You can download that story here.
March 27, 2014
FINDERS KEEPERS Available for Purchase
My picture book storybook ap, FINDERS KEEPERS, from MeeGenius Publishing is now available for purchase!
Story Blurb: Jesse is excited to go to the beach with his family and wants to find a glass float hidden along the shoreline. But, when both Dad and sister find a float, Jesse turns up empty handed. It will take a fall wind storm for Jesse to discover sometimes the best floats are found in unexpected ways.
FINDERS KEEPERS is based on the Lincoln City, Oregon event, Finders Keepers which is held every year Oregon coast. You can read more about Finders Keepers here.
FINDERS KEEPERS is a picture book ap. This means the story is read on a tablet, computer or phone. It is not available at this time in paperback or book form.
To purchase and read FINDERS KEEPERS on your tablet, computer or phone, you will need to download the MeeGenius Publishing ap. This is a free download.
You can find the MeeGenius Publishing download here:
Google Play Store (This is for all of you with Android tablets, phones, and computers)
Once you have the MeeGenius ap, open it on your tablet, phone or computer and FINDERS KEEPERS is a New Release. It’s also listed under Family in the category books or you can simply do a search for it under title or author.
Enjoy!
March 24, 2014
Cover Art for FINDERS KEEPERS
I’m so happy to show the cover art for my picture book, FINDERS KEEPERS, published with MeeGenius Publishing.
FINDERS KEEPERS is a digital picture book and I will post the buy links soon.
March 22, 2014
Researching Setting
It’s SOLVE’s Spring Beach clean-up weekend in Oregon and I’ve got my bucket and sifter all ready to comb through the sand for those small bits of plastic and other trash items which wash up on the Oregon beaches during the fall and winter storms.
I, like most Oregonians and Pacific Northwest folks, love the Oregon Coast. So, when I find stories which are set on the Oregon Coast, I jump at the chance to read them.
But when stories don’t live up to their settings, I get a little miffed, especially when it’s settings which I know well.
For example, one of the things which makes the Oregon Coast different than other beaches and extremely special is the 1967 Oregon Beach Bill which allows free access to the beach to everyone. There can never be any development on these beaches. They are free and open to the public. People and hotels who own property, do not own the beach. So, books that have a premise of development taking over the beaches, this does not happen on the Oregon Coast.
As a part of this free beaches, dogs run free on Oregon Coast beaches. Yep..that’s right. As long as my dog is under voice control, he is free to be off his leash and running with up and down beside me and with the other dogs.
Food! Portland has lovely food carts everywhere. It is a part of Portland culture. You can take walking tours of these food carts. But, a city like Cannon Beach does not have food carts. In Cannon Beach, you can not even cut down a tree–whether it’s dead or not–without getting a letter from a tree expert and going through City Council. Every summer, there is a great market in mid-town, but did you know, it’s geared more for the locals than tourists? Yep. This is not to say that tourists don’t attend, but, the market is designed for the people who live in Cannon Beach so they can buy fresh produce from local farmers.
So, what’s an author to do to make sure they don’t end up with errors in their setting? Research. And, research well.
1. Read the local papers. A good chunk of these are on-line. For example, if you’re reading Cannon Beach’s newspapers right now, you’ll know that there have been issues with the Seaside School District and a group who wants to start a Cannon Beach Charter School, after Seaside closed down the Cannon Beach elementary school and the kids all ride buses to Seaside. Now, you’re saying, so the kids go to a different town to go to school, what’s the big deal? The big deal is that in the winter storms with the heavy winds and in the possibility of tsunamis, those same kids may not be able to return to their homes in the event of emergencies. So, by reading the paper, you not only learn about the conflicts of the town, but look..I’ve also just discovered some great plot points–weather!
2. Weather Reports–We don’t have hurricanes on the West Coast. We have “winter wind storms.” But, if you’re out at the beach, they can feel an awful lot like hurricanes. We also don’t have basements in most of our houses, and we don’t have air conditioning in the Pacific Northwest homes because it’s just too cool in the summer to need it beyond a couple weeks. But these things are important to a story because your character isn’t going to head for the basement in the middle of a winter wind storm, unless they are living in an older home build around 1910 or so. And in most cases, your character isn’t going to reach for that air conditioning dial, they are going to get a fan and open windows and sliding glass doors to let in the fresh breeze.
3. The Locals: On the way to the beach, my sister and I stopped at Astoria and had a late lunch, early dinner at a very cool pub. This is the off season at the beach, and so the majority of the people at the pub were from this area. We were sitting near the bar and a guy was talking about how they could pay in advance for a “pint of the month” club. He was explaining to another man how they were given a number and then told the bartender this number and got to try out the latest microbrew. Very cool stuff which we only discovered by going to a local pub and listening.
