Introducing C. Lee McKenzie

Here’s something a little bit different for you today, a middle-grade author! I’ve know C. Lee for a long time through our blogs, so it’s great to have her here today to celebrate the launch of her new book.

If you’ve got kids, check this out. If you know some kids, check it out too. If you don’t know any kids, but love great stories, check it out too 😉 

Take it away, C. Lee…

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Hi Annalisa,

It’s great to be here today. Thank you for giving me a chance to talk about this new book.When you offered to lend a hand, you mentioned that your readers weren’t likely to be my audience for this one since it’s written for the middle-grade reader. So I thought I’d tell about the night a bookseller gave a presentation to a group of rather senior citizens and brought picture books along with others for her talk.

She began with a story about an overheard conversation in her bookstore. It was a father telling his daughter to put that picture book away; she was older now and should be reading more advanced books. Then the bookseller, held up a picture book and began to read aloud. I admit, she was a great reader, and I along with the rest of the audience, fell into the story. When she came to almost the end, she said, “Well, you get the idea,” and closed the book. There was a collective “No!” that came from the entire audience. We wanted to hear what happened to that goose!

She’d made her point. If it’s a good story, it will capture and hold your imagination no matter what age it was intended for.

I write primarily in two categories of fiction: Young Adult and Middle Grade. While the booksellers put these on shelves designated for those age groups, my readers are often a lot older. One reviewer who has become a fan of my Young Adult (thank you ever so much) admits to being a sixty-year-old male. He has read and reviewed all of those books. My Middle Grade also has a middle aged audience. They tell me they pick up these little fantasies for a quick, fun escape from their real world. Some read them to be sure they’re okay for their children.

For All My Work Click HERE For a Gift Click HERE

Some Very Messy Medieval Magic is book three in The Adventures of Pete and Weasel. Alligators Overhead was the first in the series, and The Great Timelock Disaster was the second. Instead of my writing the overview, here’s the short trailer that gives you the idea of what happens to these two adventurers.  

All my books are available online. 

 

Some Very Messy Medieval Magic is available at these locations. 

 

AMAZON . B&N . KOBO  . SMASHWORDS . YABC 

Print ISBN 9781939844460 / EBook ISBN 9781939844477

 

Order through Ingram, Follett, or from the publisher

EBook available in all formats 

Thank you again for the time and space on your blog, Annalisa. I loved popping over to your neck of woods for a chat.

 

Nick Wilford’s Black & White Blog Tour

I’m delighted to welcome Nick Wilford – awesome chap and fantastic CP – who has just published his novel, Black & White. Take it away, Nick…

 

Hi, Annalisa. Thanks for letting me take over your blog as part of my tour. I’ve got something fun in store today and something out of the ordinary for me – a bit of sporting commentary. Let’s head over live!

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Hello folks, it’s Saturday 23^rd August 2664 and it’s the big one, the one you’ve been waiting for, the Gravball Intra-School Final! We have the Magnificence team, headed up by the undisputed star player Wellesbury Noon, facing off against their rivals from Excellence Elementary, captained by the incomparable Howard Pralanko. The final spectators are taking their seats and the match is about to kick off here at the Whitopolis Stadium. In the very unlikely event that you’ve never seen a gravball match before, let me just explain the set-up. The stadium seating surrounds an enormous cuboid structure with see-through walls and ceiling. It almost looks as though those players are flying once they get into their game. Of course, it’s a one-way effect; to them, it’s just as if they’re running along white walls and ceilings. Far too disorienting to be seeing massive crowds from odd angles when you’ve got that goal in your sights! Each team has two goals, one on the floor and one on the ceiling, so they need to make sure they’re covering all bases. There you go, a potted introduction to the sport of gravball. Just wrapped up in nice time too, as the players are making their way into the arena through that little door in the corner of the cube. It’ll be closed by a steward once they’re all in position. Okay, looks like we’re good to go. Having won their last match, Magnificence get to kick off.

And here we go! Magnificence’s Finnister is streaking up the far wall, dodging players to left and right. Oooh, that’s a great overhead kick, the ball floating gracefully through the air to Noon, who’s waiting for it on the ceiling. He dribbles in between a couple of opponents and the goal’s in his sights, but – oh! – the ball’s been taken by Excellence’s Graston just as he was about to shoot. Never mind, better luck next time. Graston’s booted the ball out of the ceiling’s gravitational field and it’s falling to his teammates on the floor. That takes some welly, you know. Let’s take a minute to appreciate the skills of these players, putting in countless hours of training to learn how to play upside down without confusion. Got to deal with that rush of blood to the head, too, so they can’t stay up there too long. Anyway, back to the action – oh, and the ball’s been intercepted by Magnificence’s Salvo who’s taken a shot at the opposition’s Earthbound goal. Looks like an easy proposition. But he’s put too much into it and it’s been pulled in by the side wall’s gravity field. An occupational hazard in this game – it’s a fine balancing act when it comes to dealing with the complicated physics at play and Salvo’s misjudged it on this occasion. Never mind though, his teammate Finnister’s given it a belting header and the ball’s heading skyward again, as his boots leave the smooth surface of the wall. He hovers in the horizontal before being pulled inexorably back. But watch the ball as it arcs up – Noon’s bided his time on the ceiling and waited for it, now he’s got it in between those nimble feet. Excellence are too spread out, covering all surfaces – which you need to do because you don’t know where that ball’s going to end up – but they’ve left Noon with a clear path to that upper goal. He shoots – he scores! That was, indeed, magnificent – let’s watch it again. See him feign to the left – our right, although it depends where you’re sitting – misdirecting the keeper who’s all over the place. Another superb goal for the boy wonder, Wellesbury Noon. But the game’s moved on and now the ball’s bouncing from wall to wall. Let’s see what else this match has in store for us…

Title: Black & White

Author: Nick Wilford

Genre: YA dystopian
Series #: 1 of 3

Release date: 18th September 2017

Publisher: Superstar Peanut Publishing

Blurb:

What is the price paid for the creation of a perfect society?

