CAROLINE ROSE STARR GUEST POST AND BLUE BIRDS GIVEAWAY

Happy Monday Everyone!

Follower News

Krysten Lindsay Hager's book Best Friends…Forever? just released. It’s part of the Landry’s True

Colors Series, a clean reads series about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, and self-image. In this book, Landry, an eighth grader, deals her fear of failure and having her best friends getting excited about beginning high school next year—something she finds terrifying.

Website: http://www.krystenlindsay.com/

Buy links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Friends-Forever-Landrys-Colors-Series-ebook/dp/B00UIP1N5S/ref=zg_bsnr_10368581011_2

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/krysten-lindsay-hager

Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/krysten-lindsay-hager/id890673226?mt=11

And I have a few winners to announce.

The winner of Kristin Nelson's Query Critique is Danielle H!

And the winner of UNDER THE PAINTED SKY is Natasha D!

Congrats! E-mail me your address for the book giveaway. Please e-mail me by the end of Wednesday or I'll have to pick another winner.

Today I'm thrilled to have Caroline Rose Starr here to share about her time management tips and about BLUE BIRDS, her new historical MG story told in verse. Details about the giveaway will be at the end of the post.

Here's a blurb from Goodreads:

It’s 1587 and twelve-year-old Alis has made the long journey with her parents from England to help settle the New World, the land christened Virginia in honor of the Queen. And Alis couldn’t be happier. While the streets of London were crowded and dirty, this new land, with its trees and birds and sky, calls to Alis. Here she feels free. But the land, the island Roanoke, is also inhabited by the Roanoke tribe and tensions between them and the English are running high, soon turning deadly.

Amid the strife, Alis meets and befriends Kimi, a Roanoke girl about her age. Though the two don’t even speak the same language, these girls form a special bond as close as sisters, willing to risk everything for the other. Finally, Alis must make an impossible choice when her family resolves to leave the island and bloodshed behind.

A beautiful, tender story of friendship and the meaning of family, Caroline Starr Rose delivers another historical gem. 

So here's Caroline!

In 1998 I showed my sixth graders at Southwest Middle School (Orlando, FL) a video about Roald Dahl. In it he discussed his writing habits -- how he always used a yellow legal pad, stopped when the writing was strong (so it would be easier to pick up the next day), and wrote two hours a day, whether he had

something to say or not.

For years I'd talked about writing a book. After watching the video, and with summer just a few weeks away, I decided to give it a try. I checked out a dozen or so books on the Oregon Trail, researched for two weeks,* and started writing.** Dahl's advice to write for two hours a day felt doable. It's been a pattern I've kept up ever since.

Except when I haven't, which is most of the time.

It's far too easy for me to get distracted by the computer, life responsibilities, and the like. Last spring,I needed to be better about using my time well. The idea of juggling two novels at once was an overwhelming one. I needed a plan, something straightforward, like Dahl's two-hour approach.

while researching my second book for Putnam, I realized

I started by simply writing down the amount of time I was researching each day. It was frustrating at first to see exactly how much work I was (and was not) doing. But it was a good, honest start.

Later, when working on editorial revisions for BLUE BIRDS, I had the luxury of ten weeks to get my first round done. I aimed for three to five hours a day, five days a week. When the amount of work necessary to pull the book up to what it needed felt insurmountable, would lead I tried to remember the small, daily work to something better in two months' time. Hour by hour I was moving forward, or as Anne Lamott might say, bird by bird.

The act of writing down my hours pushed me to keep going. On days where writing was cut to just a few hours or squeezed out entirely, it was also good to refer to my calendar. I had meetings, a boy with a broken wrist, and a retreat to pull together and facilitate in August and September. Seeing those full days helped me chill out a little. I wasn't eating bon bons or wasting my time. I was busy living life.

What strategies do you use to meet writing goals?

* do not try this at home
** terrible manuscript but great learning experience!

Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. As a girl she danced ballet, raced through books, composed poetry on an ancient typewriter, and put on magic shows in a homemade cape. She’s taught both social studies and English in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Caroline’s the author of the ALA Notable book, May B. (2012), Over in the Wetlands, (2015), and Blue Birds (2015). Visit her at www.carolinestarrrose.com

Caroline  generously offered an ARC of BLUE BIRDS for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower (just click the follow button if you’re not a follower) and leave a comment through April 11th. I’ll announce the winner on April 13th. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, please leave it in the comments.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. This is for US and Canada.

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday was started by Shannon Messenger. Find all the other middle grade bloggers on her blog.

Here's what's coming up:

Tomorrow I'll be participating in the Fools for Books Giveaway Hop. I'll have lots of great book choices for you.

On Wednesday I'll have a guest post by publicist Samantha Lien and a 15 minute marketing consultation contest.

Next Monday I'll have an interview with debut author Fonda Lee and a giveaway of ZEROBOXER, her YA science-fiction book.

And the Monday after that, Alex Cavanaugh will be here to share about his new adult science fiction book, DRAGON OF THE STARS, and to give advice about social media and blogging.

Hope to see you tomorrow!