MG Rewind Week + Giveaway: Author Steve Bryant

  Welcome to Day 4 of #MGRewind week!

Celebrate Middle Grade reads with Tantrum Books/Month9books.

Sharing his memories as an MG reader, we welcome

STEVE BRYANT, author of the

LUCAS MACKENZIE AND THE LONDON MIDNIGHT GHOST SHOW.

Come back everyday this week where we'll feature another author, and

be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

 

 
Lucas Mackenzie has got the best job of any 10 year old boy. He travels from city-to-city as part of the London Midnight Ghost Show, scaring unsuspecting show-goers year round. Performing comes naturally to Lucas and the rest of the troupe, who’ve been doing it for as long as Lucas can remember.

But there’s something Lucas doesn’t know.

Like the rest of Luca’s friends, he’s dead. And for some reason, Lucas can’t remember his former life, his parents or friends. Did he go to school? Have a dog? Brothers and sisters?

If only he could recall his former life, maybe even reach out to his parents, haunt them.

When a ghost hunter determines to shut the show down, Lucas realizes the life he has might soon be over. And without a connection to his family, he will have nothing. There’s little time and Lucas has much to do. Can he win the love of Columbine, the show’s enchanting fifteen-year-old mystic? Can he outwit the forces of life and death that thwart his efforts to find his family?

Keep the lights on! Lucas Mackenzie’s coming to town. 

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Steve Bryant

 
One of the side benefits of becoming a published middle grade writer is recalling what it was like to be a middle grade reader. For me, growing up in a small Midwestern town (Cairo, Illinois), it was a case of limited options. Retail book sales were severely limited to the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series. I loved them nonetheless, little knowing that my favorite author (Franklin W. Dixon) didn’t exist, that his novels were ghost written. The Hardy Boys formed the basis of social reading: we would take turns reading chapters aloud at overnights, along with sharing our comics collections (mine were Batman, my friends’ Tarzan andSuperman). Alas, I never read the Nancy Drews nor enjoyed multiple-gender overnights. My private reading blossomed in the fourth grade when I joined the Science Fiction Book Club, expanding my purchasing boundaries. As I recall, a new hardback would arrive every three weeks or so for about a dollar a volume, along with a fascinating newsletter describing coming works. I favored the short story anthologies (e.g., The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology, ed. by John W. Campbell, Jr.). My favorite novel of the era was Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man, the first Hugo winner. All those books had uneven, ragged edges, and I still have a sentimental attachment to the style. Our Cairo Public Library supplemented my reading, not only with more science fiction, but with a wider reach: Longfellow’sSong of Hiawatha, Jack London’s arctic tales, James Thurber’s wacky life and hard times. But I was bitten by science fiction and gravitated to the Robert A. Heinlein juveniles such as Time for the Stars and Tunnel in the Sky. When I had exhausted the library’s collection, the lady whose little store provided our school supplies astonished me by stating that she could order any book in print. In the pre-Amazon days this sounded like a miracle, and we put it to the test. For $4.98 she acquired me a copy of Heinlein’s The Star Beast. I have it to this day, and it was the beginning of a lifetime of serious book acquisition. Were you to ask me in those days why I liked Heinlein, I would have said I liked him because I liked science fiction. Years later I realized that it was because Heinlein always pitted boys and girls together against formidable odds, and romance ensued.That’s what I loved. I have always remembered to make romance a key part of any stories I write.

Steve Bryant is a new novelist, but a veteran author of books of card tricks. He founded a 40+ page monthly internet magazine for magicians containing news, reviews, magic tricks, humor, and fiction; and he frequently contributes biographical cover articles to the country’s two leading magic journals (his most recent article was about the séance at Hollywood’s Magic Castle).

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MG Rewind Week + Giveaway: Author Samantha Verant

  Welcome to Day 3 of #MGRewind week!

Celebrate Middle Grade reads with Tantrum Books/Month9books.

Sharing her memories as an MG reader, we welcome

SAMANTHA VERANT, author of the

KING OF THE MUTANTS.

Come back everyday this week where we'll feature another author, and

be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

 

 
Can one boy stop a nefarious plot to turn kids into super-mutants?

Maverick Mercury enjoys his life as the sideshow attraction known as “Gator Boy” at Grumbling’s Traveling Circus and Sideshow.

His freakish mutations are the result of some billionaire geneticist’s experiments gone awry. But life as a mutant is about to get worse, as Maverick uncovers a plot to kidnap kids, turns them into super-mutants, and sells their powers to the highest bidder.

Now, Maverick is on a mission to find the mad scientist who may have created him and destroy his sinister plans! 

Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Chapters Indigo! | TBD |IndieBound | Google Play | BAM | iBooks

 

Samantha Verant

 

As a middle grader, my answer to the above questioned varied daily, depending on whatever book I was reading at the time. Books fueled my dreams and I could be anything I wanted to be – a ballerina, a cowgirl, or a tightrope walker. I could be a pig farmer, the idea inspired by Fern in Charlotte’s Web. Or I could set off on a wild adventure, carried off into the blue sky by seagulls, thanks to James and the Giant Peach. Reading transported me into other worlds, opening up my mind to the possible and, sometimes, the impossible. I imagined myself in stories. Back then, if somebody asked me if I thought I’d work at a window-less office in advertising, I would have given them the stink eye and said, “No, I’m going to work in Oz or Wonderland or Wonka.”

An early reader, I tackled my first picture book on my own at the age of three. It was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, and I loved it so much that I climbed (and hugged) many a tree to find one that would love me back, just like the boy. By middle grade, I was hooked on books – the more fantastical, the better. I remember when the teachers passed out the Scholastic Book Catalogues. It was like Christmas and I always ordered as many books my parents would allow. Ghosts stories and adventures and joke books – who could choose just one or two? The school librarian always shook her head when she saw me coming with a stack of books piled high to the sky. “Are you going to read all those in two weeks?” she’d ask.
Indeed, I did. Some I even read twice.

Don’t get me wrong. I was like all of the other kids, too. I played foursquare or double dutch with my friends until the sun went down. I watched TV and went to movies. I took ballet classes and gymnastics. I dove off mailboxes and roofs, neither of which were very good ideas. But I was also a book omnivore. Lights out? Give me ten more minutes, Mom! I’m reading. Mom, of course, always agreed. 
Today, writing lets me live out my childhood dreams and fantasies, oftentimes transporting me back in time. On the page, I can be anything I want to be. I can create wild worlds. I can let my imagination run wild. Sorry, I have to go now. An evil scientist is turning kids into super mutants and I need to thwart his plans...because I can.

Samantha Vérant is a travel addict, a self-professed oenophile, and a determined, if occasionally unconventional, French chef. Over the years, she’s visited many different countries, lived in many places, and worked many jobs— always on the search for the one thing that truly excited her. Then, one day, she found everything she’s been looking for: a passion for the written word and true love. Writing not only enabled her to open her heart, it led her to southwestern France, where she’s now married to a sexy French rocket scientist she met over twenty years ago, a stepmom to two incredible kids, and the adoptive mother to one ridiculously expensive Bengal cat. When she’s not trekking from Provence to the Pyrénées, tasting wine in American-sized glasses, or embracing her inner Julia Child while deliberating what constitutes the perfect boeuf bourguignon, Samantha is making her best effort to relearn those dreaded conjugations.

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MG Rewind Week + Giveaway: Author Scott Craven

  Welcome to Day 2 of #MGRewind week!

Celebrate Middle Grade reads with Tantrum Books/Month9books.

Sharing his memories as an MG reader, we welcome

SCOTT CRAVEN, author of the

DEAD JED SERIES.

Come back everyday this week where we'll feature another author, and

be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

 

 
Dead Jed is Shaun of the Dead meets Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Jed's not your typical junior high geek. He is, to use the politically-correct term, cardiovascularly-challenged. And while his parents have attempted to shield him from the implications of being 'different' for as long as they could (Jed was 8 and at a friend's sister's birthday party when he blew his lips off onto the cake in front of everyone, finally prompting the “Big Talk” from his parents and an emergency SuperGlue repair by his dad), 7th grade at Pine Hollow Middle School as a target of Robbie the supreme school bully and his pack of moronic toadies is rapidly becoming unbearable.

From being stuffed in a filled trash can as “dead meat” and into a trophy case as the bully's “prize,” to literally having his hand pulled off in the boys' room (Jed's always losing body parts. Luckily, a good stapler and some duct tape and he's back in the action) and a cigarette put in it and try to frame him for the recent reports of smoking in the school, Jed's had enough and is ready to plan his revenge. Besides, it's awesome what you can do when you're already dead! 

Google Play | BAM | Chapters | IndieBound | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | TBD | iBooks

 

Scott Craven

 
When I was 10, two of my best friends were my beanbag chair and my bookshelf. Those chairs (imagine a beanbag large enough to cradle a person) have largely disappeared for various reasons, but I'm sure parents had something to do with it since the chairs had a habit of bleeding little white foam pellets impossible to eradicated. And even bookshelves are shrinking thanks to electronic readers.

Back then, I could spend all afternoon lost in a book, my body slowly losing feeling as it sunk deeper and deeper into the beanbag. I often finished books in a day, and one of my favorite series involved a crime-solving trio of boys (MG books were very sexist back then). It was a knockoff of the more famous Hardy Boys, and I still have each of those 15 volumes. Every now and then I crack them open and enjoy a scent as musty as the prose.

