Linda Gerber's Blog, page 3

Claire's Day - Inspiration

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to participate in the Claire's Day Book Festival in Maumee, Ohio. I've never seen such a fantastically-organized and well-attended book festival! The venues for Claire's night (the Toledo Library) and Claire's Day (The Maumee Library grounds) were awesome. But what makes this festival so amazing is the mission of Claire's Day: "... to honor Claire Lynsey Rubini by inspiring children and families of all ages to be lifelong readers through exposure to a v...

For writers - More RAOKs

I loved the launch idea Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi came up with for the release of their new book: celebrate by asking people to do random acts of kindness. On Monday, the RAOK Blitz went into effect, and it's still going. It's amazing. Participants on both ends of the RAOK are having great experiences, and the RAOKs are being paid forward, and forward, and forward.



Several of us thought a great RAOK would be to gift copies of THE EMOTION THESAURUS to our intended RAOK recipients, b...

Random Act of Kindness BLITZ!!!

A smile. An encouraging word. A
thoughtful gesture. Each day people interact with
us, help, and make our day a bit brighter and full. This is especially true in
the Writing Community. 

Take a second to think about writers you know, like the critique
partner who works with you to improve your manuscript. The writing
friend who listens, supports and keeps you strong when times are tough. The
author who generously offers council, advice and inspiration when asked.

So many people take the...

Maurice Sendak and Other Writerly Links

' Photograph: James Keyser/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image

Maurice Sendak brought a wild rumpus to my house. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE was one of my kids' favorite books because it was strange and different and wildly (ha) entertaining (plus I had to read it with sound effects, gnashing my terrible teeth and roaring my terrible roar). We often checked out Really Rosie from our small library and sang along to CHICKEN SOUP WITH RICE and PIERRE. We dreamed along with Mickey IN THE NIGHT...

Jessi Kirby IN HONOR and Writer Links

I'm pleased to welcome GCC sister Jessi Kirby to the blog today to celebrate the impending release of her new book, IN HONOR. (May 8.)



Jessi's a wife, mom, English teacher and former librarian, beach bum, runner, and lover of contemporary YA, strong coffee, and dark chocolate. Her previous book, MOONGLASS, came out last year to rave reviews (including this one from Sarah Dessen: "I couldn't put this book down. Kirby's voice is fresh and wise, all at once. An incredible first novel....

For Writers - So. Much. Good. Stuff.

First day of the conference w/ Claire & Nancy

Wow, I wish I could have taken you all with me to the Missouri Writers' Guild Conference this weekend. It was fantastic. Organizers Deb Marshall and Tricia Sanders were amazing, and the lineup was superb. I got to hang out with the likes of Claire Cook (who has a fantastic spa giveaway going on to celebrate her upcoming Wallflower in Bloom) and Christy Craig (who just hit the Times list with her CC Hunter Shadow Falls series! Yay, Chri...

For Writers - Setting Priorities

Happy hump day! Half-way to the weekend! Any cool plans? I'm off to the Missouri Writer's Guild conference to talk about mysteries and writing for teens and tweens. I just found out Claire Cook will be riding from the airport with me. Have you read her books? She's super adorable.




Anyway, this conference leaves me with a whole lot to get done before I leave, and not a lot of time to do it... which leads me to this week's tip: setting priorities.




Imagine you have a big bowl on your cou...

For Writers - Close Your Eyes and Breathe

Spring sprang while we were in AZ, and painted my neighborhood in emeraldsand golds for our return. The flowers at the garden centers have started to call to me, daring me to thumb my nose at the last frost date and bring them home. I might cave if it weren't for the weeds I have to wrestle from the beds before I can even think about planting. Or the deer who have returned to grace my yard just in time to munch on my hosta. Or the lawn mower that refuses start because I forgot to get it...

RADIATE by Marley Gibson

HAPPY RELEASE DAY TO MARLEY!!!! For those of you who don't know Marley Gibson, she's the fascinating author of the GHOST HUNTRESS series, Christmas collections with Cecil Murphy, and more. She's also the real-life inspiration for her new book, RADIATE:


Marley's celebrating with an online pep rally on her website. You can join the party (and win prizes!) here: http://marleygibson.com/2012/04/02/online-pep-rally-for-radiate-release-day/

Spring and Starting Over

One of the things I love about spring is that it's so happy and green that it makes you forget those long, cold, gray days of winter ever existed, because everything outside is blooming and singing and new. And since I'm all about relating everything to writing at the moment, I love that spring holds the promise of new beginnings. It's a great time to start something new, to move forward with hope, to let go of previous bad habits or self doubt.
On that note, I'm jumping back into the blog...