S. Smith's Blog, page 17
April 6, 2016
It’s a Bloomin’ Giveaway/Hop! Books, Recipes, & More
Welcome to the fifth annual Authors in Bloom blog hop and giveaway (although this is my first year participating). I’m excited! Ten days of giveaways, gardening tips, and recipes. Tell your friends[image error].
I’m sharing a recipe for Bruschetta with Grilled Bread. I love growing tomatoes and basil each summer, and this is always a big hit with our family. It tastes like summer!
Mix all ingredients and spoon over grilled bread. Yum!!
Bruschetta with Grilled Bread
1 loaf French bread (sliced)–grill or broil
2 large yellow tomatoes (diced)
2 large red tomatoes (diced)
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese (diced)
1/2 cup green olives (chopped)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fresh basil (chopped)
2 TB lemon peel (grated)
1 TB capers or dill pickles (chopped)
6 cloves garlic (minced)
salt & pepper to taste
And if that wasn’t enough, here is what I’m giving away:
A gorgeous little pair of book earrings from Marj Engle Designs, value $20. International winner will receive the e-box set of my first three Seed Savers books.
You have up to 15 opportunities to Enter to Win
I also am having a very special sale for the duration of the hop. Something I rarely do: all of the ebooks in my Seed Savers series are SALE-PRICED AT THE SAME TIME! From now until April 16th you can save big with these prices:
Seed Savers is a five book series set in a future where gardening and saving seeds is against the law and eating fresh produce is forgotten by a majority of the population. The books star kids ages 7 – 17, so are suitable for the whole family. Read more about the series here.
BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE![image error]
We are also giving away a Kindle or Nook ereader and a $25 gift card. TO BE ELIGIBLE TO WIN, VISIT AND COMMENT ON EVERY BLOG IN THE HOP and enter the Rafflecopter here. Be sure and leave your email address so that we can notify you if you win.
And now to continue with the fun, visit all of the other bloggers participating in the hop with the following link. But don’t forget to comment before you go, if you haven’t done so already!
Powered by Linky Tools: Click here to visit the other bloggers in the Authors In Bloom Blog Hop/Giveaway and good luck!
S. Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter . Sign up for the newsletter!
April 4, 2016
Untitled Poem
I’ve been feeling, lately, like it’s been too long since I’ve written poetry. Yes, I’ve been great about writing 500 words a day on a novel I’m working on…but I haven’t been writing poetry. And I miss it.
I also thought it was time I post another poem here on my blog. So I started looking through the ones I’d published here and there. None of them were right.
I decided to look through an old notebook where a lot of poems got started and not all of them got finished. I found the one that follows. It’s a rough draft without even a title. No date written, but it’s probably from 2011 or 2012 because that’s what is written by most of the others. It has to do with two of my favorite things: poems and gardens.[image error]
I could say the only thing that
grows in my garden is poems
but that wouldn’t be true.
Lettuce grows in my garden
so does kale, chard, tomatoes, and peas
Broccoli grows, but not well
Corn is given the chance every year,
but isn’t very cooperative.
Poems?
The poems are in with the radishes
sprinkled among the herbs
lounging in the lawn chairs.
The poems tiptoe along with the cats
flap their wings with the chickens
buzz over my head with the hummingbirds;
the poems float in the backyard pool
and drift on the breeze
with the scent of strawberries,
lavender, and freshly mown grass.
The poems are still there
long after the vegetables are harvested.
You just have to look harder.
S. Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!
BIG SALE COMING LATER THIS WEEK!!!
March 25, 2016
Clare & Dante Prepare for Easter
In recognition of the season, here is an excerpt from Heirloom (Seed Savers, 3), in which Clare and Dante prepare for Easter with their host parents in Canada. Growing up in a place where real eggs were unknown, it’s their first experience coloring eggs.
CHAPTER 42
It would soon be Easter, Clare’s favorite holiday. There had been a few years, when she was eight or nine, when her friends had almost convinced her otherwise, but all in all, she was an Easter devotee. She loved the season: spring, bursting with new life and warmer weather; she loved the plastic toy hunts in the malls and parks; and most of all, she loved the Holy Season, starting with Ash Wednesday and leading up to Easter Sunday.
This year, however, Clare anticipated it with mixed emotions. She looked forward to it because the Woods would finally take her and Dante to church—which she dearly missed, and because, of course, Easter was her favorite holiday. On the other hand, she experienced the sadness of yet another holiday without her mother. Though she was eager to celebrate the holiday in a new setting, she couldn’t help missing the rituals of her own family, church, and town.