They may not have been the best stories every written, but I loved each one of them. They launched me on a lifetime of reading, which eventually led me to write MG books of my own. Sometimes I will imagine a 10-year-old boy or girl nestled into a favorite chair, cracking open Dead Jed, and losing track of time as well as feeling in their extremities.

Proud graduate of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, have one son who will turn 18 in March 2013, now a features writer for The Arizona Republic.

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MG Rewind Week + Giveaway: Author Donna Galanti

  Welcome to #MGRewind week!

Celebrate Middle Grade reads with Tantrum Books/Month9books.

Sharing her memories as an MG reader, we welcome

DONNA GALANTI, author of

JOSHUA AND THE LIGHTNING ROAD.

Come back everyday this week where we'll feature another author, and

be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

 

Stay away from the window, don’t go outside when it’s storming and whatever you do, do not touch the orb.

Twelve-year-old Joshua Cooper’s grandpa has always warned him about the dangers of lightning. But Joshua never put much stock in his grandpa’s rumblings as anything more than the ravings of an old man with a vast imagination. Then one night, when Joshua and his best friend are home alone during a frightful storm, Joshua learns his grandpa was right. A bolt of lightning strikes his house and whisks away his best friend—possibly forever.

To get him back, Joshua must travel the Lightning Road to a dark place that steals children for energy. But getting back home and saving his friend won’t be easy, as Joshua must face the terrifying Child Collector and fend off ferocious and unnatural beasts intent on destroying him.

In this world, Joshua possesses powers he never knew he had, and soon, Joshua’s mission becomes more than a search for his friend. He means to send all the stolen children home—and doing so becomes the battle of his life.

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Donna Galanti - 1978

 

 
Every day I dream about getting my first dog! I imagine she is so real that when I come home from school I run to meet her (her name will be Beauty after Black Beauty). But not yet…so while I wait I keep busy roaming the campground we own.

It’s fun to wear my strap-on roller skates and hunt the paths for dead butterflies and shotgun shells (this is New Hampshire after all and they make cool noise makers when you put them in old coffee cans). There are always kids to play with here (awesome for an only child like me!) and swim with at the pool. I especially love to hang out in the recreation hall and play pinball machines and records on the juke box. My favorite song is Escape by Rupert Holmes. I asked my dad what a Pina Colada is and he said it’s a party in a glass for grownups.

Each morning I get to pretend I’m my hero, Laura Ingalls from Little House in the Big Woods, as I pick rotten apples in the orchard to feed our fat hogs. My mom says we’ll be butchering them soon (just like Laura!). My mom wants to make head cheese (ewww!) but I want to blow up the pig’s bladder like a balloon and roast its tail over the fire, just like Laura did. Little House on the Prairie is my favorite show and sometimes I even pretend that Mr. Ingalls is my dad.

After hog feeding time, I get to gather the eggs in the chicken coop. Today I found a double yolk egg without a shell! It was see-through and wobbly just like a Weeble. Although, I think it would fall down if I wobbled it. Tomorrow is dump day. I get to collect the trash with my dad from all the campsites (we even saw a bear last week!). It’s a smelly chore but the best part is that I get to stand up in the back of our rickety 1965 Ford truck and hang onto the wood sides as we cruise to the dump. Wheeee! It’s almost as fun as snowmobiling on the campground trails in winter. If I help my dad out good, he’ll take me fishing on Lake Squam this weekend to use my new tackle box. I caught my first pike there last month (my dad almost crashed the boat up on the rocks just so I could get it)!

Well, time to go practice my after-dinner show for mom and dad. I’m singing and dancing to The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers and On The Good Ship Lollipop. I even made my own sailor and Tigger costumes (I’m a blue fuzzy Tigger in one-piece footed pj’s with my dad’s striped tie for a tail and my mom’s wig). Oh, and there’s a big thunderstorm coming tonight so I plan to sleep on the screened-in porch and watch the lightning all night long!

Being nine is the best. Getting a dog would make it even better.

Donna is the author of the Joshua and The Lightning Road series and the Element Trilogy. She is a contributing editor to International Thriller Writers the Big Thrill magazine and blogs at www.project-middle-grade-mayhem.blogspot.com, a cooperative of published middle grade authors. Visit her at www.donnagalanti.com and www.ElementTrilogy.com. Donna wanted to be a writer ever since she wrote a murder mystery screenplay at seven and acted it out with the neighborhood kids. She attended an English school housed in a magical castle, where her wild imagination was held back only by her itchy uniform (bowler hat and tie included!). There she fell in love with the worlds of C.S. Lewis and Roald Dahl, and wrote her first fantasy about Dodo birds, wizards, and a flying ship (and has been writing fantasy ever since). She’s lived in other exotic locations, including her family-owned campground in New Hampshire and in Hawaii where she served as a U.S. Navy photographer. She now lives with her family and two crazy cats in an old farmhouse and dreams of returning one day to a castle.

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