Monday, October 31, 2016

Interview with YA Author Linda Hoover

Today Linda Hoover talks about her new book, Mountain Prophecy, a young adult novel set in the Appalachian Mountains. 





Who is your main character and what problem does he/she face?
There are three main characters. Dusty, Darla and Aidan. In the beginning, Dusty and Darla, teen twins, have the same goal. Rescue the missing girls and prove to their cousins they’re more than city kids. Then Darla believes God is calling her to help by going into the mine. Dusty’s new goal is to prevent her from going in on her own. He still wants to rescue the girls, but it’s not to make himself look good. Now he believes it’s the right thing to do.

Darla wants to be sensitive to God’s leading, and she has a soft heart for those who need help. Her problem is convincing Dusty to see her point of view. When that fails, she has to find the courage to do it without his support.      

Prince Aidan knows his people need help, but his father refuses to do anything other than wait for the prophecy to be fulfilled. Aidan has a hard time believing it could be real until he catches a glimpse of Darla. From that moment on he is focused on doing whatever it takes to make life better for the people living with him.

What prompted you to write this book?
Several years ago I took a correspondence course with the Institute for Children’s Literature. One of the assignments was to write a short story. I wrote about trolls in a mine. That idea stuck in the back of my mind and I eventually turned it into Mountain Prophecy.  


When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?
What I wanted to be when I grew up changed several times over the years. They included being a teacher, nurse, actress, airline stewardess and astronaut. By the time I got to college I still hadn’t settled on anything and chose psychology because it was interesting.

When did you know you wanted to be an author?
From the time I was small I corralled my siblings and friends into acting in  plays I’d come up with or I’d set the scene for active play. I was only nine when I started writing fan fiction in my head. By the time I was twelve I started putting it on paper. The stories never stopped coming and a friend suggested I take a course and try to get published. It was an “ah ha” moment. I’ve been working toward that goal ever since.

What’s the most times you’ve read a book and why?
I loved the Little House on the Prairie series. I don’t even know how many times I read those books.

What’s the most adventurous thing you’ve ever done?
I’ve been blessed to do a lot of traveling. The furthest I’ve gone is Australia. We crossed the international date line which caused us to lose a day on the way there. It was especially strange on the way home, because we landed in the US the day before we left Australia. On the way back we got home the day before we left. 

It was a wonderful trip, but I think the most adventurous thing I’ve done was when my husband and I took our kids on a mission trip with Heart to Honduras. We witnessed third world living first hand. It was an eye opener for all of us. On our last day there the trip organizers took us to a park with a beautiful waterfall. 
We actually got in the water and swam/walked behind the falls and if that wasn’t exciting enough there was a rock, almost as high as the falls that we could jump off of. I didn’t let that opportunity go by. I’ll have to say that’s the most adventurous thing I’ve done. 


Do you have life philosophy? Favorite verse?

My favorite Bible verses are found in Philippians 4:4-7

What advice would you give a teen who wants to be a writer?
Learn all you can about the craft of writing. Write everyday. Have patience, don’t give up even when you receive rejections and criticism. Try to learn from those experiences. Know going into it that it’s not an easy road.




Linda playing Rock Band with her son.

Connect with Linda on her webpage or her Facebook author page

You can buy the kindle edition of her book HERE

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Author Interviews

 If you've been following this blog for very long, you'll have read several interviews with authors who write for teens. These are all Christian authors, but they write a wide variety of genres. If you've missed some along the way, I've featured: (click the name to read the interview)
Diana Sharples

Cynthia Toney


Bryan Davis



AJ Cattapan


Monica Mynk
Jean Ann Williams


Sherrie Giddens

JC Morrows

Tonja Condray Klein




Katherine Nelson


Angela Moody

Burton Cole (middle grade author)

And stay tuned. There are more to come.

Friday, October 28, 2016

Fun Friday: Making Butter Beer

Whether or not you are a Harry Potter fan, you can try these two recipes for butter beer (it's not really beer!) for a fun fall drink. One is a hot drink and one is a cold drink. Try both and see which you prefer. And if you figure out how to make the topping for the cold one so it's not lumpy, let me know!



