Thought for the Day:
“It is good to have an end to journey toward,
but it is the journey that matters in the end.”
~Ursula K. LeGuin ~
Gifts for My Writer Friends:
Writers Helping Writers always have great stuff, but I particularly like the post HERE on making your characters likable.
It’s really important to give each of your characters his or her own distinct voice. The post HERE from Ride the Pen will help you.
Janice Hardy has a little chat about details and a story Bible HERE. Great stuff.
Welcome to my new, up-dated blog on my brand new site. My thanks to my daughter Maggie for building this for me and talking me through being able to maintain and use it. I hope you will take a few minutes and look around the site and let me know what you think. I’d love to know. While you are looking around, please go to the top right-hand corner of this page and subscribe by email. I won’t share your address with anyone and you will receive an email each time I post so you won’t miss any posts or chances to win the free books I give away. I haven’t been able to figure out how to move my subscriber list from my old blog to my new one. So please, please take a minute and do this. Thanks!
On my last post, I offered a gently-read hardback (U.K. version) of Natural History Museum Explorer Dinosaur! to one of you. Our winner this week is C. Lee McKenzie. Congratulations, Lee! I will get your book out to you soon. If you don’t know who she is, she is a California author who writes both middle-grade and YA. You can learn more about her at her website HERE. I have another fun giveaway this week, so please keep reading.
A couple years ago, I loved and reviewed Heartwood Hotel Book 2 The Greatest Gift. You can see that review HERE. When I saw a new book in the series come up for review, I grabbed it. Heartwood Hotel Book 3 Better Together by Kallie George, is no disappointment. Here is the review I wrote.
Mona, Tilly, and the rest of the Heartwood Hotel staff are back for another adventure. But there are a couple of changes — Mr. Heartwood decides to take a vacation and leave the hotel in the hands of the staff, and Tilly’s annoying little brother, Henry, comes to stay for a while. When rumors are heard of a new hotel opening nearby, the staff decides they must do something to fill the hotel and defend against another hotel stealing their business. They come up with a plan to hold a Spring Splash with lots of competitions. Soon every room is full and the competitions grow. All the while, Mona has to take on a lot more work, including looking after Henry. When dangerous, uninvited guests show up, it’s up to Mona to save the day.
Author Kallie George has written another enchanting book in the Heartwood Hotel series that will delight young readers. The characters are fully-formed and as believable as animal characters can be. The charming illustrations by Stephanie Graegin support the story perfectly. Each book in this series easily stands on its own, but they, as a group, will keep young readers reading for days on end.
I have a gently-read hardback copy for one of you. All you need do is be a follower or subscriber (it’s free!), have a U. S. address, and leave a comment. If you would like extra chances, please share the link to this post on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media outlet and let me know you have done that. And don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at the Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.
Rosi Hollinbeck 
Congrats on your new website, Rosi. It looks fantastic and what an accomplishment! I’m going to pass on the giveaway as I’ve got a lot of books on reserve at the library right now.
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Thanks, Natalie. It’s pretty exciting to finally get this going. Now if I can just figure out how it works!
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I’m glad I was off today as the links were excellent and took me a bit longer to read through them. Thanks for the new learnings and reminders! Your website is fantastic and I’m sure you will enjoy the WordPress way of doing things. I especially like being able to schedule posts.
I remember your review of the previous Heartbreak Hotel—even added it to my list of books to read. Yep, still there and I’ve added this newest. Maybe I’ll get to them later this spring.
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Thanks for your kind remarks. Glad you had time to read the links. Time is the one thing we never seem to have enough of. Thanks for your comment and good luck in the drawing.
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Congratulations! Your new website looks wonderful. I will be sure to sign up.
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Awww. Thanks, Liz. I think my daughter did a spectacular job. Good luck in the drawing.
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You’ve done a lot since the last time I’ve looked! Glad I’m reconnected.
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Me, tt. It’s been too long since I saw you here. Thanks for stopping by. Good luck in the drawing.
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I am so glad you are on WordPress! Congratulations on the new look. I still can’t figure some things out and I’ve been using it 7 years — like how when you click on Blog above it shows your past post. Mine just scrolls. Love the young picture of Rosi — we grew up in the same time period.
Enjoyed your choice today and went back and read the other review which gave me even greater insight into this series. I like that it stars animals. Clever idea for this series! They sound like ideal books for 9-10 year-olds.
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I’m having some trouble finding my way around, but I think I will like it once I get used to it. Now, if I can just get some subscribers! Thanks for doing that. Good luck in the drawing. By the way, I loved the review at your site today.
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Do me a favor and like my recent review today so that I can pull you up in my reader. I think I signed up for your newsletter and I really want your reviews to show in my WP reader.
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Love the new website! Such a pleasant surprise when I opened it. Congratulations! I haven’t read this book yet, but it’s illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators! I follow her talent on social media. Thanks for the chance to win a copy. I shared on twitter, pinterest, Facebook, tumblr and Google+.
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Thanks for the kind comments, Danielle, and thanks for sharing my link! Love it. Good luck in the drawing.
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I read the first book in the series and it was so sweet! This one sounds great too!
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It really is sweet. I love this series, and I am not a big fan of animal-character books. Thanks for the comment. Good luck in the drawing.
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Thank you so much for choosing me to win this book. I have readers waiting, but they have to stand in line behind me! 🙂
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You’re welcome. Your family will enjoy the book. I dropped it in the mail this morning, so you should get it soon. Thanks for reading my blog.
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Congrats on your new website! NO need to include my name today.
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Thanks for dropping by, Carol. Always nice to see you here.
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Congrats on your new website! Looks good.
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Thanks for reading and sharing my link. Extra chances for you. Good luck in the drawing.
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Thanks for finding us another fun book, Rosi. Good luck with your new site. It looks good.
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Thanks, Nancy. And thanks for sharing my link on Facebook. Good luck in the drawing.
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Congratulations on your new site. Nice layout. It also seems to function better!
I’ll bet early teens love the Heartwood Hotel series. I’d love to be in the drawing!
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Your new website looks really good, Rosi. And the Heartwood Hotel series sounds like a good series, but I’m going to pass on the giveaway. I have way too many unread books right now. Still, I’ll jot down the series. I think I’d like to read some of them.
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Your website looks great! Nice and clean.
I follow by email: dragonfee64 (at) gmail (dot) com
Shared on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Feeroberts64/posts/1895110270508314
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