Another August 2nd. Another birthday my sister Kylene will never celebrate. I’m feeling at a loss for words this year. Maybe because I had so many words (and even some math) on her birthday post last year. Maybe because while things change day-to-day and year-to-year in my life, nothing changes for her. What else is there left to say?

A tree was planted in Ky’s memory shortly after she died. In the spring when I was running every Saturday morning down by the harbor, I would stop and visit it. I caught it in full bloom one week and made sure to snap a few pictures. So I think I’ll let those speak for me. Happy birthday, Kylene!

Between family times these last few weeks and deadlines for my freelance writing, I’ve been too busy to write. But I’m back at it this morning with some edits on my WIP, getting it ready to submit to Pitch Wars. Wish me luck!

My actual work space this morning. What are you up to on this hump day?

I’m a bit of a science nerd at times. I have a layman’s fascination with astrophysics and love watching programs and videos, reading books, and visiting exhibits on the many topics it covers. (Long time readers of the blog may remember these classic science posts on the Large Hadron Collider, the Big Bang, and dark matter.) And that’s what brings you today’s #InkRipples moment of inspiration.

The boys joke that when they see too many cool things (i.e. trains, fire trucks, police cars, construction vehicles, and the like), their heads explode, complete with hand gestures and sound effects. I feel that way about science. It can make my head spin, but it’s an endless source of head-explosion moments…and inspiration!

The thing about science is that it can make you feel very insignificant, as it does in this video about how small we are in comparison to the largest known star. (I may have shared this video and the following one on the Observation Desk before, but they are totally worth a rewatch if you’ve already seen them.)

With information like that, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the large scale of the Universe and to think that nothing you could ever do in your puny, little lifetime could have any kind of lasting effect. So before you begin to despair, let me share this next video with you, which I think helps us to appreciate the intricate way we are all connected to each other and the Universe. When famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was asked what the most astounding fact in the Universe was, he head this to say:

So now I want to know what kinds of things induce your head-explosion moments.

It’s the week of new releases for my writer friends. Today S. Usher Evans stops by the Observation Desk to celebrate THE CHASM, the second book in the Madion War Trilogy. I thoroughly enjoyed THE ISLAND, the first book in the series, and am excited to read this one. Make sure to check out the giveaway!

They survived The Island, but can they cross The Chasm?

Four months after Prince Galian was discovered alive on a remote island, he’s adjusting slowly to life at the hospital under the Kylaen media’s glare. His promises to Theo remain unfulfilled as fear of his father keeps him from taking concrete action. And the more he learns about the machinations in Kylae, the less sure he is that it’s possible to make a difference.

Across the great Madion Sea, Major Theo Kallistrate struggles to navigate the tricky political waters of Rave’s presidential staff. To make positive change for her people, she must remain relevant and interesting to the Raven media and to the president. When he asks her to deliver a speech on her supposed two-month imprisonment at Mael, she’s not sure she can stomach the lies.

The Chasm is S. Usher Evans’ breathtaking, fast-paced follow-up to The Island, which readers say is “not to be missed.”

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Sneak Peek

Theo

“Bayard won’t be back for at least two hours,” Emilie said, glancing at her watch. “We will probably need to tweak his talking points based on his discussions with the Jervan president. Wesson, take the lead on that.”

He nodded and scribbled in his book.

“Aruna,” Emilie said, nodding at a younger girl I’d seen in a few meetings. She paled at being called on, but held her pen ready. “Find Cannon and tail him. Make sure he stays on message and doesn’t dally in anything…embarrassing.” She paused, a disgusted look crossing her face. “And if he does, make sure nobody knows. Talk to Wesson for crowns if you need it.”

She nodded with a small smile. She might take that mission a little too seriously.

“And ‘neechai,” Emilie said, grabbing my attention. “You and I will spend the afternoon working on your speech. I trust that you’ve resolved whatever…issues you were having.”

I dipped my head, even as dread coiled in my stomach. Emilie moved on to someone else, so I pulled the speech out from the calf-pocket of my jumpsuit. I’d practiced it once or twice while sitting in the pool, reading quietly to myself and envisioning what it would be like to speak in front of the Madion nation leadership.

But even in my head, I still stumbled through the parts about Mael. Stumbling wouldn’t cut it for Emilie, so I prayed for a miracle.

“What’s going on out there?” Emilie said, squinting to her left. I followed her gaze and saw a crowd of people standing at the hotel’s entrance, craning over each other to get a look at whatever was outside.

I stood with the rest of the Ravens and walked into the lobby. The crowd grew more frenzied and then the front doors of the hotel opened.

The crowd pushed in then parted, and in strolled the last person I’d ever expected to see again.

“Amichai.”

He was beautiful, a wide smile on his face and his gait confident. His brown hair was clipped shorter and he no longer wore the beard I’d grown accustomed to seeing on our island. He paused in the middle of the lobby to talk to two journalists who’d approached him, then threw his head back and laughed.

Then his eyes locked with mine.

It was as if everything and everyone disappeared. The corners of his mouth turned up and I suddenly forgot how to breathe. Electricity crackled in the hundred steps that lay between us, and I could’ve sworn I knew exactly what he was thinking. If I’d had any doubt about his reason for arriving in this city, in this hotel, on this day, it vanished in that moment.

As desperately as I wanted to run to him, for some reason, my legs wouldn’t move. Something was keeping me from going to him, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what it was…

“What in the world is the princeling doing here?” Cannon’s voice pierced my bubble, and I wrenched my eyes away from Galian’s. Where I was, who I was with, and my purpose rushed back to me like waking from the best dream into a nightmare.

I found my voice. “I have no idea.”

“I doubt he’s meddling in the summit. He’d be stupid to disobey his father.” Cannon shrugged mightily. “Then again, the princeling’s never been too smart.”

“Right, he’s an idiot,” I said.

Stupid, stupid princeling. How could he be so irresponsible as to come to Jervan? Especially after his father had forbidden anyone from Kylae to attend, or so Emilie had told us in a meeting earlier that week. And he just walked through the front door, announcing to the entire world that he was there.

I realized I was still watching him when Cannon’s voice again interrupted my thoughts. “Come now, kallistrate, don’t be star struck. He’s just a prince.”

I nodded hastily and turned away from him so I wouldn’t be tempted to stare. “Just a prince, right.”

And my amichai.

Galian

She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

I drank in the sight of her: the way her velvet lips parted, how her big brown eyes widened slightly. Her hair pulled back into a bun, her Raven uniform immaculate. The shape of her body. How her dark skin had grown pale. 

“If you’re trying to pretend you don’t know her, perhaps you shouldn’t stare,” Martin snickered beside me. “I’ll stare at her for you. She’s a lot cuter than I remembered.”

“Right,” I said, turning away. “So do you think it worked?”

I had just finished talking to a reporter, feigning ignorance about any sort of summit or why the leaders from three of the four Madion nations were in this city. I’d made sure to talk about my plans to drink heavily and meet some hot Jervanian girls, just to play the part.

I attempted to keep the giddy smile off of my face as I checked into the hotel. When I snuck another glance at her, she’d turned away from me, but the rest of the Ravens kept staring at me, pointing and discussing amongst themselves. I wondered what they were saying.

“I apologize, Your Highness,” the clerk said with all the sincerity of a wet mop. “All of our suites have been reserved by delegations to the summit. The only rooms I have are the basic rooms.”

“I doubt I’ll be sleeping in my own room anyway,” I said with an overly confident grin.

The clerk, predictably, rolled his eyes in disgust.

I caught Martin’s eye, and he snorted.

“Your keys, Your Highness,” he said, sliding over two access cards. “Please be advised that there is a two hundred crown cleaning fee for any…destruction.”

I winked at him then motioned for Martin to grab our bags. I would’ve carried my own, but it would’ve been contrary to the part I was playing.

“You sure faked that well,” Martin said, tossing my bag to me once we were safely in the elevator.

“I wish I could say I’ve never been that much of an asshole before,” I said with a small grimace.

About the Author

S. Usher Evans is an author, blogger, and witty banter aficionado. Born in Pensacola, Florida, she left the sleepy town behind for the fast-paced world of Washington, D.C.. There, she somehow landed jobs with BBC, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic Television before finally settling into a “real job” as an IT consultant. After a quarter life crisis at age 27, she decided consulting was for the birds and rekindled a childhood passion for writing novels. She sold everything she owned and moved back to Pensacola, where she currently resides with her two dogs, Zoe and Mr. Biscuit.

