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Welcome to the first day of the Back to School Blog Tour. We have three fabulous children’s authors featured today, Becca Price, Margit Elland Schmitt, and Dan Mclaughlin.
I’ll be introducing them in a moment. But first, I wanted to put up our list of GIVEAWAYS and Discounted Books. Everything runs through the blog tour this week, Sept. 10-14. So enter and pick up your goodies soon!
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Becca Price is the author of Heart of Rock, a children’s fantasy middle grade novel.
And now without further adieu, here are our featured authors for today. After reading their interviews, please visit their websites to find out more about these wonderful authors and some exciting blog posts relating to the blog tour.
Becca Price is our first featured author of the Back to School Blog Tour. Ms. Price started writing fairy tales when she couldnât find the stories her children enjoyed for bedtime. She wrote them down and self-published them at the beginning of the self-pub revolution. Nine books later, sheâs been working on her first adult fantasy. Becca Price lives on ten acres of weeds, swamp and trees with her husband, two children, and four cats.
I had the chance to chat with Becca Price about her childhood memories growing up, her writing process, and what upcoming projects are on the way.
1)Â Â Who was your favorite childrenâs author and how did they influence you?
Becca Price: There were three books that were most meaningful to me growing up. I loved Lewis Carroll â his play with words, made up words, making nonsense sound like sense (Iâm thinking of Jabberwocky here). I also really liked The Little Engine that Could. When Iâm stressed or unsure where to go, I still hear that voice saying âI think I can. I think I can.â
But I think the book that had the greatest impact on me was one of the Dick and Jane books. I was looking at it, when all of a sudden it clicked in that the letters C A T spelled cat, and meant the picture of a little black cat above the words. That was when reading really clicked in for me.
2)Â Â Do you have a writing routine? Share what works for you.
 Becca Price: Itâs not a routine, exactly. Iâll start mulling over a story in my mind, until Iâm pretty sure I know the story and how it should start. Then, all I have to do is write it out. Iâll let it sit for a few days, make some corrections, and then send it off to my editor, Martha Hayes, for a final tune-up.
If itâs a short story, sometimes I simply sit down to type. Iâll have a character in my mind, and let him or her tell me their story.
3)Â Â What is writing to you in one sentence?
Becca Price: One sentence? Wow. Letâs see. Writing is my life. Iâd write even if nobody ever read it. Yeah, thatâs it. Writing is my life.
4)Â Â What projects are you working on right now?
Becca Price: Right now, Iâm working on a novel, The Boy Who Loved The Moon. Itâs quite a complex structure, so Iâm having to think out loud on paper before I actually start writing it. Itâs morphing as I go. It started out a simple middle grade myth, and now I think itâs an adult level book with lots more characters. Iâm having to do a lot of research into the Heroâs Journey for that one.
7)Â Â What advice would you give young writers?
Becca Price: Read. Read everything you can. If itâs a good book, read it twice, and look at what the author did. Read outside your main genre. Read classics. Just read.
Becca Price is the author of fabulous fantasy middle reader books. Heart of Rock is her featured book for our blog tour.
Booktrailer Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrgZJanzXIw
âIn the distant past, a city of wizards was menaced by horrible Night Mares. The wizards carved hideous gargoyles out of stone, bringing them to life using the magical Heart of Rock, to defend their city.
Now the Heart of Rock is needed to save another kingdom, and one brave cobbler must find it. But the gargoyles cannot live without their talisman; will the cobbler’s quest to save his kingdom doom theirs?â
Heart of Rock is available on Amazon.com.
For more information on Becca Price and her books, please visit her website at: http://www.wyrmtalespress.com
PLUSâespecially for this blog tour, Becca Price has posted a behind the scenes article on the writing process.
My second interview of the Back to School Blog Tour is with co-authors of the newly released book, The Dragon, Lucinda, and George. Margit Elland Schmitt and Dan McLaughlin co-authored the book. It started as a NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) project and proceeded from its first 50k to its current 90k. It is a new spin on the legend of St. George and the Dragon. Iâm sure youâll enjoy it and the discussion I had with these two about their writing, school memories, and future projects.
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Margit Elland Schmitt is the co-author of the book, The Dragon, Lucinda, and George.
1)Â Â Â Â Who was your favorite childrenâs author and how did they influence you?
Margit Says: I loved the Matter-of-Fact Magic series by Ruth Chew, and would read them every chance I got. It absolutely tickled me that the author was able to find such funny stories about how magic messes with people in the normal world, while avoiding the clichĂŠ where people are surprised to see flying brooms or sparkly sparks in the air. âOf course, thereâs magic,â her characters would say. âI already knew that.â I wanted to live in a world where you could expect to see magic any day of the week.
