July 2019 Book Haul

Typically, I like posting these book hauls on the first of the month. HOWEVER, since this blog will be given over wholly to the REVEAL of Spindle Dreams's cover, I'm going ahead and posting this a day early.

July saw me in a lot more thrift stores, since my sisters were visiting one weekend and we decided to hit a handful of stores while they were here. And then basically all but four of the books listed below I picked up in one day. That's what happens when you've got good thrift stores in your area. Not apologizing.

I just need another bookshelf now...

Anyway, let's get started!

The Scarlet Letter / Nathaniel Hawthorne - To be honest, I do have another copy of this book, but it's in pretty rough shape. This one is perfectly tiny with a dust jacket and gold edging. It's beautiful.

Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles) / Marissa Meyer - Now I've got half of the Lunar Chronicles. This is such an interesting take on the tale of Red Riding Hood.

The River of Wind, The War of the Ember (Guardians of Ga-Hoole) / Kathryn Lasky - I had NO idea these owl books had such a big series. These are books 13 and 15!

Andersen's Fairy Tales / Hans Christian Andersen - Eep! Another book of fairytales! I think this may be my first collection of Andersen's.

Inkheart / Cornelia Funke - I read this trilogy a long time ago and (aside from the language!) really enjoyed it. I think Inkheart was my favorite since the author did some things in the second and third books that I didn't care for. *sniff* I would have written it differently.

Ozma of Oz, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The Road to Oz, The Patchwork Girl of Oz / L. Frank Baum - Books 3, 4, 5, and 7 of the Oz series. Who knew that the world of Oz had so many books?

The Sword of the Wormling (The Wormling) / Jerry B. Jenkins, Chris Fabry - I've got the first book of this series on Kindle, but I've procrastinated starting it because I only had the first book. Oh, look -- here's book two!

Cinderella: Ninja Warrior (Twisted Tales) / Maureen McGowan - I'm familiar with this book from Goodreads, but I don't know that much about it. I was super excited about it until I saw that it's kinda a "choose your own adventure" type of book. Don't hate me, but I don't like choosing the adventure when the author should have already done the work.

Beauty / Robin McKinley - How can I be a fairytale retelling snob without this book in my collection? Not my favorite Beauty and the Beast story, but definitely one to hang on to.

Abandoned on the Wild Frontier: Peter Cartwright (Trailblazer Books) / Dave Jackson - I was only ever able to read a few in this series growing up, but I really liked the missionary/Christian tales. Not super long, but just the sort of clean, inspiring adventure I want my kids to read. This particular one I've actually not read yet.

The Journeyman / Elizabeth Yates - I grew up with this book and its sequel, so it's always exciting to find these little gems in stores. Brownie points for anyone caring: it was published by my college.

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And that's all for July, folks! Have you read any of these books? Any of them on your to-read list? What books did you add to your shelves in July? Let me know in the comments below!

AND DON'T FORGET! We've got a cover reveal and a book tour kicking off tomorrow!!

God bless!

Featuring Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Rose Red, and Rapunzel

Inspiration cover; not the real deal. 

The days are slowly creeping closer to Spindle Dreams's release! I'd like to remind anyone who'd like to participate to sign up for the cover reveal (August 1st) and blog tour (August 2nd-9th). Links are below!

Cover Reveal (sign up closes on July 30th).

Blog Tour (sign up closes on July 31st).

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ALSO, I'm very excited to announce that my very first post just went live on Fairy Tale Central! As part of the month celebrating the fairytale Snow White and Rose Red, I completed a book review on Patricia Wrede's version of the tale. Be sure to pop over there to check it out!

This was a super fun month to jump into Fairy Tale Central. Snow White and Rose Red is a lesser known fairytale, but by no means less exciting or fun. Sometimes, I believe it loses too much of its spotlight to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, just because of the name similarities. However, it is NOT the same tale.

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And by the by, if you're not already aware of the fact, FIVE new Rapunzel retellings will be hitting Amazon in early August! In fact, the release dates for those coincide (unintentionally) with Spindle Dreams's release. If you'd like more information the Golden Braids tour and release dates, Kendra's heading things up (her main blog is here). Sign up for the tour is now closed, I believe, but there's still time to preorder books and get your hands on these lovely tales!

Aren't fairytales and retellings just the coolest thing? *grins*

God bless!

