Lulu Book Review Archives ⋆ Be the Cat

Celebrating Teen Lit Day

Liana Gardner — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:00:37 +0000

YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Assocation) which is the fastest growing division of the ALA (American Library Association) decided in 2007 to create a Support Teen Literature Day in conjunction with ALA’s National Library Week, which occurs during the month of April. This concept has really covered some ground in the past two years, and we are quickly approaching the 3rd annual Support Teen Literature Day on April 16th. Support Teen Literature Day occurs each year on the Thursday of National Library Week. One of the determining factors in the development of Support Teen Literature Day was a realization on the part of the ALA that 25% of library users are teens. The purpose of this celebration is to raise awareness among the general public that young adult literature is a vibrant, growing genre with much to offer today’s teens. Support Teen Literature Day is also the official launch of the ALA’s Teen Read Week initiative which occurs in the month of October.

YALSA believes strongly that teens deserve the best, yet many libraries have inadequate numbers of trained staff and resources to address the needs of teens. According to information from the U.S. Census Bureau, there will be more than 42 million teens by the year 2008 (Projections of the Total Resident Population by 5-Year Age Groups and Sex with Special Age Categories: Middle Series: 2001-2005. Population Projection Program, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Furthermore, studies indicate that teens are reading less often and fewer of them are obtaining critical literacy skills. More than 60 studies have been done since the 1970s that link increased student achievement with access to well-stocked and professionally staffed school library programs.

To address these issues, YALSA’s mission is to advocate, promote and strengthen library service to teens, ages 12 through 18, as part of the continuum of total library services, and to support those who provide library service to this population.

One group which has taken the Teen Lit Day to heart is readergirlz who have developed Operation Teen Book Drop in conjunction with YALSA, and in 2008 coordinated efforts of twenty publishers who donated 10,000 books which YALSA distributed to 12 children’s hospitals nationwide and in Canada so recuperating teens had something great to read during their hospital stay. Readergirlz is making this an annual event, so check out the Operation TBD video or visit their site for more details.

If you’re looking for suggestions on how to celebrate Support Teen Literature Day, then visit the ALA wiki which at current count has 37 suggestions. Here at the Lulu Book Review, we are celebrating by helping to highlight young adult/teen fiction books. Double Life, which was our most recently reviewed book (Review 72), is actually written by a teen, Dawson Vosburg. Please check back and read the next review on, Scary Mary, by S. A. Hunter, definitely a book worth your while. Other teen books which have been highlighted on the Lulu Book Review are:

The Time Cavern by Todd Fonseca (Review 12)
Chappaqua by Robert D. Toonkel (Review 30)
Misfit McCabe by LK Griffie (Review 32)
Mortal Ghost by L. Lee Lowe (Review 38)
Knowing Jack by Julie Elizabeth Powell (Review 64)

One additional book, which has not yet been reviewed by the Lulu Book Review, but does warrant a special shout out, is Space Dog and the Solar Stone Code by Saul Marquez. Saul is also a teen author and has recently had some success with his Space Dog book, which is the first of a trilogy, in visiting local schools and speaking to children about writing.

The only question that remains is how are you going to Support Teen Literature?

Article originally written for the Lulu Book Review

———————————————————————————————–

LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post Celebrating Teen Lit Day appeared first on Be the Cat.

Day 2 of Good Progress

Liana Gardner — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:31:12 +0000

It is extremely satisfying to note that I had a second day in a row of good progress on editing my novel, Nowhere Feels Like Home. With the starts and stops that I have been experiencing, and inability to focus on getting the job done, prior to yesterday, I began to despair (just a teeny tiny bit). I should really trust myself better, and realize that I am working true to form. First I find it difficult to even look at the manuscript, then I progress to looking at it and not doing much but read the same words over and over again, and wonder why I even started the project to begin with because it is obviously a mess that is beyond repair. Then I move into the fun phase of seeing how many things can be used to distract me from the main purpose of actually keeping my butt securely in the chair in front of my screen with the manuscript on it. Since Easter is approaching, I have been able to get quite creative in some of the distractions used this time around. After all, I had to pass out all those pretty eggs for folks, didn’t I? Oh, another major distraction, Twitter. All of those articles to catch up on, that I’m sure I need to know about. Once all of the distractions have been dispensed with, and there are no more emails to respond to, no phone calls to make, nothing to tweet about, and the easter egg quota has been used up, I can finally look at my manuscript and get something accomplished.