Clare made a conscious decision to deal with the conflicting emotions in advance, trying to let go of the sadder ones during Lent, so she could enjoy Easter Sunday in perfect happiness.
Though she had suggested the Woods attend the Good Friday service, it had fallen on deaf ears. Sunday would have to do. They had attended Palm Sunday, and since the church was fifteen miles away, Clare didn’t want to seem ungrateful by repeatedly asking for more.
And now they were right on the edge of Easter, peering in. It was Saturday, and Clare and Dante were to color boiled chicken eggs. Somehow it hadn’t occurred to Marissa that the children had no knowledge of this tradition. So when she had started talking about “coloring eggs” and saving the best-looking ones from the hen house for Easter, she wasn’t expecting the blank looks and questions.
“Coloring eggs?” Dante had asked. “With crayons? What for? Won’t they break?”
She’d had to back up and fill in the details—boiled eggs, food dye, dipping, wax. Later on, Clare looked it up on the Monitor and showed Dante the pictures she had found.
She was amazed and delighted that her favorite holiday could get even better.
By nine a.m. Clare and Dante were dressed and in the kitchen, eager to decorate the eggs. Marissa said they could color three dozen eggs. Clare gently placed the first batch of eggs in the bottom of a large pot, covered them with water, and set them on the stove.
“How long until we can dye them?” she asked.
“I knew you would be in a hurry,” Marissa said. She reached for a bowl on the counter. “I boiled these last night.”
Clare and Dante squealed. “So we can color now?” asked Dante.
“First, we need to set up the table—cover it with paper, prepare the dyes … but yes, Sweetheart, we can get started soon. Jeanette is bringing over Cedric and Jonas in a few minutes. I thought it might be more fun for you to have other kids show you the ropes.” Cedric and Jonas were two of Marissa and John’s grandchildren. They were closer in age to Dante than to Clare and often visited the Woods.
“All right!” yelled Dante.
After the eggs were colored and the mess cleaned up, Clare continued to help Marissa prepare for the holiday. The boys ran around outside. Though early in April, the day was unseasonably warm and sunny.
“So we’re going to Cedric and Jonas’s house tomorrow?”
“Yes, dear. That’s one of the reasons Jeanette brought the boys over this morning. Keeps them out from under her feet.”
Clare smiled knowingly. “Will any of the other cousins be there?”
“Just J.M.’s kids.”
“That’s six all together,” Clare said.
“We’re taking apple pies and homemade egg noodles. You ready to help?”
“Of course.”
Clare had learned that each family brought a “specialty item” to holiday dinners. Maybe it was a unique gelatin dessert, or a specially prepared vegetable dish, rice made in an unusual way, or in the case of Marissa and John, something from their main crop—apple pie. Homemade egg noodles was also a standard for Marissa. She didn’t have a written recipe, she simply made them the way her great-grandmother had taught her. One of her daughters would carry on the tradition when she was gone. Clare also planned to learn how to make the noodles from scratch and by memory. This would be her third time assisting, and she thought she could do it without help.
“May I make the noodles?” she asked.
Marissa raised her eyebrows slightly. Her lips twitched as if she had started to speak and then stopped.
“You remember how?” she finally asked.
Clare nodded. “You can watch in case I mess up.”
Marissa agreed. There was plenty of flour should anything go wrong.
S. Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!
March 21, 2016
Interview with Ben’hyamene of the Dragon Courage Series
Today I’d like to share an interview I did with one of the characters from the Dragon’s Courage series, a middle grade series by Kandi J. Wyatt.
The third book, Dragon’s Revenge, releases on April 5 and is available for preorder here.
SS: Welcome Ben’hyamene! Can you tell us something about your family to get us started?
Ben: My family. There is a hard topic. My ahbah, or father, is very strict. He thinks power rules all. The one with the most dragons has the most power; so, he tried to gather as many dragons as he could. I have many brothers and a little sister. Some of my brothers followed Ahbah’s path. They are selfish and not caring. I am not one to talk, though. I was that way until I met the turquoise dragon. My little sister and my two older brothers are different. They see each person as having worth and meaning just because they are humans. My family has changed since my leader, Ah’doneye Braidyn, came. He married my sister and took charge over the Agamid of the El’shad’n (my tribe). He is leading with justice combined with mercy.
SS: Your life sounds like an interesting story… and as you know, as an author, I love stories. What do you think makes a good story?
Ben: My family loves to tell stories around the campfire. The best ones are those that take the listener with the teller on the journey. When my friend Kyn and I returned from the Carr, my Ah’doneye, or leader, and my sister Sarai were able to feel everything we went through. They could empathize with us. Our tale was a good one because it was an adventure, but even more so because Aislin became a better person over the course of the story. When the listener can relate to a character and when the characters are great friends together, this also makes a wonderful story.
