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C. Lee McKenzie

Young Adult and Middle Grade Author

IWSG March Has Arrived!

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And with March comes so much for writers, INSECURE  and otherwise. 
Brain Child of Alex J. Cavanaugh

The awesome co-hosts for the March 2 posting of the IWSG are 
Lauren Hennessy, Lisa Buie-Collard, Lidy, Christine Rains, and Mary Aalgaard! 

Since Tara Tyler and Christine Rains invited me to be a part of the MEME HOP, I’ve become besotted by memes. Here’s my IWSG short story told in memes.

TODAY

Sign Up Now!

My little man’s pointing to my email subscribe field at the top right of this post. My next email goes out mid-March, so hope you’ll sign up because there’s some good stuff this month and a surprise. Here’s a list of what Special Offers have already gone out since I started my email list.
  • 6 free books, some signed hardcopies
  • 2 $10 gift certificates
  • links to free book offers by others
  • 1 free story
Brain Child of DL Hammons

You can send your entries, starting April 1-30. Then the contest starts May 18. Wish I could jump in, but I’m booked solid all spring. I’ll be stopping by though to see what you guys are submitting. There are always great stories.

Arlee Bird and tons of others make this work!

Have you signed up? Get going. April’s here before you know it. HERE’s the link.

Celebrate the Small Things and the Big Ones with Guest Pam Torres, The Write Club and Melissa Wray’s Flash Fiction

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Thanks VIKLIT
On the small front, I’m celebrating my lettuce crop and my amazing fava beans. “How can anyone celebrate that?” you ask. Well, let me tell you. Once you’ve tasted lettuce and fava beans from your own garden there’s no going back to those picked-too-early, packed-in-plastic, shipped veggies. Every bite is a celebration. 
New books are always a BIG reason to celebrate and I’m fond of books about animals. so I’m very happy to host PAM TORRES and her story IT’S NOT JUST A DOG. Pam is generously donating ten percent of the proceeds to the ASPCA and other organizations that aid in the care and rescue of animals in need. Everybody give Pam a huge round of applause and then click HERE and buy her book.



About The Author: Pam Torres was born in Logan, Utah and did most of her growing up in Prairie Village, Kansas. Besides playing Dorothy during tornado weather and digging Peter Pan-like underground forts she also played piano and ran cross-country. She started her family early, and had five energetic and creative children, and returned to school when the last one was four. She has fond memories of reading and playing with her children in between hefty amounts of volunteering at church and their schools. Several of her favorite memories are doing writers’ workshop, updating the art docent program, recruiting volunteers, working as the parent liaison for the curriculum team, publishing articles in the newsletter and directing a very popular after-school art club. 

Writing was the one constant in her life through all the struggles of single parenthood, stepparent issues and bringing a large family together. She continued to write her brains out in hopes of writing full-time one day. After five years in sales, she quit her well-paying job to write. Her supportive husband is her biggest cheerleader and she frequently acknowledges that she couldn’t have done it without him. 
The Project Madison Series is her debut middle-grade series. She organized Project Madison around its release and is donating 10% of her proceeds to the ASPCA®, animal shelters and other programs to benefit homeless or abused animals.





About The Book: In the second book of the Project Madison series, things get complicated as Madison and Cooper try to navigate their new relationship. School has ended and they’re spending more time together, blogging, working at the kennel, training dogs—including Lilly. When Jonah, the new neighbor who has moved into Paige’s old house, begins to spend more time with Madison, Cooper isn’t at all happy. 

Jonah’s uncle, a Native American, shares his knowledge about Madison’s power to see and feel canine memories and emotions. The mysterious white wolf returns and fills her mind with dreams and more questions. Madison starts a dog-walking business and discovers Ben, a crotchety old man whose dog is skin and bones.
When the kennel receives a dog that has been brutally injured, Madison is determined to find out what happened. She and Cooper realize they’re going to need Jonah and Donald to bust this investigation wide open and save the dogs. But getting to the bottom of the mystery will threaten not only Madison but everyone she loves.
Visit Pam at her BLOG or other Social Media

You can find It’s NOT Just A Dog! at the online stores below:

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Visit DL HAMMONS
Don’t forget to take a peek at the WRITE CLUB entries and enter your vote. Starts June 16. This is quite an interesting series of bouts and the stories are great matches. Who will win? That’s up to you.

