Virtual Book Tours Dec.01 Schedule Correction

We have had a couple of changes in our December 01 schedule.

The following hosts will not be participating this tour:
Janet Ann Collins
Jennifer Gladen
Shari Lyle-Soffe

In addition:
Deborah Ramos will be hosting Joy Delgado
Linda Ballou will be hosting Nancy Famolari
Karen Cioffi will be hosting Crystalee Calderwood

See you soon,
Karen Cioffi

Virtual Book Tours December 01 Tour

This is the December 1st schedule for Virtual Book Tours' second tour. For those of you who are just learning of us, we are a group of authors who are working together to help promote our books. In addition to the virtual book tour, we utilize other marketing tools and strategies to help us toward our goals.

I have included the hosts' links so it's easy to follow along. The first name is the HOST, the second name is the GUEST, the link following is the Host's.

Deborah Ramos--Crystalee Calderwood
Deborah's site: http://www.aarmoryofaardvarks.com
Dr. John F. Murray-- Rosanna Ienco
http://drjohnfmurray.blogspot.com
Dianne Sagan--Deborah Ramos--http://www.diannesagan.wordpress.com
Kenneth Kahn--Dr.John F. Murray--http://kennykahn.blogspot.com
Harry Gilleland--Dianne Sagan
http://harrygillelandwrites.blogspot.com
Janet Ann Collins--Kenneth Kahn--http://onwordsblog.blogspot.com
Lanaia Lee--Harry Gilleland--http://lanaialee.blogspot.com
Jennifer Gladen--Janet Ann Collins--http://jgladen.blogspot.com
Joy Delagado--Lanaia Lee
Joy's site: http://zooprisepartyfiestazoorpresa.blogspot
Lillian Cauldwell--Jennifer Gladen
http://lilliancauldwell.blogspot.com
Karen Cioffi--Joy Delagado--http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com
Kathy Stemke--Lillian Cauldwell
Kathy's site: http://educationtipster.blogspot.com
Linda Ballou--Karen Cioffi--http://lindaballou.blogspot.com
Lea Schizas--Kathy Stemke--http://thewritingjungle.blogspot.com
Patricia Crandall--Linda Ballou--http://patriciacrandall.blogspot.com
Nancy Famalari--Lea Schizas--http://nancygfamolari.blogspot.com
Rosemary Chaulk--Patricia Crandall--http://rosemarychaulk.blogspot.com
Shari Lyle-Soffe--Nancy Famalori--http://www.sharilyle-soffe.com
Sharon Poppen--Rosemary Chaulk--http://sharonpoppenauthor.blogspot.com
Suzanne Lieurance--Shari Lyle-Soffe
http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com
Vivian Zabel--Sharon Poppen--http://VivianZabel.blogspot.com
Boyd Hipp--Suzanne Lieurance--http://boydhipp.blogspot.com
Dehanna Bailee--Vivian Zabel--http://backyardsafari.blogspot.com
Margaret Fieland--Boyd Hipp
Ransom Noble--Dehanna Bailee--http://www.ransomnoble.wordpress.com
Luigi Falconi--Margaret Fieland--http://luigifalconi.blogspot.com
Dwight Rounds--Ransom Noble--http://dwightcrounds.blogspot.com
Anna Maria Prezio--Luigi Falconi--http://prezio.blogspot.com
Crystalee Calderwood--Dwight Rounds
http://crystaleecalderwood.blogspot.com
Rosanna Ienco--Anna Maria Prezio--http://rosannaienco.blogspot.com

I hope to see you at the hosts' sites and please leave a comment. If you are interested in joining our group, just go to Yahoo Group, Virtual Book Tours and sign up.

This Dec. 01 tour coming up, I have the pleasure of hosting children's author, Joy Delgado. My first post will be December 01 and a second post providing more information about Joy and her book will come a couple of days later. See you in blog world.

Karen Cioffi
http://www.childrensbooksbykarenandrobyn.com

Virtual Book Tours

Well, our first rotation of Virtual Book Tours is over. It was a hectic week and now we are preparing for our next tour scheduled for December 01, 2008.

Our participating members has increased from 24 to 30 so we'll have even more interesting books and interesting authors/writers to blog about.

I will post the complete schedule within the next day or two so you will be able to follow along.