SS: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Ben: I have always wanted to be an Agamid, or what you call a dragon rider. I was trained to be one by my Ahbah, but when I met the turquoise dragon, I knew my chances of becoming one had disappeared.
SS: I’m sorry to hear that. Do you ever dream about traveling?
Ben: Right now I am content to stay at home in the sandhills, but one day, I would like to visit my friend Kyn in his canyon home. I would also enjoy returning to the Carr and seeing the friends I made there. It would be fun to see how Calum is getting along with Shylah.
SS: Personal question: What was the scariest moment of your life?
Ben: I thought I was going to die. I was a cocky young man. I thought I could get away with anything I wanted and I only had to look out for myself. I tried to steal a hatchling and kidnapped my sister. I am ashamed to say it, but it is so. A turquoise dragon rider came in search of the hatchling and my sister. In the process, I fought the rider and lost. As he turned to mount his dragon, I threw a dagger at him. He happened to duck at that moment, but his dragon blew dragon fire all over me! The pain was agonizing, but the worse part was living with myself afterward. The creature spared my life and gave me his conscience.
SS: Wow, that does sound scary, but it sounds like you are a better person for it. What are you passionate about these days?
Ben: I am passionate about peace and the consequences of rash judgments and revenge. You see, I saw what living a life of revenge did to my friend. He lived in pain from an unforgiving spirit. He sought revenge for the majority of his life and yet it never brought peace. I want people to know that peace is possible and you do not have to live with revenge.
SS: That’s a great message, Ben’hyamene. Best wishes as you spread the word of peace and reconciliation. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you.
Ben: Thank you. I have enjoyed it.
Connect with Kandi J. Wyatt:
Kandi’s Website
Facebook
Twitter
S. Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!
March 17, 2016
What if it was illegal to plant seeds?
Apparently while Clare was hiding out in Forest Park she did an interview!
In January, I had the privilege of receiving a book as a gift. Being an author, I understood the value of that autographed paperback. So, with loving care, I picked it up and began reading. I instantly was transported to a new world–well kind of. It actually was a very probably future America where gardening and saving seeds was outlawed, where food comes in boxes and squares all ready processed called Vitees, Protein, Juices, Carbos, and Sweeties. It was an extreme example of what could happen if the GMOs gained political momentum and took over.
The characters are twelve-year-old Clare, her nine-year-old brother Dante, and her twelve-year-old friend, Lily. Today, I have the honor of introducing you to Clare. I was able to do an interview with her!
Me: Clare, I heard you started this whole Seed Savers adventure. Tell me a little about that.
Clare: Sure. When I was…
View original post 362 more words
March 15, 2016
Celebrate #AgDay 2016
Today is National Ag Day. What is Ag Day? It’s a day to celebrate agriculture. To quote the AgDay website: “National Ag Day is a day to recognize and celebrate the abundance provided by agriculture.” On the For Educators/Students page, there is a fine list of reasons why it’s important to celebrate agriculture, including these:
Increased knowledge of agriculture and nutrition allows individuals to make informed personal choices about diet and health
Informed citizens will be able to participate in establishing the policies that will support a competitive agricultural industry in this country and abroad.
Agriculture is too important a topic to be taught only to the small percentage of students considering careers in agriculture and pursuing vocational agricultural studies.
Agricultural literacy includes an understanding of agriculture’s history and current economic, social and environmental significance to all Americans. This understanding includes some knowledge of food and fiber production, processing and domestic and international marketing.
What’s my connection to agriculture? I’m from a family of farmers. My parents, grandparents, brother, uncles and aunts were/are farmers. Growing up, we mostly grew berries (yum!)
That’s me in the middle, picking berries with my sisters!
It was hard work, but we were oh-so-connected with our food supply. I still grow a lot of my own food and put it up for the winter.
It was not something I had to learn about in school. Sadly, this is no longer the case as most children today have little direct connection with agriculture.
I love growing, cooking, and eating fresh and minimally processed food! Take a moment today to think about how you can educate someone about agriculture during national ag week, and as we look forward to spring.
There are many good resources available online. Agday.org has a reading list of materials for kids, although my series is not listed. Check out the Seed Savers series here.
Book one, Treasure, is FREE in ebook!!
Have a great day, and when the weather permits, go out and plant something! :)
S. Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!
