Saturday, December 14, 2013

A Writer's Week #95: Lots To Tell

Okay, where to start? This week has been just fantastic. First off, we capped off our book drive for the Salvation Army. We wound up with a grand total of 114 books! You can see a sampling of them in the picture below. On Monday and Tuesday, volunteers will be packaging the gifts and the books for the families. Distribution day will be Friday, December 20th. I'll update the blog with photos as things we move along.


A big thank you to all those who purchased copies of The Deliverers Series books. Thanks to you I will donate 67 copies. Thank you, too to my wonderful author friends who donated copies of their wonderful books. Here's a list with links to their books. Please support them. Not only did they answer my call for help, but they are very generous with donations to other worthy causes as well!








Another big thank you has to go to author Stephanie Robinson who donated a stack of books that she had purchased at her school's book fair. She and co-author Jessica Haight have written a wonderful book, The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow, that will be published by Random House/Dellacourt in the fall of 2015.

Speaking of Stephanie and Jessica, they were nice enough to feature me on their blog this week. On Wednesday they posted a wonderful review of The Deliverers 2: Order of the Crystal Lion. On Friday, they featured a nice interview with me. It was a lot of fun chatting with them about my writing and my plans for the Deliverers Series going forward. There is also a giveaway for you to enter for a chance to win a signed copy of Order of the Crystal Lion.

With all this going on, it was hard fitting in any writing. I don't think I'll begin work on The Deliverers 4 until after Christmas, but I have been busy making final edits to The Deliverers 3: The Golden Dragon of Ang. I should be finished with those sometime today (thank you snow!).

I was also a little surprised when I received an email from illustrator Daniel Vogel. It contained a new conceptual sketch for the cover of The Golden Dragon of Ang. I thought the original concept was fine, but apparently he wasn't satisfied. He ran it by his mother, graphic designer Ana Vogel, and she agreed. So, it was back to the drawing board--literally. He had rendered the original illustration on the computer, and as I said, I liked it. The handdrawn version was head and shoulders better than the first, though. It really blew me away. I quickly gave my approval. The good news is that we should still be on schedule for a completed cover in early January and a publication date sometime in February!

This has turned into quite a long post, but I have one more piece of news. For the next week, the Kindle version of both books in the Deliverers Series will be on sale for just 99 cents on Amazon! Please stop by and purchase a copy of Sharky and the Jewel and Order of the Crystal Lion before this deal goes away! Please share this with your friends, too. Thanks and have a great week!

2 comments:

  1. 114 books! Yeah! I love this idea and think it is such a great way to get kids reading.

    We were thrilled to have you on our blog this week and our readers enjoyed learning more about you and The Crystal Lion.

    I cannot wait to see the next cover! Daniel is so talented and I remember you telling me about the cover and how he did it on the computer.

    Sounds like you have a lot of great things going on. Yeah! :)

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    1. Thanks for having me. It was a lot of fun!. Computers make things easier, but there's something about hand drawn that can't compare. The cover will look really great when it's done. Thanks for your help with the books!

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