Evans is the author of the Razia series, Madion War Trilogy, and Empath, published by Sun’s Golden Ray Publishing.

Check her out on the below social medias:

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Today is my stop during the blog tour for THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER by SJ Pajonas. This tour is organized by Lola’s Blog Tours and runs from July 11-15 (view the complete tour schedule here). There’s a tour wide giveaway at the bottom of this post, and the first book book in the Daydreamer Detective series is free right now! We’ve got all kinds of goodies from SJ, so let’s give her a big welcome!

Japan’s Increasing Elderly Population

by SJ Pajonas

In THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER, Mei is in a bind. She needs some income, just enough for a few meals per week and bus fare, but she’s not sure how to go about getting a job. She’s been applying to jobs for weeks and not seeing any results. Then one day it comes to her while soaking in the baths! An opportunity both to help the elderly and make some money for herself. She starts an elder care business with the help of her friend Akiko and gets to work finding clients. I’ve watched the elderly situation in Japan with much fascination and interest over the last few years, and I knew I wanted to make it a part of this series. But not many people understand just how precarious the situation is in Japan right now, so let’s talk about how the circumstances of prosperity, war, and recession brought the elderly to the forefront of Japan’s concerns.

You’ve heard of the Baby Boom, right? In the United States, the Baby Boom generation are all the babies that were born after World War 2 in the 1940s, and right now, these people are in their late 60s and early 70s. My parents are part of the Baby Boom generation and they’re loving life in retirement. But the Baby Boom did not happen in Japan in the 1940s after the war, it happened before the war when Japan was prospering during the very late Meiji Period that ended in 1912 and the early Taishō period before World War 2 (this time is also known as pre-Shōwa era). This was a good time in Japanese history, when they finally had a central government, stable utilities like clean water, electricity, and a thriving economy. And people there had babies, lots of them. Fast forward 90 years, and now in 2016 many of these people are still around since the Japanese live very long, healthy lives. They’ve made the entire population of Japan top-heavy, with fewer babies being born since the economic recession in Japan in the 1990s. Now the elderly population in Japan is expected to reach almost 25.2% by 2020. Let me say that again. By the time the Summer Olympics comes to Japan, twenty-five percent will be elderly.

If you need to know one thing about Japan, it’s that work is everything to them. Working at home, on a farm, in an office, being a craftsperson, or any other number of careers is the number one priority, with family coming in a VERY close second. In the post-war period, Japan’s retirement age was 55, but many people worked well into their 60s and 70s either because they loved it or they needed the money. Now that generation is in their 80s, 90s, and 100s and needs support from children or the government until their time on Earth has ended. With a dedicated workforce that hardly ever takes time off, how are the children able to care for elderly parents?

Let’s face it, many cannot take the time off of work to care for elderly parents so they turn to retirement homes for help. But because the population is so top-heavy, many facilities are both overrun and understaffed. Innovation must take over! And with things like workshare programs, more part-time positions, government assistance for those training to help in elder care, and even new robots that will unburden care givers, Japan is in a race against time to get this situation sorted out.

It’s my hope that by the time 2020 rolls around, Japan will have this situation under control. With much of the workforce focused on this problem, we must hope for the best!

Start this series for free!
The Daydreamer Detective, the first book in this series is free for a limited time! You can grab your copy of The Daydreamer Detective for free on Amazon, B&N, Kobo and iBooks!

The Daydreamer Detective Braves the Winter (Miso Cozy Mysteries #2)
By SJ Pajonas
Genre: Mystery/ Cozy Mystery
Age category: Adult
Release Date: 7 July 2016

Blurb:
December has set in and just when the rural town of Chikata is recovering from one murder, Mei and her new boyfriend, Yasahiro, find their friend, Etsuko, dead in her apartment. Etsuko was sweet and talented, and now everyone suspects her longtime boyfriend killed her. Mei doesn’t believe it, though, and she vows to help solve the crime.

But Mei has more to think about than murder. With the barn gone and their vegetable stores destroyed, she and her mother are down to their last canned goods and no money for heat. Mei’s mom is fortunate to find work, but Mei must fend for herself, get a job, and keep their financial situation a secret from Yasahiro. In pursuit of paying work, she stumbles onto a new witness to the crime, and before long, the dead woman’s secret life unravels before everyone’s eyes. Half-starving and out of her element, Mei is on thin ice, and it’s going to take a whole lot of ingenuity and quick thinking to solve the crime before the killer gets to her as well.

You can find The Daydreamer Detective Braves the Winter on Goodreads

You can buy The Daydreamer Detective Braves the Winter here:
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Excerpt:
“Bye, Chef-san!” The men and women who worked in the kitchen filed out the door, waving and calling goodbye, and walking through the empty restaurant. I caught a glimpse of Ana buttoning her coat to go outside before the door swung closed.

Yasahiro waved to them and turned back to me. He sighed, and brushing his fingers on the side of my face, said, “Here come the clouds.”

“What?” I was breathless every time he touched me.

“There’s a famous photographer, I’ve forgotten his name, who took thousands of photos of Mount Fuji throughout his entire life. He used to say he was in love with Mount Fuji, going so far as to call it Fuji-ko, like the mountain was his wife.” Yasahiro pulled over another stool to sit next to me, and I turned to face him. “He would say, ‘I married such a fickle woman because I can never tell what mood Fuji-ko will be in today.’” Yasahiro’s lips quirked. “I saw that painting of Mount Fuji in the bathhouse, and I just knew that you painted that fickle mountain because you identified with it. Cloudy and misty one moment. Clear and bright, shining like a diamond another.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

He took my hand in his. “It’s a compliment. I like complex women. I like that you keep me on my toes, that you don’t take anything for granted. I never know what to expect with you, at least not yet. I hope to have lots more time to learn all your little quirks.” He leaned into me, and I stayed very still, absolutely shocked by his words. I’d never been compared to Mount Fuji, our greatest national treasure, and I didn’t feel I deserved that kind of a compliment. He dragged his nose along my cheek to my ear and kissed to my jawline. I scrunched up and smiled, giggling at the contact.

The First book in the series:
The Daydreamer Detective (Miso Cozy Mysteries #1)
By SJ Pajonas
Genre: Mystery/ Cozy Mystery
Age category: Adult
Release Date: 31 march 2016

Blurb:
Luck? Forget it. Mei Yamagawa is fresh out of it. She’s just been downsized from her 3rd job in five years and her bank account is dry. Now, to keep her head above water, she must leave Tokyo and move back to her rural Japanese hometown. And there’s nothing worse than having to face your old rivals and ex-boyfriends as a failure while starting life over as a farm girl.

But when her best friend’s father is murdered, and her best friend is named the main suspect, Mei turns her daydreaming ways towards solving the crime. Between dates disguised as lunches with the town’s hottest bachelor chef, searching for clues, and harvesting sweet potatoes, Mei has a lot of non-paying work cut out for her.

Will she catch the killer before her bad luck turns worse? Or will she fry in the fire with the rest of her dreams of success?

You can find The Daydreamer Detective on Goodreads

You can get your free copy of The Daydreamer Detective here:
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About the Author:
Stephanie (S. J.) is a writer, knitter, amateur astrologer, Capricorn, and Japanophile. She loves foxes, owls, sushi, yoga pants, Evernote, and black tea. When she’s not writing, she’s thinking about writing or spending time outside, unless it’s winter. She hates winter. Someday she’ll own a house in both hemispheres so she can avoid the season entirely. She’s a mom to two great kids and lives with her husband and family outside NYC. They have no pets. Yet. When it comes to her work, expect the unexpected. She doesn’t write anything typical. Find her online at http://www.spajonas.com.

You can find and contact SJ Pajonas here:
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– Amazon

Giveaway
There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of The Daydreamer Detective Braves the Winter. One winner will win a bundle of S. J. Pajonas ebooks. Including: Removed, Revealed, Washing Statue Wanderlust, and The Daydreamer Detective.