Karen Cioffi

Lillian Cauldwell: Read This Great Review by Rowena Cherry

Parents and teachers will love.... The Anna Mae Mysteries by
Lillian Cauldwell.

Lillian writes with a voice that speaks to the rich imagination of a
child. A ten year old child's mind plays tricks. She fears dark
places in buildings where the grown-ups are not, because she
believes in ghosts and apparitions, and squeaking, creaking things
that could be a monster spider's joints. Yet, she yearns to find
buried treasure, or to make headlines in a good way, or to improvise
and solve a mystery. One example of masterly "childlike" problem
solving is the use of coat hangers as divining rods.... Dowsing is
such a cool thing for children! Vivid images strike a chord in my
memory, and linger in my mind of the phantom fist, the schoolyard
bully, the horror in the air ducts, the dusty, thirsty hard work
of digging in the fruit cellar... for buried gold. It's "real",
it's delightfully scary in the way of all good and gripping
page-turners, but it's not frightening. Perhaps Lillian's writing
is so believable, and so immediate because Lillian pays attention
to details - such as the ring on fourth finger of ghostly black fist.
Parents and teachers will love Lillian's writing, too, not only because
the children will be immediately engaged by the mystery, but because
of the tie-in with history, including Jefferson Davis and Georgia's
exciting past. Lillian Cauldwell is a splendid storyteller, and my
child and I are eagerly looking forward to the next gripping tale
in the series!"
Rowena Cherry http://www.rowenacherry.com

This sounds like a wonderful book. I love a child's imagination and I love children's books that explore it. I am putting this on my Goodreads to read list.

I want to thank you, Lillian, for the great information you provided about yourself and your book. It was a pleasure being your host for the week.
Karen

To all my readers: Please be sure to check out the Virtual Book Tours schedule that I will be posting here this weekend. It will have all the guests and hosts for our December 01, 2008 tour.

More with Lillian Cauldwell

Well, Lillian, you shared your bio with us and gave us some insight into you and your writing. Now I'd like to talk about your book, Anna Mae Mysteries - The Golden Treasure.

Three 'tween sneaker sleuths face the unsolved mystery of Jefferson Davis'lost gold treasure with a little bit of help from a ghostly black fist and divining rods.

Twelve-year-old Anna Mae Botts, her eight-year-old brother Malcolm, and Anna Mae's best friend Raul Garcia, face a ghostly black fist on their first day of school. It blocks their entrance into school, while dropping paper clues about Jefferson Davis' lost Civil War gold. Things get more complicated when a school fire occurs.

Mysterious events soon overtake Raul, Malcolm, and Anna Mae at school as well as at home. Rats, alphabet noodle clues, floating chalk, and phantom false-bottom wagons lead the tweens to travel the same route by car that was taken by Jefferson Davis and his gold-laden wagon train.

With divining rods given to her by her grandma, computer printouts, and Spirit Journey memories that take her back to a Civil War past, Anna Mae, Raul, and Malcolm find Jefferson Davis' lost gold treasure, part of it buried on Chennault Plantation and more of it in a vacant lot on the outskirts of Warthen, Georgia.

Wow, Lillian, this sounds like a great children's adventure book. And, I'm sure our readers would like the information on how to buy your book so I'll post it again.

The Anna Mae Mysteries: The Golden Treasure is already posted on http://www.amazon.com. Additional bookstores should be carrying it within the next two weeks, or they can buy directly from Star Publish LLC at http://www.starpublishllc.com.

Please stay tuned, there is more of Lillian Cauldwell to come later this week.

An Interview with Lillian Cauldwell

I have the pleasure of hosting Lillian Cauldwell this entire week. I will begin with an interview and bio.

1. Tell us a little about your background and how you became a children's book author?

In 1992, I wrote a non-fiction book about handling teenage behavior, "Teenagers! A Bewildered Parent's Guide." The book was quite successful. My editor told me I told great stories and I should consider writing for a young adult or tween audience. I wrote another book, "Sacred Honor," that targeted the young adult market. I recognized that my strengths in writing focused on teenagers and tweens. Since then, I've concentrated my writing on targeting tweens and teenagers.

2. Tell us about your current book. Give a short summary, tell us about your publisher, and also how you got the idea for this book.

