Spotlight on Sandy Carlson's The Powder Horn of Mackinac Island

Welcome to the Girls Succeed Blog! 

I'm thrilled to share a new book, The Powder Horn of Mackinac Island by Sandy Carlson. (Mackinac is pronounced Mack-i-NAW)
If you like time travel, you'll love this book. Read on to find out more about the story.

The Powder Horn of Mackinac Island by Sandy Carlson
A middle grade time travel

 BACK OF THE BOOK: The Powder Horn of Mackinac Island by Sandy Carlson

Arianna’s family are proud new owners of a souvenir shop on Mackinac Island – the perfect place to make money for her paraplegic brother’s surgery. No motor vehicles are allowed on the island, but there are plenty of horses easily avoided, making the island safe enough for Luc to have mobile freedom in his wheelchair all summer long. When Arianna and Luc accidentally discover that a powder horn that’s been in their family for generations can send them back to 1793, they meet their great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, the person who carved the treasure map on the powder horn. How can the siblings convince their ancestor to let them in on its secrets? After all, they are family. To complicate matters, Luc finds he can walk there, back in the past. He doesn’t want to return to the present where the surgery is uncertain, and a wheelchair may be his life. Arianna must choose between discovering the family treasure and bringing and keeping her brother in the present.

Click here to order the ebook or paperback version.

MY REVIEW: 

My favorite place in the world is Mackinac (pronounced Mack-i-naw) Island. So I especially enjoyed the many beautiful places Ms. Carlson worked into her story. She cleverly included historical info throughout the book and did not write a huge information dump about the island and its history. The premise was believable because the characters were so believable. We follow the well-written feisty 13-year-old gal, Arianna, and her 10 year-old-brother, Luc. Ms. Carlson crafted a very special relationship between the siblings. I truly enjoyed the present time family's angst about establishing a souvenir shop on this tourist destination island and the kids' heart-thumping adventures into the past, I think middle grade children would enjoy it too. I'm not just saying that because I love visiting Mackinac Island or because I won the book in a contest. I believe kids-at-heart would also find this a fun story.

SANDY CARLSON'S AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY FOR KIDS:

Here is a picture of me, Sandy Carlson, in the second grade. In kindergarten, I told people my parents called Sandy because I ate sand. I was disappointed when I found out that wasn’t true.

I wasn’t a fast or good reader, but I loved making up stories and telling them to my siblings, cousins and friends — especially spooky stories inside dark-dark closets.

I became a teacher and learned to love reading. I loved books so much I even became an author! My favorite author is C.S. Lewis because he wrote for both kids and adults, and was very smart. Today I’m part of this world-wide writing organization called SCBWI — the Society for Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators.

I have climbed mountains, swum in oceans, and run down sand dunes. I’ve outrun wildfires, hid in a basement from a tornado, cleaned debris from a hurricane, outwalked the incoming tide at Fundy Bay, and survived our house getting smashed by 100 year old trees. I’ve ridden horses, been on cattle round-ups, avoided stepping on rattlesnakes, was charged by a wild boar, cleaned oil off of turtles from the largest inland oil spill in USA history, and know how to put a worm on a fish hook — although the first time it took me twenty minutes. Generally, I’d rather be outside than inside.

I have one husband (my very own hero) and two grown sons who are really cool, one awesome daughter-in-law, and an amazing grandchild.

We’ve had lots of pets in our various houses, but right now the only “pets” I have are our backyard animals – birds, black squirrels, rabbits, deer, raccoon, and lots of bugs.

What I like best is learning new things…and then sharing them them others, like you.

               (And here’s what I look like today,  showing you where I’m from on the “Michigan Mitt.”)

Click here to connect online with Sandy 

at her website and blog

Career: Author Katie L. Carroll Shares How She Became a Writer and Giveaway

Please welcome children's author Katie L. Carroll today. Katie shares the story behind how she became a writer. Please enter the contest below to win her book and other prizes during her tour. 

Katie and I are swapping blogs, so take another hop over to Katie's website to discover what sparked the penning of my non-fiction e-book for girls, Girls Succeed, and leave a comment to enter the drawing for a copy of Girls Succeed.

Let me tell you a bit about Katie.

Katie L. Carroll began writing at a very sad time in her life after her 16-year-old sister, Kylene, unexpectedly passed away. Since then writing has taken her to many wonderful places, real and imagined. She wrote Elixir Bound and the forthcoming Elixir Saved so Kylene could live on in the pages of a book. Katie is also the author of the picture app The Bedtime Knight and an editor for MuseItUp Publishing. She lives not too far from the beach in a small Connecticut city with her husband and son. For more about Katie, visit Katie's website, friend her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter (@KatieLCarroll).