For a chance to win, enter the rafflecopter below:
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For July #InkRipples, we’re talking about inspiration. Since there are so many things that inspire me, not only in my writing but also in my life, I decided to post something new each week. Since two of my writing friends have new books out next week, I’m all booked up with guest posts, so you’re getting two #InkRipples this week. (Lucky you!)

I love when I come across something that makes me think about the world in a different way. Science often gives me a new perspective on the world. I could probably write a bunch of posts about how science inspires me, and I might be coming back to that later this month. Language also has the power to change the way you experience something. It can be a turn of phrase, a metaphor, a way to use a word you haven’t seen before, an emotion evoked simply from the words on a page–so many aspects of language can open your eyes to something new.

The moment when you come across something, and say, “I’ve never thought of that before” or “how come I never thought of that before” or “I never would have thought of that, but this is really amazing,” those are moments of inspiration. When I came across the headline “What Do Tree Rings Sound Like When Played Like A Record?” (granted this isn’t a brand-new story, but I hadn’t seen it until recently), I was like, “What?” And then I listened, and I was like, “Wow!”

YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo.

I’m an ideas person. There are so many things out in the world and in my own private world that inspire me. But instead of inundating you with a huge, random list of things that I’m currently feeling inspired by, I thought I’d drop one little ripple of inspiration in the inkwell each week in the month of July.

This a song that my whole family is loving right now called “Ophelia” by The Lumineers. The Prince makes requests for it, and I even overhead him singing it to himself in bed one night. “O-o-phelia…” The Boy claims he’s getting sick of it, but I think he still enjoys it. They both like to point out how in the video the guy dances in the street and that’s not safe!

It’s inspired a really solid story idea for a future novel. It’s a retelling of a very famous work. There will be a hurricane and mental illness and doomed love. I think. I may never write it. I get ideas all the time and whether or not I write it depends on how long it sticks around. So far this one seems to be sticking. Only time will tell, I suppose.

Anyone else digging this song? What’s been inspiring you lately?

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (June is all about inspiration), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. Be sure to check out Kai’s and Mary’s posts this month. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs or on your social media page. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

I’ve started running again. Slowly, slowly, slowly. It’s not so much that I’m running slowly, but that I’m easing my way back into a regular running routine. I run a couple of miles once a week. I’d like to sneak in a second day of running on a regular basis…we’ll see if that happens!

The thing that’s different about my running this time is my approach. In the past, I’ve always run with a specific goal in mind. As a kid, I competed at the kid’s track meets in the summer. In high school, I ran for the track team, again for competition. In college and beyond, I ran ran to stay in shape for soccer or to train for a specific race.

Honestly, though, I never really like running in and of itself. When I’ve tried to do it without a 5K to train for or a competitive edge involved, it was kind of a slog. And even when in training, it was something I did because I had to do it to succeed in whatever goal was the end game. I’ve always preferred exercise in the form of a team sport.

But now, post two children and with some extra pounds on these old bones, I’m running with no specific mileage or time goals in mind. I’m not training for anything or looking to compete. I just go out and run.

via GIPHY

I run in the scenic downtown area while The Boy has dance class. Sometimes I run around the green. Other times I head to the little wooded area behind the library and the harbor. If I feel like checking out the boats or the baby geese, I do. If I don’t feel like running up a hill, I walk. I don’t keep track of how far I run or how long. It’s very low-key and low pressure. It’s almost meditative.

As someone who grew up playing many competitive sports and who continued that into adulthood, it’s very strange to exercise this way. The only other time I’ve exercised like this was when I did yoga, which I mostly did while I was pregnant so there was a necessity to the low-key manner.

And you know what? I kind of love running this way. It’s liberating. There’s nothing at stake; there’s only gain. I win by running. Period. And it gives me some much-needed alone time. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to figure this out!

Have you ever gained a new perspective on an old thing?

First order of business is I have a new event to announce. Barnes & Noble is hosting a nationwide Teen Book Festival the weekend of June 10-12, and I’ll be participating at the B&N in North Haven, CT on Sunday, June 12. Once I have all the details, I’ll post them here on the blog and on the homepage. But I wanted to start getting the word out now for any local people who might be interested.

In other news, I’ve been working hard to meet a couple of freelance deadlines and the hubby is away all this week, so you’re all getting a picture post. It’s quick and easy, and you all love pics of the boys, right? (You’re so not allowed to say no to that question!)

Sneaking in some writing time before the conference started. #amwriting #selfie

A week and a half later and I feel like I’m still catching up after the New England SCBWI Conference. I’m a little behind on my novel writing goals and I have a few deadlines for other projects creeping up, but the momentum of the writing conference usually keeps me going and focused on my writing goals for months.

One of my favorite things about writing conferences is catching up with old writing friends and meeting new ones. My roommate and I stayed up way too late chatting about writing and family and stuff. I almost literally bumped into a friend I met–well it has to be ten years ago now–at one of the many Poconos conferences I attended, and it was awesome to catch up with her. I squeezed in some writing time on Friday before my first workshop, I gathered with both old and new friends for dinner Saturday night, and I happened to wake up early and couldn’t fall back to sleep on Sunday morning, so I went for a run at the hotel fitness center. It all went by too fast, and I was so exhausted by the time I got home Sunday evening.

To keep the inspiration fresh I like to go through my notes from the conference (something I’ve been meaning to do with past conferences as well). So here are just a few of the words of wisdom I came across during the weekend (note that I don’t use quotation marks because these aren’t necessarily direct quotes, though I do my best to keep them as close as possible to what the speakers actually said and the sentiments are accurate):

• Marketing is about choices. Choosing to do the things you enjoy and the things you do well. ~Lynda Mullaly Hunt
• The most powerful marketing tool is to write a helluva book. ~Lynda Mullaly Hunt
• People are grateful on the inside, but it’s important to be thankful on the outside. ~Lynda Mullaly Hunt
• This that matter the most in your marketing are also what matter the most in writing: what is uniquely yours and your book, things you care about, and economy & quality. ~Lynda Mullaly Hunt

• Kids need to see and identify the characters of book in themselves. ~Zaneta Jung (Assistant Editor, Sterling Publishing)
• I prefer the term quality assurance [instead of gatekeeper]. As much as I love art and I love authors and I love books, I think of the quote in Ratatouille from the food critic, “I don’t like food; I LOVE it. If I don’t love it, I don’t swallow.”  ~ (Editorial Director, Jolly Fish Press)

• If you aren’t working on and submitting at least seven things a year, then what the hell are you doing? ~Jane Yolen
• Never neglect and forget your heart books. These are the books the rest of us need to read. ~Jane Yolen
• Where does the character story start? Start on the day that’s different. ~Wendy Mass
• We totally get a do-over when we wake up every morning. ~Wendy Mass
• If we keep doing what we’ve always done, we keep getting what we’ve already got. ~Wendy Mass

• How did we all end up in this room together? All these details of your journey of how you go there, that’s your best asset as a writer. ~Patrick Carman
• When you collaborate, don’t think “What am I going to get out of this?” but think “How can I help make this person’s dream come true?” Collaborating is bigger than networking. ~Patrick Carman
• Intuition and inspiration can only happen in the moment. ~Kathleen Rushall (Agent, Andrea Brown Literary Agency)
• Your dream agent is the one who adores the hell out of your work. ~Jess Keating
• Unused creativity is not benign. If it’s not being put to use or being fulfilled, it leads to anxiety. (I failed to mark in my notes whether it was Kathleen Rushall or Jess Keating, who presented this workshop together.)
• Do a $50 job likes it’s a $500 job, and then you’ll start getting $500 jobs. ~Jarrett J. Krosoczka
• I’m being invited into a kid’s imagination and that is a privilege and a hallowed space to occupy. ~Jarrett J. Krosoczka
• I had my sketch book, and I was bored. And that is a wonderful thing to do. ~Jarrett J. Krosoczka
• Your best achievement is just around the corner. ~Jarrett J. Krosoczka

• Dialogue is not about translating real-life situations; it’s about giving your best impression of it. ~Linda Camacho (Agent, Prospect Agency)
• It is so easy to get lost in your own world. You’re falling in love, and that’s great, but sometimes you have to rein it in. ~Linda Camacho (Agent, Prospect Agency)
• Likeability is boring to strive for. It’s okay for characters to have positive characteristics, but they should make mistakes. You want them to be imperfect; it makes them “human.” ~Rebecca Podos (Agent, Rees Literary Agency)
• Writing books you are passionate about makes it easy for kids to fall in love with your books. ~Colby Sharp
• Graphic novels are complex forms of texts, and no kid should ever be stopped from reading that. ~Susannah Richards
• Being a mommy doesn’t mean you can’t be a real artist. ~Amitha Knight

Memories are a powerful force not only in our minds but in the world. They influence who we are as people, how we perceive the world, and what we learn. Memories keep our loved ones alive long after they have left this mortal world. They are our past, they inform our present, and they shape our future.