March 9, 2016
A Little Taste: KEEPER Excerpt
My last post introduced you to Keeper, book 4 in the Seed Savers series. Today I offer you a taste. Without further ado, here is excerpt 3, taken from Chapter 10-It’s All A Lie:
Rose lay awake into the wee hours of the night, trying to reconcile how Lily and Ana could be criminals. She understood the reason GRIM existed now. She understood the laws were for the good of the people. And yet …
She got up early, hoping to ask Malinda about it before going to school. Perhaps the teacher had gone overboard. Surely Malinda would agree that the Seed Savers were simply a well-meaning group of people interested in healthy, nutritious food. Agree that even now they weren’t a threat to democracy; misguided, perhaps, but not criminals. In the light of morning, the idea seemed absurd.
“You’re up early, Rosebud.”
“I wanted to ask you something.”
“Sure,” Malinda said, pouring some coffee.
“So, the Seed Savers. My instructor mentioned them in class last night. They’re not really bad guys, right? I mean, you and Murdoch eat real food. That’s all they want … wanted, right?”
Malinda stood still where she was. Rose couldn’t see her face. She turned slowly and sat down. She cupped her free hand over Rose’s. “Those people are dangerous, Rose. It’s why we stepped in for your sake. They would have you believe that all the scientific breakthroughs in the last century were bad. Have us all living hand to mouth, fighting a fallen world.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” said Rose. “I thought it was fun growing food.”
“You grew food?” Malinda asked, eyebrows raised in a stark V shape. Her hand tightened around Rose’s, and Rose drew it away.
“Uh, no, not exactly,” Rose said. “I learned that tea can be made from the flowers and leaves of certain plants. I thought it seemed useful. A good skill.” She smiled weakly.
Malinda stood and walked around the table, behind Rose. She placed her hands on Rose’s shoulders. “Yes, very quaint. Important, I guess, if you follow the train of thought that you need to reinvent the wheel. Why go to the trouble when you can buy a box or get the powdered kind and add water?”
Rose shrugged. She was embarrassed to say that it cost money to do that. Everyone she was surrounded by now had enough money for everything. Making tea from leaves had been fun. And it had felt like useful knowledge, in spite of Malinda’s attempt to downplay it.
“I just think the ability to grow food sounds like a good idea,” said Rose, turning to face Malinda, Malinda’s hands sliding off her shoulders.
Malinda’s eyes flashed. Her voice lost its sweetness.
“It’s a fairy tale, Rose. Believe me, I’ve tried it. It’s not like they say. There is no romance in gardening. Nostalgia is nothing but sugar-coated memories—it’s NOT REAL. You plant the seeds in great hope, you backbreakingly clean up your garden beds in spring. But come summer, fall, all the weeds are back. The bugs, the worms. Everything needing watered all the time.”
Rose jumped up from the chair, but Malinda shoved her back down.
“Is that how you want to spend every waking moment of your life, a slave to food? Never go on vacation? Come home after a long day at work and go to work again, just to eat? We’ve come farther than that — why go back? Look around. Aren’t people okay here? Is there something wrong with a life free from the burden of feeding yourself?”
She had begun pacing as she spoke, her voice getting louder the way thunder does as it moves closer. Now she towered over Rose, challenging her to answer.
“N-no,” Rose stammered. She grabbed her backpack. “I gotta go. I didn’t mean to upset you.” She dashed toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I have a ride,” Rose said, running out of the house.
S. Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!
March 7, 2016
Spotlight on Keeper
Today’s post introduces the most recent Seed Savers book, Keeper. Keeper is book 4 in the series and was released in November. Most people think you need to read a series in order, though I don’t agree (blog post about that opinion here.)
Posts about each of the other books can be found here: Treasure, Lily, Heirloom, and the series in general here.
First, here’s the book trailer, just released yesterday!
Keeper begins in a quiet mountain village in the Smoky Mountains, where teen characters Lily and Arturo are hiding with Lily’s father, an original leader in a failed revolution to win back food freedom. Alternating chapters show what is happening with other friends in Washington D.C. and Canada who are linked to the Seed Savers Movement in various ways.
The characters eventually end up in Portland, Oregon, at the new Headquarters, just as protests erupt in the streets as more and more people resist government restrictions. Meanwhile, computer hackers begin releasing hidden government documents, and dissenters within Seed Savers threaten to break the Movement apart.