In Whitopolis, a gleamingly white city of the future where illness has been eradicated, shock waves run through the populace when a bedraggled, dirt-stricken boy materialises in the main street. Led by government propaganda, most citizens shun him as a demon, except for Wellesbury Noon – a high school student the same age as the boy.

Upon befriending the boy, Wellesbury feels a connection that he can’t explain – as well as discovering that his new friend comes from a land that is stricken by disease and only has two weeks to live. Why do he and a girl named Ezmerelda Dontible appear to be the only ones who want to help?

As they dig deeper, everything they know is turned on its head – and a race to save one boy becomes a struggle to redeem humanity.

Purchase Links:

Amazon US / Amazon UK / Smashwords / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / iBooks

Add it on Goodreads

Meet the author:

Nick Wilford is a writer and stay-at-home dad. Once a journalist, he now makes use of those early morning times when the house is quiet to explore the realms of fiction, with a little freelance editing and formatting thrown in. When not working he can usually be found spending time with his family or cleaning something. He has four short stories published in Writer’s Muse magazine. Nick is also the editor of Overcoming Adversity: An Anthology for Andrew. Visit him at his blog or connect with him on Twitter, Goodreads, Facebook, or Amazon.

Enter the giveaway for a chance to win a copy of my collection A Change of Mind and Other Stories or a $10 giftcard!

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Introducing Theresa Milstein

I’ve known Theresa for ages now – although I can’t remember how or when we met. That’s usually how writers appear in my life, surreptitiously, hanging around my blog or Facebook when I’m lost in a series of scenes and popping up with useful advice. I’m delighted to have her on my blog to help celebrate the launch of her new book, Time & Circumstance, which I reviewed on Goodreads recently. Take it away, Theresa…

 

When Vine Leaves Literary Journal began to give a platform for the vignette, the first question I asked was, “What’s a vignette?” At that point, I’d written a few manuscripts and short stories for children and teens, and I’d taken several poetry workshops. My heart was in the novel. I’d only started submitting short stories because I’d heard it was a good way to gain writing experience and it gave me a few publishing credits. The poetry workshops became a creative outlet, but I hadn’t taken it seriously.

Vine Leaves rejected my first submission, which was all telling and not at all a vignette. I read their first issue. There, I truly got the idea that a vignette is a moment in time captured. Vine Leaves accepted my second, a prose piece. The third time I submitted a poem, and it was accepted.

I became a regular vignette writer. I’d write because something impacted me, and the only way to come to terms with it was to say something about it in a small space. I’ve found that vignettes fill the void when I’m letting a full-length manuscript sit. There was one blog I turned to regularly for inspiration. It no longer posts, and I miss it. I’ve learned that I’m a competitive person: give me a picture prompt and a phrase of some sort, and I’m typing away. Several years later, I’d accumulated enough vignettes to make a collection.

I’ve been asked what determines if a piece of writing becomes poetry or prose. Often the first line directs me. If it’s lyrical, and I sense a rhythm in the next line, it becomes a poem. I wind up with many more poems than prose. But if the subject needs more freedom than the space a poem will take, prose works better for me. I know there are people who write poetry with long lines or that go on for many pages. I recently went to a poetry reading, and the woman recited her poem for about fifteen minutes. That’s not my style.

When editing my vignette collection with Vine Leaves Press, I appreciated the editor’s perspective. Several of my poems became prose poems, which is a poem that appears as prose. So, sometimes what works best for my writing is a compromise between the two forms!

 

Theresa Milstein writes middle grade and YA, but poetry is her secret passion. Her vignette collection, TIME & CIRCUMSTANCE, will be published by Vine Leaves Press in March 21, 2017. She lives near Boston Massachusetts with her husband, two children, a dog-like cat, and a cat-like dog. For her day job, she works as a special education teacher in a public school, which gives her ample opportunity to observe teens and tweens in their natural habitat.

 

TIME & CIRCUMSTANCE is available for preorder.

$3.99 AUD (eBook)
Kindle AUS
Kindle US
Kindle UK
Kindle CA
iBooks | Kobo | Nook

$12.99 AUD (paperback)
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Barnes & Noble
Book Depository
Chapters Indigo

 

Leave a comment, and you’re eligible to win a prize during my blog tour!

 1 $25 Amazon gift card

1 signed paperback copy

1 ebook

 

Answer the question:

“If you could relive any moment in time, what would it be?”

 

Extra entries if you share on Facebook or Twitter and link it to me.

@TheresaMilstein on Twitter.

@Theresa Milstein on Facebook

#ReliveMoment or #TimeandCircumstance

 

Winners will be announced on April 5, 2017