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C. Lee McKenzie

Young Adult and Middle Grade Author

Updates Galore and More!

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Big Update: I met Mark Noce, my August Featured Follower this month, at his book event. Mark and Between Two Fires gathered a large crowd of enthusiastic supporters at the Burlingame Library. 
Mark’s so personable, and he has a lovely wife, who I also had a chance to meet. 

Congrats again to Mark on his book which already has an audio version and a sequel in the wings! 

I’m doing a Giveaway on Goodreads for Sign of the Green Dragon. It ends Sept. 14, so if you’d like a paperback copy of my book, don’t delay. Enter today. (Pat Hatt and poet, Yvonne now have competition in the rhyme department. )

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Goodreads Book Giveaway

Sign of the Green Dragon by C. Lee McKenzie

Enter Giveaway


Donna Galanti and I were on Secret Files of DMS Character Book Club Friday. Her main character, Joshua interviewed Sam, my guy in Dragon. Next month we’ll do it again with Sam interviewing Joshua. Great idea from Jess and Steph. If you’d like to see what we were up to, HERE’s the link. 

Here’s my Goodreads’ REVIEW.

I have a new Featured Follower in September! Great writer. Great book, so hope you’ll come by and meet that writer the first Monday of next month. There will be a signed hardcopy giveaway this month! See? This writer’s very cool.


I’m offering some short stories on my Email Connect as well as more things I’ve learned about marketing books. This month I’m into Facebook Ads+. Next month, I’m tackling ways to request reviews. Then, in October, I’m going to email about Goodreads. These are all great tools for writers, and I’m hoping my experience will help others. Also I’m always looking for feedback from those with more experience than I have. So sign up and let’s talk.

Are you ready for the spooky season? No? Well then, get ready for heaven’s–or that other place’s sake. Sign up for the Happy Halloween Storytime Blog Hop! 

My Quote of the Week: “People are very open-minded about new things–as long as they’re exactly like the old ones.” Charles F. Kettering, Inventor

When Do You Need #IWSG?

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When do you need #IWSG? Anytime. But during a book launch it’s essential, so how lucky am I to have writers in my corner this very day when my next middle grade book, Sign of the Green Dragon is officially published.

Many of you have read and reviewed the story on Goodreads already, so I hope you’ll post your reviews on Amazon as well. No one else knows better than you how important those reviews are for writers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Question of the Month

This month’s question is interesting, and I look forward to reading the answers when I visit your blogs.

My very first piece of writing as an aspiring writer of fiction was called Bad Ass Attitude. While it’s published, it didn’t get to keep the title I wanted, and it came out as Sliding on the Edge. Here’s a bit about it:


A teenager who cuts herself.  A doomed horse. And a grandmother with guilty secrets.

Shawna has spent the first sixteen years of her life in Las Vegas and learned to handle anything from a Las Vegas hustle to skipping out on the rent. Scarred inside and out, she’s survived with a tough, hardened attitude. When her mother abandons her, with only a bus ticket and the name and number of stranger to call, this troubled, desperate teen finds herself on a California horse ranch with Kay Stone, the steely, youngish grandmother she’s never known. 

Kay overwhelms Shawna with rules and daily barn chores, and Shawna baffles Kay with her foul-mouthed anger and shrugging indifference to everything–except the maltreated horse on the ranch next door. But it’s worse than even Kay suspects: Shawna’s driven to cut herself by Monster, that strange voice inside her head. Kay fears that unless she helps this girl, she could lose her last living family member.

As this unlikely pair struggles to co-exist, will they overcome their suffering and transcend the past?

I write in two very different categories because I need variety or I go stale. What do you write? Are you insecure when you first put a book out into the world? Besides #IWSG what do you do to manage it?

Prop Me Up and Other Miscellany

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Three plucky sleuths. A crumbling skeleton. A buried treasure.

Most of you know I’m about to turn a book loose in the world, so if you’re a writer, you understand my state of body and mind. I’m booked pretty solid through August and probably September, but believe me, I’m eyeing November or December for some down time. 

To add to the confusion, Blogger ate my Blog List last week and then did some nasty things to my posts, so I had my head into html again–not fun in the summer, well anytime really. Apologies for not getting around to everyone’s blog as usual. I’ll be catching up soon.

