Great Giveaways for the 2015 Holiday Season...

‘Tis the season to start thinking about giving and receiving, isn’t it? So what better way to kick off the upcoming holiday season with a Goodreads Giveaway and a chance to receive a Kindle full of over fifty tween reads via the Emblazon Christmas Giveaway! Sounds like Santa is coming early, doesn’t it?

The Emblazon Kindle Christmas Giveaway begins Tuesday, November 17^th and ends Tuesday, December 1^st. That’s two full weeks for a chance to win your adolescent a new Kindle pre-loaded with over fifty ebooks for your tween. Just visit HERE to enter the Rafflecopter for a chance win this awesome gift for your tween girl or boy!

I’ve also decided to create a Goodreads Giveaway for only Goodreads members in Canada and the United States so the winner will be able to receive a signed copy of The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis in time for Christmas. The Giveway commences on November 18^th and ends December  9^th, so there will be plenty of time to mail the winner his or her copy. Wishing you all good luck and happy holidays! Cheers!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis

by Sharon Ledwith

Giveaway ends December 09, 2015.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Opportunity to Win a New Touch Screen Kindle Preloaded with 50 Tween Lit Books...

Attention teachers, librarians, tweens, and parents of tweens! Announcing a contest just for you... The Emblazon authors are giving away a brand new touch screen Kindle loaded with over 50 of their books. That’s a $300 value and hours of reading entertainment! Emblazon is a collection of authors who seek to create lifelong readers by creating top-notch literature for kids. They have a particular focus on ages 11 to 14. They’re hosting this fabulous giveaway to celebrate their first year and to treat you, the readers. The Rafflecopter contest runs November 3 through November 17 and is open to anyone who loves tween literature. a Rafflecopter giveaway Note: Signing up for the catalog is required for entry. Current subscribers are also eligible for entry. Winners must reside in the United States or Canada. 

List of Stops on the Blog Tour:

November 3^rd:

This Kid Reviews Books

Christina Mercer, Author Blog

D. Robert Pease, Author Blog

Ali Cross, Story Ninja

November 5^th:

Jaclyn Weist, Author Blog

November 10^th:

Bookworm Blather

Min Reads and Reviews

Sharon Ledwith: I came. I saw. I wrote.

November 11^th:

The Novel Mage

November 12^th:

R.K. Grow The Author

My Keys On: Writing, Illustrating, and More

November 15^th:

Monique's Musings

You can help even more by sharing this post with your friends and family. If you know teachers or librarians let them know about how awesome the Emblazoners are by sharing the link to their website: http://emblazoners.com/

November Happenings, Goodreads Giveaways, and other Great Stuff…

This month will prove to be a busy one for me! I’m already sweating buckets. First up, I’ve got two Goodreads Giveaways happening for each of my time travel books, The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis, and the prequel to the series, Legend of the Timekeepers beginning November 1^st and running until midnight on November 22^nd. The giveaway is open Worldwide, which gives me plenty of time to mail the winners their signed paperback copies before the end of holiday season. BTW – I’m including a set of signed trading cards to go along with the books, so go to the end of this post to enter these giveaways!

Second up, I’ve signed on as a participating author with the Mother Daughter Book Reviews for their Kindle Fire HD Kids Edition Tablet Holiday Giveaway. I know, that’s a mouthful to say! This is a fantastic opportunity for authors and book bloggers to reach new readers and put a smile on a child’s face at the same time. Here’s what Renee, the hostess of this event has to say:

"I was pretty excited to see this pretty cool new product available through Amazon starting October 21. This is a HOT PRODUCT! The all-new Kindle Fire HD Kids Edition Tablet also comes with 1 year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited (which means kids get unlimited access to 5,000 books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, and games—at no additional cost!). It includes a quad-core processor for great performance, a vivid HD display, front and rear-facing cameras, and Dolby Audio PLUS comes with a Kid-Proof Case, and a 2-year worry-free guarantee – if they break it, return it and Amazon replaces it for free. No questions asked! Um… can you say Christmas present?"

Wow, now I want one! Here’s the gist of the giveaway: One winner will receive either a new Kindle Fire HD Kids Edition 7” Tablet (US only), a $200 Amazon gift card (International) or $200 PayPal cash prize (International). The event will take place from November 1^st to 30^th, 2014. The giveaway is open Worldwide.

Third up, I’ve got a two week Mini Social Media Blitz set up with Mother Daughter Book Reviews starting on November 24^th. This will be an experiment for me, as I’ve never used this type of service before. This particular book promotion includes 10 Tweets (provided by me), 2 Facebook shares, 1 Google+ share, Pinterest Pins to at least 2 Mother Daughter Book Reviews boards, and adding my book (I choose The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis) to Goodreads “Want-to-Read” shelf. It should be interesting to see if this promotion generates interest in my books. BTW—their monthly page views range from 45,000 to 55,000 so it seems like a win-win to me.