Today, I managed to pick up where I left off, and edited the section I wrote in last night. This was actually an unprecedented move on my part because I am never able to edit a passage so close to the actual writing of it. In fact, I not only did some tweaking on the work (which wasn’t terrible to my surprise), but rewrote a section and managed to stave off a bout of distractability while doing so. That was an accomplishment in and of itself, and I am still patting myself on the back for it. After completing that, I went on and finished the editing on 32 pages (for this phase of the editing process). So at the conclusion of my writing session today, only 76 pages remain to be edited, and while a part of my brain is screaming 76 pages!!!! and sounding like a teenager being asked to take out the trash, the rest of my brain knows that I have made it over the hump and should experience the downhill slide any moment.

Then we get to go through the whole cycle again for phase II of the editing process. Oh well, I still have a few months before my self-imposed deadline.

———————————————————————————————–

LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post Day 2 of Good Progress appeared first on Be the Cat.

A Good Progress Day

Liana Gardner — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:58:48 +0000

I have been struggling a little bit with the editing process, feeling like I was going too slow and not accomplishing very much each day. Of course, there have been all sorts of interruptions to the process, which doesn’t help. I don’t like setting goals and not meeting them however, so have not been pleased with my progress. Part of the problem is my distractability. It takes me a long time to settle down and actually focus on the task at hand. My mind keeps telling me I’ve finished writing the sequel to Misfit McCabe, which I have, but it is not complete by a long chalk. Finally, today, after taking two days off of work, I feel like I have made the progress that I wanted to within a day.

I started off the morning by waking up thinking that it was Sunday and was kind of bummed because I didn’t accomplish nearly what I wanted to, considering I took time off of work so I could focus on writing. Ok, to be strictly honest, I also took time off work because if I didn’t take some vacation days, I’d start losing them. Plus, I really needed the break. Anyway, when I woke up this a.m. and thought that I was returning to work the following day, I was a little down. Then when I realized that it was actually Saturday and I had another whole day before returning to work, the day ahead seemed much brighter. I mix up my days from time to time, and usually think that it is later in the week than it actually is, so this was nothing new for me. Except, usually, when I mix up my days, its during the middle of the week and I think that Tuesday or Wednesday is Thurdsay or Friday and that is depressing when the truth hits. Don’t get me wrong, I do like my job, but it is never a good thing when you think you have only a day or two left until the weekend only to discover that you were wrong and there is more work to be done before the weekend arrives.

Buoyed by the fact that I had both Saturday and Sunday in which to still work on my editing, I opened up my manuscript and started working. Also, I had a conversation with my friend Gail the night before (Oprah is not the only person in the world who has a Gail), and she had finished reading the raw, unedited version of Nowhere Feels Like Home, or as I like to call it, the monstrosity, and she had some good feedback for me. Notice that I said good feeback and not positive. While overall, she liked the manuscript, she gave me constructive feedback as well, which is what I was looking for.

By the time Saturday has wound to its conclusion, I feel quite accomplished with my progress. I wrote a 650 word article for the Lulu Book Review to go live in April, re-read the review of Along Came a Demon by Linda Welch which will be going live on April 1st to make sure that the review reflected what I wanted it to, edited 24 pages of Nowhere Feels Like Home, and wrote a pesky flashback that I had been avoiding like the plague, but had to be written, which added 2,500 words to the total word count. Oh, and I did some re-chaptering to break down some of the overly large chapters into more bite size chunks.

Now that’s what I call a good day – if only I could wake up tomorrow morning and find that it’s Saturday again. . .

———————————————————————————————–

The post A Good Progress Day appeared first on Be the Cat.

2008 in Review

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:43:27 +0000

I’m not really a believer in resolutions. The word resolution to me is like the phrase, “I’ll try.” When someone says, “I’ll try,” what they really mean is “don’t hold your breath.” It’s like a built in excuse for failure. With “I’ll try”, if I succeed, then I’m the hero, if I fail, well, I never promised anything. A resolution tends to work the same way. If I make a resolution, the first failure “breaks” the resolution, so I’m off the hook. While this is the time of year to reflect on what has happened during the course of the year and make resolutions for the new year, I tend to set goals. I like goals because you can set interim goals that help you achieve the long term goal. And goals don’t break. If I fail at an attempt, the goal doesn’t go away. I pick myself up, dust off, and take another run at it.

At the start of 2008, I had definite plans in place. I created a list of goals to accomplish and was ready to tackle them. Well, as is the way in life, things did not go exactly according to plan. Looking back, I have still accomplished the majority of the goals that I set and I feel content with my accomplishments for the year.