I recently read that scientists have discovered that memories can be inherited, passed down from one generation to the next, particularly from those who have faced trauma (see “Study of Holocaust Survivors Finds Trauma Passed on to Children’s Genes”). That means memories can change our DNA and in turn alter our children’s genes. This seems like a crazy idea straight out of a sci-fi book, but it’s not; it’s real. (See “Science Is Proving Some Memories Are Passed Down From Our Ancestors” and “Memories Can Be Inherited, and Scientists May Have Just Figured out How”.)

I wonder if that’s why when I talk with the boys about my sister Kylene, who died long before either of them were born, I get this uncanny feeling that they know exactly who I’m talking about, like they knew her. There is a solemness during these conversations. It may be that they’re feeding off of my emotions, but even that doesn’t feel like an adequate explanation.

The first time I had this sense of impossible knowledge on behalf of the boys, I thought I was reading too much into the situation (as I tend to do). But after I read that memories can be inherited, I realized there might be some truth to my intuition about my children and the auntie they never met. That somehow through my own trauma my boys have memories of my sister. Or maybe I’m deluding myself into thinking the impossible is possible.

How have your memories (or perhaps those of your parents) influenced your life?

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (May is all about memories), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. Be sure to check out Kai’s and Mary’s posts this month. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

While I’m off getting ready for the 2016 New England SCBWI conference, S. Usher Evans is here to entertain you all with her new release THE ISLAND, book one of the Madion War Trilogy. Welcome, S!

Prince Galian is third in line to the throne, but prefers his place as a resident at the Royal Kylaen Hospital. When his father urges him to join the military to help reclaim their colony, Galian is forced to put aside his oath to Do No Harm and fight a war he does not believe in.

Across the great Madion Sea, Captain Theo Kallistrate dreams of a day when she is no longer bound by conscription to fight for her country’s independence. But when the Kylaens threaten, honor and duty call her to the front lines to fight off the oppressors.

When an air skirmish goes wrong, both Theo and Galian crash on a remote island hundreds of miles from either nation. Grievously injured, Theo must rely on Galian’s medical expertise, and Galian must rely on Theo’s survival skills, to live another day in a harsh and unforgiving terrain.

Can they put aside their differences long enough to survive? Or will the war that brought them to the island tear them apart?

Buy The Island for eBook, Paperback, and Hardcover.

• SGR-Pub Paperback / Hardcover / eBook
• Amazon Paperback / Hardcover / Kindle
• Barnes and Noble Paperback / Hardcover 
• Book Depository Paperback / Hardcover
• iBooks

Giveaway

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The Island Sneak Peek

Theo

“Yep,” he observed, with a smirk on his face. Up close, he was every bit as handsome as I’d seen in pictures. “You definitely got what you deserved. Shouldn’t have shot at me.”

“You shouldn’t have invaded my country.”

His eyes widened for a moment and I thought I’d finally done something to wipe that smile off his face. To my supreme annoyance, he tilted his head back and let out a throaty laugh.

“Oh, you are witty,” he said, nodding. “And technically right. But it wasn’t my decision. I was, as they say, just following orders.”

“And I was just following orders when I blew you out of the sky.”

“Aren’t we at an impasse then?” He seemed to be enjoying this conversation. He looked down at the side of my ship and read the inscription. “Theo, huh? Well, you must be a pretty high ranking pilot then. I hear the Ravens only allow you to put your name on your ship after you’ve survived plenty of battles.”

I moved out of anger, but the pain in my legs came roaring up my body. “Please let me die in peace,” I asked, unable to look at him.

“Oh, you aren’t going to die today. But it would probably be safer if I pulled you out. I don’t like the look of that fuel leak.”

He leaned into my small cabin. If I’d had half a mind, I could’ve snapped his neck, but it was hard enough just to breathe. He found my seat strap and unhooked it, then lifted me out by my arms. I couldn’t help but scream.

“Yeow, buddy,” he said, stopping. He put one hand over his ear and muttered. “You sure got a girly scream.”

“My legs are caught. Just leave me here. I’m as good as dead anyway.”

“Naw, then who am I going to talk to while I wait to get picked up?” He sounded like he was waiting for dinner. “C’mon, we can get you out of here. Just take a deep breath. One…two…”

I didn’t hear him count to three as he yanked my legs out of the mess and I screamed again, the pain so bad I almost lost consciousness. But, blessedly, it subsided, and the next thing I knew, he was laying me on the ground.

“There, now, Theo of Raven, let’s take a look at you,” he said, taking my helmet off.

Galian

Theo was a girl.

A pretty girl.

I’d always thought Raven women were more interesting looking than Kylaen women—with their olive skin and black hair, they seemed to draw my attention. And this girl, something about her made my head spin.

Even with her mangled, bloody legs.

They were a sight: dark red staining her gray jumpsuit.

“Thank you, Dr. Maitland,” I said, cracking open the bag he’d given me and sliding on the pair of latex gloves.

She murmured something. The amount of blood she’d lost was a real concern, and she was most likely concussed. I would worry about the head injury later; it wouldn’t matter much if she died from blood loss.

“What are you doing?” she croaked.

“Pardon the invasion of privacy,” I said, flashing her my trademark smile.

I unzipped her jumpsuit and pulled it down, exposing a white bra and underwear and nothing else. Immediately, her skin puckered with goosebumps as I tossed away the soaked dark gray suit.

“Are you still with me, Theo?”

She blinked, but didn’t respond.

“Okay, I’m going to examine you now,” I said, leaning over her bare legs. I pressed my hands to her hips, and she reacted, swiftly, sitting up so fast she nearly whacked her forehead to mine.

“Get your filthy hands off of me,” she hissed, her breath touching my face.

About the Author

S. Usher Evans is an author, blogger, and witty banter aficionado. Born in Pensacola, Florida, she left the sleepy town behind for the fast-paced world of Washington, D.C.. There, she somehow landed jobs with BBC, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic Television before finally settling into a “real job” as an IT consultant. After a quarter life crisis at age 27, she decided consulting was for the birds and rekindled a childhood passion for writing novels. She sold everything she owned and moved back to Pensacola, where she currently resides with her two dogs, Zoe and Mr. Biscuit.

Evans is the author of the Razia series, Madion War Trilogy, and Empath, published by Sun’s Golden Ray Publishing.

Check her out on the below social medias:

• Website
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Instagram
• Goodreads

Whenever I’m preparing to head off to a writing conference, I always find it fun and inspirational to look back on past conferences. I’m in kind of a discouraged state of mind about my writing. I’m waiting on one thing, I pulled another out of publication, and I have no major projects scheduled to be published right now. I’m trying not to focus on all the negatives in my writing career and instead plug away at my WIP, but I’ve got to admit I’ve been feeling a little low.

But I’m off to the 2016 New England SCBWI conference a week from Friday. I’m heading up early to get in some writing time before the conference starts that afternoon, and then I’ll be attending workshops, keynotes, and panels all weekend. And catching up with old writing buddies and hopefully meeting some new ones. Anyone else attending? Make sure to say “hi” if our paths cross. To keep us all inspired here are my conference gems from 2013 and 2015 NESCBWI conferences.