Hot Butter Beer
You need:

  • 2 cups milk
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons hot butterscotch topping
  • 1 cup cream soda (or you can substitute rootbeer if you prefer)
  • large bowl
  • whisk
Do this:







  1. Combine milk, butter, and brown sugar in a microwaveable bowl. Use a whisk to stir them.
  2. Microwave for three minutes.
  3. Remove and stir.
  4. Microwave again until milk is foaming. About 3-4 minutes.
  5. Remove from microwave and add the butter using the whisk. Make sure all the sugar is dissolved and mixed in. 
  6. Heat the butterscotch topping for 30 seconds. Add to mixture and use whip to combine.
  7. Whisk in one cup of cream soda.
  8. You can add sprinkles, ginger, canned whipped cream to your taste.




Even River got in on the hot butter beer



Cold Butter Beer

You Need:
48 ounces Cream Soda
1/4 cup butterscotch syrup
1 cup heavy cream
2 Tbs sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup melted butter
Two bowls
whisk
beater

To Do:
1. Combine cream soda and butterscotch syrup using the whisk in one bowl
2. In the other bowl, use the mixer to beat the heavy cream until peaks appear
3. Fold in the sugar and vanilla.
4. Add the butter and mix.
5. Serve the butter beer with the cream mixture on top.

Just keeping it real --Our cream mixture came out lumpy, and I think we either didn't beat it long enough or it went lumpy when we added the butter. I sprinkled cinnamon on top to hide it :)




We will just  pretend it's supposed to be a lumpy mountain of goo

What is your favorite fall or winter drink? Or soup? Or something festive? Leave me a recipe to try!!

Friday, October 21, 2016

Fun Friday: Singing Cats


Because it's never too early for a Christmas carol!






Answer to last week's brain teaser: Turn on the right switch and leave it on for two minutes. After two minutes, turn on the middle switch and leave it on for one minute. When that minute is up, turn off both switches and enter the room. One light bulb will be hot (1st switch) and one will be warm (2nd switch). The cold bulb will correspond to the switch you didn’t turn on.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Author Interview: Burton W. Cole

Today we’re talking with Burton W. Cole, author of several books including the newest, Bash and the Chocolate Milk Cows, an Inspirational humor/adventure book for middle grade readers.






How did you choose the title?
I want titles that grab attention. There’s not much that grabs my attention faster than the word “chocolate.” So far, I have published three misadventures of Bash and Beamer novels. Raymond “Beamer” Boxby narrates the tales about the crazy things that happen when he spends time with his third cousin twice removed Sebastian “Bash” Hinglehobb. In the third book, Bash concocts a way to make it appear that the cows gave chocolate milk on April Fool’s Day. Hence, “Bash and the Chocolate Milk Cows.”

Did you design the cover?
I am halfway decent at drawing, so with my first book, I pitched the idea that I do my own illustrations to my publisher at B&H Kids. I sent in sketches. He said they were nice, but that he had a former Disney animator and Big Idea illustrator Tom Bancroft in mind for the covers and the 12 interior line drawings. He sent me Tom ideas for the book. It was absolutely no contest. “Yeah, let’s go with Tom,” I said. It was awesome.

  
How would you describe the book to someone in a text message?
#faith, #fun and #farmpranks.
Okay, actually, that’s my Twitter hashtag description.
Since I text with the one finger hunt-and-peck method, I’d probably describe it with typos. I’ll try to eliminate those. It would go something like this:
Chickens dripping in strawberry-rhubarb pie run amok in a fire station. A goat gets painted in an explosion of circus colors. And the cows give chocolate milk on April Fool’s Day. Just the typical weirdness Beamer encounters when visiting cousin Bash on the farm. Meanwhile, somebody’s holding up stores and feed mills. Beamer finds himself face-to-face with the robber with only his crazy cousin, pesky neighbor Mary Jane, and Morton, the goat of many colors.

