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Recently our blogger Yamile wrote about including diversity in our books for children. One of her great points was to make the character of ethnicity the hero or heroine rather than the sidekick.

I'd like to continue with that topic as I am currently working on a picture book to help young children understand how to approach people with physical disabilities.

There aren't a lot of books that include differently abled leads, but (UCW's own) Julie Daines' book, "Unraveled" offers young readers a heroine whose legs are crippled. Daines said that she wanted to provide a love story without the perfect princess-type heroine.

Frankly, I'm surprised there aren't more heroes and heroines with such issues. Not only does it increase understanding of diversity in readership, but in the most clinical of writing terms, it can be very useful to the drama of the story as it adds another layer of difficulty with which the character must contend.

Another tough, but useful, subject is long-term illness in children.

Lupus is a topic dear to my heart (in the interest of full disclosure, I am the board chair of the Lupus Foundation of America, Utah Chapter). And I get to interact with some of our youth who are dealing with this disease. They are bright, enthusiastic, and overburdened--trying to balance the regular social interactions and school with fatigue and other health-related complications.

Lupus causes flares and remissions of widely variable time frames--sometimes within the same day. This is difficult for a lot of adults to understand. But kids are often labeled by their peers as "fakers"; symptoms ebb and wane, affecting different parts of the body at different times, and fatigue is always lurking in the background.

So, while I add a rousing cheer to Yamile's great post and remind you, our UCW blog readers, to consider diversity of all kinds in your lead characters, allow me one latitude (I promise to only take the blog sideways ONCE this year):

Tomorrow is the Walk to End Lupus Now in Salt Lake City's Liberty Park.
I invite you to join us. Walk. People watch. And see some really heroic characters.
www.utahlupus.org

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Need a few more books to read during summer vacation? All Evernight Teen titles, including my YA mystery, Unraveled, are on sale for a week on Amazon.

Check them all out: Evernight Teen Amazon Kindle books:

Disintegrate by Christine Klocek-Lim
Phoenix: The Rising by Bette Maybee
Shrapnel by Stephanie Lawton
Elysium by Sylah Sloan
Unraveled by S.X. Bradley
Slayer for Hire by P.E. Cunningham
Blood Hex by Erin Butler

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Being a writer affords me the liberty of creating characters who mean something to me and have characteristics that I like to see. I love getting to know them, then standing back and letting them tell me their story.

Here is some insight into the men of Unraveled:

Caedon Keene: the hot blackbelt who is interested in Autumn. He's sensitive, but deadly which makes him even more alluring.

Eduardo: Autumn's Taco Bell loving cousin. He's her partner in crime and modeled after Tommy Lee of Motley Crue:

Papi: Autumn's father. He's a baker, and an honest hardworking man. He doesn't understand Autumn's math gift, but believes in her talent.

Now for the cool stuff 

What’s up for grabs on my blog?

A FREE E-book of Unraveled

How to enter? Answer this question in the comment section below:


What's your favorite mystery novel?

What’s up for grabs on during the Blog Hop?


• One lucky hopper will win a KINDLE PAPERWHITE eREADER sponsored by Evernight Teen.
• Every book blogger/reviewer site is giving away one free eBook from Evernight Teen (winner’s choice of any eBook from Evernight Teen’s website).

• Plus, each author offers their own unique prize! So visit each blog hop stop for a host of fabulous prizes to win.


Be sure to leave your answer and your email address in the comments below to be eligible to win an eBook of Unraveled.




Continue hopping to the next stop!

Here is the Link so you can go on to the next blog for a chance to win more prizes.


Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list...

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I'm doing a blog tour this week and next. Hope you can drop by one of these sites. A few of them have giveaways, so you can enter for a chance to win my book, Unraveled.

April

15 – Spotlight @ Dana’s YABook Pile

15 – Guest Blog and Giveaway @ A Little Bit of R & R

17 – Spotlight and GIveaway @ The Rambling’s of a Toddler’s Mom

17 – Interview @ Laurie’s Non-paranormal Thoughts and Reviews

18 – Spotlight & Review @ Lindsay’s Scribblings

18 – Spotlight @ The Bootheel Cotton Patch

19 – Spotlight & Extended Excerpt @ Laura Diamond

19 – Guest Blog & Review @ My Guilty Obsession

22 – Guest Blog @ Karen Y.Bynum

24 – Interview & Review @ Out There Reviews and Stuff

25 – Interview & Review @ Girls Heart Books

26 – Spotlight & Review @ Falling into Reading Reviews

29 – Spotlight @ New Age Mama

30 – Character Post & Review & Giveaway @ Reader Girls (Post from Autumn's Point of view: What makes a great FBI profiler and what she expects to gain from becoming one?)

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Happy Valentine's Day to all my fellow YA & Mysterybook lovers.

In honor of Valentine's day, I am giving away an Ebook or paperback (You choose) of my new YA mystery novel, Unraveled.

Sixteen year old math whiz, Autumn, spends her days reading about serial killers and dreaming of becoming an FBI Profiler. She never dreams her first case will be so personal. Her world is shattered when she comes home from school and discovers her murdered sister’s body on the living room floor. When the initial evidence points to a burglary gone wrong, Autumn challenges the police’s theory because of the personal nature of the crime. Thinking that finding the killer will bring her family back together, she conducts her own investigation using her affinity for math and forensics, but her plan backfires and her obsession with the case further splinters her family.

When her investigation reveals the killer is someone she knows, Autumn offers herself up as bait and sets a dangerous trap to unmask his true nature and to obtain a confession for her sister’s murder

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Forensic Friday is being replaced with Freak-Out Friday.

Unraveled now has a cover and is on the front page of www.evernightteen.com

It's a milestone as a writer to see your book cover. I wish this feeling on all the writers out there.

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