My Email Connect ( EC) is growing. And in August I’ll be featuring my sixth author. Who I pull from the hat is always a surprise for my EC followers, and I’m really enjoying reading, reviewing and featuring writers like this. If you’re interested in what’s going on behind the scenes, sign up and join us for my launch month. It’s going to be special with more gifts–dragon related, of course. And more about my copywriting course. I’d love to have you as part of the group.


The Beginning of New Paths and Native Landscaping

I’ve turned to landscaping as one way to hoist myself off the writing chair and change a garden to native plants. We have a vacation home that my in-laws built back in the seventies, and it needs mega work. Great! Another project. But I’m enjoying the creative part (moving rocks and digging holes for new plants–creative?) while my husband shakes his head over the construction issues. 

I took a quick break and went to San Francisco for a SCBWI mixer at Books Inc. (the oldest bookstore in the city, btw) And I’m really glad I did. I met a lot of booksellers as well as authors and illustrators. I’ve been trying to do more volunteering for the organization, so I hope to be at more mixers like this one. 

Well, I’m off to check on my book blog tour. Today I’m visiting these amazing bloggers.
 Alex Cavanaugh
Yolanda Renee
The Silver Dagger Scriptorium (sounds ominous, doesn’t it?)

My Quote for the Week: “Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.” Thomas Jefferson (This one seemed appropriate on many levels.)

Did Someone Say Jump?

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Whether I’m ready or not, it’s time to jump into the blog tour for Sign of the Green Dragon. Here’s the July line up from Goddess Fish Promotions and my own lovely writing and blogging crew. I’m excited and nervous and all those things that, when lumped together, is called stage fright. Curtain going up!

July 11: Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews
July 12: BooksChatter
July 13: Rogue’s Angels
July 14: The Avid Reader
July 15: Long and Short Reviews YA
            Angela Brown
July 18: Deal Sharing Aunt
July 19: Book Junkies Book Blog
July 20: Kit ‘N Kabookle
July 21: Cafinated Reads
            Juneta Key
July 22: Our Families Adventure
July 25: The Silver Dagger Scriptorium
                 Alex Cavanaugh
                 Yolanda Renee
July 26: Books in the Hall 
July 27: T’s Stuff
                 Christine Rains        
July 28: Angela Myron’s Blog
July 29: Thornton Berry Shire Press
                 Catherine Consantine

Three plucky sleuths. A crumbling skeleton. A buried treasure.

Sign of the Green Dragon gets a high five for fantasy, fun and some fearsome adventure. If you like intrepid would-be knights on impossible and dangerous quests, you’ll love this story. As one reader says, this book, “has more twists than a dragon’s tail.”

Buy now and jump into the adventure.
Amazon. B&N. Kobo. Smashwords

If you want to see some creative posts that kicked off the dragon’s journey to print, check out Roland’s blog. Delightful from start to finish.

June 05: Roland Yeomans
July 07:  Roland Yeomans

And here are some others who gave me a head start on the launch: 

July 01: Juneta Key
July 02: Nas Dean


Quote of the Week: “Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.” Samuel Ullman, Poet.

It’s May! Time for Insecure Writers’ Support Group and #signofgreendragon

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Brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh. Sign up HERE

The awesome co-hosts for today’s IWSG are Stephen Tremp, Fundy Blue, Viola Fury, MJ Fifield, Loni Townsend, Bish Denham, Susan Gourley, and Stephanie Faris! 


The insecurities pop up like giant monsters while I’m trying to publish a book on my own. This is when I admit it’s so much easier when I let the professional publishers do it. But my “control freak” has done it to me again. So here I am doubting that I have the chops to see this project through, hoping I’ve remembered to do all that I must do, and wondering if I’ve chosen the right plan–all the time muttering, “Never again. Never again.” 

Now having written that, I have to say when I asked for help I got it, and I got it from the people who either have gone through this process themselves or will, so that’s a huge comfort. Thanks for your support in such an insecure time.
Pre-Order
Paperback on 
AMAZON
Kindle on:
SMASHWORDS
B&N
KOBO
The cover has arrived and my blogger friends are spreading the word. Most of the pre-order links are up. And I finished the #atozChallenge! Survivor once again. I’ll be posting my REFLECTIONS next week.

Quote of the Week: “Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but happiness and growth occur while you are climbing it.” Andy Rooney

How are you doing out there in the writing world? Insecure or confident? Climbing up that mountain?