From 2013:

• We should meet the world with all our senses. ~Jeannine Atkins
• What’s outside in the setting can reflect what’s going on in the inside of a character, but it can also be in contrast to what’s being felt. ~Jeannine Atkins
• How do we access that which we are trying to recreate when we’re sitting at our desks or computers? Sometimes we need a sensory kick in the pants. ~Dawn Metcalf
• We work with art and it can evoke an objective response. ~Ruben Pfeffer
• It was as if someone else’s words had opened up a whole host of words in me. ~Sharon Creech
• As writers we want company; we need company. You come along too, please. ~Sharon Creech
• Revision is finding and strengthening the heart of a story, and revision is messier than people want it to be. ~Kate Messner
• Maybe I had to stop trying to prove to people I was good enough and just had to do the work I was passionate about. ~Grace Lin
• Every story has a message, whether or not the writer was aware of it or intended it. ~Chris Eboch
• I come to one little detail that sort of wakes up my mind and then start amassing details like constellations. ~Jeannine Atkins
• Writers are somewhat schizophrenic; we hear voices in our heads; we listen instead of conversing. ~Padma Venkatraman
• Go down the rabbit hole. ~Greg Fishbone

From 2015 (Wow! There are a lot here, but well worth the read.):

• If I like something, I will Internet stalk you. ~Carter Hasegawa
• Don’t be crazy on the interwebs. ~Jill Corcoran
• Things take a long time because they take a long time. ~Jennifer Laughran
• Often what I don’t think I’m looking for is what I fall in love with. ~Alison Weiss
• I was led to believe that social media was key to making you great. There are things that can work, but it has to be what works for you. ~Carter Hasegawa
• You are my tribe. ~Jane Yolen
• Books make the world a little smaller for people to reach out to each other. ~Jane Yolen
• Protect yourself so that there’s room to create. ~Carter Hasegawa
• Taking a chance, isn’t that what all of us do when we send out a manuscript? ~Stephen Mooser
• Taste–the one word to leave this conference with. ~Dan Santat
• “Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit…” Ira Glass quote referenced by Dan Santat (See the full quote on Goodreads.)
• Don’t be biased or censor yourself in what you like and read and how you form your taste. ~Dan Santat
• Be aware of your tastes and interests. This is your voice. Your voice is you writing on a piece of paper uncensored. ~Dan Santat
• Trust yourself; know that you have something inside of you. Trust that what you have to say has value. ~Dan Santat
• The hardest part of finding your style is trusting your own instincts. ~Dan Santat
• My skin needs to be thin because I don’t want to protect myself from feeling things. ~Deborah Freedman
• I’m just a guy who writes poetry. I’m just a dude. This is not happening (on winning the Newbery). ~Kwame Alexander
• You never expect to win, but somewhere in the deep crevices of your mind, you’re always hopeful. ~Kwame Alexander
• The answer is always yes! If I say yes and walk through the door, I will figure it out. ~Kwame Alexander
• I believe we have to get the nos out of the way to get our yes. ~Kwame Alexander
• Everyone has a story. It’s the reason why everyone acts the way they do. I saw my world differently and I was different (after reading THE CHOCOLATE WAR by Robert Cormier). ~Jo Knowles
• The more I read, the bigger my world became. ~Jo Knowles
• Even if I was afraid to use my voice out loud that didn’t mean I didn’t have one. ~Jo Knowles
• Kids understand love…hate and discrimination are what they learn from adults. ~Jo Knowles
• The moment we open a book and start reading, we change. ~Jo Knowles
• Your book does not belong in a box. Allow yourselves to find the truth and tell it. Open the box and tear down the sides. ~Jo Knowles
• People think diversity is a fad and that’s really offensive. I’ll still be brown tomorrow. ~Justina Ireland
• Authenticity is hard. Once a book is with a reader, it may not feel authentic to them. Make something that is authentic to you and make it universal. Make things that feel real. ~Grace Lin
• Build from an emotional core and that is what is authentic. ~Dhonielle Clayton
• Even in a family that is entirely Hispanic, each one of them is different. You still have a lot of work to do to make it real, even if you have a diverse background. ~Cindy L. Rodriguez 
• Every kid wants to be the hero. ~Sona Charaipotra
• Be brutal with your work, but kind to yourself. ~Katie L. Carroll
• Write with your heart and soul, but revise with your head. ~Katie L. Carroll
• There’s no silver bullet to making your manuscript better. You have to put in the hard work. ~Katie L. Carroll
• Go beyond the Cinderella story when searching for inspiration. Think and read outside your comfort zone, and find what resonates with you by mining your own mind and heart. ~Katie L. Carroll

I know a lot of you have been waiting for the results of the two polls I conducted on how readers and writers connect. To be clear, though I did take a statistics course in college, I ran no analytics on the statistical significance of the results. My intention was never statistical significance, but merely to see what writers and readers who check out my blog had to say. The poll was open to anyone who happened to stop by the post over the course of time the poll was active, so that means a (very!) limited pool of people.

And, drum roll please….the much-anticipated results:

The wording of the reader poll was “As a reader, I enjoy connecting to authors through…” followed by a list of options, and voters could check as many choices as they wanted. This poll got a total of 70 votes.

Voters could leave a comment and one actually did. “Often find myself Googling authors and going on their pages because [name redacted] likes to see a pic of the author. He also wants to know if they are alive or dead- his obsession currently.” So authors, make sure to have a picture of yourself on your website and your life/death status!

It’s no surprise that Author’s Blog took the top spot as a way readers connect to writers since this poll was conducted on an author’s blog. I also suspected Facebook would be a big one (and one of the reasons I finally created an author Facebook page, which I’d love for you all to check out here).

Wattpad had a poor showing, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good place to connect, just that the audience for this particular poll doesn’t use it in that way. I’m actually dipping my toes into Wattpad with my collection of soccer shorts TALES FROM THE FIELD: 12 STORIES, 1 CHAMPIONSHIP. You may remember some of these stories from the Lightning Quick Reads blog, but the year ended before the final few stories did. I’ll be posting a story a week until all 12 are up (and they’re free!).

Okay, on to the other poll:

The wording of the writer poll was “As a writer, I’ve had success connecting to readers through…” again followed by a list of options, and voters could select as many they wanted. There were 30 total votes on this part.

Another strong showing by Facebook solidified my choice to create an author FB page. The Other option came out higher than I expected. I asked voters to provide specifics for this, and blog, website, and newsletter were included as answers. I didn’t provide blog and website specifically in this poll because I already have those and have definitely had success connecting to readers through these, so I didn’t feel like I needed proof of that.

I wanted to mention this because even though I wasn’t interested in that response for this poll, I do think it’s very important for authors to have a static website for readers to land on. A blog is nice for authors to have as well. It does require work, but I find it’s worth it for me. I have considered doing a monthly newsletter and am still considering it for the future, but at present I don’t have plans to start one. There simply aren’t enough hours of the day for that right now.

Wattpad is responsible for that pesky 0% at the top there, but again I’m taking all these results with a grain of salt. In both polls, On-line Author Events scored on the low side, and I’ll definitely be taking that into consideration when I plan any future online promotion and blog tours. Not that I won’t be doing online promotion, but I might work to optimize my exposure time vs. how much time I put into preparing them.

School visits was a category I considered including, but ultimately didn’t because I didn’t think it was the right audience for it. Also, I 100% know that school visits are an awesome ways for kidlit authors to connect directly to readers. The trick to school visits is booking them.

Those are my thoughts on the poll results. I hope you found them useful regardless of the statistical implications. I’d love to continue hearing your thoughts on how readers and authors connect. What’s worked for you? What hasn’t worked (which is sometimes more useful to share)? Do you care? (If you don’t why are you reading this?)

I’m so happy to be able to share a top-five list and an excerpt of THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE by S.J. Pajonas with you all today. This blog tour is organized by Lola’s Blog Tours. The blog tour runs from 4 till 8 April, you can view the complete tour schedule on the website of Lola’s Blog Tours. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway and let’s give a big welcome to S.J.!