Who is your main character and what problem does he/she face?
While the titles of all three of my books—Bash and the Pirate Pig, Bash and the Chicken Coop Caper, and Bash and the Chocolate Milk Cows—would lead you to believe that Bash is the main character, actually, he’s not. Ray “Beamer” Boxby narrates the stories and really is the kid who keeps getting shaken, stirred, bent, stapled, twisted, bruised and otherwise in a pickle.

Beamer is boring kind of guy. He’d prefer spending his days reading comic books and playing video games. His cousin Bash spends as much time as possible outdoors, building crazy inventions and trying daring stuff, like riding cows to the dairy drive-through, building a raft from an old shed door, and teaching his pet pig to ice skate. Beamer also has himself to deal with—his trying to learn how to live, really live, with joy and excitement. He’s a new Christian now, has a lot of questions, and doesn’t always think very highly of himself.

Bash and the Chocolate Milk Cows takes place over April Fool’s Day. Bash brims with pranks, tricks and jokes—including a scheme to make it look like the cows gave chocolate milk on April 1, an elaborate plan that involves all the neighbor kids. Beamer just knows that Bash is going to get them grounded again.

Worse, there’s a robber working the farming community. He’s not a very good robber. Mostly, he gets away with chocolate and no cash.

Beamer is trying to puzzle out what in the world baptism is, is trying to learn how to run for fun, is trying to not get into trouble, even when he helps Bash stuff his mom’s car trunk full of pies and live chickens for a trip to the fire hall just down the road, and is about to come face-to-face with the robber and his gun with only his wild cousin Bash, pesky neighbor Mary Jane and a goat of many colors as the other options to save the day.

What did you bring to the book from your own life?
A lot of the crazy stunts in this series, I made up. And a lot of them, my siblings and cousins pulled on various of the farms we lived on. I tell people I don’t want to see which silly antics are made up and which we did because Mom hasn’t found out about all of them yet.


About You
When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a magician, and I wanted to play forward in the NBA. I also aspired to be a syndicated cartoonist, an author of mystery novels, and a rock star trombone player.

Do you still want to be that? 
  • There doesn’t seem to be much call for trombone players in rock bands. Also, I’m more the smooth jazz and contemporary Christian music kind of guy now, but my trombone skills never quite developed to that level.
  • Sometimes I wish I’d continued working toward cartoonist.
  • As for basketball, it turns out you have to actually be able to dribble the ball, and it helps if your shots go into the basket at least occasionally.
  • The magician thing was ruined by the association with dark arts.
  • As for mystery novels, I couldn’t plot enough clues.
  • So I became a newspaper reporter and humor columnist. I’ve been a newspaper man for nearly 35 years now—I’m features editor at the Tribune Chronicle in Warren, Ohio—and a columnist the last 23 years.
  • Oh, and I write books—with crazy characters, silly situations, a heaping of heart, a blast of the Bible, and even with a few mysteries mixed in.


When did you know you wanted to be an author?
I started writing bad poetry in third grade. By fourth grade, I wrote my first “novel,” four chapters over six pages, handwritten in pencil in cursive. And with my own illustrations. It was called “Vanish the Killer Whale.” That ol’ orca terrorizing on community let my imagination swim all over the place and set my course.

Did anything unusual or funny happen on your journey to becoming an author?
I quit. I’d been trying so hard for so long. I was more than 50 years old, and I just couldn’t seem to get anything accepted. I’d let things go for years, but for about three years, I was working it hard, writing, rewriting, dreaming, pushing, trying to do everything I knew to do. And one night, I stood outside under the stars, crying, telling God, “I quit, I quit, I quit. I can’t do this.” It was when I quit trying to do it on my own, to do it my way, when I sobbed, “I can’t do this,” that I heard that quiet voice that said, “But I can.” I surrendered my writing, my dreams, my ideas, my will to God. And it what seemed like a whirlwind, I suddenly had an agent (because friends in the American Christian Fiction Writers group I was in worked on my behalf—I didn’t do it), and a publishing contract with B&H Kids/LifeWay, and a deadline for Book 2. It happened because I quit—quit trying my way and accepted God’s.