2008 saw the distribution of Misfit McCabe, which was a very proud accomplishment for me. To actually hold a bound copy of my work for the first time was fantastic and seeing it on Amazon.com and other online stores was even better. One of my major goals for 2008 was to develop marketing materials for Misfit McCabe and to start the marketing effort. So, I have bookmarks, handout cards, wrap sheets, book review blurbs, give-away copies, in other words, the standard marketing fare. I wasn’t satisfied with my efforts on that score because I wanted something that would really help promote the book itself by giving it more visibility. With the limited budget of all POD authors, I was trying to think of someway to get my book seen by a larger audience of my target readership. The light bulb finally went on in October and I was hard at work ironing out all of the details for Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?

I love those Eureka! moments as an author. As soon as I had the idea, I knew it was the one for me. The Lulu Book Review kindly offered to help me bring visibility of this marketing concept to a wider group of people, you can check out what it entails by checking out the WITW is MMC? tab. This also opened a few more avenues as far as marketing materials. I have posters which have become a part of my marketing scheme for sending to schools and will be soon going to local bookstores and libraries with them.

One of the unexpected and exciting things to happen during 2008 was to start reviewing books for the Lulu Book Review. I enjoy reading other authors work and reviewing it gives me the opportunity to help encourage other POD authors with their writing quest as well as helping to bring visibility to those works. I also get to read things that I may not otherwise have run across. And it keeps me writing.

Another unexpected happening in 2008 was an invitation to participate in the Pearson Prize Book Award contest for 2009 put on by the Learning for a Cause organization. To me it is an honor to have Misfit McCabe invited to participate in the contest, especially since invitiations are issued based on students requests. The winners for this contest are selected by a focus group of 100 high school students, which means that my work will be read by all of the members of the selection group. For me, as an author, it doesn’t get better than that.

One of my goals for 2008 is currently in progress and while I will not meet the original target I set for myself for completion, I will extend this one into the early months of 2009, which is to write the sequel to Misfit McCabe. What is really nice is that I do have a readership which is clamoring for the sequel (ok, so it’s a small clamor, but clamor none the less), so that is spurring me on to completion.

As far as 2009 is concerned, right now, I am not making any new goals until I finish the ones I have, except I do know that I will be starting another writing project once the sequel has been completed. Since I have several waiting in the wings, I just don’t know which one that will be as yet. It’ll depend on which one grabs my attention when I am ready to move on it.
———————————————————————————————–

The post 2008 in Review appeared first on Be the Cat.

Reviewing the Lulu Way

Liana Gardner — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 05:41:19 +0000

I have a new activity that will be occupying part of my time, which is writing book reviews for the Lulu Book Review. I always enjoy reading and this will give me an opportunity to read more and different types of work. Another good thing is that I will be helping to promote self-published writing and will be able to give encouragement to my fellow authors.

How did this come about? Well, as you know I submitted by book, Misfit McCabe for review and Shannon Yarbrough, Lulu Book Review owner and author of Stealing Wishes, gave it a very nice review. Through that process, Shannon and I had several communications back and forth, both to do with the review itself plus winning the marketing book give away that the Lulu Book Review sponsored. Shannon gave me a copy of Stealing Wishes along with the marketing book, so I wrote and posted a review here, as well as on Amazon.com and Lulu.com of Stealing Wishes, which prompted more correspondence back and forth.

I admire what Mr. Yarbrough has set out to do and has accomplished with the Lulu Book Review because I feel it is important to encourage my fellow authors and to help promote self-publishing as another means to getting your work published, while retaining control of your work. Publishing is changing and there is definitely a place for the self-published within the publishing world. So during the course of our correspondence, I offered to assist in writing some of the reviews for the Lulu Book Review and Mr. Yarbrough graciously accepted. I think it will be an arrangement that will work out for both of us because I will have the opportunity to read and critique other work, which ultimately will serve to help me improve my own work, and the Lulu Book Review will benefit from having an additional “voice” for the reviews.

And so, I am now a part time book reviewer, in addition to all of the other projects I am working on. So, stop on by the Lulu Book Review to check out the reviews, and if you are a fellow self-published author through Lulu, ask for a review. I’d love to see your work.

The post Reviewing the Lulu Way appeared first on Be the Cat.

A Labor Day Break

Liana Gardner — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:43:00 +0000

With today being part of a holiday weekend, I really didn’t get to accomplish much today in the way of writing, marketing, etc. I’ve mulled over some ideas, but that has been about the extent of things.

The review from The Lulu Book Review has been posted to Amazon.com, so I was very happy to note that it was there. I was also happy to note that the review posted against both the paperback and Kindle versions of the book. Now all I have to do is post the review to Barnes & Noble.

All for now – tomorrow I’ll get back on the horse and get something (anything) accomplished.

The post A Labor Day Break appeared first on Be the Cat.

