Cheryl Rainfield's Blog, page 67

Free teacher’s guides for Lois Duncan’s YA novels

Lois Duncan has written teacher’s guides for at least 8 of her YA suspense novels–and the teacher’s guides are free to download! They include guides for my favorites–Down A Dark Hall, The Third Eye, Stranger With My Face, Locked In Time.

Lois Duncan is one of my very favorite YA authors. I read her YA paranormal suspense novels over and over again as a teen–they helped me survive those years–and I’ve read them many times over the years. They always grab me and pull me right through the story, making me feel and care. I was inspired by her books.

If you haven’t read her books, I highly recommend that you do. If you have–go get your free teacher’s guides!

Scars readers left comments in back of library book

A woman I’ve met walking Petal in the mornings told me today that she just got Scars out of the library and read it, found it moving & important (and she couldn’t stop thinking about my arm), AND that teens had written, in the back of the library copy, “I love this book” & “me too.” That felt so good to hear! (beaming) I wish I could see the copy–but just hearing about it is a delight. And so is having a neighbor read my book and find it moving and helpful! She’s going to read Hunted next. (grinning)

I have a loving community and had my first really good birthday

I think I just had my first truly good birthday! And an incredible birthday party/Monica Hughes Award celebration with many people who care about me. Birthdays, and the time leading up to them (and for a while after) are usually pretty rough. In cult, “birthday” is “death day” with extreme repeated torture and threats of murder/death (etc), and it happened for me for much of my life. So I did have fear and sadness and tiny bits of despair today, but I moved through those to happiness and contentment and good feeling.

It felt SO good to:

1) wake up to Petal snuggled beside me

2) find right after so many lovely birthday wishes on FaceBook, Twitter, and email

3) have my neighbor and her daughter give me a cake, flowers, and sign happy birthday to me, and then play with Petal

4) have a lovely, warm, kind post by Julie Powers Schoerke reminding me that I put good into the world and am kind

5) have a lovely, fun birthday party hosted by Lena Coakley with SO many writers and friends who I care about–and to hear them laugh with the games we played, to feel their warmth and caring. I went through anxiety and fear even while parts of me were excited and glad, and then, finally, after happy birthday was sung, I was able to relax…and just feel good.

6) be able to say some of what I said here, at the party, and have it be okay and accepted (it always helps to be heard)

7) feel the caring, the warmth, the friendship

play with Petal.

It helps so much to have good, kind people around me, no abuse, and just…celebration, love, laughter, friendship, good feeling. I am so grateful for that all. So grateful to have had a good birthday. Thank you to everyone who sent me good wishes, and/or who was with me tonight. I’m still shocked…but in a good way…that it was a good day overall.

Very, very glad.

I forgot to take photos, but I think Lena took some, so there may be some photos to come. (Though I did post some photos of my little dog Petal today on Twitter and FB. )

Guest Post by YA and children’s author C Lee McKenzie on her new middle-grade Alligators Overhead

Today YA and children’s author C L McKenzie joins us to talk about her new middle-grade novel Alligators Overhead. It’s available in paperback

($12.95) and kindle

($2.99), as well as on Barnes and Noble and Smashwords, so no matter what type of book you like to read (paper or ebook) you should be in luck. But first, check out her very cool trailer!

What the Book’s About:

Alligators, witches and a spooky mansion aren’t your average neighbors unless you live at the edge of the Ornofree swamp in the backwater town of Hadleyville. The town’s bad boy, Pete Riley, may only be twelve, but he’s up to his eyeballs in big trouble, and this time he isn’t the cause. This time the trouble arrives when a legendary hundred-year-old mansion materializes next door and the Ornofree alligators declare war to save their swamp from bulldozers. Things only get worse when Pete’s guardian aunt and several of her close friends vanish while trying to restore order using outdated witchcraft. Now Pete must find the witches and stop the war. He might stand a chance if his one friend, Weasel, sticks with him, but even then, they may not have what it takes.

Guest Post by C L McKenzie

So why alligators? People as me that question a lot. I always remember hearing Ray Bradbury’s words when I sit down to write a story. He said, “I start by asking myself ‘What if?’” And so that’s part of how I wrote Alligators Overhead.

What if alligators could fly?

What if witch familiars weren’t cats, but something else? (BTW I’ve been subjected to all kinds of protests from the Federation of Feline Familiars on this issue. But I think I made the right decision by not buckling to their demands and rewriting the book replacing the alligators with the cats.)

All I needed were a couple of kids, some quirky townsfolk and a setting where all of these story elements could come together. I wanted to create an adventure that was a little bit eerie, but a lot fun. I found Pete Riley and his sidekick, Weasel, right away. Then came the “out of practice” witches and the legend of the vanishing mansion. So once I had all my ingredients, I wrote the story.

Here’s how that adventure starts.

Pete chewed on what was left of his right thumbnail, stared up at the round-faced clock above Aunt Lizzie’s desk and watched it tick off his last minutes of freedom. The clapper pulled back and snapped against the brass bell, shaking his morning brain awake, more awake than it wanted to be on the first day of spring break.

His other hand hovered over the chunky, black phone on Aunt Lizzy’s desk. Like

everything in the house it was retro, but today it was a bomb set to explode with a call from Principal Pitt, wiping out his spring vacation, wiping out his allowances, probably wiping out the rest of his life.

Brrrring!

