Fairy May Review/Spotlight

Today I'm participating in Jo Linsdell's book tour of her newest children's book, Fairy May.  Here are the details for the book:

SUMMARY:  Fairy May dreams of one day becoming a tooth fairy but she struggles at school and always seems to get things wrong. With hard work and determination she prepares for her test. Will she realise her dream and become a tooth fairy?


Release Date: 1st February 2013

Product details:
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1481951424
ISBN-13: 978-1481951425
Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.1 inches

Purchasing links:
Amazon
Createspace

Video Trailer:
Fairy May trailer
Jo's Inspiration for writing this book:  This book is dedicated to my niece who, after seeing that my last book Out and About at the Zoo was dedicated to my two sons, asked if I'd write a book for her too.

It needed to have fairies in it and so I brainstormed on ideas and came up with Fairy May. I wanted her to be a little girl fairy and to show that it's OK to not be perfect. I wanted young children to be able to relate to her and to encourage them to go after their dreams.

The tooth fairy part came about because several of my 5 year old's friends have recently lost their first tooth and he has been full of questions on the subject. My 17 month old is also teething at the moment and so the topic of dental hygiene comes up a lot in our house at the moment.

My Review:  This book teaches children that if they have the desire and perseverance, they can achieve anything.  Don't give up on your hopes and dreams just because you seem to fail at first, keep on trying and work hard and you will see your dreams come true.  

In Fairy May, we follow the little fairy who dreams of becoming a tooth fairy through her hard work and practice to becoming the best tooth fairy she can be.  Fairy May is a bit discouraged because she feels the teacher of the class doesn't like her but she perseveres and eventually that pays off.   The illustrations are colorful and just right for following our fairy around.  We see the teacher; we see Fairy May's disappointments and mess ups; and we eventually see Fairy May's achievements.

If you are looking for a book on perseverance and hard work to help  your children achieve their dreams, I would recommend Fairy May as a book to get started.   

About the Author: Jo Linsdell is a best selling author and illustrator, award winning blogger and freelance writer. Originally from the UK, she now lives in Rome, Italy with her husband and their two young sons.

Jo is busy with several projects at the moment. "The Bedtime Book" which is another rhyming children's picture book. "The Writers and Authors Guide to Social Media" and "Virtual Book Tours" which are two non-fiction books.

Where to find Jo Linsdell on the web:
Website
email:  webmaster@jolinsdell.com
Facebook
Twitter
Google +
LinkedIn
YouTube
Goodreads
Amazon

Book Review - Out and About At the Zoo

Out and About at the Zoo
by Jo Linsdell
Reviewed by Elysabeth
Rating - 5 stars



How many of you have taken your kids to the zoo? Written a story about said experience? Jo Linsdell did just that. Out and About at the Zoo showcases animals seen at the zoo during an outing with her young son. This rhyming story shows the animal antics and other visions one would see at a busy zoo. Jo wrote the story as well as illustrated and the illustrations are so cute and very much in tune to the story that kids of all ages will enjoy reading this book many times over. Kids will start reciting their favorite passages and possibly act out what they hear after reading a few times.

The colorful illustrations and the rhyming story make this a story you will treasure for a long time.

Product details: (this says large print paperback so not sure if it is available in other formats or not)
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace (May 18, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1477446591
ISBN-13: 978-1477446591
Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds

More details can be found here including more activities related to the book such as the masks featured in last week's interview. The downloads cost you a tweet or facebook posting, so why not check them out.

Good luck to Jo on her tour and hope everyone will get a copy of this very adorable rhyming book.

Guest Jo Linsdell Interview

Today I'll be chatting books with author and illustrator Jo Linsdell.



EE: Hi Jo, thanks for joining me today.
JL: It's a pleasure to be here.

EE: When did you first get bit by the writing bug?
JL: I've been writing pretty much since I could hold a pen and have experimented with various genres over the years... and will continue to experiment in the future too. I don't like to limit myself or my creativity. So far I've published non-fiction, poetry, short stories and recently a children's picture book Out and About at the Zoo.

EE: Tell us a bit about Out and About at the Zoo and what you feel is the most important message you share.
JL: I'm really excited about this book coming out. Out and About at the Zoo was released on 1st June 2012 and is a children's picture book. It's a fun day out discovering the different animals at the zoo. The rhyming text and colourful pictures make it perfect for younger children.