How I Became a Writer

By Katie L. Carroll

I thought my life as a writer began when I was 19 on a particularly hot day in early spring 2002, a black-letter day, the blackest of black-letter days in fact. I was in college on track to becoming a physical therapist with an early acceptance into the graduate program. But I didn’t become a physical therapist; I became a writer.

I’ve since come to realize, with the help of my mom, that it was much earlier than that when I began my writing life. On my blog post on the release day of the ebook version of Elixir Bound, she wrote, “Although you would have done fine as a physical therapist, I always knew it was not your calling. You were a writer ever since you could pick up a pencil and I think I always knew that, after all the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree (of course I’m talking about your dad).”

Well, my mom was mostly right. Even before I could pick up a pencil, my mom would read stories to us, the Little Golden Books, the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, all kinds of fiction. I think that’s when I became a writer.

When I stop to think about it, I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out I was a writer. The signs were all there. My family and I used to write and illustrate our own picture books about the adventures of Sam the Billy Goat. At the climax of the story it would always read, “Voop Whoosh! Up went the Billy Goat.” And he would fly up to save the day.

I wrote (and sometimes illustrated) stories my whole childhood. In middle school, high school, and college I worked on the school newspapers. Yeah, I think I had been in a state of denial for 19 years…which brings us back to that black-letter day…April 16, 2002. The day my sister Kylene died.

I don’t like to talk about that day. How the forget-me-nots were in bloom. How there was recording-breaking high temps. How it was the worst day of my life. 

So what do you do when you’re 19 and your sister’s just died? Well, once you’re in a place where you can think again, you reevaluate. Everything. 

For me that meant rethinking what I wanted to do with my professional life. Kylene gave me the permission to pursue my passion. So I began writing. Eventually I decided not to continue studying to be a physical therapist. I kept writing, often not even sure who I was writing for. Kylene, an audience, myself?

I pursued publication. And got rejections, along with some encouragement. I revised, learned a lot more about the business of publishing. Wrote some more. Revised some more. Got a lot more rejections…You get the picture.

Ten years and four months after Kylene died, my book was finally born into the world. And what was that book about? A young woman, entrusted with the future of her family’s secret healing Elixir, goes on a quest to find the Elixir’s secret ingredient.

I don’t need a psychoanalyst to tell me I was fulfilling a wish with that book. It was supposed to be about Kylene, and it is in some ways, but it’s really about me. Because for those 10 years, it had been too hard to write Ky’s book. I tried. Elixir Bound started out from her point of view, but I just couldn’t write that book yet.

But I am writing it now. Elixir Saved, a follow-up to Elixir Bound, will be Kylene’s book. 

You see, I believe each of us as an individual doesn’t truly realize the impact we have on people. Each person we touch—whether it be with a story, a hug, a smile as we pass a stranger on the street—leaves a ripple. 

Kylene, in her short life, left lots of ripples. With the people she loved. With the people she cared about. The people she felt compassion for, which was pretty much everyone. The people she shared the Harry Potter books with. Even the nurses in the hospital from the short time she was sick felt her ripples.

I like to think that each ripple I make with Elixir Bound is really Ky’s ripple…because I’m not sure I would have discovered my life’s passion if it weren’t for Kylene. It makes my heart smile to think that Kylene is still making ripples on the world, and that I have my own little role to play in that.

# # # # 

Elixir Bound Back of the Book:

Katora Kase is next in line to take over as guardian to a secret and powerful healing Elixir. Now she must journey into the wilds of Faway Forest to find the ingredient that gives the Elixir its potency. Even though she has her sister and brother, an old family friend, and the handsome son of a mapmaker as companions, she feels alone. 

It is her decision alone whether or not to bind herself to the Elixir to serve and protect it until it chooses a new guardian. The forest hosts many dangers, including wicked beings that will stop at nothing to gain power, but the biggest danger Katora may face is whether or not to open up her heart to love.

Buy Links:

MuseItUp Publishing

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

iBooks 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

New Book Release: Julius Caesar Brown and the Green Gas Mystery

Please welcome imaginative children's author Ace Hansen to the Girls Succeed blog! You have got to read on to discover this fun and entertaining new book. It's a fun day. Not only do I get to giggle with Ace on this blog, but also I am a guest on Ace's blog. So hop on over and say hi and discover probably more than you'll ever want to know about me.