Being Compared to Judy Blume

Liana Gardner — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 04:23:00 +0000

I am drifting on a cloud. . . my work has been compared to Judy Blume. Now, that may not seem like a big thing to some, but I remember a time when Judy Blume was THE author for young adult books, when the concept of young adult was in its infancy.

I have just received a review of my young adult novel, Misfit McCabe, from The Lulu Book Review, and it was a stellar review. I haven’t come down from the heights yet.

Waiting for a review can be a little nerve wracking because you have taken your work and actively sought out someone else’s opionion. Will they like it? Will they hate it? Will they be able to give you a quote you can use to help promote your work? When will they get to your book on the mounting pile of submissions?

My first experience with a review was not quite the experience I was hoping for. I submitted to a fairly new review site, and because they were new, the turn around on the review was faster than normal. The review was positive, but the reviewer was so green, that it was not a well constructed review, and left me with no quotable material.

My next experience was better. I submitted to a student reviewer site and the 11 year old student wrote a better constructed review of my work than the adult reviewer. Of course it was helpful that the student reviewer liked the work, and I finally had something to quote.

At the time I submitted my book for review to the above two sites, I also submitted my book to a third site, for which I am still awaiting a review. It will happen one day – and hopefully, I’ll still be checking the site when it does ~ otherwise I may never know.

Because The Lulu Book Review is a newer review site, I was able to get a quick turn around from submission to review (the fastest ever). I knew that the review itself, whether positive or not so positive, would be well constructed, because I had done my homework and read through the reviews on the site. The only remaining question was whether or not the reviewer would like the work.

I was absolutely amazed by the positive review. It started with the comparison to Judy Blume and continued to get better. Thanks so much to Shannon Yarbrough, author of Stealing Wishes, for his vision and drive and talent for writing.

Read the Complete Review

———————————————————————————————–

LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World

The post Being Compared to Judy Blume appeared first on Be the Cat.

Will Wonders Never Cease

Liana Gardner — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 04:28:00 +0000

Upon signing on to my computer after work today, I found that I had actually become a prize winner. Now mind you, I never win prizes. I enter contests from time to time, but wins usually don’t come my way. So, I was absolutely delighted to win a copy of John Kremer’s 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, which is very apt for a writer. I happened to win this volume by entering a contest held by The Lulu Book Review. This site has gained over 10,000 visitors in less than a six month time frame and provides well thought out reviews for those writers who publish using Lulu.com

Anyway, I can’t wait to receive my prize as I am currently working on the marketing materials and strategy for my book Misfit McCabe, and more ideas will never hurt.

———————————————————————————————–

The post Will Wonders Never Cease appeared first on Be the Cat.

Writing Break

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:10:00 +0000

Tonight I took a little break from writing to assist my in-laws with the installation of their DSL line. I have finally brought them into the technological age. It took a little longer than it should have. . . ok – a lot longer than it should have, as the phone company canceled their account, but installed the line and sent them the equipment. It was a snafu from start to finish. But the good thing is that they are now up and running and it only cost me about an hour and a half on the phone (most of it waiting to talk to SOMEONE – ANYONE.)

The girls, Gryphon, Phoenix and Elsa, hung out with their Papa while I worked on trying to get the account issue resolved. They played in the back yard and ran away from their crazy cousin dog, Daisy. Ultimately, I did get everything resolved and everyone is happy.

I was even able to show them my website Griffie World, and this blog. What was funny to me was they apparently didn’t realize that I am working on the sequel to Misfit McCabe. They received a letter from a friend of theirs in Omaha, who happens to be a librarian and is currently reading my book and she had checked out the website and told them I was working on a sequel. I thought I had told them that – oh well.

It is gratifying to think that a librarian in another state is reading my book and liking it well enough to look at the website. Oh, the Omaha connection is that every year, my in-laws go to Omaha for the College World Series and they have met several people of Omaha and have developed friendships over the years. I think it is a great tradition and hope that it continues. Of course, they like it best when Cal State Fullerton goes to the College World Series, because that is our “home” team that we root for (and support in the stands).

Well – it’s back to the writing desk tomorrow.

PS – It was nice to see that Shannon Yarbrough saw the article that I wrote about the Lulu Book Review on Author’s Den. He also posted a comment along the lines of my previous blog, stating that not all reviews are positive (nor should they be or they would be meaningless), but his strive to provide a positive slant mixed with constructive criticism. As a writer, that is the best we can hope for. Someone to tell us what they liked, why they liked it, as well as what didn’t work quite so well, so we can improve upon it the next time.
———————————————————————————————–

LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World

The post Writing Break appeared first on Be the Cat.