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Dan McLaughlin is the other co-author of the book, The Dragon, Lucinda, and George.
2)Â Â Â Â What is your most memorable school moment?
Dan Says:Â In high school, I was an indifferent student (mostly câs and bâs with the occasional d or a). The most memorable moment came in chemistry (A class I was destined from birth to get a d in). For some reason, the teacher thought that having the students get up and give the answers to questions facilitated the pedagogical process. While I had been attentive to the mechanics and form of the lectures, I had absorbed very little of the actual content of the subject matter. The last time I was called upon to speak in class, I produced an impressive looking equation sprinkled with various terms (only two of which I now recall, âvalenceâ and ârate determining equationâ). I delivered my answer like the good serious student I was. It took the teacher a minute or so to realize I had no idea what I was saying with such authority. It was the first time I got a laugh from an audience and I realized my writing/performing style was to subvert conventional norms and clichĂŠs.
3)Â Â Â Â Was there anything in school that was difficult for you?
Dan Says:Â Chemistry, specifically. Anything involving learning a rigid routine leading to only one correct answer, in general.
Margit Says: Trigonometry was my nemesis. In fact, a lot of math made no sense to me, but itâs interesting (to me) that when I went back over those subjects as an adult, I was able to find new ways to see the problems and the patterns, and Iâve made my peace with math.
4)Â Â Â Â What advice would you give young writers?
Dan Says: Figure out the âwhyâ or question you are interested in of your story first, and then figure out a story to answer that question. Why do people believe in religion when prayers are often not answered? (Answer in my book Gott Mit Uns â There is a bureaucracy that balances things out). What are the consequences of being more polite to strangers than to family and friends? (My book, Pass the Damn Salt, Please traces a relationship entirely through dialogue and illustrates the destructive nature of âhonestyâ).
Another interesting idea is to take a well know story and tell it from another characterâs point of view. I wrote a book called Ice Girls about the story of The Little Match Girl from the point of view of management, and with Margit Schmitt we retold the Story of St. George and the Dragon with a happy ending for the dragon. The advantage of reworking a story already known is that the basic characters and plot are already established, and you can concentrate on the elements of style that interest you.
5)Â Â Â Â What is your typical day as a writer?
Dan Says: All my books and projects were written when I had a full-time job (librarian). So, my typical days as a writer consist of me coming home from work, being nice to my wife and then retreating to a place where I can write. And then checking in periodically to see that everything is still OK.
6) What was your favorite book growing up and why?
Dan Says:Â Arthur Schlesingerâs 3 vols. on the New Deal. History backed up by footnotes that told a story the explained the present and gave guidance to the future with fascinating stories and personalities within the main story.
7)Â What inspired you when you were younger?
Dan Says:Â Not to be a total clichĂŠ, but my parents. My mom, who said after another devastatingly mediocre IQ test result, âThatâs OK, Danny, they just havenât figured out a way to measure your intelligence yet.â (and I believed her); and to my dad an incredibly talented independent experimental filmmaker who never made the same film twice. From him I learned that any creative art is about solving questions or problems or passions that interest the artist.
Margit Says: I joke a lot about one teacher who said Iâd never make a great writer, but the truth is, I was really lucky to have support at home and at school. When I was young, I was always writing stories and plays with my friends and family, and Iâm still amazed at how often people gave me the opportunity to perform those works in public. Thereâs nothing like reading before a live audience to really cue you in to the weak places in your story! And nothing as rewarding as getting a laugh or a sigh at just the right moment.
Their book, The Dragon, Lucinda and George, can be found at Amazon.com. It’s a book with a quirky new look at the old legend of St. George and the Dragon. Dive right into a new adventure where fantasy isn’t always so cute and dry. Knights and Princesses are not always so easy to understand, especially when your new friend is a dragon.
Visit Margit Elland Schmittâs website at: https://margitellandschmitt.wordpress.com.
Dan Mclaughlinâs website is: http://danmclaughlin.info/index.html.This is their first collaborative novel. I hope there will be more. Hint. Hint.
Thank you for stopping by the Back to School Blog Tour Day 1. Please be sure to continue your tour by visiting the authorâs websites and checking out their fabulous books! I hope youâre able to fill up your Back to School reading lists this week.
Check back for more author interviews and their featured books tomorrow. And for more information about my new release, The Lost Secret of Time: Bk 4 in the Crystal Keeper Chronicles, please check out its listing on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo.
-Tiffany Turner