What books have influenced you most?
I read a lot. I grew up reading about every Hardy Boys book I could find at the library. When I ran out of Hardy Boys, I resorted to Nancy Drew. I loved mysteries. I’ve ready all 56 short stories and all four novels that Conan Doyle wrote about Sherlock Holmes. I couldn’t get enough of Sherlock Holmes.

I eventually discovered that I wasn’t all that great at writing mysteries but I did have a knack for silliness. My humor writing hero is Patrick F. McManus, particularly the short stories he writes about his childhood with his best friend Crazy Eddie Muldoun. 

I also still love stories with heart and strong Christian values—let’s not just make it a nice, moral book, let’s go ahead and talk about Jesus. He’s worth talking about. I enjoy Jan Karon’s Father Tim books and the action/drama/romance novels by Dee Henderson.

And yes, I do read the Bible. I’ve read it all the way through several times and am still reading it again and again, trying to soak in so much more of God’s words, wisdom and instruction.

Do you have life philosophy? Favorite verse?
It’s difficult to pick a favorite single verse in the Bible. One my favorites is Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for the good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” And the 31st verse is, “If God be for us, then who can be against us?” Actually, I love Romans 8.
Psalm 139 is also huge for me. LOTS of great verses there. You should read the whole thing. A couple samples: Verses 9 and 10: “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall they hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me.” And verses 23 and 24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

What advice would you give a teen who wants to be a writer?
Write! Don’t worry about trying to make it pretty the first time through. Get the ideas down. Write freely. Let your imagination run wild. Write with gusto. Have fun. Once you have it all down the first time around, go through it again to play with words. Find stronger action verbs, brighter descriptions. Delete the unnecessary words and scenes—even if they’re favorites of yours, if they’re not needed, they’re dragging your story down. Have fun coming up with better, stronger and quicker ways to say things. The third time through, you can start getting fussy with your mechanics, like commas and semicolons. Get rid of all those exclamation marks and adverbs. If you have to use gobs of exclamations and bunches of words that end in “ly,” you probably need stronger verbs and more vivid words. And keep having fun playing with words. Then keep going through polishing and cutting and gussying it up. This is you, so sing!



Bash and the Chicken Coop Caper was named “Best Middle Grade Novel” by the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference  NASHVILLE, Tenn. –  (May 29, 2015) Bash and the Chicken Coop Caper by Burton Cole was awarded a 2015 Selah Award for “Best Middle Grade Novel”

Want to connect with Burton Cole? Check out his author page.


Monday, October 17, 2016

Lap Dog

I have four dogs. My biggest one wants to be a lap dog!


 Once a month all four go to Taco Bell. We go through the drive through to get soft tacos to hide their heartworm medicine in. It's hard to get a picture because they are all excited and jumping around.


Noodles!


Jayden is our only kitty.

Friday, October 14, 2016

Fun Friday: An Oldie



Probably everyone has heard this one before:

You’re standing in a hallway with three light switches on the wall, each of which turns on a different lamp inside a closed room. You can’t see inside the room, and you can’t open the door except to enter the room. You can enter the room only once, and when you do, all the lamps must be turned off. How can you tell which switch turns on which lamp?

Last week's answer:  Take the first letter of each word and place it at the end. It will spell the same word backwards.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Interview with YA author Angela Moody

Angela Moody joins us today to talk about her book, No Safe Haven.

How did it get its title? Angela explains:
 All through the writing process I kept calling my book “Tillie Pierce” after my main character, but needed a catchy title for publishing. I brainstormed with my critique group and someone made the comment that she had no safe place to hide from the war, and after mulling those words around, we came up with No Safe Haven. I liked it, so “Tillie Pierce” became No Safe Haven.




Did you design the cover?

 I didn’t design the cover, but I had a conceptual idea of what I wanted. I used the services at Paper and Sage, and though I’ve forgotten the woman’s name, she was really helpful and listened to what I had in mind. I had a picture of Tillie I found on the internet and wanted to use that, with a background of a civil war picture, but the pixels were too low for her. My daughter and I went to Gettysburg for the 150th reenactment and she took some pictures while we were there. She let me look through them and I sent six to Paper and Sage. They chose the one on the cover and Voila! She was also kind enough to give my daughter copyright credit for the photo.