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And here’s a great chance to show off your short, shorts. It’s summer go for it!

Do you have a short story or an extract of an unpublished story you would like to share on Flash Fiction Friday?
Then just email a query to [email protected] to express your interest. It’s that simple!

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A thought for the day: 

“Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.”

Do you like supporting causes by buying books? Did you sub something to the Write Club? Have any short, shorts to pull out for the summer?

Celebrating the Small Things and Double Negative Goes to Evernight Teen

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Thanks VIKLIT

This week has been busy. I weeded the garden, cleaned the deck, de-fleaed the cat and signed a contract for my young adult book, Double Negative. 
Thanks, EVERNIGHT TEEN for taking on one of my books.
Their plan is to publish an eBook in July, and if I sell a couple, they’ll put it up as  POD paperback.
So I have lots of things to CELEBRATE this Friday. 

EVERNIGHT TEEN ON FACEBOOK

If you can give me a hand spreading the word, I’d love it. I don’t have specific dates yet, but as soon as I do I’ll contact anyone who leaves a comment saying they’d like to help. 

And here I was planning on taking it easy in June. Guess not this year.

Have you joined the WRITE CLUB yet? No? Well, get cracking. You have until May 31 to sub your entry and enter the fray. Talk it up a bit, too. #writeclub2014
DL HAMMONS

I leave you with this to consider: “I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.”

Featuring Bassan From Cassa Storm &The Write Club

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Visit Alex Cavanaugh’s Great Blog.
I always love to hear what kids have to say about their lives and the world they live in, so I’m really excited about having Bassan, Byron’s young son, here today.
Hi Bassan. I’ve read CassaStorm and feel as if I’ve visited Tgren. Can you tell everyone what your home planet is like, so they can understand where you live?
Good day, Lee. A lot of Tgren is desert, although there are areas of vast lakes and grassy plains. Where I live, there’s a lot scrub brush, except near the river. We grow most of our crops near the river. Our buildings are made of stone and clay, with lots of windows to catch the breeze. Of course, I live on the Cassan base with my parents, and all the buildings are of Cassan design. Still really dusty though. Makes me sneeze sometimes.
Nice to know that even in the future Kleenex is a necessity. 🙂 

You have a wonderful mom. What’s she like?
Mother is wonderful! She always makes time for me and we play games and stuff. She almost never gets mad, either. Of course, I don’t want to make her mad. Sometimes I worry when she and my father are flying. I don’t want to lose them.
They have a lot of responsibility for your planet’s safety. I can see why you worry. 

I know you’ve had some problems with other kids because you’re half Tgren and half Cassan. Tell us what’s it’s like being different from the others.
Most days it’s no fun. I attend classes with the other Cassan children and sometimes they call me a half-breed. My best friend Drent is half Tgren, but no one messes with him. Wish I was tough enough to stand up to the bullies.
Some things like bullies and intolerance never change. I’d hoped those kinds of things would be long gone from our galaxies. Guess not. 

Your dad’s famous. What’s it like being the son of a famous Cosbolt pilot?
It’s really awesome what he did during the Vindicarn War, but it makes me feel awkward. I’ll never do anything as great as that. I don’t even like to fly.
We all have our place in our worlds. I’m sure you’ll find yours.

What do you want to be when you’re grown up?
I want to work on the alien ship that’s buried in mountains next to our city. It carried my ancestors to Tgren! I want to know more about the ship and those people.
 See? When you grow up I’ll bet you’ll be a great scientist and make amazing discoveries for all the inhabitants of these worlds.
Is there anything you’d like to change about your life?
I wish I could fit in better. I wish people respected me like they respect my father. I’m not even sure he likes me that much.
That’s hard, but when I met your father in the book he seemed like someone who had deep feelings for his friends and family. He just didn’t show them very much. 

If you could send a message back to a planet called Earth, say about 2013 or so, what would you tell them about your time?
They need to be prepared, because they aren’t the only ones out there. And not everyone is nice, either.
I’m passing this along. It’s a great heads up for this century.
Thanks so much for coming here today, Bassan. It has been very interesting to talk with a young representative from the future. You’re amazing!