1. Out by Natsuo Kirino – This is the quintessential Japanese mystery book because it’s based on actual events that occurred in Japan in the 1990s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inokashira_Park_dismemberment_incident This actually happened in my favorite park in Tokyo, Inokashira Park in Kichijoji, and I have since written this park into one of my other novels Summer Haikus (but I was carefull to never mention the incident in that romance!) Anyway, body parts were found in trash bags in the garbage cans in this park and the murder was never solved. Since this murder happened, garbage cans have been removed from the park, and you have to take your trash with you when you leave. Out is murder mystery that uses this same technique to dispose of the body, but that’s only one little twisted piece of the puzzle. I promise you will never look at bento boxes the same way again.
2. All She Was Worth by Miyuki Miyabe – If you want a real look into Japanese culture, this is a good place to start. The crimes in this novel are mostly missing persons and credit troubles including theft, but you get the chance to see how the Japanese society is laid out and works so that people can game or move around in the system. I found this book fascinating for all the twists and turns along the way to the big reveal.
3. A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami – These two books comes as a pair and the mystery in them is both supernatural and not. As usual, Murakami draws from his background in magical realism to create a fantastical, other-worldly setting without leaving Tokyo. Who is the man in the sheep suit and what does he want? These books drew me in and captured me completely.
4. The Dragon Scroll (Akitada Mysteries) by I. J. Parker – The Dragon Scroll is only the first book in a 15+ book series that takes place in ancient Japan. I’ve read the first five or six books in this series and really loved them. They’re not only clever mysteries but also give good insight into Japan’s past and the rules, cultures, and castes that shaped that time.
5. Shinju (San Ichiro Novels) by Laura Joh Rowland – This is the one book on this list I haven’t read but has been on my Kindle waiting for me for a while. It comes very highly rated and talked about from friends, so I’m excited to start it. It also gives a lot of insight into Japanese culture and societal norms, along with a tragic murder of two people drowned in a river together. This is also a first book in a long series, so there’s plenty of reading material here!

The Daydreamer Detective (Miso Cozy Mysteries #1)
By SJ Pajonas
Genre: Mystery/ Cozy Mystery
Age category: Adult
Release Date: 31 march 2016

Luck? Forget it. Mei Yamagawa is fresh out of it. She’s just been downsized from her 3rd job in five years and her bank account is dry. Now, to keep her head above water, she must leave Tokyo and move back to her rural Japanese hometown. And there’s nothing worse than having to face your old rivals and ex-boyfriends as a failure while starting life over as a farm girl.

But when her best friend’s father is murdered, and her best friend is named the main suspect, Mei turns her daydreaming ways towards solving the crime. Between dates disguised as lunches with the town’s hottest bachelor chef, searching for clues, and harvesting sweet potatoes, Mei has a lot of non-paying work cut out for her.

Will she catch the killer before her bad luck turns worse? Or will she fry in the fire with the rest of her dreams of success?

You can find The Daydreamer Detective on Goodreads

You can buy The Daydreamer Detective here:
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo
– iBooks

Excerpt:

Every time I went into the barn during harvesting, I avoided the loft, but at the end of the week, I was finally ready to climb up there and inspect the remains of my past. The stairs creaked as I ascended into the dusty space above the tractor we used in the spring. On the right, under the window, sat the old couch I used to sit on and read, the spot where Tama and I slept together for the first and many times after. A plastic tarp covered it, and I could imagine the upholstery underneath was pristine. Mom was pretty thorough about taking care of this place. My old canvasses, some half drawn on or painted, others blank, leaned against the adjacent wall, next to my easel and tackle boxes of paints. On the left, Mom’s fire-proof file cabinets sat against the wall, carrying her precious documents and other things she needed to run the farm.

The Mount Fuji painting used to take up the space to the rear of my canvasses, but the wide wall stood empty, begging to be filled. I grabbed the top tackle box and popped it open. Tubes of acrylic paint lined the top tray, like I’d left them in there yesterday. Several were unopened and moved when I squeezed them, but a few had seized up. Wow. I was lucky! I’d heard acrylic paint could last ten years or more, especially if they were kept in the fridge, but the temperature fluctuated up here and I expected worse.

I flipped through the few canvasses left and placed one on the easel. I had scratched a few hasty pencil sketches onto it, but nothing seemed familiar. Hmmm. I turned the canvas around 180 degrees and there! Yes. I had planned to paint a lake with a torii gate and a mountain in the background. I never understood this about myself. I loved modern life. I loved my phone, my computer, and the city. Yet, when it came to painting, I only ever wanted to capture the world in its splendor, natural and real. I didn’t paint people. I didn’t paint animals. I hadn’t tried abstract or modern, though I loved to look at both. I was attracted the most to natural landscapes.

I was a host of perplexing contradictions.

About the Author:
Stephanie (S. J.) is a writer, knitter, amateur astrologer, Capricorn, and Japanophile. She loves foxes, owls, sushi, yoga pants, Evernote, and black tea. When she’s not writing, she’s thinking about writing or spending time outside, unless it’s winter. She hates winter. Someday she’ll own a house in both hemispheres so she can avoid the season entirely. She’s a mom to two great kids and lives with her husband and family outside NYC. They have no pets. Yet. When it comes to her work, expect the unexpected. She doesn’t write anything typical. Find her online at http://www.spajonas.com.

You can find and contact SJ Pajonas here:
– Website
– Facebook
– Twitter
– Goodreads
– Tumblr
– Instagram
– Youtube
– Wattpad
– Amazon

There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of The Daydreamer. There will be two winners:
– One US Resident will win: One paperback copy of Adult Coloring Book Japan, One Signed Copy of The Daydreamer Detective, One signed copy of Removed, and a surprise flavor of Pocky!
– One International Resident will win: One ebook copy of The Daydreamer Detective, One ebook copy of Removed, and One ebook of each Rice Cooker Revenge, Washing Statue Wanderlust, and Mamachari Matchmaker

For a chance to win, enter the rafflecopter below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Poetry is one of the first types of literature we are exposed to as children. We hear it in songs, in rhyming pictures books, and even in the non-rhyming picture books whose cadence and structure are similar to poetry. One of The Boy’s favorite things to do is pick words (some nonsense ones) and rhyme them. He enjoys doing this activity for what can be an annoyingly long length of time!

One of the first ways young people express themselves both verbally and in written form is through poetry. I think this is because it has an interesting blend of structure and room for creativity and riffing. You can rhyme, but you don’t have to. You can create a haiku (very short and structured) or you can do a free verse poem (pretty much no “rules”). It’s almost instinctual for kids to play with poetry.

Back when I was in college, I applied for an award and one of the questions we had to answer was if you could create a class to be included in the English curriculum, what would it be. In one of my classes from the previous semester, each student had the opportunity to bring in one piece of writing that spoke to us, and almost every single person in the class (a small one of less than 20 students) brought in song lyrics. So I thought it would be cool to have a class called “Song Lyrics as Poetry.” One of my professors who was on the awards committee loved the idea so much, she taught songs lyrics as poems in one of her literature classes.

As an adult, I find myself dabbling in poetry for fun. I included a couple of ballad-style ones in Elixir Bound, I’ve written poems for my kids, and I ink the occasional poem for kids’ magazines. When I used to keep the magnetic poetry (check out this link for some examples) up on my refrigerator, people (of all ages) couldn’t help themselves and would come up with all sorts of poetry fun.

Poetry is a universal language we can all explore and play around with, even if we don’t consider ourselves poets!

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (April is all about poetry), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. Be sure to check out Kai’s and Mary’s posts this month. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

For my final #InkRipples post for March, here’s a hodgepodge of different, interesting things I’ve come across that can fall under the topic of feminism.

My entire #FemalesInYA series: http://www.katielcarroll.com/tag/females-in-ya-2/.

UN Women’s #HeForShe campaign: http://www.heforshe.org/en.

Taylor Swift’s Grammy speech:

A little piece of local (for me) history: “The Smith Sisters and Their Cows Strike a Blow for Equal Rights”.

Two links for book lists: “The Best Feminist Books for Younger Readers” and “The Best Feminist Picture Books”.

A fun video the boys and I like to watch:

Shutting down sexism in GIFs: “22 Times Tina Fey And Amy Poehler Shut Down Sexism In The Best Damn Way”.

Quotes from a Supreme Court Justice: “All rise! 9 amazingly feminist Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes in honor of her new book”.

A serious look at the way women are objectified in ads:

And finally a link to a wrap-up article in this wrap-up post: “35 Inspiring Feminist Moments From 2015“.

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (next month we’re talking poetry), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. Be sure to check out Kai’s and Mary’s posts this month. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

When I started writing ELIXIR BOUND many, many moons ago, I never intended to write a novel with feminist themes. I set out to write a fantasy adventure about two sisters with a structure modeled on the there-and-back-again journey of THE HOBBIT (a very non-feminist book!). Being the third of five children and a woman, it was important to me that the guardianship of the Elixir wasn’t passed down to the firstborn or a son, but I didn’t necessarily think about it in terms of feminism as I wrote the book.

