Fresh Start and Featured Follower for January
Last year I said I wanted to change up my blog to keep me interested in blogging and hopefully to keep my readers interested as well. So here we are in 2017, and while my look is the same, some of my content is different.
Featured Followers in Review
In April 2016, I started this feature on my Email Connect, and nine authors played with me. Here they are again:
Beverly Stowe McClureChristine KohlerChris LedbetterChrys FeyMark NoceSteve ParlatoYvonne VentrescaSuzanne KamataLisa CoccaIf you're interested in joining my Email Connect, just sign up. The form's in the right margin of this blog.January's Featured Follower
Welcome Sandra Cox, author of the three book series Mutants. I'm featuring her and book #1, Love Lattes and Mutants, but be sure to check out her other work.
Like most seventeen-year-olds, Piper Dunn wants to blend in with the crowd. Having a blowhole is a definite handicap. A product of a lab-engineered mother with dolphin DNA, Piper spends her school days hiding her brilliant ocean-colored eyes and sea siren voice behind baggy clothing and ugly glasses. When Tyler, the new boy in school, zeroes in on her, ignoring every other girl vying for his attention, no one, including Piper, understands why.
Amazon Barnes and Noble
I read this book in an afternoon. It's fun. It's light with adventure and some clean teen romance. Who can resist a story about a beautiful girl with a dolphin blowhole?
Connect with Sandra.Facebook Twitter Blog Google+ Amazon
Let Me Tell You A StoryOver the years I've heard or read stories about other people's lives. I've also had a few experiences that have entered into my "Let me tell you about the time" category. Some of these stories have crept into my books. Others are waiting in the wings. Here's one I remember from a trip to visit relatives in Switzerland.
My Swiss cousin was a great hiker, so we hit it off right away, and I couldn't wait to follow her up into the mountains that are the backdrop for Bellinzona (my fraternal grandparents' home).
We started early while the sun was out and only the hint of snow clouds in the distance. But because we're hiking nuts, we went farther than than we should, and before we stopped and looked overhead, the snow was already floating down on our heads and shoulders. We'd never make it down before the storm hit. I had visions of freezing right there above my ancestral home, but we had water and some food, so we found a small wooden shelter along the ridge and ducked in for the night. She told me that as a kid she and friends often camped in shelters like these. "The trick to a really comfy, deep sleep," she told me, "is the ferns." They'd cut them and put them on the floor. She said none of them stayed awake very long, and they slept late into the mornings on their fern beds.
We tested her fern beds that night, and they worked! Although it was cold and the ground hard, I don't remember a better night's sleep--even after a good hike. It seems ferns give off a dose of hypnotic flavonoids that induce sound sleep.
When I did some research, ferns are the plants recommended you have in your bedroom. Here's a quick list other sleep-enabling plants I found online.
The shelters themselves have an interesting history having to do with WWII, and I'll tell you about that next week.
Did You Know. . .Plants can suffer from sudden blasts of light and that it can affect their growth? Scientists are working to mitigate those negative effects and boost efficiency of photosynthesis. So what does this mean? People like Professor Niyogi, UC Berkeley, are working toward increased crop production to meet the food needs of future generations. Sci-fi writers, how can you use this little bit of science news in your next book? I'm imagining The Plant That Ate New York.Quote of the Week: "Only spread a fern-frond over a man's head and worldly cares are cast out, and freedom and beauty and peace come in." John Muir
Beware the White Rabbit (Anthology: They Call Me Alice), Leap Books, Summer '15
Sliding on the Edge, C. Lee McKenzie, WestSide Books, Spring '09
The Princess of Las Pulgas, WestSide Books, Fall '10
The First Time, Fall '11 (Anthology story: Premeditated Cat)
Alligators Overhead, Outskirts Press, Fall '12
Two and Twenty Dark Tales (Anthology story: Into the Sea of Dew
Featured Followers in Review
In April 2016, I started this feature on my Email Connect, and nine authors played with me. Here they are again:
Beverly Stowe McClureChristine KohlerChris LedbetterChrys FeyMark NoceSteve ParlatoYvonne VentrescaSuzanne KamataLisa CoccaIf you're interested in joining my Email Connect, just sign up. The form's in the right margin of this blog.January's Featured Follower
Welcome Sandra Cox, author of the three book series Mutants. I'm featuring her and book #1, Love Lattes and Mutants, but be sure to check out her other work.
Like most seventeen-year-olds, Piper Dunn wants to blend in with the crowd. Having a blowhole is a definite handicap. A product of a lab-engineered mother with dolphin DNA, Piper spends her school days hiding her brilliant ocean-colored eyes and sea siren voice behind baggy clothing and ugly glasses. When Tyler, the new boy in school, zeroes in on her, ignoring every other girl vying for his attention, no one, including Piper, understands why.
Amazon Barnes and Noble
I read this book in an afternoon. It's fun. It's light with adventure and some clean teen romance. Who can resist a story about a beautiful girl with a dolphin blowhole?
Connect with Sandra.Facebook Twitter Blog Google+ Amazon
Let Me Tell You A StoryOver the years I've heard or read stories about other people's lives. I've also had a few experiences that have entered into my "Let me tell you about the time" category. Some of these stories have crept into my books. Others are waiting in the wings. Here's one I remember from a trip to visit relatives in Switzerland.
My Swiss cousin was a great hiker, so we hit it off right away, and I couldn't wait to follow her up into the mountains that are the backdrop for Bellinzona (my fraternal grandparents' home).
We started early while the sun was out and only the hint of snow clouds in the distance. But because we're hiking nuts, we went farther than than we should, and before we stopped and looked overhead, the snow was already floating down on our heads and shoulders. We'd never make it down before the storm hit. I had visions of freezing right there above my ancestral home, but we had water and some food, so we found a small wooden shelter along the ridge and ducked in for the night. She told me that as a kid she and friends often camped in shelters like these. "The trick to a really comfy, deep sleep," she told me, "is the ferns." They'd cut them and put them on the floor. She said none of them stayed awake very long, and they slept late into the mornings on their fern beds. We tested her fern beds that night, and they worked! Although it was cold and the ground hard, I don't remember a better night's sleep--even after a good hike. It seems ferns give off a dose of hypnotic flavonoids that induce sound sleep.
When I did some research, ferns are the plants recommended you have in your bedroom. Here's a quick list other sleep-enabling plants I found online.
The shelters themselves have an interesting history having to do with WWII, and I'll tell you about that next week.
Did You Know. . .Plants can suffer from sudden blasts of light and that it can affect their growth? Scientists are working to mitigate those negative effects and boost efficiency of photosynthesis. So what does this mean? People like Professor Niyogi, UC Berkeley, are working toward increased crop production to meet the food needs of future generations. Sci-fi writers, how can you use this little bit of science news in your next book? I'm imagining The Plant That Ate New York.Quote of the Week: "Only spread a fern-frond over a man's head and worldly cares are cast out, and freedom and beauty and peace come in." John MuirBeware the White Rabbit (Anthology: They Call Me Alice), Leap Books, Summer '15
Sliding on the Edge, C. Lee McKenzie, WestSide Books, Spring '09
The Princess of Las Pulgas, WestSide Books, Fall '10
The First Time, Fall '11 (Anthology story: Premeditated Cat)
Alligators Overhead, Outskirts Press, Fall '12
Two and Twenty Dark Tales (Anthology story: Into the Sea of Dew
No comments have been added yet.
