RASPBERRIES AND VINEGAR blog tour and giveaway !! Locavores unite!

Hello everybody!

 Have you all had a lovely week?? I thought this week was going to be same ol', same ol' but it ended up being something else, something else! We went to the drive in, then the water park, then had sleepover friends... You know the drill. Summer time and kids= rocketing around like there's no tomorrow!

 It fits right into my super fun week to be able to bring Valerie Comer's new book to the blog. But first, let me say she's having a fun facebook virtual party, and it's not the usual fb virtual party. This is a LOCAVORE party.

(Now, locavore doesn't mean crazy eater. It means LOCAL eater. As in people who make a conscious effort to eat natural, local food. I've been interested in local eating since I read

this book a few years ago. If you haven't read it, you should. And then you'll love Valerie's book even more because the main characters in this fun, contemporary love story are all about the local eating... and the local loving. I've always been a romance reader, and this story combined two of my biggest passions.


You can get a hint from the "Farm Fresh Romance" part of Valerie's cover that this is going to involve the freshest, most delicious food AND love!   I loved this cover as soon as I saw it and I asked VALERIE if she would share how the cover came to be made. This is what she said:

partybox

2 Seconds to Catch a Reader's Attention

"That's the job of a book cover designer/artist. How many times have your eyes glossed over a cover, not engaged? Maybe a friend says, "Oh, you have to read that one!" and you say, "But I don't like the cover." And you assume, rightly or wrongly, that if you don't like the cover, you won't like the story, either.

So…does this cover catch your attention? What does it make you think the story is about? The words "A Farm Fresh Romance" should give you a clue. Does the cover art enhance those words, in your opinion? Most of all, does it make you want to give the novel a chance?

 

I wrote a novel several years ago with the working title of Domino's Game. Domino is the name of a Border collie puppy, and he's important to the plot all the way through. My daughter, Hanna Sandvig, read a draft of the story. Being a digital artist, she couldn't help creating a mock-up cover for it. (This is the woman who, as a teen, was going to write a novel herself but couldn't get to it until she'd drawn all the characters. In various costumes. And the setting. And the…you get the idea.)

 

When Choose Now contracted this novel as their debut release—with a lead time of about 10 weeks—I suggested my daughter as the cover artist. Although the initial mock-up had been created on the fly, my publisher saw something in it that she liked and contracted my daughter to create the final cover.

 

Hanna realized that a young couple in her church fit the profiles of the novel's main characters fairly well and invited them for a photo shoot. Thankfully they thought it would be great fun and obliged, though it was only a few days before their wedding and I'm sure they had plenty of other things to do!

My daughter narrowed the selection down to her favorite poses and sent them to the publisher and to me. We agreed easily on our favorite and Hanna proceeded to create the digital art for the front, then added the layout and text for the spine and back cover as well. She doesn't have the program or skills to render it in the format required by the printer, so a graphic designer stepped on board to fine-tune the file at the final stage. Hanna blogged about the process HERE.

I'm so thrilled to share the fun of my first solo novel release with my daughter's first book cover. No one else has a cover like mine, and it's sure to catch attention simply by being so unique. I hope it's done its job on you!"

Thank you, Valerie!

Here's her bio:

Valerie Comer’s life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their creation-care-centric church. She only hopes her characters enjoy their happily ever afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.

Valerie writes Farm Lit with the voice of experience laced with humor. Raspberries and Vinegar, first in her series A Farm Fresh Romance, released August 1, 2013. Visit her at http://valeriecomer.com.

   Okay, you guys, I hope you check this out. I thought it was such a lovely debut novel! You can go to Valerie's publisher's site and check out a taste of what's in store for you. Sample chapters available here!!

  And here's the book blurb...
   Choose Now breaks ground in the Farm Fresh Romance series, in which Josephine Shaw and her friends renovate a dilapidated farm with their sights set on more than just their own property. Transforming the town with their sustainable lifestyle and focus on local foods is met with more resistance than they expected, especially by temporary neighbor, Zachary Nemesek. Jo needs to learn that a little sweet makes the tart more tasty.

Looking at her publisher's site, I see you can order the book personalized and signed! That would be a great gift for the romance-loving gardener in your life. There is also a GOODREADS GIVEAWAY an while you're over there you can see my starzzzz I gave. :D

 

 

May the k9 Spy! Review and giveaways and scavenger hunt!

Hellooooo, everybody!

  Welcome back! Sorry about that whole 'see you Tuesday' comment. Sometimes my brain goes on the fritz.  So far, I have not lost any of my children or forgotten my own name. I may or may not have locked myself out of my house, car, van, apartment, etc. on a regular basis since I was given a set of keys. I also tend to forget how old I am and whether or not we have food in the house. But that's all minor stuff, right??

How can you possibly complain when I had this cool chicken-in-a-diaper picture??

You're welcome.

 Ok, so today I'm reviewing an awesome middle grade fiction book called

May on the Way: How I Become a K9 Spy

 

(Isn't that the cutest cover EVAH??? Here's the blurb...)

Sometimes I start with a well-thought out plan, and sometimes, me being me, things just happen. In my imagination I'm on my way, heading anywhere. Because anywhere's better than here.

 

Which is why I'm staring at this latch. I'm going to escape today. I've been watching closely to see how they work it, though no one's noticed.

Humans... So unaware...

 

   Caveat: I'm not a dog person. I don't have a dog. I have cats. And some kids. And some chickens. But I like dogs and know how smart they can be. That being said, this book made me LOVE dogs. It made me want to go right out and bring home a dog. And not just any dog. I wanted a rescue dog.

  Puppies are great, but May makes you long for a smart dog that just never got a real chance. And May is as smart as they come.

  I have readers from ages seven to thirteen and we read A LOT.  I can tell within a chapter whether the book is something that kids will finish. I knew I liked the book, but what did I know? I'm pushing forty and don't even Pet the cat when I walk by. I'm not the best beta reader for May.

BUT my kids loved this book!! Forget love, they flipped over this book! We had to get all the others.

Wait, that probably doesn't sound good from a parent's perspective. But it's money well-spent. And the best part?

The FIRST MAY BOOK IS FREE RIGHT NOW!! No kidding! here's the linkydoo: HERE

Also, as a special treat to her fans, MAY has a cool treasure hunt going on! Every blog she's visited has a very special letter somewhere hidden inside. Hmmmmm.... Can you find it?? You find each letter, spell out the word, and there are awesome prizes to be had!

Since I love these books so much, I want to link the cover of the next and the blurbs in this review, too. You know kids LOVE A SERIES.

 

May Finds a Way: Peril in Paris:   An enterprising escape, a perilous mission...

After going astray during K9 Spy boot camp, May tries to find a way to the American Embassy in Paris.
Join her and Léonce, a feral cat, as they sniff out an evil plot leading from Benjamin Franklin's park through the historic Passy Cemetery to The Pantheon...including a journey under the city!

Guess what? This one will be FREE for Kindle: July 23-27, 2013 !!

Check out the rules and join May the K9 Spy’s Scavenger Hunt at May’s Blog Tour HQ! Also, if you grab the book and review it, you can be entered for MORE prizes! 

 

About the Author:

KC Frantzen learned to speak critter at a young age. She and her husband volunteer with a variety of projects, including the Joni & Friends Wounded Warrior Getaway. They enjoy traveling just about anywhere, which helps formulate ideas for May the K9 Spy. The family lives in the country hills of middle Tennessee with two Arabian horses and several rescue dogs, including the real May.