 The world is farting green! Who will stop the green gas crisis!

THE STORY BEHIND THE BOOK by Ace Hansen

Whilst I was cruising the Milky Way Galaxy in search of better tasting food, I crash landed into Meteor Crater, near Flagstaff, Arizona. Never having been on Earth, I hopped over to the closest city and began searching for nourishment. Everywhere I went people pointed and laughed, especially after I'd let out a few flaturific emissions. I couldn't understand why my green gas was so funny, until I realized Earthlings emissions were invisible! So I began to wonder, what if Earthlings started blowing greenies? 

The next thing I know, I'm being chased all over town by scary men in dark blue suits 'cause apparently you Earthlings think you have to pass around some kind of dark green and white paper in order to get the food you need. Crazy! So after spending a short stint behind bars, I figured I could get cash by making up funny stories for the miniature Earthlings, especially the ones who giggled and snorted every time they saw one of my green poofs. 

And thus JULIUS CAESAR BROWN AND THE GREEN GAS MYSTERY was born! 

Excerpt:

 Chapter One 

The real Julius Caesar conquered the world.

All I wanted was to conquer a simple spelling test.

“Having trouble?”

I set down my pencil and glared at Ben Purdee, the brainiest kid in fifth grade. “No problem.”

Yes, I had a problem. And it wasn’t just how to spell brocolee. Or was it brockoly?

Mrs. Tucker closed her book. “Time’s up. Pass them forward.”

I handed my test to Ivy Chen, who sat in front of me, and pushed my chair away from the desk. The legs scraped the floor. A loud, embarrassing noise echoed through the classroom. Heads turned. Ivy stared, her brown eyes wide as pie.

Ben nudged me and smirked. “Did you just—?”

“No. It was my chair. See?” I scooted back and forth trying to remake the suspicious sound, but I failed. Ben moved his desk away from mine. Ivy’s nose twitched. My cheeks grew hot. “It really was the chair,” I mumbled.

# # # #

Now go buy my book, so I can go buy some gummy worms. Or maybe you want to send me a big bag?

If you'd like to purchase JULIUS CAESAR BROWN AND THE GREEN GAS MYSTERY it's available as an ebook now and is coming in print Fall 2013:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

iBookstore
MuseItUp Publishing

About Ace:

Ace Hansen doesn’t pass green gas. The author grew up in a household of boys and knows all about deadly stinkers, tree houses, and scary neighbors.

   Ace enjoys all kinds of creepy things and has been known to devour entire bags of worms* while writing outrageous fiction.

*Gummy, of course. What were you thinking?

If you'd like to learn more about Ace (of course you do!) you can find him on:

Ace Hansen's Website

Twitter and Facebook

Welcome Guest Author Beverly Stowe McClure

Tween Ghost Story

Please welcome children's author, Beverly Stowe McClure, to the Girls Succeed blog. Beverly is a wonderful storyteller. Today she tells us the story behind her career as an author. 

ME, A WRITER? HA, HA!

by Beverly Stowe McClure

If anyone had told me I’d be a writer someday, I’d have thought they were crazy. When I was young, I hated to write. Even though my eighth-grade teacher sent my poem “Stars” to a high school anthology and it was published in Young America Sings I had no desire to write more poetry or anything else. It was a class assignment. Nothing more.

Fast forward a few years. In spite of my rocky relationship with books, I managed to graduate from high school, got married, and had a family. I also had a boring job. (Not the kids; they’re never boring.) So, this non-reader, non-writer decided to go to the university and take courses to help me find the perfect job, which meant more reading and writing. Yeah, what was I thinking? Anyhow, four years later I graduated Cum Laude (who would have thought it?) with a Bachelor of Science in Education. This was one of the best decisions I’d ever made in my life. Soon I was teaching in elementary school and loving it.

Reading great Newbery books with my students, hearing their reports on these books and how enthusiastic they were about the stories, sometimes even dressing like the characters to give their reports, opened my eyes to what I’d been missing: Reading was fun. I also read to my sons because I wanted them to do well in school and to discover new worlds,  travel to new countries, and meet new people.