Before the phone rang a second time, he sprang out of the chair, knocking it over. He snatched up the receiver, and, with a shaky hand held it to his ear, waiting to hear Principal Pitt’s wheezy voice. Instead a woman said, “Today is the day, Peter Riley.

Hope you’ll follow Pete and his brainac friend, Weasel through their swamp adventure and let me know what you think.

Thanks so much for telling us how you came to write Alligators Overhead; that was interesting! I love the idea of flying alligators and witches. And I enjoyed reading the opening.

Read more about C. Lee McKenzie:

A native Californian, C. Lee McKenzie lives on the edge of a redwood forest with her husband and assorted cats. When she’s not writing or blogging she’s hiking or practicing yoga. She usually writes young adult fiction that deals with contemporary, realistic issues. In Sliding on the Edge (2009) she dealt with cutting, and in The Princess of Las Pulgas (2010) she wrote about a family that loses almost everything and has to rebuild their lives together. Alligators Overhead is her first Middle Grade novel. Lee blogs at WriteGame and her website is CLeeMcKenzieBooks.com.

Free Banned Books Week Posters, Clipart, and more

Get some great free printable Banned Books Week posters, clipart,brochures of banned and challenged books by year (scroll to the bottom of the page), and more through ABFFE. They are also having a sale on their Banned Books Week products.

I recommend checking out the Banned Books Week brochures; sadly, you’ll find a lot of familiar YA authors and books on the lists.

Stores and libraries that are hosting Banned Book Week events can upload their information (looks to be US only).

Download free YA audiobook, and enter to win 1 of 10 copies of YA novel Deviants

This week only, you can download YA audiobook Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy for free.

AND you can also enter to win 1 of 10 copies of the YA novel Deviants (Dust Chronicles #1) by Maureen McGowan on GoodReads, Aug 06-Aug 27, 2012.

SCARS free ebook featured on StoryFinds

SCARS is featured today on StoryFinds.com, because the ebook is free today. You can find a lot of good free and cheap reads through StoryFinds. They have a website AND a FaceBook page AND a Twitter account, so it’s easy to keep up to date with books you might be interested in. I’ve liked them on both FB and Twitter for easy access.

SCARS ebook free today and tomorrow on Amazon

If you haven’t got a copy of SCARS as an ebook yet, you’ll be happy to know that SCARS is free today and tomorrow on Amazon (as an ebook). You don’t need a Kindle to be able to read it; using the Kindle app, you can read it on your computer, iPad, iPhone, or Android device.

I hope you’ll download a copy, and let all your friends know.

Beautiful and Evocative Fan Art For Scars

I love it when readers write to me–and it’s such a treat when they send me fan art! Brigitte created this fan art for SCARS. She created it for a book report she did at school, when her class had to pick their favorite book to work on. I think her art is beautiful and evocative, and captures a lot of the emotion in SCARS, and a lot of the messages that Kendra got from her abuser. Thank you, Brigitte!

SCARS fan art by Brigitte

Have you ever drawn fan art for a book you love?

If you’re thinking of suicide…

Please talk to someone. Call a crisis line. Call someone who loves you. Get support. And consider this:

Please Do Not To Kill Yourself:

Because you deserve to live, and to find happiness and joy and love and laughter. It may not seem like you can find those things right now, but they will come. You have had them once, and they will come again;

Because things will get better, and when they do, you will want to be here to enjoy them;

Because if you kill yourself it will deeply hurt the people who love you and care about you;

Because there will never be another person like you, bringing your unique perspective into the world. It’s only by staying alive that you can have a voice, and help to make things better in the world–for you, and for others;

Because if you kill yourself, you will let all the people who hurt you so horribly win. And they should not win. We need good people in this world;

Because your pain will pass, and get lighter, and you will find beauty again in the things around you, and love, and laughter;

Because you matter. Even if you think you don’t, you do. You touch other people. Your life has an impact. People care about you;

Because if you kill yourself, you can never undo that act. It is final and forever. You can never again see love and compassion in the eyes of the people who love you, feel the touch of someone’s hand on yours, hug your dog or cat, listen to the rain on a roof, taste ice cream melting on your tongue. You can never have a chance to be happy again;

Because death is not relief or release; it is an end. You don’t feel anything after you die. But you can feel relief and release if you stay alive, and find a way to release your pain safely. Find a way to take in the love of the people who care about you;

Because even the deepest pain can lessen. Talk to someone you love. Write out your pain. Cry it out. Scream into a pillow. Break something. Do what you need to to get out your pain safely;

Because you are not alone. There are so many people who have felt the way you feel, experienced the things you have experienced. Reach out. Talk to others. You are not alone;

Because the desire to kill yourself will pass, if you can just wait it out long enough. Distract yourself. Call a friend. Call a crisis line. Do something you enjoy, even if you think you won’t enjoy it;

Because if you stick around, you will find one day that you are glad you did. You will find more good people who care about you. You will find your voice. You will do things that you love and that make you happy;

Because I have been there, too. I know how bad it is. And I know it can get better. It did for me. It will for you. And I hope for good things for you. Please choose to live.

Please reach out to someone if you’re feeling suicidal. Don’t stay silent. Choose life and hope.

Crisis Lines:

US and Canada: National Suicide Prevention LifeLine

24 Hour Crisis Hotline 1 (800) 273-TALK

1 (800) 273-8255

International: Befrienders

Please also read this:

Reasons Not To Kill Yourself

and this:

If You Are Thinking About Suicide, Please Read This First