What's new in the Sisterhood?

Sisterhood Publications is an independent publisher specializing in edgy fiction and nonfiction from the ‘hood. Their unique authors bring you riveting stories in both fiction and nonfiction. Their editors and production assistants offer ebooks and high-quality paperbacks to satisfy all readers’ expectations. Their titles have received nominations and awards from the Colorado Book Awards, North Texas Book Festival Awards, Louzelle Rose Barclay Awards, Deep South Writers Conference, and more, and many are among Amazon and indie bookstore bestsellers.

There’s a lot going on in the ‘hood!

In February, Suzanne Barr’s bestseller true crime story Fatal Kiss was featured on ID Channel’s Deadly Sins.

Joe O’Connell, author of award-winning Evacuation Plan: A Novel from the Hospice, is currently filming Love & Other Stunts, a documentary about Gary Kent (author of Shadows and Light: Journeys with Outlaws in Revolutionary Hollywood). Kent has worked on more than 100 films as a stuntman, actor, director, and writer.

Bestselling author Natalie R. Collins’ new Lost Innocent series follows FBI Agent Eden Rein on the search for a missing baby. Look for her upcoming young adult novel, Blood Run.

Coming soon! In Gem City Gypsy, Kristin Alexandre tells a fascinating story about her home town of Dayton, Ohio.

New in nonfiction for dog lovers!

Crazy Bitch: Living with Canine Compulsive Disorder by Peggy Tibbetts is the story of Venus and Zeus, two dogs whose lives were torn apart by mental illness.

“Crazy Bitch tells the story of the deep love that can exist between humans and dogs, as well as the intense - and sometimes very complicated - love that can exist between two dogs.”

“Crazy Bitch is one book dog lovers won't want to put down.”

Available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and wherever ebooks are sold

Find more books you can’t put down at Sisterhood Publications.

STAR OF THE TEAM

Here it is another week, another month. Spring break for the students in our area is over. It's back to school and countdown until the next holiday. How well I remember my teaching days and looking forward to the breaks. Now I'm on break all the time and never get caught up. Sometimes I wonder how I managed to work, write, and do the household chores. You writers with children at home have my admiration. You must be very well organized to find time for everything.

Today I'd like to share a bit about my forthcoming book for MG readers. It's a long story with a happy ending. Way back in 2006 I sent the manuscript to a wonderful publisher and they wanted to publish my story. Great! I was excited. Unfortunately, the publisher went out of business. Not that I wish the former publisher bad thoughts, they are really nice, nice people, but I think life works in mysterious ways, for I now have a super publisher helping me get the story in tip-top shape. It has undergone edits, been changed from readers ages 7-10 to the 8-12 age group, many corrections, including the title, made, and is a much better story now. The manuscript is now awaiting copy edits and a cover. Crossing my fingers it's good to go.

Watch for STAR OF THE TEAM coming out hopefully this summer. A huge thank you to Vivian Zabel and Harry Gilleland at 4 RV Publishing for your faith in my story. And for Aidana WillowRaven who will see that it has the perfect cover. 4 RV Publishing rocks. Hope to have a cover to show you soon.

Happy Reading.

Life is much stranger than fiction

January has been a real...challenge.

My husband, who has had various digestive problems for nearly two years, finally had surgery. Which actually turned out fine (thank goodness). But he was in the hospital for five days, which required a bit of juggling on my part.

About three days after he came home, I had a car accident. It was raining and dark and I had taken another route to work in order to avoid traffic and flooding. I just didn't see the guy. I was fine, mostly, but sore. I took my own visit to the hospital to be safe. The car was...not fine. The insurance company totaled it. I loved that car.

Meanwhile, three days later, my laptop died. Just died. Not the battery, not the power cord. Dead. I was planning on replacing it this year. Later this year.

I mean, overall it's come out okay. Hubby is getting better, I got a new car (along with new car payments, thanks), and I will be getting a retroactive paycheck that should cover most of the new laptop. I had wanted to buy us a new grill, but, c'est la vie. I need the laptop.

This month has been such a comedy of errors that if I wrote it in a book, the editor would laugh me out of the room. I was starting to feel like ol' Will up there in the poster, listening for my narration. Why is it that when we read something that could actually happen but is such a string of terrible luck or coincidence (the accident was just waiting to happen, I swear. I made deliberate choices about the route I took that morning) that we don't believe it? It sounds so outrageous, so implausible on paper, but yet, here I am, living it out.

Just goes to prove. Life is mush stranger than fiction. You really can't make this stuff up.

I hope February is better.

The Poisoned Pencil – new YA mystery imprint

 

Poisoned Pen Press is launching a new imprint The Poisoned Pencil, which will publish YA mysteries. Jessica Tribble was named publisher last year and said the press aims to publish YA mysteries that are "fast-paced and relevant to today's teens--books that adults will also want to read."

Ellen Larson will serve as editor of The Poisoned Pencil. She said she is "particularly keen" to receive submissions from young adult writers, adding, "Anything goes. As long as the protagonist is between the ages of 12 and 18, it's young adult. I'm excited to begin reviewing submissions, seeing what's out there, and building our list."

Now accepting submissions of YA mysteries between 45,000 and 90,000 words. The protagonist must be between the ages of 12 and 18.

The Poisoned Pencil Submission Guidelines

The Poisoned Pencil uses an online submissions manager to review materials from both authors and agents. Please do not query or submit your MS by email or snail mail. No simultaneous submissions; one submission per author at a time. You will be able to check the status of your MS using the submissions manager. Response time is currently 4-6 weeks.