Keeper is perhaps the most fast-paced of the series, leading up to what will be the final, 5th book. Get a copy today! :)
What Amazon reviewers have said about Keeper:This is the most realistic, unique and thrilling series I have read in a while. Most futuristic books are filled with monsters and hell on earth. This is very different. Perfect for the teen on up, it’s a world where corporations control food growth and planting a seed can get you thrown in jail or worse…Lily’s dad is the leader of the underground resistance which is becoming not so underground as people protest. Lily is with her father, hidden away, causing some angst moments you can’t read fast enough to find out what’s going on. Don’t want to spoil anything for those who are just starting out but you won’t be able to stop till the series ends. I can not recommend this book enough, especially if your child says there’s nothing I like to read. Put this in their hands and you will have them begging for the next book. I was gifted this for an honest review and I assure you that this is an amazing series. I went and got the other books myself it was that good.
And from a young teen:
From the moment I was given an an advanced copy of Keeper, I couldn’t stop reading. I stayed up late into the night reading with a flashlight, until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any more. The moment I woke up the next morning, I picked up right where I’d left off the night before. Reading about Lily’s life in the bunker with her father, was so intense at some parts that I was actually hopping around my living room I was so nervous for her. As I got caught up with Jason, Clare and Dante, it felt like I was living the story with them. S.Smith’s writing draws the reader in slowly, and in such a manner that they don’t realize they’re halfway through the book until it’s too late to slow down.
I am looking forward to the next book, even if I realize that we (the readers) are drawing near to the finale. Even when the Seed Saver’s story has been told, thought, it will live on, and I would recommend the series to anyone.
What are you waiting for? Jump right in with any one of the Seed Savers books. Or be adventurous and start with book 4, Keeper!
S. Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!
February 29, 2016
It’s Leap Day! A Very Special Offer
Because February 29th comes around only once every four years, I’ve decided to mark my Seed Savers boxed set (ebooks) down to 99 cents to celebrate! It was just going to be for this one day, but then I realized Dr. Seuss Day (Read Across America) is March 2, so why not leave it on sale until then?
So if you read digitally and failed to catch the sale price last time, now is your chance. Amazon only, download here. It will only be 99 cents for a very limited time (reg. $5.99), because this is three entire novels.
If you aren’t a regular follower of my blog, you can find out more about Seed Savers here and here.
Have a great day!
ss
S. Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!
February 23, 2016
Clare & Dante Plant Onions from Seed
A few weeks ago I posted about pruning my blueberry bushes, something I had my characters do in Heirloom. Recently I planted onion seeds to grow my own starts, also something my characters do.
I planted some that I know do well in my area, and some I just happened to have the seed for: Red Burgandy, Spanish Sweet, Cipollini, Walla Walla, and one I just call “Pete’s storage onion,” because I got it from Pete and he only labelled it as a storage onion. :)
Pete’s onion was the first up.
And the sprouting begins!
Here is the excerpt from Heirloom, chapters 11 and 14, where the children learn about onions:
Chapter 11
Clare and Dante
“Each pair will get a thirteen centimeter pot, fill it with soil, wet the soil, and plant approximately fifty seeds.”
Dante and Clare beamed. Planting seeds already, and it was only February! It wasn’t yet a year since they had planted their first seeds, but it seemed so long ago.
“Any questions?”
“Yes, can you go through it all again?”
It was Minnie. An audible sigh escaped somewhere in the back of the room. Genevieve stared in disbelief. “Which part?”
“Well, so we’re planting onion seeds? I thought that onions were planted from bulbs.”
She seemed to be showing off again. What was a bulb? Clare wondered.
“Many people plant bulbs. Some start with seedlings. What we are dong here today is planting seeds to grow the young plants. That’s why we are putting so many in a small pot. When the starts are ready and the ground outside suitable, they will be transplanted into the garden, much farther apart. We will also sell some of our starts at the farm festival in April.”
“Oh.”
The class seemed relieved that Genevieve’s succinct summary satisfied Minnie.
“Anything else?” Genevieve asked, undeterred.
Clare glanced around. No questions. Everyone seemed as eager as the children to finally be getting their hands dirty.
Chapter 14
Clare and Dante
As February drew to a close, Clare and Dante spoke often of the arrival of spring. The onion seeds had sprouted exactly ten days after being planted and were greening up nicely. Dante hoped (and not at all secretly) that the sprouts would reach ten centimeters before they could be transplanted so that he could snip them back to seven centimeters. For some reason, the idea of giving the onions a haircut had rattled his funny bone. He had even been inspired to draw a goofy face on the pot so that the sprouts resembled green hair growing straight up. There was nothing he wanted more than to give “Onion Bob,” as he had nicknamed their pot, a flat top.
By the way, if you do go to trim back your onion sprouts like Dante was eager to do, go ahead and throw the trimmings into your salad!
Do you grow onions from seed? Have you any tips to share? Please leave in the comment area below. :)
S. Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series, Seed Savers. Visit her Facebook and Pinterest pages. Follow her on Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter!