Fourth up, I’m part of this fantastic tween writers group called Emblazon. We Emblazoners are planning a HUGE Rafflecopter giveaway which will run for 2 weeks beginning Monday, November 3^rd. There will be books, ebooks, and book swag up for grabs. Oh, did I mention the Kindle preloaded with 40 of the Emblazoners middle grade books? There will also be a Facebook party where readers can interact with authors and win great prizes. Any teachers or librarians out there will benefit from this fun event as we release our newest catalogue into the world just in time for the holiday season!

Fifth up, and finally, I’m participating in the Windsor-Essex Book Expo on Sunday, November 23^rd. This gives me a chance to meet and connect with readers and authors in the area. They’ve got some awesome sponsors, and there will be children’s events, autographs, and readings from local authors. I’m personally bringing Twizzlers® to hand out to the kids (and most-likely some adults), along with signed trading cards and postcards. BTW—anyone who buys one of my books scores a Last Timekeepers rubber wrist band! For more information on this event, please click HERE to go to the Windsor-Essex Authors Facebook page.

Whew! Still sweating! Thanks a heap for reading my blog. If you have time, please leave a comment and share what you’re planning to do to boost your book sales and author presence during the upcoming holiday season. If you’re a reader, what type of events would grab your interest and draw you into an author’s world? Cheers!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis

by Sharon Ledwith

Giveaway ends November 22, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Middle Shelf: A Top Shelf ezine for Lovers of Middle Grade Fiction…

I’m doing the happy dance because the fantastic group of middle grade authors called EMBLAZONERS I’m a member of, are featured in the March/April issue of Middle Shelf! If you don’t know much about Middle Shelf, here’s something to pique your interest:

“Middle Shelf is a digital-only magazine featuring the best books for middle grade readers. Each bi-monthly issue includes author interviews, reviews, excerpts, and photo essays.”

Did I mention that SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE FREE! Another reason to hop on the middle grade reading train!

The kind folks at Middle Shelf—an off-shoot of the larger Shelf Unbound company—offered the Emblazoners a great discount for our advertisement. This is where having a group of indie authors is a great advantage—the ad was more than any one of us would spend individually (even at the discount) but together, it was something of a no-brainer! Plus the Emblazoners are in the process of building some brand recognition for our group, so if you have a chance, please surf by our website and subscribe to our recent catalogue. Plus, you’d get to see what other great things we’re doing, and perhaps find your next favorite MG author!

This is a quote from Middle Shelf’s premier issue last fall:

“Good books have the power to entertain, to spark imaginations, and to transform lives, which is precisely why Middle Shelf came into being. We want to connect middle grade readers to the very best books, whether they’re on the bestseller lists, published by small or indie presses, or self-published.”

Check out Middle Shelf’s Facebook page to keep current with news about middle grade books and authors, and if you’re an author, to see how to advertise with them. Cheers, all! Middle Grade Books Rock!

Tween the Weekends: Seven Steps to Success for Tweens & Teens...

There is a powerful seven step formula that you can use to set and achieve your goals for the rest of your life. It’s a discipline, so if started at an early age these steps will become as natural to you as breathing air. Every successful person uses this formula or some variation of this formula to achieve more than the average person.

Step one: Decide exactly what it is you want. Do you want to play in the NHL, NFL, NBA or go for gold in the Olympics? Do you want to get your driver’s license by 16 and a car at 17? Do you want to go to college, university, or own a business? Do you want to go to Disneyland with your family? How about designing a kick-butt video game? The possibilities are endless.

Step two: Write down what you want, clearly and in detail. Get a journal or notebook for this. Always think on paper. A goal that is not in writing is not a goal at all. It is merely a wish and it has no energy behind it.

Step three: Set a deadline for your goal. If you’re saving for a family trip doing babysitting, odd jobs or have an after school job figure out how much you’ll need by the time you leave. Start a savings account for any goal that is material based like a car or clothes. A deadline acts as a “forcing system” and motivates you to do the things necessary to make your goal come true. If it’s a big goal, set sub-deadlines too. Some goals are worth the chase!

Step four: Make a list of everything that you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. If you want to play in the big leagues, and feel you have the talent, how much time per day do you think you’ll need to practice to get there? Want a new laptop? How many babysitting gigs will it take to get one?

Step five: Organize your list into a plan. Decide what you have to do first, second, third, and so on. Decide what is more important and what is less important. If you want to be an engineer, you’d better be prepared to study hard, rather than play video games all night. Once you’ve made your decision, write out your plan on paper. This becomes your blueprint for success.