For more news and updates follow Editor Ellen Larson: @poisonedpencil

Peggy Tibbetts

Now available at Amazon
PFC Liberty Stryker
Letters to Juniper – 2012 Colorado Book Award Finalist

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I'm hooked on Rupert Starbright

I hope you are enjoying the Memorial Day weekend!

This month I’m posting my review for The Secret of My-Myst by Mike DiCerto (another YAAYNHO blogger). This is the second book in the Rupert Starbright series which I love because it’s all about the magic of imagination, which is such an empowering message to young readers. And the cover is totally cool. I hope you will join me in introducing this fun new series to all the kids you know and love.

The Secret of My-Myst
The Adventures of Rupert Starbright (Volume 2)
By Mike DiCerto
Zumaya Publications 
April 2012
240 pages

The Secret of My-Myst is Book 2 in the Adventures of Rupert Starbright series. And Mike DiCerto does not disappoint. We jump back into the thick of it with our hero, Rupert and his companion Dream Weaver. The evil Murkus still enslaves the children of Far-Myst while his darkness spreads across the land. He is more terrifying and powerful than ever before as a flame-throwing, winged Dragon Lord. Rupert is still trying to make his way home to Graysland. On a quick trip to the outhouse, Rupert crosses paths with Quix and Xerks, Murkus’s boy soldiers. They lure him into the Wildness with the promise of finding the treatmentia bush to cure his grandmother’s coffus. After all, the only reason he even came to this bizarre-o-land was to help his grandmother, who happens to be a very wise woman. But now he’s stuck here.

As much as I would like to go on and on about this captivating tale, you really must enter the mysterious land of My-Myst with Rupert and meet the shape-shifting Truseens for yourself. Be prepared to lose all contact with the outside world while immersed in this mesmerizing adventure. Once again imagination plays a major role – which I love. Amazing things are learned about the Weaver kids. And the path to victory does not necessarily mean destroying the enemy.

The Adventures of Rupert Starbright is a top-notch, original fantasy series. For all the questions The Door to Far-Myst (Book 1) asked,  The Secret of My-Myst answers – then asks some more. Along his journey this time, Rupert discovers a connection between Graysland and the strange lands of Far-Myst and My-Myst. See if you can figure it out. I’m pretty sure the answer will come in Book 3. I confess, I’m hooked on Rupert Starbright.

Peggy Tibbetts

Now available at Amazon
PFC Liberty Stryker
Letters to Juniper

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How do I know when to stop?

“The point of good writing is knowing when to stop.” ~ Lucy Montgomery

As I mentioned in my last post, I am working on the final edits for my next novel, PFC Liberty Stryker. Like every writer at this stage, I ask myself, “How do I know when to stop?”

Many writers believe it’s hard to know when to stop editing. Let’s face it we spend a hell of a lot of time revising our work. John Irving said, “Half my life is an act of revision.” If you’re like me, even after a book is published you see where you could have added a word or two, here and there. Oscar Wilde said, “Books are never finished, they are merely abandoned.” How depressing. I prefer to finish mine, thank you very much. Whether we abandon our books or finish them, at some point we do have to let go.

I have compiled a check list gleaned from years of editing my own and other writers’ works, and listening to what writers and editors say about revision. At each stage in the re-writing process I use the guidelines below to improve my story. This is my map to the finish line.

1. Can you summarize the story in a sentence or two?
2. Details: spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, italics, formatting
3. Is your main character an interesting person?
4. Does she/he have flaws?
5. Does your main character change throughout the story?
6. Is every character necessary to this story?
7. Have you chosen the best point of view?
8. Does the beginning draw the reader in?
9. Is there tension in this story?
10. Does each chapter provide information that moves the story forward?
11. Does every scene?
12. Does your dialogue move the story forward, as in no idle conversations?
13. Does everyone sound alike? Can readers tell who’s talking without dialogue tags?
14. Is there unresolved conflict until the end?
15. Does the story end where it’s supposed to?
16. Do you like this story?

Coming soon: PFC Liberty Stryker
Peggy Tibbetts

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Review: Emory's Gift

Last year, I reviewed W. Bruce Cameron’s A Dog’s Purpose. Bruce and his lovely and talented wife Cathryn Michon loved my review so much Cathryn recently sent me an ARC of his new novel, Emory’s Gift which was signed by Bruce. Emory’s Gift will be released on August 30, 2011.

Emory’s Gift
By W. Bruce Cameron
Forge Books
August 2011
368 pages

Emory's Gift is an extraordinary story about a boy and a grizzly bear. At age thirteen, Charlie Hall’s life is in shambles. He watched his mother die a long, slow death from cancer, his dad is depressed, and he dreads the eighth grade. Charlie finds refuge from the despair and embarrassment of his life in the natural world that surrounds their isolated property in northern Idaho. One day while trout fishing in the creek Charlie is stalked by a hungry mountain lion when a grizzly bear comes to his rescue and changes his life forever. Much about the peculiar bear is mysterious. For instance he has a name, Emory. Even so, the relationship between him and Charlie comes across as authentic. Emory allows Charlie to be near him as long as he respects his space and feeds him, otherwise he ignores him. For the most part, he behaves like a bear. But Emory is a grizzly bear, which creates all the utter mayhem and anxious suspense of a loaded gun as the story unfolds. At any moment, everyone – including Charlie – expects him to act like a grizzly bear.

Cameron’s witty and angst-ridden style reads easily and enticingly, like a memoir. Even though this is fiction, it contains a taste of magical realism so seductive it made me wish it was all true. The mystery of Emory’s Gift endures beyond the last page which makes this book destined to become a classic for all ages.

Peggy Tibbetts

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