It also carries an important message as it highlights the joys of spending quality family time together. A day out like this one will remain with both the mother and child for a long time.

EE: How did you come up with the idea for the book?
JL: I wrote the text after taking my son to the zoo for the first time. It was great to watch him discovering all the animals. Children see everything as magical and interesting. It's amazing watching them discover the world and being able to see it through their eyes.

I decided to make it rhyming text as those are my sons favourite type of books.

EE: You're both the author and illustrator for this book. What was the hardest part of creating the book?
JL: Anyone that thinks making a children's book is easy is VERY wrong. As the text is so limited, every word counts. You also need to balance the text with the illustrations and make it so they work together to tell the story.

The hardest part was formatting the book. I studied art at college but making illustration digital and print quality is a whole different ball game! The technically stuff like transparencies and layers caused me no end of problems. Luckily I have a friend who is an expert in this field and he saved the day several times as I tried to get the final file ready.

EE: You've written various genres. How has this children's book been different from your other work?
JL: I've written non-fiction which relies on facts and presenting them in an easy to understand fashion. I've written poetry which is, for me, the most personal type of writing. I've written short stories where you need to tell a complete story in a limited number of words and longer fiction where the story is more complex and developed.

Writing a children's book was fun. Not that I don't enjoy writing the other genres but this was pure fun. It also gave me the chance to involve my children in my work. I have a 4 year old and a 9 month old. My 4 year old gave very honest feedback about both the text and the illustrations. If he didn't like it, it needed to be changed.

As I wrote the story for him, following our own day out at the zoo, it seemed right that he should play an active role in it's creation. It made the whole experience even more special.

EE: You're currently doing a 3 month tour to promote the release of the book. Where can people find the tour schedule?
JL: I have a page dedicated to Out and About at the Zoo on my website that contains all information regarding the book and the tour.



EE: You've created some book extra's to go with your book. Can you tell us a bit about them and where they can be found?
JL: On the Out and About at the Zoo page on my website I've added some activity packs for children. All the activities are strongly linked to the book and the animals featured in it. So far I've added a word search, printable animal masks and some printable colouring pages. To download any of them all you have to do is 'pay with a Tweet or Facebook update' to let others know about them. There is a button on site for each.



EE: Where else can people follow you on-line?
JL: I'm a real social media junky and am pretty much everywhere. The sites I use most are:
Website
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Goodreads
Amazon.com


Thanks, Jo for being my guest today. I've read your book and will post my review next Friday. See you all in the postings - E :)

Guest Jo Linsdell

Today, I'm hosting Jo Linsdell on her "Out and About at the Zoo" book tour. This is her first children's book. Jo will be appearing on my blog a couple more times throughout her tour. Today's posting is an article geared for homeschoolers and zoo field trips.

The Zoo: Homeschooling Guide
By Jo Linsdell

Jo Linsdell is the author and illustrator of the rhyming children's picture book OUT AND ABOUT AT THE ZOO. Find out more about her here.

Kids often get bored over the long summer months and the stress levels of parents increase. A trip to the zoo will be enjoyable for the whole family and gives the opportunity to educate your kids before, during and after.

Children will love learning about the zoo and all the animals with these simple lesson plans:

Before:
· Build the excitement for your trip by doing some research about the animals or the zoo itself before you go. When was the zoo built? How many animals does it home?

During:
· Kids will have great fun seeing the animals up close. Most exhibits usually have a fact file with information about each animal. Read it with the kids as you watch the animals. Maybe even make it into a quick quiz. Get the kids to test your knowledge by asking you a question about the animal and they can check your answer from the fact file.

· Get the kids to take photo's of the animals so they can make a scrap book about the day. They might even remember some of the animal facts and be able to add them as a note by each picture.

· A lot of zoo's have petting areas where kids can get up close to the tamer animals. These areas usually have a keeper who overlooks the animals and will be able to give more information about them. Have the kids ask the keeper questions about what the animals eat, what they like etc... They might even be able to feed them themselves if you get there at the right time.

· Often you will also find cinema areas in the zoo where they show short documentaries about the animals especially the endangered species. These 'films' usually only last about 10 minutes making them just the right length to hold kids attention.

After:
· Animal picture books- Provide each child with several pages of paper folded and stapled together into a book. Give them pictures of animals cut out from magazines, or use photo's taken during your visit, and get them to choose which pictures to glue into their books. Then have them label the names of each animal.

