Wednesday, October 31, 2012

#143 Cat Book Published

     Welcome to our new readers from Venezuela.  The stats pages of my two blogs about children's reading now indicate that we have audiences from a total of forty-three different countries. Learning to read is certainly a universal need, isn't it. 


     This is the big news that has caused me to digress from my announced topic for this post.

     Topper's eBook is now out on Amazon for Kindle!  I have a very special pride in this one and feel like a mother hen with her chicks.

     Here is more information about it:
     
     When you go to www.amazon.com , click on the word "Kindle" on the left side of that home page. Then enter the title and author in the little search window (In the Mind of a Cat by Lynda). The eBook sells for $2.99 in the United States. 

     Amazon currently has seven internet stores world-wide, and my books are available on all of them. They are Amazon.com (includes India), Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom), Amazon.de (Germany), Amazon.fr (France), Amazon.es (Spain), Amazon.it (Italy), and Amazon.co.jp (Japan).  Small world, isn't it? 

     Please feel free to visit my profile on Amazon's Author Central as well.  Its link is: http://www.amazon.com/Lynda/e/B005Z2MLSM.

     I also have a second blog about children's reading at the following link: www.ebooks4kids.blogspot.com.

     Topper's book is the eighth eBook I have published, and I appreciate all of my readers' wonderful support.

  My other seven titles are:

     Monkey Tales by Lynda, a beginning reader
     
     Circles in the Wind by Lynda, a picture book for young children

     Margaret's Christmas Cookies by Lynda, a short holiday book for middle-grade readers

     Tiny Others (Agent C Series) by Lynda, a chapter book for middle-grade readers

     Pomegranate (Agent C Series) by Lynda, a chapter book for middle-grade readers

     White Rabbit Time (Agent C Series) by Lynda, a chapter book for middle-grade readers

     Lucky Alana (Agent C Series) by Lynda, a chapter book for middle-grade readers

     (The Agent C Series books need not be read in any specific order.) 

     All of the books except my most recent one about Topper are available for Barnes and Nobles's Nook reading device as well as Amazon's Kindle.

     In my next post I will get back on schedule and tell you about where I got the ideas for my book, White Rabbit Time.

     Until then, please keep reading... 

     













Sunday, October 14, 2012

#142 The source of my Ideas for Pomegranate



     I wrote Pomegranate (Agent C Series) with a careful concern for balance.  

     The very old story of Persephone and her mother Demeter from Greek mythology was used as a basis to create a futuristic story set nine years after a world-wide Techno-Crash in which twelve-year-old Percy's father mysteriously disappeared. A summary of the Greek tale is offered as an attachment at the end for the purpose of comparison to Percy's story.

     Thus, the balance of ancient and the modern settings exist in the the story's structure.

     Percy's father firmly believed in the importance of redeveloping the world's technology while her mother feared it and supported the earth's life forces instead.

     This is a necessary balance in our world today, isn't it?

     It might be compared to the balance of the seasons in the Greek myth when Persephone lived the summer months with Demeter and winter months away from her.

     And when Percy's judgement became clouded by her obsession with the missing password for the electronic journal sent by her father, the story offered a clear rationale for a solid set of guidelines and rules for the use of technology.

     In other words, Percy's life was out of balance, and had to be re-established by a new understanding and agreement among her family members before they could all move forward.

     Next time I will explain how I developed the ideas for my eBook White Rabbit Time (Agent C Series).


     Please feel free to transfer to my other blog at www.ebooks4kids.blogspot.com.  My current post offers some recommendations for eBooks about time travel.

     And please keep reading.



     

     

         



      



Thursday, October 4, 2012

#141 Three Sources of the Ideas for Margaret's Christmas Cookies



     There were actually three sources of my ideas for Margaret's Christmas Cookies.

     First, in 1979, I submitted essays to our local newspaper for Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day.  They were both published in the "Lifestyle" section of the paper, and I felt like a real writer.

     Later that year, the same newspaper sponsored a contest.  We were invited to submit an idea for an original Christmas character, something like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Scrooge, only with a word count limit.  

     I was sure I could win when I invented a little old lady who brought nice (though a bit soggy) presents to children in a needy family one rainy Christmas Eve.

     I didn't win, but the little old lady later became Mrs. King in Margaret's Christmas Cookies.

     The second source was a real Margaret who was a fourth grader in my classroom in the late 1990's, and I'll never forget her.

     Fourth grade is a unique age anyway.  Ten-year-olds are remarkably self-sufficient (they can all tie their shoes),  but they still manage to stay centered and grounded.  Girls can be friends with boys and vice-versa, and they usually like school, teachers, and parents. Their minds are capable of both soaking up knowledge and producing ideas.  In short, they are very nice. 

     Margaret was one of those exceptional individuals who arrived in fourth grade as a nice little grown-up already. She was the one who organized the clean-up after art projects.  She helped the slow cleaners finish organizing their desks.  She begged to help correct papers at recess time.  When I scooted her out to the playground, she organized a school beautification committee to pick up trash or befriended new students and educated them about school rules or the school song.       

     Margaret moved away at the end of fourth grade, and I never actually got to observe what became of her the next year, but I'm sure she was doing more than her share to ensure that everyone else would love getting through it.

     I kept thinking of that Margaret as I created my character of the responsible older sister in Margaret's Christmas Cookies.

     The last idea source was my own mother.  The recipe for sugar cookies in the story came from the recipe card in the box in my cupboard.  Mother always added a bit of pancake syrup to her sugar cookies for just the right touch to make roll-out cookies soft and chewy.

     Next time I will tell you where the ideas for my Ebook entitled Pomegranate came from.




     Please feel free to visit my other blog at www.ebooks4kids.blogspot.com.  I currently have published a post recommending Ebooks about kids who move to a new place.  Please click on the link above to transfer to it.

     And please keep reading.