It was only after I finished the first draft that I realized that I had created feminist characters, a feminist mythology, and a general feminist worldview.

At one point in an early draft, I had an older, male character–Hirsten’s father–in a brief scene question the decision to let Katora, a young woman, lead the quest to find the secret healing Elixir. He wasn’t questioning her abilities as leader, but the fact that Katora’s father was comfortable letting her venture into the dangerous Faway Forest. It stemmed from the fact that he only had male children and young women seemed a bit of a mystery to him.

I remember that as I wrote that scene, something about it wasn’t sitting well with me. I couldn’t pinpoint what the problem was until I had a whole draft, and then I quickly realized it didn’t fit in with the worldview I had created in pretty much every other aspect of the story. The world of ELIXIR BOUND wasn’t a place where the gender of a person was a reason to question whether or not they should do something. And it was only then that I was able to consciously recognize the type of world I had created.

The Greater Peninsula is ruled by Mother Nature, an unseen goddess character, whom Katora often refers to in dialogue as the “Great Mother” in way that in our world would probably be considered blasphemy (though it’s okay in her world). A young women leads the quest to find the secret ingredient for the Elixir, and the other women on the quest, though different, are certainly as worthy as any of the male characters, and believe themselves to be so. And so do the male characters…all of them (once I got rid of that rogue scene with Hirsten’s father). The external antagonist is called a witch, but she is really a minor goddess and has three male characters as her henchmen. No shortage of feminism there.

I suppose my own feminist ideas bled into the world I was creating all of their own accord. Once I was able to take a step back from the work and look at what I had done, it clicked that this was the way it was supposed to be. It’s my world, right, so why shouldn’t it have a more idealized version of women’s rights? I’m not saying it’s a perfect world or that I represent feminism in a perfect way, but it sure filled a need in me to create a world that didn’t paint someone like me in an inferior way.

I’ve read a lot of fantasy, and a whole lot of YA fantasy. Adult fantasies and their portrayal of women has generally been a disappointment; I know there are exceptions to this, but as a whole the genre is seriously lacking.There are many amazing female characters in YA fantasy, too many to list here (but for a sampling, Katsa from GRACELING, any of Tamora Pierce’s female characters, Alina from the The Grisha series, and Elisa from the Fire and Thorns series). The thing about a lot of these awesome female characters is that they often are the outliers: women doing things that men usually do or bucking against a world with inherent sexism. (Again, I recognize I’m generalizing here and that there are exceptions to this, but I’m talking about the greater picture I’ve observed in fantasy.)

So it came as a surprise to me that my world might be considered unique. I didn’t really think of it as such (I mean, everything has been done before, so I never consider anything I do as even remotely close to unique), but after thinking about it and noticing the trends in what I’ve read, I was like, “Huh. Maybe I’ve got something slightly out of the norm here.”

Then I thought, “Well, isn’t that kind of sad.” Even in our imaginary worlds, we can’t seem to break out of the sexist mold that we are pegged into in our real world. Even when we have dynamic, interesting female characters that pass the Bechdel Test, we too often put them in a patriarchal world, or worse a sexist one, or worst one that normalizes violence against women. (Seriously, just Google “sexism and fantasy” for a whole slew of articles about the topic.)

I’d love to read more fantasy books with a feminist outlook and not just the so-called “strong” female characters. So please throw some recommendations out there, and we can work on bringing more attention to fantasy books with feminist worlds.

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (there’s still time to add to the March topic of feminism), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. Be sure to check out Kai’s and Mary’s posts this month. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

Have you found your Thor? Kai Strand wants to help with that. She’s here to talk about her young adult romantic suspense, FINDING THOR. Be sure to check out the giveaway below.

International intrigue hits small-town America.

Tragedy has left Cara Cassidy broken and the only thing keeping her from giving in completely is her guilt. Until Nik Rock.

Nik stirs up feelings in degrees she has never experienced, and causes her to do things that most assuredly give him the wrong impression – like kiss him before their first date. Somehow, he breaks down the walls around her emotions until she has no choice but to forgive herself and feel again.

But a mysterious, troubled past follows Nik, and Cara may prove to be his weakest link.

When a royal princess shows up looking for Nik, and an international gang arrives looking for missing jewels, Cara lands in mortal danger. Will she be able to save herself? What will happen to her newly repaired psyche if she loses Nik?

Romance, mystery, and high stakes – just another day in high school.

Hi, Kai! Why should we read your book?

How long can you hold your breath? Finding Thor is non-stop, action, emotion, mystery, and intrigue.

If you could live inside a book, which book would you chose?

I feel like I’m cheating on this because Finding Thor is set in my current hometown, so I’d just stay right where I am now.

Is there a lesson to be learned in Finding Thor?

I don’t set out to teach a lesson when I’m writing a story, but one thing I hope resonates with readers is Cara’s personal struggle. She’s grieving. She has ups and downs. Even when she starts to make progress toward healing, she has setbacks. This is normal. People don’t have these perfect paths to follow. Life is messy. However, when the chips are down, she identifies what’s important to her and she digs deep inside her for the strength to fight for it.

Excerpt:

The veil dropped over Nik’s expression so fast, it told her exactly what she didn’t want to know. Nik had indeed seen her mom. Cara turned away from him again intending to trudge back into the classroom.

“By the crown, will you stop already?” Nik begged.

The exasperation in his tone and the odd choice of words piqued her curiosity. Cocking her head, she asked, “By the crown?”

The frustration melted away and Nik pursed his lips, which almost distracted Cara enough to forget the thread of conversation, but she tore her eyes away and asked, “Is that what they say in Seattle?”

Nik’s eyes lit with appreciation. “Aren’t you clever?”

“Am I?”

He nodded. His appreciative appraisal and half smile wreaked havoc with her supposed cleverness.

“Nik?” she breathed.

“Yes?” He tilted toward her giving her the impression he hung on her every word. His eyes were glued to her lips, which she realized were parted and ever so slightly panting.

She gulped. “Can we perhaps do this after school?”

When he raised his gaze to meet hers she almost liquefied under the heat of it. “Can I trust you?”

“Trust me to do what?” Cara asked. She was losing the ability to think.

“Show up.” He slid closer and she held her breath hoping he would take her in his arms.

“Show up where?” she asked.

A full-blown grin curved across his face and she thrilled with the knowledge she’d put it there. Then she realized she couldn’t remember how.

“Actually, I was going to ask you that,” Nik said. His eyes roved her face.

“Wait. What?” Cara’s voice was so breathy she wasn’t sure if she spoke or gasped.

“Where should we meet? After school.”

She itched to rise up on tiptoe and kiss that stellar grin off his mouth.

A low chuckle rumbled through him. “Why don’t you tell me in gym class?”

She nodded slowly. Was he a drug? Or maybe the male version of a siren. Did they have those?

He tipped further forward and she caught her breath. Then he sighed.

“See you next period.”

Her mouth fell open as he walked away. He hadn’t even touched her and she was burning with need.

At the end of the hall, he glanced over his shoulder and grinned when he saw her still gaping after him. When he walked out of view she let out the breath she’d been holding. It stuttered and shook, but was relieved to escape her burning lungs. How long had she been holding her breath?

By the crown, Nik Rock was dangerous!

Finding Thor is available in print or electronic format from the following:

Amazon| Barnes & Noble| Whiskey Creek Press| All Romance| BookStrand|

Add Finding Thor to your to-read shelf on Goodreads

About the author:

When her children were young and the electricity winked out, Kai Strand gathered her family around the fireplace and they told stories, one sentence at a time. Her boys were rather fond of the ending, “And then everybody died. The end.” Now an award winning children’s author, Kai crafts fiction for kids and teens to provide an escape hatch from their reality. With a selection of novels for young adult and middle grade readers Kai entertains children of all ages, and their adults. Learn more about Kai and her books on her website, www.kaistrand.com.

Mailing List| Facebook| Twitter| Instagram|

Swag alert! Looking for your Thor? Look no further, Kai’s got you covered. Enter to win a custom tote bag for all of those books you like to carry with you, and a Thor baseball cap. Easy entry for those in a hurry, or many other ways to earn more entries for contest junkies. FT swag pack can only be shipped in the United States. If first winner is International, an Amazon gift card will be substituted and another winner will be chosen.