DETAILS: Spindle Dreams Cover and Release

At long last, Spindle Dreams is making its way into the published ranks of Amazon! Although this book, overall, didn't take that long to write, it has taken many, many moons to get to this stage. I am so happy, and I cannot wait to share this Once Upon a Twist Tale with you all. I can't say it out loud that SD holds a spot closer to my heart than The Rose and the Balloon did (mainly in fear of what Nicolas and Nicoline would do to me if they found out), but I'm still so excited to see this project FINALLY to completion.

Here's what you want to know...

I will be releasing Spindle Dreams's cover LIVE here on my blog and my other social media sites on August 1st. I intend to run a blog tour from the 1st all the way to the 9th of August, upon which date I shall be publishing Spindle Dreams LIVE ON AMAZON.

Do ya hear that, folks? OUR PUBLICATION DATE IS AUGUST 9TH! 

Below are two Google forms available for sign-up. You do not need to feel any obligation to sign up for either, but I would appreciate any publicity you can give me concerning my newest release. One form is ONLY for the cover reveal happening August 1st. The other is for the blog tour. Please sign up as you wish.

Sign Up for the Cover Reveal!

For the cover reveal, all posts must be on public blogs anytime during the 24 hours of August 1st. After the cover is live on your blog, you may share it across the interwebs as you wish. I will be sending cover, book info, and author info in an email for bloggers to post as they wish. Please sign up soon if you'd like to participate in the cover reveal, but I should be able to send the reveal information to bloggers up until July 30th. 

Anyone who doesn't have a blog and would like to share it may do so once they see it live on others' blogs and social media sites. I just don't want the cover sneaking out before it's meant to.

Sign Up for the Blog Tour!

For the blog tour, I'm offering several options for posts: a character interview with either Marita or Felix, an author interview, or a guest post by the author. No limit on interview questions, but all questions must be submitted through the form above by July 31st. 

I will also be offering a few PDF copies of Spindle Dreams for review; the catch on that is, your review MUST be published during the blog tour. Once you sign up for a review, you should have the PDF in your email within a day or so. Again, the deadline on that is July 31st. I won't be able to send out the PDF after that day. Spindle Dreams runs around 26,000 words and is easily read in an afternoon or two.

Any questions/concerns/fangirling? Please comment below!

God bless!

June 2019 Book Haul (And Announcements)

I'm not sure how many of you have noticed this, but I haven't done a book haul post since (I believe) March. The reason? Because I didn't have any new books to post as a haul.

It's very sad, yes, but I'm also very happy to say that I've added two new books to my shelves in the month of June -- so I can do a book haul post! Small, but it's a post.

Anywho, what with moving and vacation, these last two months have been absolutely crazy, but in a quick local bookstore trip, I managed to find two books that I've been looking for for quite a while. (Sorry, Google images will have to work for this one, since I didn't take one myself.)

The Candlestone and Circles of Seven // Bryan Davis

I've had the first book in Davis's Dragons in Our Midst series for I don't know how long. I've read through most of this series (including DIOM as well as Oracles of Fire and Children of the Bard) at one point, but I don't recall most of the series, unless you count some epic moments with Walter. I've been wanting to re-read all of them for a while, but when you've only got the first book -- let's face it, it's not that enticing.

Bryan Davis hasn't typically been a favorite author of mine, but I recently started reading his Dragons of Starlight, and suddenly I'm more interested in reading more. I did not care for Echoes from the Edge or the Reapers trilogy, but his dragon stories are pretty interesting (from what I've read).

Well, there's the grand book haul, and now I just have three more things to say:

ONE

Spindle Dreams is on its way! I've hit a number of snags dealing with the cover and formatting, but I believe we're on top of all of that, and yesterday I ordered the official first proof copy to check for any last errors before we release the cover.

Thus, COVER REVEAL IS COMING SOON! I'm super stoked to finally be sharing this with you guys. It's taken way too much time to get to this point -- I'll be the first to say that.

TWO

I have joined the ranks of fairytale enthusiasts over at Fairy Tale Central! I was super excited to see this pet project of Christine, Arielle, and Faith take off a few months ago, and I've been pretty religious about keeping up with their posts. And this month, Hayden and I have joined up to help write posts and do odd jobs for our wonderful fairy godmothers. Since I'm mommy as well as writer, I will probably be posting there the least out of the five, but I count it such an honor to be included.

Fairytales are just awesome, ok?

And...

THREE

Today, July 5th, marks the official 22 week mark of my second pregnancy. I'm still in shock that God has blessed our family with another baby, and I can't wait to meet our little one in early November! It's going to be fun seeing our daughter be a big sister -- she loves babies!

God bless!