Free Kindle Download of my Book

Hi all my writing friends!

I would like to announce that my newest book,

Fun Through the Seasons Volume Two 

is available for FREE  download through Sunday, April 19, 2020.

I would love it if you take this opportunity to download it and enjoy.

It is always free on kindle unlimited, but if you don't belong to it, this is a great time to get my ebook.

It is a good book for kids and adults, especially during this Pandemic when we are encouraged to stay at home and the kids are home from school.

It is filled with easy recipes, poems, fun and informative articles, and interesting facts. It also has colorful photos and illustrations.

If you download it, I would appreciate an honest review on Amazon.

click here to get the free download.  Remember it is only free through Sunday, April 19!

Reviews are one of the best gifts you can give an author.

Thanks and keep safe and healthy! 

I've sewn a few, but here I am in one of my no-sew masks. 

They're easy - get a large man's handkerchief or a piece of material

at least 16 x 16

fold in half once

then fold in half again

slide a child's ponytail elastic over both ends

push in a few inches and then fold the material on the ends toward the inside.

Put up to your face and slip the elastics over your ears. Adjust to fit.

Voila!

Publishing on Amazon

Hi everyone!

The new year has started and I hope you keep your resolutions. I saw this riddle on the internet:

What is a New Year's Resolution?
Ans. A to-do list for the first week of January!

I say that's a pretty good definition.

I have finally submitted volume two of Fun Through the Seasons: Recipes, Crafts and Fun Facts for Kids to Amazon. They should be available for purchase as a paperback and an e-book in a few days.

Also available now on Amazon are e-book versions of my cookbook and volume one of Fun Through the Seasons!

I'm proud of my volume two of Fun Through the Seasons. It is published in color. There are some very nice photos and illustrations throughout the book. All the photos were taken either by me or my son. Unfortunately, printing it in color makes the price higher, but I think it is worth it. It will also be available on kindle.

The Fun Through the Season books are not only fun books for kids, but also a great resource for  teachers and parents. They are chock full of easy activities, recipes, crafts and recipes.

I admit that my best-selling book is my cookbook. Cooking with Family: Recipes and Remembrances.

Have you ever self-published any of your books? I am glad I finally figured out how to do the e-book versions. Through a lot of trial and error I figured it out.

Now I'm off to finish a few other of my projects.

You can click here and visit my author page.

What have you been up to?

I'd love to hear all about your projects.

Summer Writing

I have really been neglecting my blog lately - I apologize.
It seems that summer is a very busy time for us here at The Blackberry Patch.

But - I promise you, I am still writing.  And, I am still surfing the web and reading helpful, wonderful blog posts of my friends.

To go out of July with a bang - below is my Two-Lane Livin' July column for kids.

FIREWORKS SHOUT OUR FREEDOM SONG

     What would you get if you crossed George Washington with cattle feed?
     The Fodder of Our Country!

    WHOOOOOOOOSH! BOOM! HISS! CRACK! On July 4, 1777 fireworks lit up the sky celebrating the country’s first anniversary.  Many towns still have celebrations and fireworks on Independence Day.  Our town of Ripley, West Virginia boasts of having the largest small town celebration in the nation. After parading, eating, and celebrating all day, the fire department puts on a dazzling display at night. Fireworks flash across the sky in a sparkling array of color and sound, creating big booms and bright lights.

     Did you know that fireworks are also called pyrotechnic devices and the experts that handle the explosives are pyro technicians?  And, since fireworks are explosives, they should only be handled by experts

     They have been around for a long time and are as American as apple pie, but fireworks originated in China. The Chinese roasted bamboo, which explodes with a bang when heated due to the hollow air pockets.  Later in history they began stuffing saltpeter, charcoal, sulfur and other ingredients into bamboo shoots that were then thrown into the fire to produce a loud blast.

     BANG! The first fireworks were born.

     The colorful displays we know today began in the 1830s, when Italians added trace amounts of metals that burn at high temperatures, creating beautiful colors. Calcium produces orange and is the easiest color to create. The hardest color to create is blue. It is done with copper compounds and the temperature has to be just right. Sodium makes yellow and barium makes green. Lithium salts and strontium salt create red. Aluminum makes white and is a common ingredient of sparklers. Just like you produce different colors by mixing primary colors, pyro technicians mix copper (blue) and strontium (red) to create purple fireworks.