Somewhere along the way, I started wondering if I could write a book for children. I’d never know if I didn’t try. The problem was I had no idea how to begin. Sure, I’d written tons of papers in college, but books were different. So, I signed up for a course with The Institute of Children’s Literature to learn the secrets of writing. My first attempts were magazine articles, most of them based on art projects or science activities we did in my fifth-grade classes. And, surprise, surprise, some of them actually sold. A TV guide magazine called Happiness bought my article on fire safety in the home. Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Ladybug, Focus on the Family Clubhouse Jr., and other magazines published my work. I was on my way. But I still had not written a book, my original goal.

So, I took a second course at The Institute of Children’s Literature and with the help of a great instructor wrote my first novel for young adults. It still sits in a box, unsold, but I’ve improved (I hope) and now have nine books, including a picture book, early reader, two tween novels, and five novels for young adults published. If I’d never taken the first step by deciding to try something new, to make a change in my life and write the magazine articles, I’d likely still be working at a boring job. But I did, and I‘m thankful.

Why do I write for young people? I love children and teens. I love their innocence and their quirkiness. I love their honesty. I hope my work might make a difference in some young life. We don’t know the path our lives will follow. I never dreamed of being a teacher or a writer. But I’ve been both. Listen to your heart. Listen to those little voices in your head, telling you their stories. Write their words. Send them off to a magazine or book publisher. You may be pleasantly surprised at the results. I’m so glad I listened.

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ABOUT BEVERLY

When Beverly Stowe McClure was a child she hated to read. Even though her eighth grade teacher sent her poem “Stars” to the National High School Poetry Association, and it was published in Young America Sings, an anthology of Texas high school poetry, she hated to write. Nevertheless, she managed to squeak through high school, where she played the clarinet in the band and was a majorette, and graduated.

Then she got married, had three sons (one an angel in heaven), and attended Midwestern State University, where she read more books than she had ever imagined. What was she thinking? Finally, she graduated cum laude with a teaching certificate and had a fourth son. She taught children in elementary school for twenty-two years. And along the way she discovered that reading was fun and writing was even more exciting. Forty years after her poem was published, she sent an article on fire safety in the home to Happiness magazine, and it was published. She was on her way.

Beverly and Jack have five granddaughters (one also an angel in heaven), two grandsons, two great-grandsons, and one great-granddaughter. They live in the country, with two cats that adopted them and a variety of wild critters that stop by for a visit. To relax Beverly plays the piano, enjoys discovering ancestors in her genealogy research, and takes pictures of wildlife and clouds and sometimes people. She teaches a woman’s Sunday school class. And she writes most every day.

Find Beverly on line at these links.

http://beverlystowemcclure.wordpress.com

http://beverlystowemcclure.blogspot.com

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Book Review: A Horse Called Trouble by C.K. Volnek

There is a Heap of Trouble in this wonderful book...and I loved reading about every bit of it. Tara is a foster child in a lot of trouble who meets up with a troubled horse named Trouble, of course. Just when the reader believes Tara is on the right track, trouble hits her between the eyes again. Ms Volnek draws the reader into the story with her outstanding writing so we cheer for Tara throughout each troubling situation. I like the characterizations in the book. Young (and old) readers have no problem identifying the good guy from the bad guy. Easy to read and understand. Excellent storytelling.

Check out the reviews at Amazon and learn more about this entertaining read.

Jane Stroschin: Children's Author and Illustrator

Children's author and illustrator, Jane Stroschin is featured at Marva Dasef's blog, the Cellophane Queen. Jane is a talented artist with paintings enjoyed by art lovers around the country. You'll love how she wrote her Christmas picture book, Emma Lou and the Reindeer Flu, told in Girls Succeed: Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women.

Hop on over to find our more and to enter the drawing for prizes after the book tour. See you there!!

Children's Author and Illustrator: Jane Stroschin

Jane Stroschin

Today I want you to meet Jane Stroschin, a talented artist and storyteller. She had a big week this week because the mural she painted for the wall of a two story building was installed and a reception celebrated this magnificent work, entitled Celebrate Our Symbols. The mural, located in Fremont, Michigan, depicts wildlife and nature in Michigan.

This is a mock-up of the mural, not an actual photo of the final art work.

Jane shared with me some of the photos as she worked on the project in her studio. I am in awe of her vision and talent. The next photo is the image of the birds she painted when starting the panel located at the top of the mural. From this:

Jane created this gorgeous painting. 

The panel of this background lying on its side in her studio developed into the next breathtaking beauty,

To learn more about Jane Stroschin and how she became a celebrated artist and children's author, read her story in the interactive e-book, Girls Succeed: Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women. The e-book is available for download at Smashwords, Amazon, and major online booksellers.