The Anna Mae Mysteries: The Golden Treasure is about three 'tween sneaker-toed sleuths who find Jefferson Davis' lost gold with help from a disembodied Black fist and divining rods. I got the idea when I started asking teachers and librarians for 'tweens and teenagers, what this age group needed to read about. History was the first answer I received. The second most popular answer was a book that was entertaining, provacative, mysterious, and full of common sense thinking that all kids need to learn and use throughout their life.

3. What is a typical writing day like for you?

I do most of my writing in between working on my Internet talk radio station. I call it my "snatch" time. Usually, 60 minutes before I head off to the gym. Two hours during the afternoon before programs start running at 3:30 p.m. eastern standard time. Late at night when I wait for my husband to return home from his traveling consultant's job. A typical writing day for me is not typical. I do most of my major plotting and story writing in my head while I exercise. I don't write what's down in my head until late in the night. Scraps of paper and piles of files are lying on the floor. I step over them, and then pick up the latest batch of scraps and paper notes, and start diciphering them. By the end of the week, I usually have written two or three chapters depending on how busy the station is during the week.

4. Do you have a website? If so, please give the URL. If not, where can listeners go online to learn more about your book(s) and to order?

Two websites are available to listeners:
http://lilliancauldwell.homestead.com/radioshow.html
http://www.authorsden.com/lilliancauldwell
The Anna Mae Mysteries: The Golden Treasure is already posted on http://www.amazon.com.
Additional bookstores should be carrying it within the next two weeks, or they can buy directly from Star Publish LLC at: http://www.starpublishllc.com.

5. What are you working on now?

I'm working on the second book of the series: The Anna Mae Mysteries: King Solomon's Ark, The Black Hat Society, and After. All books for the young adult.

There will be more about Lillian early next week - don't forget to come back.

Lillian Cauldwell - About the Author

Lillian Cauldwell is an author of many articles, short stories and poems. She has a published novel, Sacred Honor, a science fiction/historical novel, and will soon release The Anna Mae Mysteries, the first in a series of books for young people. She also has POETRY: Urban Voices under consideration with a publisher.

Lillian was formerly an instructor at Long Story Short School of Writing teaching several courses: Interviewing, Pre-Marketing Plan for Books, Internet Talk Radio, and Podcasting as well as a consultant for authors who require help marketing and promoting their book(s) and selves. She mentors teenagers interested in writing their first novels.

After working two years as an Internet talk radio host at two different radio stations, Lillian started her own station, Passionate Internet Voices Talk Radio, Inc.. The company is two and a half years old and is ranked as a mid-list Internet talk radio station.

Lillian is a board member for ICWP and a member of CBWI, The Writer's Union, and Women in Media. She enjoys status of grandmother to identical twin granddaughters. And, her son, a graphic artist was nominated for The Eisner Award two years ago for his original comic book, The Dare Detectives.

Lillian lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan where she loves to bake, lift wieghts, walk, and do worldwide community work. She is an avid advocate of the US Military and her support has been acknowledged by President George W. Bush.

Virtual Book Tours

November will be an exciting month. It is the launch of the Yahoo group Virtual Book Tours. Beginning November 15th, members of the group will began an ongoing virtual book tour. Members will host each other and be guests on each others' blogs or sites.

We are setting our goal to be the longest running virtual book tour.

The group has a number of genres involved so there will be something for everyone. When the schedule is ready, I'll post it.

See you in the tour,
Karen

Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson Concert

I know this is unrelated to writing for children, but there were children in the audience as well as every other age group. And, this was such a great concert I had to write about it.

The concert was at the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, CT and is was spectacular.
The show opened with both dynamic and powerful singers on stage performing, and without any breaks they sang for two hours straight. At the finale, they took a couple of minutes to change their outfits and came back out in black pants and black tops for another three songs.

The two sang an array of each others' songs and with two of the best singing voices in the business, it was an electrifying experience. Even during their solos, the other singer sang backup on stage. They were both dressed simply in jeans and sleeveless tops. It was truly all about the music.

I went especially to see Reba McEntire and it was my very first Reba concert - the added bonus was that it was with Kelly Clarkson. The two gave 110% and it showed. They make an unstoppable duo.

If they are ever in my neck of the woods again, I will definitely go to see them. I highly recommend their concerts to any and all - you will not be disappointed.

I am a huge Reba fan and now I am a Kelly Clarkson fan also.

Karen