Who is your main character and what problem does he/she face?
 My main character is fifteen-year-old Tillie Pierce, she lived in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1863. The problem she faces is that the Confederates are about to storm her town. She is brought up in a Christian home, but doesn’t want to worship a God who would allow the unbridled carnage she sees around her.

What might draw someone to your character?
 What might draw someone to my character? I’ve had many people who have read the book say that they can relate to her confusion about God and how we sometimes can’t see what he is doing in the midst of the “messes” we’re in. Tillie is in the same position. After 9/11, my children asked me why God would allow something like that to happen. That theme runs very strongly through No Safe Haven, as I was trying to find a way to answer that question.

What makes your book stand out from other books like it?
My book is a historical fiction with no romance in it. It was written for young girls who want to learn something, but enjoy a good story at the same time. I think the fact that there’s no romance, is what stands out. It’s an unvarnished look at how human beings interact with each other during the worst times, without being offensive or graphic.

What is one thing you learned from writing this book?
I learned that the Lord is faithful. I endured many strange occurrences as I was writing this book and looking back I realized that every time I needed advice or research or something, it would come my way in the strangest ways. For instance, in one church scene I needed a hymn that would fit the mood I was trying to create. Every Sunday at church, I would scan the hymnal and during the week I did internet searches trying to find the “perfect” hymn. This went on for months and I was about to give up and ask our music director if she could help me when that Sunday for the first and only time, we sang a hymn called  Am I A Soldier of the Cross? It was exactly what I was looking for. I went through periods of unemployment for periods of a year or more when I was at a point where the writing was coming fast and furious – boom! I’d lose my job for one reason or the other. (Always economic downturn stuff, never performance issues.) In fact, I’m ready to begin writing my new book and two weeks ago, lost my job again. What does that say for the Lord’s faithfulness?

About You
When did you know you wanted to be an author?
When I was  young I always wanted to write. Even from a very young age, I knew that was what I was good at. The problem was overcoming ridicule and lack of support from my family. Then when I got older, I got married and had a family at 24 and so put “all that” on the shelf and did what was necessary to raise my children, but I knew I wanted to be an author at least from the time I was 12 or so years old.

What are three things someone may not know about you?
1.  I am a expert crocheter. I make afghans for family members and friends mostly for wedding gifts, etc.
2.  I was always an avid reader. I did try to athletics in high school and played softball my freshman year in high school, but that was a pathetic exercise. Books were always my refuge.
3.  I had to work hard to overcome almost debilitating shyness as a teenager and young adult. When I was in my 20s a friend of mine told me that all I had to do, for a start, was to look someone in the eye and say hello. Once I learned to do that, I came out of my shell. I’m still quiet and reticent at first, but I warm up quickly now.

What books have influenced you most?
I have always been a historical fiction reader. John Jakes, Anya Seton, Margaret Mitchell (of course) and now Bernard Cornwell are some of my favorites. I like those writers because I learned something of history, and had a really good story to read at the same time.

What’s the most times you’ve read a book and why?
 Anya Seton, who passed away in 1990, wrote a book called Katherine. It was about Katherine Swynford who became the third wife of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster. When I was about 14, a friend of mine gave me the book saying she thought I might like it. The story was so beautifully crafted and full of rich detail about life in medieval England. Until that time I had never heard of John of Gaunt or the Plantagenet’s or Katherine Swynford, the commoner who became a duchess. I was hooked. I have no idea how many times I read that book, but I literally read the covers off it, bought a new copy and did it again. Then, I went out and got every book Anya Seton wrote that were still in publication.

What advice would you give a teen who wants to be a writer?
As for any advice I’d give a teen who wants to write? I’d say, write. Don’t let the voices in your head tell you you’re not good enough. I listened to those voices for too long and they got me nowhere. If the good Lord designed you for crafting words then you must be obedient to His will and use the talent He gave you.


You can connect with Angela on her Goodreads page or her Face Book page