4. City Government Websites: Research to find out about the city and their laws by going to the city’s website. For example, when you pull up Cannon Beach’s city website, you can easily go to a page which lists all the restrictions in Cannon Beach. These can be great ways to find conflict for a story. What happens to the newbie who has a garage sale one Saturday morning and the city councilman lives two doors down and comes charging down the street to tell her you need a permit?
As a writer, it’s really important to do the research on your setting. You can fool a lot of people, but the locals who live in that place or the ones who visit on a regular basis will know when your story rings true to the place they love.
March 18, 2014
Collage Art Poetry Workshop
Today, I’m presenting a Collage Art Poetry Workshop at Homelink School in Lake Stevens. The workshop is for two groups–an elementary group (3rd-5th grade) and a middle/high school group (6th grade-High School).
In both groups, we’re going to start off writing recipes about ourselves as a way of introductions. Next, I’m asking writers to exchange their recipes with someone else and have that person introduce them to us by reading the “About Me Recipe”. Recipes can also be used for characters in an activity called, “Bake Your Character” and I wrote a blog post about it here.
Then, for the younger kids, we’ll do a copy/change excuse poem based on Shel Silverstein’s poem, SICK. This is always a lively activity and gets kids excited about poetry writing. It also shows how you can take a poem and using the structure, copy that structure and make your own poem.
For the older kids, we’re going to do found poetry. I’ve got pages of an old Nancy Drew Mystery–(I used the cover for an art journal and kept the pages.) The kids will circle words and then exchange with another person who will write the found poem. Found poetry is another great warm-up for any age and can be used with a variety of materials–think long car trip and hand over those maps and brochures and ask a kid to write a found poem based on those travel materials.
Then, in both groups, we’ll move into the main activity of the day. Collage Poetry!
I’m starting by talking with the kids about similes and metaphors and we’ll work in pairs to come up with responses to some of the following:
A star sounds like ____________________________________
A cry tastes like_______________________________________
A circle smells like ______________________________________
A square moves like_______________________________________
A whisper looks like a_____________________________________
Mischief smells like ________________________________________
Then, we’ll work on creating Color Poems using personification. Each person will randomly select a color out a hat and answer a few questions which will help them personify the color. Some of the questions include:
How does your color move?
How does it sound?
What season was it born?
Who are friends with your color?
Who are enemies to your color?
Finally, we’ll take those colors and using a variety of materials (tissue papers, scraps of paper, and magazines), create a color collage which will go on one half of the paper with the poem on the other.
You can download the entire handout here: Collage Art Poetry Workshop Handout
The poems will be hung around downtown Lake Stevens during April–National Poetry Month.
March 16, 2014
Book Signing Photos
It was a great time on Saturday at the ROMANCE FOR ALL THE SEASONS book signing and author event at Uppercase Books in Snohomish. The author signing took place during the downtown Historic Snohomish Chocolate Walk.
I started the morning by attending the Vintage Market at Swan’s Farm. The place was packed. Vendors had great spring displays and lots of fun things for the yard. I picked up a painted blue watering can with daisy’s painted on the side. I bought some flowers and used it as a part of the book signing.
During the day, people strolled the downtown sidewalks carrying goodie bags and maps directing them to the next stop for chocolate. I bumped into the Mayor of Snohomish, Karen Guzak, who is also the owner of Yoga Circle Studio and my instructor…the place where I go to ground and center after too much computer time! She popped into the signing and bought a couple books and best of all–brought me some of the yummy chocolate from the walk which I was missing out on!
One of my favorite stories from the signing was a reader came in and told me that her granddaughter couldn’t wait to get a book signed. Her granddaughter heard me give a school visit last fall, but didn’t get a chance to have a signed book. Grandma bought copies of STAINED GLASS SUMMER, WEAVING MAGIC, and ROMANCE FOR ALL THE SEASONS. I was very happy to see WEAVING MAGIC go out the door. This story has been somewhat a hard sell, although I think it’s perfect for eighth graders and that’s exactly the age of the reader who bought the book.
Although the signing was for ROMANCE FOR ALL THE SEASONS, I sold just as many STAINED GLASS SUMMER. It’s nice to see that book still selling!
If you missed the book signing and would like a signed book plate for either WEAVING MAGIC or ROMANCE FOR ALL THE SEASONS, leave me a comment below with your email address and I will contact you for your mailing address.
Print WEAVING MAGIC can be found here.
Print ROMANCE FOR ALL THE SEASONS can be found here.
If you would like a print copy of STAINED GLASS SUMMER, please contact me for more details.
March 15, 2014
Writing with At-Risk Youth
One of the questions I often receive is: “How do I start a juvenile detention poetry workshop in my city?”
Usually, I direct people to the Teen Poems Behind Bars blog where we have created a sidebar with resource links.