     Iron flakes create sizzling sparkles. Titanium powder creates crackling sounds and sparks.  The whistling sounds are created by using cylindrical tubes with an open end.  When the oxidizer and salts burn a layer at a time, the pulses of escaping gas produces the whistling sound.  Zinc creates smoke clouds.

     Not everyone likes fireworks. Dogs whimper, cats hide under the bed, birds may become startled and fly into things and even some people shake with fear.

     With my poem, Freedom Song, I wish everyone a fun, safe and sparkling Fourth of July.

FREEDOM SONG

WHOOSH! Fireworks

streak across the sky.

POP! Fireworks

dazzle way up high.

BOOM! Fireworks

sparkle in the night.

CRACK! Fireworks

whistle and take flight.

BANG! Fireworks

bellow loud and strong.

ZING! Fireworks

sing our freedom song!

I hope you enjoyed it. My column is titled, Fun Facts for Kids, so I always like to include fun information for kids. I've been told by many adults, that they also love my column and learn something new when reading it.

My book, Fun Through the Seasons, is filled with these type of articles, fun recipes,crafts and stories for kids and adults to enjoy.

I hope you are enjoying your summer. I'll start blogging more soon - I promise.

Accomplishments and Resolutions

Another year has come and gone.

I stopped making resolutions, because I usually don't keep them and then I am disappointed - again.

I keep writing, even though there have been times I have considered quitting.

My goal is to keep going forward. Learning and growing.

I did self-publish a book last year. It is far from being a best seller, but I feel it is a good book, and I am proud of it. It would have been a tough sell to a regular publisher, being the type of book it was, so I self published it.

It is a good book for kids. You can go here, to my author page, and read these wonderful testimonials. It is a great book for kids to get out when they are home from school because of snow days. They can read the stories, articles or poems, or do the activities. The articles are very informative and fun! Feel free to click on the link in my sidebar and go to Amazon and check it out.

I also placed three times (2nd place, 1st HM and 3rd HM) in the children's category of the 2014 WVWriter's Spring Writing Competition.

And, I continue to write a children's column in the regional magazine, Two Lane Livin.'

I know these are little accomplishments compared to getting published by a regular publisher, but these are the accomplishments that keep me going - and that I am proud of.

My goals are to eventually find a home for one or more of my babies. That's what I call my manuscripts. I gave birth to them and have watched them grow. Hopefully, I will some day watch them go out into the world.

What are your accomplishments and goals?
What keeps you going?

My First Book

I know many of my readers have had books published. It feels good to finally accomplish one of our writing goals.

But, this is my first one and I (as I am sure you do, too) will always remember the feeling of seeing my name in print for the first time. Exciting!


Fun Through the Seasons! Recipes, Crafts and Fun Facts for Kids . . . is hot off the presses!

 

My first shiny, honest to goodness book.

Here is the description of it on Amazon:

 In Fun Through the Seasons, Janet goes month by month through the seasons with informative articles for children to read and enjoy. The articles appeared in her column, Fun Facts for Kids, in Two-Lane Livin' Magazine. While reading this book, kids will learn all about snowflakes, Independence Day, genealogy, ants, the first Thanksgiving, collecting memories at Christmas, cookies - and much more! Sprinkled among the interesting articles are easy recipes, crafts, poems and challenges for kids in K through 5th grade. Parents will enjoy reading the stories to the younger ones and helping with the activities.

I have been working on putting together this book for a long time.  Each time another month came and went, I had another article to add. I also added a few more easy recipes, stories and poems. The pictures and clip art are grayscale, but perfect for your child to add their own touch to the book by coloring in with colored pencils.

I did it all myself (with help from my son with the cover), learning along the way.  It was a lot of work, but I loved every minute of it and I hope the children who own a copy of it will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

You can get a copy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble or from me (wvsmarties@yahoo.com). The ones I send out will be autographed and have a handmade bookmark with them. My price is $10 + $2.50 for postage and handling (continental US only).

Happy summer everyone! It has been a long and hard winter that didn't want to let go. But, I think warm weather is finally here to stay and I welcome it.