· Zoo collage- Get the children to cut out pictures of animals and make a collage.

· Teach children about habitats. Place 3 plates on the table. In one put water, in one put sand and in the other some grass. Have some small toy animals and get children to put them in their natural habitat.

· Play pretend. Get the children to act out being zoo animals. How do they move? What noises do they make?

· Animal fact file. Have children research the different animals and put together a fact file for each one.

· Animal poetry. Talk about the different animals at the zoo. Talk about poetry and show them some examples. Have the children write their own poem about one of the animals.

· Have each child make a word-search using the names of zoo animals. Each child then completes the word-search of another.

· Alphabet animals. Get the children to help you create a list of animals using the letters of the alphabet e.g. A for Alligator, B for bear, etc...

· A quick research on the internet and you'll be able to find a huge variety of zoo themed colouring pages for some creative fun.

A trip to the zoo is can be great for everyone and it's perfect for stimulating activities. The kids will be more than happy to learn more and do crafts and activities about the animals they've seen.

This and That

It's been a kind of crazy week here having to deal with insurance and towing and AAA and getting daughter's car fixed but overall, I think things have settled down and hopefully she will have her car tomorrow before she goes to work.

I totally forgot to mention Friday that Susanne Drazic, the person who leaves the most comments here and who bestowed upon me the RAOK on her blog, posted a review of "The Proposal". Part of forgetting this was that I was away from my desk most of the day and it slipped my mind. For the review, drop by her blog and leave a comment.

On the sales side, I sold one copy of "The Tulip Kiss" on kindle and no sales anywhere else. I am running a special deal on my state books through the 7th of July - buy 2 get 1 for 1/2 off ($25 for three books/$50 for all six which is like buying five and getting one for free, plus no shipping costs). For more information, you can check out the JGDS blog.

I do plan on getting back to my state stories soon but I'm waiting on some other things from Heather before I get back to writing anything. She's got one more fix on "Train of Clues" and I'm thinking of trying that one out as an ebook as well just to see if it will work in that format being that it is illustrated. I'm also waiting on the cover for "Butterfly Halves" so I can get that published. Of the two persons I shared the first cover with, I've had differences of opinion on several aspects of the cover. Things I like about it, they don't and things I'm not crazy about, they like. I've passed both opinions and mine to Heather and hopefully she will come up with the perfect cover.

If you are a horse lover or even a horse rider or know someone who is, my other blind friend, who is also an author, Andi Mills, has an article here about using mini horses as service or guide animals.

This week's guests will be Jen Wylie, author of the Ever series and several other short stories, Darcia Helle, author of many suspense stories, and a special appearance by Jo Linsdell for her "Out and About a Day at the Zoo" book tour. See you all in the postings - E :)

Pacing and Maggie Toussiant (discontinuation of the 50-day blitz)

Last night was our monthly local Sisters in Crime meeting and our guest was author Maggie Toussiant. She talked about pacing your scenes, chapters and books and how to catch some of those pesky pacing problems. We also had an interactive session where she gave us two characters and we provided a little bit of background information and then we formed several small groups and had to come up with a scene - either a fast paced action, slow paced action or fast paced dialogue or slow paced dialogue. Interesting what happens with the same background information, how each group came up with different scenarios. A fun exercise in pacing.

Anita rode with me to the meeting and as usual I was the talker all the way home. I did a little brainstorming about Imogene's story thinking about the pacing of the story. So far, the three pages I've written are slow paced, narrative, not much action but fitting for where the story starts. I know the prologue will disappear because I've got the scene in my head and unsure if I've put it down on the paper yet as to when the secret comes out. I don't know if I can pull off a slow-paced beginning with a faster-paced majority of the story or not but I'm going to try. One thing that did come from the brainstorming session with Anita is that I believe this story will call for a "postlogue", not so much an epilogue but more of an "author's note" explaining certain elements in the story. Don't worry it won't be long - a couple of paragraphs at the most and will be something to the effect of: This is truly a work of fiction because after my many hours of research and the findings of historical data and other information would not make this story happen in such a way. (I know it needs some work and there will be a little more to it than that but you get the gist of the meaning - Imogene is pure fiction and there are no facts to really base much of the story on other than possible places in a different time from when the story takes place.)