However, now there is a book, WRITING WITH AT RISK YOUTH: THE PONGO TEEN WRITING METHOD, which I would highly encourage you to purchase if you want to run a juvenile detention poetry workshop in your city.
When I began the poetry workshop in detention, I had the support of Richard Gold and the Pongo Writing Project. They donated a collection of poetry books written by teens at King County Juvenile Detention and I met often with one of their mentors, Ann Teplick.
Ann’s work with the teens is featured in the book, WRITING WITH AT RISK YOUTH: THE PONGO TEEN WRITING METHOD, as well as answers to questions such as: How do I structure the workshop? What exactly is this poetry we are asking the teens to write, and How do I keep everyone safe in the workshop when I am asking them to write from the heart about personal experiences.
If you are at all considering jumping into this fabulous work, I highly recommend you get this book to help you on the journey!
March 12, 2014
Book Signing and Chocolate
I’ll be signing ROMANCE FOR ALL THE SEASONS on Saturday, March 15 from 11:00-5:00 p.m. at Uppercase Book Shop in downtown Snohomish. Come buy a book and have it signed!
And, even better…afterwards indulge in the Snohomish Chocolate Walk. The book signing is taking place at the same time as the Snohomish Chocolate Walk which benefits the Historic Society of Snohomish.
Saturday, March 15, 2014 – 11 a.m to 5 p.m.
Visit the downtown Snohomish businesses for delectable specialty chocolate treats!Take it easy. Arrive anytime, depart whenever…during event hours. There’s plenty of time to browse, nibble and people watch.
The chocolate walk costs $15 per person which includes a passport & map of participating businesses, a bag to collect your treats in (each ticketed guest collects one treat at each of the stops), and a raffle ticket to enter once you’ve visited all the stops. Great historic district prizes!
You can find out about the chocolate walk here.
March 6, 2014
Spring Fling Blog Hop
Happy Spring! I’m participating in Books To Go Now Spring Fling Blog Hop!
On the Spring Fling Blog Hop, there are giveaway prizes at each blog on the hop (you can find the whole list here), and there are two grand prizes.
1st Grand Prize: (1) Paperwhite Kindle
2nd Grand Prize: (1) $25 Amazon Gift Card
In order to be entered in the grand prize, all you have to do is leave your comment at each blog with an email address. Please no more than one comment per blog.Two winners will be chosen at random and notified no later than March 15, 2014.
Now, I’ll be honest–spring is not one of my favorite seasons. In the Pacific Northwest, spring can often be cold and not very spring-like.
Perhaps my lack of enthusiasm for spring is why none of my romance or young adult novels or even my upcoming picture book, FINDERS KEEPERS, are ever set in the spring. Summer is my most popular time of the year for my story settings and fall comes in a close second.
But…back to that Spring Fling Blog Hop and giveaway on my blog! Since ROMANCE FOR ALL THE SEASONS is my newest romance, I’d like to offer a giveaway of ONE ebook copy of ROMANCE FOR AL THE SEASONS. (US/International)
All you have to do to enter the giveaway is leave me a comment below and let me know your favorite spring memory. Please be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win!
And then, hop along to visit the other blogs on the Spring Fling Blog Hop here.
Happy Spring!
March 3, 2014
Juvie, by Steve Watkins
I’m getting ready to dive into a month long revision on my memoir, KIDS IN ORANGE: VOICES FROM JUVENILE DETENTION. I worked on this story for six months last year in a post-graduate semester at Vermont College.
It’s a big story with a lot of parts to it, and takes a big committment to jump back in again. But after attending the AWP Conference and sitting in on some memoir workshops and panels, I was inspired to commit to another draft of this story.
During March, I’m also participating in SPEEDBO which is basically NANOWRIMO in March. However, one of the differences is that not only can you fast draft, but you can also commit to editing a novel in a month. I went for that option with KIDS IN ORANGE.
If you want to find out more about SPEEDBO, it’s here:
Before I start revisions, I like to do some library browsing. One of the books which popped on my radar as I was browsing the Snohomish library shelves was JUVIE by Steve Watkins (Candlewick, 2013).
I’m always a little hesitant to recommend juvie YA books because so often the characters end up stereotypical and the detention center is portrayed as an evil, nasty place.
Thankfully, this was NOT the case in JUVIE. The main character, Sadie, is a good kid who gets caught in the wrong place and wrong time and finds herself involved in a crime. The story is told in alternating chapters between Sadie’s experience in detention and her experience with the crime. One of my favorite parts of the story are the other girls on the unit. Anyone who has worked with girls in detention or spent time in detention themselves, will recognize these girls on the unit. There is the young lady who cries herself to sleep every night. There are the two gang leaders and their quest for dominance–including kicking “sporks” under tables. My favorite line in the book is when the unit guard tells the girls, “Grab some floor.”
If you’re looking for a great YA juvie book to read or recommend to teens, this is one!