Step six: Do something EVERY DAY that moves you in the direction of your most important goal at the moment. Study, practice, work, play, write—do what you need to do to develop the discipline of doing something 365 days each year to move you forward, and closer to your goals.

Remember, it’s up to you to invest in yourself, and the sooner you get started, the sooner you will reap what you have sown. Invest in the best, that’s YOU!

Tween the Weekends: Creating the Perfect Author Presentation

I’ve been blessed with an abundance of retired teachers as neighbors on the lake where I live. Their brains are fresh for the picking. Yeah, I know, sounds like something out of a Zombie novel, but the fact is that teachers can be an author’s best friend. I recently corralled two friends —a hubby and wife team—one is a retired elementary principal and the other taught teachers to give presentations. My mind went to mush. It needed to in order to be sculpted into the perfect author presenter. So what did I learn?

First—engage the class—draw them into your presentation. Bait the kids—in my case, upper middle grade and lower YA is my target audience. Then I hook them into thinking that it’s all about THEM. Actually, it is all about them, they just don’t need to know that! So I dusted off my fishing rod and began to create an author presentation that would lure them in by asking these specifically designed questions:

“What’s your favorite video game or game App?”

“What happens in the game?”

“Who are the characters in the game?”

“What makes this game interesting to you?”

Then once I get enough responses, I reel them in with:

“What’s your favorite book?”

“What do books have in common with video games?”

Do you see what I did? Hook, line, and sinker! Engagement first, then I went into the actual presentation. From there, I ask the class:

“When a teacher gives you a writing assignment, how do you come up with ideas for your stories?”

“What’s the hardest part of it?”

“What do you think about before you write your story?”

More engagement ensues before I get to share my writing process with the class, which I start by telling the class to remember that the heart of storytelling is to write what you know or like. For me, I love all things time travel, paranormal, and the mysterious, so that’s where my imagination goes. My writing process is always the same for every book…

First, an idea for a story can come to me through a dream (like The Last Timekeepers), or something as simple as a ‘what if’ question. Asking ‘what if’ is a very powerful question for a storyteller. What if a teen with a psychic ability was sent to a small, rural tourist town? What if a group of adolescents found an ancient time portal buried in an overgrown backyard? Once I’ve got the seed idea, I’ll write notes in point form until I have the bones of the story.

Second, I create a cast of characters and build the story around them. I begin by writing out character tracking sheets (stats on characters appearances, clothing, likes and dislikes, etc.) which helps keep the characters organized. I do this even when I’m writing a short story. Once I’ve accomplished this, I add the sheets to a binder that I use as a guidebook for my entire series, where each book has its own section. BTW – I make sure I have a character tracking sheet handy to show the class.

Third, it’s on to research, research, and more research! I find this process is the biggest investment of my time, but it’s a necessary evil. When you’re writing time travel, you’ve got to know your facts to create the fiction.

Fourth, only when I have enough facts, and I feel my characters are sufficiently fleshed out, then I begin to write the first draft. Sometimes I’m a panser (writing by the seat of my pants), sometimes a plotter (outline entire storyline or chapters)—it all depends on the tone of the book and where my muse directs me.

Then it’s on to the best part of an author presentation—the reading. I set up what has happened in my book so far before I read the selected chapter, and ask the students to imagine my story as if they were playing a movie in their head. My teacher friends suggest that the whole presentation should be no more than half an hour (unless you’ve prepared a workshop), and to make sure you have enough time to take questions from the students. When the presentation is over, I have signed trading cards and rubber wrist bands available to giveaway, and leave my book order forms with the teacher.

That’s it! A made-to-order Author Presentation created with the help of two wonderful people who have shaped the minds of both children and adults. Now that’s what I call passing the baton!

Tween the Weekends: The Power of Cliques...

I think it would hard to be an adolescent in this day and age. Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of hard choices and problems I faced when I was a tween back, well back in the ‘day’. We still had bullying, but not cyber-bullying. And there was no such thing as sexting, texting, or twerking. But there have always been cliques whether in elementary school or high school. In fact, even as adults, cliques are prominent in work, sports, post secondary education, clubs, and neighborhoods.

By Wikipedia’s definition, a clique is a group of “persons who interact with each other more regularly than others in the same setting.” Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardless of gender, ethnicity, or popularity. Although cliques are most commonly studied during adolescence and middle childhood, they exist in all age groups.

It’s almost tribal, this power cliques have over us—wanting to be a part of a certain group, or the ‘in’ crowd, or the top of the heap.

When you think of the word tribal your mind conjures images of group identity, group force, group willpower, and group belief patterns. Tribes have very primal connections. Shame your parents, and you’ve shamed your family. Snitch on a friend, and you’re on the blacklist for a stint or forever. Date someone who has a bad rep, and suddenly your name is all over the social media, and not in a good way. Lose the game, and you’re shunned by your teammates.