I'm discontinuing my 50-day giveaway blitz as I've had only three comments (six actual but only three answered the question) on the first day and I've tried to go to my social groups and post everywhere to stop by my blog and leave a comment to be entered for whatever the day's giveaway is. Since it seems no one is interested in leaving comments, it isn't worth my time to put out there my time or effort to get readers and followers and folks who will at least just leave a comment in order to try to win whatever I may be giving away on any given day. I'll go back to my posting schedule as before - Mondays and Thursdays with guest bloggers the 4th week of the month and an occasional review of books I've read on my kindle.

The end of this month, Jen Wylie and Darcia Helle as well as Jo Linsdell are my guest bloggers and there will be free ebooks during Jen's and Darcia's days. Jo will be a guest on my blog two more times as part of her 3-month blog tour and a free ebook will be given away on her last appearance. I will probably do some occasional giveaways during the next couple of months. I haven't really decided.

I hope you all will still at least read my blog and see what I have to say. See you all in the postings - E :)

PROMO day - coming May 9

Here are some comments from previous PROMO days and how this 1-day, workshop has helped many.

I'm looking forward to presenting at this year's PROMO day and look forwad to meeting many people. I'll be doing a workshop on virtual book tours, so check out the PROMO day website and come learn something about the writing path.

Comments about past events:

Debra L. Butterfield
Debra Butterfield's website
Comments: Really enjoyed Promo Day. It was great chatting with other authors and meeting new people. I look forward to your next Promo Day. Thanks!

Lea Schizas
Lea's website
Comments: I had a blast today, Jo, and met some wonderful people. It's fun to learn about everyone's writing process and what their upcoming projects are. Thank you for hosting this and looking forward to the next one. Lea Schizas
Award-winning Author/Editor

Grace Bridges
Grace Bridges' website
Comments: Great fun! I look forward to the next one

James R. Tate
James Tate's website
Comments: Thanks for another resource for an aspiring author

Hal Manogue
Hal Manogue's blog
Comments: Hi Jo, I enjoyed Promo day. Thanks for the opportunity to meet new friends. Hal

TANNIA E. ORTIZ-LOPES
Tannia Ortiz-Lopes's website
Comments: Today I had an awesome time during Promo Day. I got to meet other writers, read about their work, check out their website, and shared our areas of expertise. The conversation were very cordial and professional. Definetely a must do again! I look forward to the next one. Jo, you did an extraordinary job. I pray God bless you with health and keep you doing what you enjoy doing... May the peace of Christ be always with you, from far away in Germany, TANNIA author of The window to my soul; My walk with Jesus Voted 2006 Best Poetry Book by Christian Storyteller

Diane the other
Comments: Wonderful idea, Jo. More nerve than I've got to host a promo, but I mainly write reviews. LOL

Tammy Powley
Tammy Powley's website
Comments: Thanks for running Promo Day, Jo!

Elaine Cantrell
Elaine Cantrell's website
Comments: I had a thoroughly enjoyable hour with you. Thanks for the opportunity.

Paul McDermott
Paul McDermott's website
Comments: Great PROMO event, lots of new points of contact .... hope to be back frequently!

Susan Watkin:
Susan's website or Susan's LULU bookstore
Comments: Jo A great idea! I hope the promo day produced some new customers for us all. Thank you Susan

Master Blackwhip:
Master Blackwhip's website
Comments: Thanks to Jo for having given to me the chance to speak abount my book :) Jo, you have done a very good job. Great!

PROMO day creator - Jo Linsdell

Born in Gillingham, Kent (UK) in September 1980. Married name Joanne Denise Feliciani. She uses her maiden name, Linsdell, as her pen name. Having passed 10 GCSE’s, she went on to study Business Studies, History and Art A-Levels at Yateley 6th Form. She left England and moved to Rome, Italy in June 2001, where she now lives with her Italian husband. She gave birth to their first son in December 2007.

She has had various jobs including working in hostels, being a tour guide and teaching English as a foreign language. She now works full-time as a freelance writer. She writes regularly for various websites, newspapers and magazines.

Her books, Italian for tourists and A guide to weddings in Italy, along with her various ebooks; Il dolce Natale: Christmastime in Italy, Some risks are worth taking, INSIDE.OUT, La Befana, The Patron Saint of Lovers and Free Promotional Techniques: Ways to market your books are all available to buy at www.lulu.com/jolinsdell.

She is also the creator and manager of the multi award winning site http://writersandauthors.blogspot.com



Visit her at http://jolinsdell.tripod.com or http://www.myspace.com/jolinsdell