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I guess I was born a feminist. When I say “feminist,” I mean someone who believes women should have equal rights to men (for further discussion on this, see my post “Females in YA: Part 9 Feminism”). What girl isn’t born a feminist? And for that matter, what boy isn’t? I have a hard time believing a boy could be born and suddenly think, “I am a far superior being than any girl and deserve to be treated as such.”

But then we (both girls and boys) are exposed to our parents’ ideas, beliefs, and prejudices; and then our peers’ ideas, beliefs, and prejudices (and by extension their parents’ I/B/P); and societies’ I/B/P. So somewhere along the way, many of us become non-feminists. Or maybe we stop thinking that feminism is still important or relevant.

I think this was me in middle and high school: though I never stopped believing women deserve equal rights to men, I just didn’t see the need for feminism anymore. Admittedly I fell into the trap of thinking being a feminist meant I had to be a radicalized bra-burning, man-hating woman. And I also believed I was being treated equal to my male peers.

Here’s the thing I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older: It was an earlier push for equal rights that granted me the ability to be apathetic about it. I grew up playing sports in a post Roe v. Wade world and post Title IX era, which states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

That created an environment where my fellow female athletes and I were often celebrated along with our male counterparts because we were just as successful, or even more successful. We were treated with respect and won awards and accolades. We wore our own letter jackets, not our boyfriends’. Not to say we never heard the comments about “playing like a girl” or where our “place” in the world was, but I always felt those comments were from people of an older generation who had no clue. They were antiquated ideas, outdated. Or so I believed at the time.

As I’ve gotten older and my horizons have expanded beyond my (maybe progressive) hometown, I’ve seen a bigger picture of how women are being treated in the U.S. and the world. It’s not a pretty picture. I’ve also been educating myself about the gender pay gap (see “There’s A Gender Pay Gap At Every Age, And It Only Gets Worse As Workers Get Older” by Shane Ferro), sexism in the tech industry and Hollywood (see “Why are women leaving the tech industry in droves” by Tracey Lien and “The Women of Hollywood Speak Out” by Maureen Dowd), and the cost of staying home to raise children (see “When Being A Stay-At-Home Mom Isn’t a Choice” by Jillian Berman).

I see the assault on a woman’s right to make choices about her own body and the rampant and disgusting sexism in this year’s presidential election, and the importance of feminism is more obvious to me than ever before. I have a desire to be more outspoken in my mindset of being a feminist. I sometimes feel alone in this because sexism isn’t rampant in my everyday life and in the live’s of many of the people I know, and there isn’t necessarily an immediate need for us to rise up and demand equal rights. I’m lucky to live in a place where my rights as a woman are protected…for now.

It’s that “for now” that gives me pause and drives me to a greater call. I want the next generation of women to feel secure in their rights and that they are considered equal to men. I want them to feel this way their whole lives, not have a sense that their worth erodes as they get older, which is something I have begun to feel and I’m only in my mid-thirties.

Feminism is a topic I have many, many thoughts on, far too many for one blog post. I know, too, that it’s a divisive topic. I’ll be revisiting it throughout the month here on the blog. Coming up soon, look for a post about how my first novel ELIXIR BOUND ended up having many feminist viewpoints in it, initially without a lot of intention on my part.

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (March is all about feminism), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. Be sure to check out Kai’s and Mary’s posts this month. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

What better day than Dr. Seuss’s birthday than to celebrate how I’ve been living a creative life? And though I haven’t been writing in the drafting-a-new-book sense (my favorite kind of writing), I’ve been immersing myself in the creative life in other ways.

The reign of school visits ended last week. In less than three weeks, I taught eight writing workshops to more than 200 students, ranging from grades 4 to 7. This particular workshop is about where story ideas come from and includes a guided writing/thought exercise where the kids come up with their own story ideas. They never cease to amaze me with their thoughtfulness and creativity. The workshop is about inspiring kids, but I always come out inspired by them!

After one session, a 6th-grade girl walked down the hallway with me and shared a poem she had written about herself. It was lyrical, had a great cadence, and optimistic, a beautiful portrayal of herself. After another, nearly the entire 4th-grade class lined up with their scraps of papers and waited in line for my autograph, totally making me feel like a celebrity. Connecting with young readers and writers is magical! Plus, talking with the librarians and teachers who teach these kids everyday is informative and inspiring.

Monday the Connecticut Humanities and the authors and illustrators of THE GREAT CONNECTICUT CAPER celebrated the hardcover and audio release of the book at a local library. It’s always fun to catch up with my Caper collaborators. I haven’t listened to the whole audio version yet, but what I did listen to was brilliantly narrated (listen to the Caper audiobook here).

Of course, I’ve been reading a lot. In particular, I’ve been stepping out of my comfort zone of YA and reading adult books and non-fictions. And always, always, always reading to the boys. Last week I squeezed in visiting The Boy’s pre-school class for World Read Aloud Day. I’ll leave you with some of our favorite Seuss books.

What is the single best piece of advice you have for aspiring authors?
The best advice is probably the simplest. Read. It’s the best form of research you can do (not to mention the most fun), and by reading you’re supporting the industry you want to work in.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
I’ve always wanted to fly, mostly because I hate driving. I used to dream about flying when I was very little though, so the obsession started long before I got my driver’s license. I’ve always envied birds because they can walk, run, or fly. It would be really cool to soar above the world and see it from a different perspective.

Kelly Hashway grew up reading R.L. Stein’s Fear Street novels and writing stories of her own, so it was no surprise to her family when she majored in English and later obtained a masters degree in English Secondary Education from East Stroudsburg University. After teaching middle school language arts for seven years, Hashway went back to school and focused specifically on writing. She is now the author of three young adult series, one middle grade series, and several picture books. She also writes contemporary romance under the pen name Ashelyn Drake. When she isn’t writing, Hashway works as a freelance editor for small presses as well as for her own list of clients. In her spare time, she enjoys running, traveling, and volunteering with the PTO. Hashway currently resides in Pennsylvania with her husband, daughter, and two pets.

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The school visits have all been wonderful so far! (I’ll have some really fun stuff to share from them soon when I get a chance to breathe.) Two more single workshops this week and then I’m done for awhile.

Also, I’ll be attending THE GREAT CT CAPER book launch (registration required, but the event is free) on Monday, February 29, 2016 from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m, hosted by the CT Humanities. The middle grade serialized mystery is now a hardcover book. Meet some of the authors and illustrators, enjoy light refreshments, and snag some Caper goodies.

In the meantime, the cool dudes at my house are happy the sun came out!

Doing a little crowdsourcing here on how readers like to connect with authors, and also how authors are connecting to readers. I’m at a point where I’m looking at marketing and such for my published works and coming up with plans for future works, so I wanted to hear from all of you, both readers and authors.

Any and all answers are much appreciated! And I’d love to hear specifics in the comments if you’ve had a particular successful way you’ve connected to an author or reader.

February has historically been my least favorite month. It’s a low part of the year for me for some reason that I’ve never been able to adequately pinpoint. I think the weather is part of it. Here in southern New England, the days are short and cold and spring feels a long way off. (Although we did have a nice stretch of warmish weather last week.)

This year I think I’m going to be too busy for the late-winter blahs. In addition to reading a lot, I’m deep in querying mode for one project; looking forward to carving out some writing time for a new project that has yet to move out of the “rumination stage,” as I like to call it; and excited (and nervous!) to have a bunch of school visits booked up for the second half of the month. (Not to mention hanging out with the boys!)

The nerves are because I’m feeling a little rusty as I haven’t done any youth writing workshops since last June, and because some of the upcoming workshops are for students that are a little younger than I’ve worked with before, and because it’s a lot of visits in a short amount of time. But I love working with the students, so I know once I practice a few more times and get going with the first one, I’ll be fine.

It’s the change of mentality I think that’s tripping me up. I spent a good deal of the second half of 2015 in writing and then revision mode (very internal acts), so it’s required a brain shift to move into the more external acts of querying and workshop teaching. Both are important parts of my creative life, but as I get older, I feel like the transition from one to the other has gotten harder.

One of these school visits I’ll remember to have someone take a few pictures of me teaching a writing workshop so I can share it here. What’s in store for all of you this month and the rest of winter?