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Want "Daniel" For Free?

5/19/2014

Daniel the Draw-er is my first published book, and my first self-published book. It goes without saying that I'm working out my marketing plan as I go, seeing what helps and what doesn't. I hope you don't mind being a part of my wily schemes and wacky experiments. You don't? Good! We'll get along just fine, then.

For the next 21 days, you can download a PDF or .mobi (for Kindles or Kindle apps) for free, in exchange for your reviews. The Story Cartel is a great site for helping authors with exposure, and I hope you'll be a part of this adventure!

Please share with your family or friends! That's the only way to get my story into the hands of kids all over the world. Thanks, friends!

Download "Daniel the Draw-er" at Story Cartel Now!

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Children's Book Week Giveaway Winners Announced!

5/19/2014

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So, you know how I promised an autographed paperback of Daniel the Draw-er to one lucky winner? I lied. Yup. I'm a liar. Normally, that's not something to be happy about, but today I'm thrilled about it. Want to know why?

Because I decided to give away THREE autographed copies. There are three winners instead of one!

Drumroll, please... Your winners are:

Karen Puleski
Esperanza Garcia Gailliard
Angela Burkhead

No need to thank the Academy, your mama, or even me. I just hope you enjoy Daniel's story as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please tell your friends all about the most amazing book you read, and all about little ol' me. And if you feel so inclined, I'm always excited for a good review up on Amazon, GoodReads, your blog, a highway billboard, whatever. I'm not picky!

Thanks, everyone, for participating! We'll do it again soon!

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Children's Book Week Blog Hop 2014 + Giveaway!

5/11/2014

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I didn't know there was a Children's Book Week, but, whaddya know, there is. I also didn't know I was going to write and publish a children's book just in time for Children's Book Week. My life is full of lots of surprises lately, I guess. And here I thought nothing exciting ever happened to me! ;-)

To celebrate Children's Book Week, March 12-18, I'm giving away an autographed paperback copy of my children's book, "Daniel the Draw-er". Check out how you can enter to win by scrolling down to my Rafflecopter giveaway below all of this wordy goodness. Please note that my giveaway is open to U. S. residents only.

I'm only one of a bunch of other authors and KidLit enthusiasts participating in something called "The Children's Book Week Giveaway Hop 2014. Be sure to visit the blog hop hosts, Mother Daughter Book Reviews and Youth Literature Reviews and scroll to the bottom of this blog post for links to other awesome giveaways. Tell 'em S. J. sent ya!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to pop in and visit more lovely peeps involved in this year's Children's Book Week Blog Hop, listed below!

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So You Want To Be a Writer...

5/3/2014

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Photo credit, CreateSpace

I'll start this post by admitting that I am, by no stretch of the imagination, an expert on writing. If you came here looking for a secret formula or the nuts and bolts of wordsmithing, well, I'm sorry to say you've come to the wrong place. Crafting a story, and doing it well, entails a lot more than could ever fit on one lousy blog post. Rules. Punctuation. Plots. Dialogue. So much to know before you can actually write. This doesn't align with our instant-gratification world.

You should probably stop here. It's too much work.

But what if I told you that you could pick up your favorite pen--c'mon, you know you have a favorite!--or your laptop and GO? You don't have to have the perfect beginning, middle, and end. It's not likely that you'll sit down with a cup of coffee and plunk out War and Peace on that first go. What stares back at you from the page might suck, and "suck" might be the understatement of the century. But even stories sucky-beyond-all-reason can be shaped into something more. A blank page cannot, at least not until your words end up there.

Though I've always written for my own enjoyment, I never considered anything would come with it. Writing would be nothing more than a hobby. In 2011, my attitude changed. I wanted to take writing more seriously, to write books instead of rambling blog posts about coffee and kid-induced nervous breakdowns. And then came that day when I said, "Enough! I'm writing a book!" I didn't even have a story in mind, I just followed Chris Baty's advice and wrote the book I wanted to read. My first words after my attitude adjustment were,

"I'm what you would call a simple girl, a chameleon."

If you think about it, that sentence doesn't make sense at all. Simple girls have nothing in common with ever-changing chameleons. And, if we're being real, it's a bit cliche to call yourself "simple". But those flawed words led to over 200,000 more. With a lot of hard, literally hands-on work, they have grown into stronger, more flexible versions of themselves. That never would have happened if I'd let the blank screen call my bluff. I wade through the suck every time I sit down to write, and you will, too. In the end, it's not about whether the writing is excellent or cringe-worthy. It's about letting the ideas out of your head and seeing what happens. It's getting past saying, "I always wanted to write a book/story/article/whatever" to actually doing it.

I can't read through that first manuscript without feeling sick to my stomach at its sheer awfulness, but I didn't let it stop me. That sheer awfulness became the first of three books in my Hope Creek series, which gained the attention of a publisher. While that might not happen for you, you can't possibly know for sure if you don't write that first word. And then the next. And then the one after that, and so on.

My advice to you? Go forth. Write all the horrible, wrong words. Laugh at yourself, and don't give up.

That's truly all it takes to be a writer.

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Want "Daniel" For Free?

Children's Book Week Giveaway Winners Announced!

Children's Book Week Blog Hop 2014 + Giveaway!

So You Want To Be a Writer...

S. J.

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