The Breakfast Club is probably one of the best movies that exemplify cliques. There’s the Jock, the Beauty Queen, the Misfit, the Rebel, and the Geek. All tribes fitting into one box. If you’ve never seen this 80s gem, take a peek at the trailer:

So how do we break the power, the dare-I-say spell that cliques can have over us?

In the first book of my MG/YA time travel series, my characters—five kids who are all from different ethnic and social backgrounds—were given a detention too, but unlike the actors in The Breakfast Club, they were made to work together to clean up a yard for a period of two weeks. Once they found the weathered stone time portal, barriers started to crumble between them, and they got to know and understand each other better. They became connected in a way they would have never imagined, and I believe that understanding each other is a good place to start breaking the bonds of cliques.

What do you think about cliques, and the power they have in our society? I’d love to read what you have to say…   

Tween the Weekends: Developing a Middle-Grade Book Series…

 “Tween the Weekends is a monthly feature hosted on Emblazon. This is an opportunity for writers and readers to promote tween literature, that age bracket squashed between middle grade and young adult. You can review a great tween book, post about writing for kids, connect with others who love the genre, support and encourage one another, relate news, share links, or just about anything else tween related.”

Join me over at the Emblazon website today as I share my experience in developing a middle-grade book series, and while you’re there, please check out the other wonderful MG authors and their books. You never know, you might find your next favorite author…

Tween the Weekend: Recharging your Child’s Battery…

Yay summer! School’s out. Vacation is in. Or is it? Summer can be just as crazy and crammed full of activities as the school year, and sometimes parents tend to over-schedule their kids throughout the course of the summer. Baseball, day camps, swimming lessons, and golf lessons are all part of the summer experience, but these activities can also suck precious energy levels from your kids and leave them feeling drained. Let’s face it the small child doesn’t know when he is excessively tired. But he surely shows it in his behavior and actions. And the adolescent may realize she is over-fatigued, but refuses to admit it—even to herself.

If your kids are normally well-balanced, their batteries may need recharging when they act and feel:

·         Unduly sleepy or tired

·         Tactless, unfriendly, suspicious

·         Querulous, insulting, hostile

·         Irritable, sarcastic, mean

·         Nervous, excitable, hysterical

·         Worrisome, fearful, jealous

·         Rash, ruthless, excessively selfish

·         Excessively emotional, depressed, or frustrated

When YOU are fatigued your usually positive, desirable feelings, emotions, thoughts, and actions have a tendency to turn negative. It’s the same with kids. And when you are rested and in good health, the direction is changed back to positive. Fatigue often brings out the worst in people. So how do you go about recharging your child’s battery (or your own for that matter) when his or her energy level is zero?

Relax: Going for a nice long walk is a wonderful way to relax emotionally and mentally. As you put your physical body into motion, your thoughts and feelings seem to relax all by themselves. Even something as simple as watching a TV show or a movie allows you to unwind and have some time to chill with the children.  

Play: Instead of an organized activity (baseball, tennis, soccer, etc.), do something fun, and that has no structure. Throw a Frisbee around the park or beach, go for a bike ride, fly a kite, or get the family together around the table for a board or card game. The possibilities are endless. 

Rest: Have some down time by reading a good book in a hammock or a favorite comfy chair. Pick an activity that’s not too taxing. Even a short nap can help rejuvenate the body and mind.

Sleep: Get at least 7-8 hours of sleep every night. I know this is a no-brainer when it comes to recharging your battery, but this is so important for a growing body and mind.

Can you add anything to the list above? Remember, EVERYONE needs a period of renewal to calm

your mind and rejuvenate your body, including our kids! Please click HERE or on the EMBLAZON icon on the right sidebar to go and meet other awesome TWEEN authors today…

Calling all MG and YA Book Bloggers…

Emblazon is a blog written by a collection of indie and traditionally published authors who care about producing high quality stories for kids. We have a particular focus on ages 11 to 14. We call them Tweens. The purpose of Emblazon is to celebrate tween literature. We want to draw attention to this fabulous genre, interact with other enthusiasts whether child or adult, and encourage new writers.

Emblazon launches its first post on July 10. Please consider helping us spread the word by mentioning us on your blog that day. You may cut and paste from this email or the website and use our attached logo if you wish. All bloggers who participate are eligible to enter our $100 Amazon gift card drawing that will be held the following day. You can also treat your readers to our upcoming Sizzling Freebies bash that will be hosted on Emblazon on August 1 during which a great selection of ebooks will be free for one day only.

We hope you’ll join us in kick-starting this fabulous new adventure!