Shameless Holiday Book Spree

I now bring you my shameless holiday book list. I hope you will buy these books for two reasons:
The first being that that are excellent! The second being that I know all the authors and want their books to sell.

So, keeping that in mind, I bring you the totally biased and self-serving booklist 2010: (Note--at the end of my fiction list, I am including a book that I read this year that hasn't gotten the attention it richly deserves, Ellen Potter's THE KNEEBONE BOY).

1. THE BONESHAKER by Kate Milford










2. CLAIRE DE LUNE by Christine Johnson














3.COMPROMISED by Heidi Ayarbe











4.SCONES AND SENSIBLITY by Lindsay Eland











And now for additional bonus, recommendation (pssst..I am going to be interviewing the author, Ellen Potter in a few weeks).

6. THE KNEEBONE BOY by Ellen Potter










And now for our non-fiction portion of the list:

7. EMOTIONAL INTENSITY IN GIFTED STUDENTS
by Christine Fonseca, School Psychologist









8. THE WRITER'S GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGY by Carolyn Kaufman, PsyD

The characters who live in my head want to meet you

Hi all. My characters from LIFE and BETH have been living in my head for a very long time. They felt they deserved a proper send off. What I am posting here are photo-illustrations which I will then render as traditional drawings.

This first image is Beth Collins, the girl who not only plays a killer lead guitar, but can kill with her mind.

The second image is love interest, Alain Duquette, the French classical guitarist with secrets of his own. (pssst...note I gave Alain's shaggy main a trim--thanks, Christine!_

Finally--Rewrite off to readers (and agent) and what I learned

I know I've been absolutely silent on here and I apologize. I've been dedicating myself to completing the rewrite of my book LIFE AND BETH and it's taken WAY longer than I ever imagined. But, finally, finally, finally, I finished. I'm not fooling myself that more revisions aren't in store before my lovely agent Victoria Marini subs, but it feels good to have reached this milestone.

And you know what I learned? No matter what your writing method is--seat of the pantster, outliner, whatever, there are no shortcuts. I wrote the first draft of this book almost a year ago, in a very random way. It was DREADFUL. Then I created my (very pretty and useful looking) plot map. That helped a lot. THEN, I started to submit to agents and most of them came back and told me--yeah--we like your premise, we like your writing, but the whole thing falls apart like a flabby souffle.

So, then I downloaded Scrivener and used THAT to help me RE-OUTLINE the whole mess--and still, still I had a long haul ahead of me.

So what's the lesson here? The lesson is that there is no substitute for an awesome critique group and beta readers who target your weak spots like a laser beam. Thank you to all of you geniuses for getting me through this!

I am very excited to sink my teeth into my next project, which is writing and illustrating a picture book. There is also my untitled WIP, which I am going to outline on Scrivener FIRST.

Christine Fonseca Blog Tour Book Giveaway—WINNER!

We have a winner. The method for choosing the winner was this: I counted all the comments that were not either mine or Christine's. I entered the total amount into a random number picker and voila--the winner was commenter #6, and that was...drum roll....

Padget!

So, Padget, whomever you are--please email me your address. I will forward it to Christine and you will get your copy of Christine's book!

Rutgers One on One/ Christine Fonseca book giveaway reminder

Today I am leaving for the Rutgers One-one-One conference in Piscataway, New Jersey. I'll be driving there with my good friend and writing-mate Dhonielle Clayton and meeting up with my other good friend and writing-mate Colleen Rowan Kozinski, both of whom are wonderful muses and exceedingly talented writers. I'm also looking forward to the BlueBoarders dinner tonight at the Radisson Hotel.

I'm excited and a bit nervous. Since I've never been to one of these events before, I don't really know what to expect. It's a much less passive experience than most conferences as you are paired with a mentor. And you have no idea whom your mentor is until you get there. Kind of like a blind date. So, I'm busy getting myself together with my usual fear that I am going to forget something crucial. Hopefully, I won't. I know one thing I am bringing which I would rather not and that's a head cold. Wouldn't you know that after not having a cold for at least a year, I came down with one. But I refuse to let it slow me down. I'm planning to resist it! Hopefully, it won't slow me down too much.

Anyway, I hope to report back on this event when I return, or if I have a moment, maybe while I am there. Have a great weekend, all!

And just a reminder: Comment on the post below this for the chance to win the new book on gifted kids by the amazing Christine Fonseca.

Christine Fonseca Blog Tour Pitstop and Book Giveaway!

First, I want to thank Lisa for hosting a leg of my blog tour. Be sure to check out the great contest at the end of the post for a chance to win a signed copy of EMOTIONAL INTENSITY IN GIFTED STUDENTS. Now, on to the post –

When Lisa and I talked about a topic for my guest post, she asked a great question – “Why are gifted kids so difficult at times?”

That IS the question, isn’t it!

The answer lies in understanding the underlying intensity present in gifted individuals. I think this poem by Pearl Buck really sums things up:

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this:

A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.
To him...
a touch is a blow,
a sound is a noise,
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god,
and failure is death.

– Pearl Buck

I have worked with gifted children and adults for more than a decade, and I can say that nearly everyone I have met lives this poem to some degree.

Intensity refers to how an individual approaches life. At its best, it is the driving passion that enables some people to achieve amazing things - in any domain. But at its worst, it is the turmoil that has the power to consume these same individuals from time to time as they learn how to manage that aspect of their personality.

Intensity comes in the form of cognitive intensity - those aspects of thinking and processing information that all gifted individuals use to problem solve. It relates to the attributes of focus, sustained attention, creative problem solving, and advanced reasoning skills. Most people think of cognitive intensity as intellect, or "being smart" - all good things.

Emotional intensity is akin to the above poem. It refers to the passion gifted people feel daily. But it also refers to the extreme highs and lows many gifted people experience throughout their lifetime, causing them to question their own mental stability from time to time. This type of intensity is a natural aspect of giftedness. However, in my experience, it is also one of the most misunderstood

attributes – and it IS the reason gifted kids sometimes struggle.

My newly released book, EMOTIONAL INTENSITY IN GIFTED STUDENTS, talks not only about the specific difficulties inherent with gifted individuals, but also ways to help teach kids to manage this part of giftedness. I hope you check it out!

Thanks for stopping by, Christine!

And now for the giveaway. Just comment below and you will be included in the randomly chosen giveaway contest!

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Order the book.

Want an e-reader version? Order here.

Read the first chapter here.

Phew--It's Dusty in here! Cleaning out the place for a guest post from the awesome Christine Fonseca

Well, I hope you will all forgive me for falling down a rabbit hole for nearly the entire month of September.

September is life re-entry time for me after being away all summer. Back to my wonderful job teaching graphic design at Bronx Community College where I find a good deal of my inspiration; back to being the General Manager and CEO of my family; and lastly but certainly not least, finishing the massive rewrite of my book LIFE AND BETH, which my wonderful agent, Victoria Marini would like to start selling. And I am nearly finished. Victoria and I both agree that writing is a priority, so the blog has languished a bit. But, hopefully not for long.

What better way to celebrate my Bloggiversary than with a visit from the amazing Christine Fonseca, whose book EMOTIONAL INTENSITY IN GIFTED STUDENTS is has been released by Prufrock Press.

So, I hope you'll all join me when Christine breezes through. There'll be a cool contest, too. Just to let you know, the incredibly energetic (and gifted, of course) Christine is also a writer of young adult fantasy, hence our friendship. Talk about multi-tasking—no one multi-tasks better than Christine Fonseca!