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Book three, Cassa Storm, finds Byron facing a galaxy-wide war that could end life on all of the planets. In this stage of his life, Byron has more to fight for than ever–his mate, Athee and his son, Bassan. Facing his greatest challenge, Byron must convince the diverse and warring races to sign a peace agreement if he’s to save his world and his family. However, the the final step in securing peace will put him and his son in terrible danger.

I liked how the racial conflicts propelled much of the plot in this story, driving home a message that’s relevant to our own world and giving the book an interesting texture.

At the center of the family theme, is the coming together of father and son. Byron learns of his son’s isolation as a mixed race child and Bassan learns of his father’s love and belief in him.  READ MORE

CassaStormCassaStorm by Alex J. Cavanaugh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

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Have you voted for your favorite entry in the WRITE CLUB? It’s hard to choose, but very interesting to read the entries this year. 
I’ll be celebrating some small things on Friday! Hope you’ll join me and the others in this Celebration.

How to Get the Most from Your Award -The Write Club 2013

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The other day when SAMANTHA MAY, our exceptional college blogger, awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award, I started thinking about why these tokens are important and how bloggers who receive them can make the most from them.

Why bother getting and giving AWARDS?

They show an appreciation for each other.
They often encourage us share more about ourselves that is fun and interesting and build stronger connections.
They give us a chance to create a backlink to a blogger and backlinks are important to optimize web visibility. READ MORE ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF BACKLINKS.

What should you do to get the most out your AWARD?

I like to thank the blogger who has passed the award to me, so I leave that in a comment.
I also try to post about the award as soon as possible.
I notify the blogger when the post goes live and send them a permalink.
I always backlink to them.
I pass the Award on.

So here’s my VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD response. This is hard part, but here I go with
7 things about me!

1. I hate talking on telephones. Really.
2. I’m a shower singer. It’s the only place I sound good.
3. I’m not a party animal.
4. I tend to be the hermity type.
5. I wanted to be an actress–kind of at odds with being hermity, isn’t it?
6. I also wanted to be an archaeologist, but that was when I was ten and before I understood I’d have to go into tombs.
7. I’ve created a special AWARD for Gary Pennick. It’s the SADOTY. See below.

Thanks Samantha and I’d like to pass this on to MARCIA HOEHNE. This is a different version from the one you have, Marcia.

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SADOTY

This is a special NON-AWARD for a select few–probably only one blogger actually. But the first in a very short line to receive this NON-AWARD is The Man Challenging His Inner Critic. Will he dare step up to snag this NON-AWARD? Will he be able to embrace the true meaning of SADOTY (Super Award Dodger Of The Year)? If he does either, there are RULES to follow:

1. He must never pass it on.

2. He must never reveal ANYTHING about himself. Penalties are heavy if he does.

3. No Linkbacks are allowed. Ever.

4. It self-destructs almost immediately after being claimed. Stand back.

(My apologies to Penny for the cat, but it seemed appropriate for this NON-AWARD.)

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DON’T FORGET THE WRITE CLUB STARTS TODAY!
Thanks to D.L. HAMMONS

How This Insecure Writer Still Writes and More!

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Another first Wednesday is here (thanks to ALEX CAVANAUGH for the idea) and another opportunity to explore what it means to be a writer with insecurities and literary warts and many times a sore bum.

For me there’s not a lot of glamour. There’s not a lot of cheering crowd moments. There’s not a lot of money pouring in from mega sales of my books. So what is there that keeps me showing up to the page?

I guess I do it because I love words and the challenge of working them into a pattern to express my ideas. Then there’s the pleasure of seeing my thoughts down in a form that is less ephemeral than my conversations. I guess those are two of the reasons. And sometimes it’s just exciting to read something I’ve written and think it’s worthy of the time, the paper and the ink.

What keeps you going, insecurities and all? Or maybe you don’t have insecurities. How do you manage to keep from that?

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Put JULY 8 on your calendars because the first round of this year’s WRITE CLUB starts. What a great way to get feedback from your fellow writers. We have DL HAMMONS to thank for this super idea. Has anyone entered? Will you go to the submissions and vote this year?

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Oh, and do you have any nominations for MISHA GERICKE’S Paying It Forward? Check out her BLOG for the details. I’ve nominated two of my favorite bloggers.