A big congrats to Amie and Bethanie Borst, on the cover reveal for the humorous and magical tale of Cinderskella. But first, a little bit about this middle grade novel...

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Cinderskella

It’s not just monsters that go bump in the night. Sometimes it’s skeleton-girls, too.

Cindy might appear to be your average twelve year old, but since her mother’s death she has a secret. Every night she faces a horrible, terrible curse; one that turns her into a skeleton. Yup, a boney, white skeleton.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Cindy’s own father is scared of her. Plus she has an evil stepmother who makes her do crazy chores, some of them with a toothbrush. And then there’s the wild dog with intentions of making Cindy into his midnight snack. As if all that wasn’t bad enough, the Spring Fling dance is fast approaching and Ethan, the cutest boy in sixth grade, doesn’t seem to know she exists. Cindy doesn’t think letting Ethan know she’s a cursed skeleton-girl is the best way to introduce herself. Determined to break the curse, Cindy travels to the Underworld where things aren’t quite what they seem, including Mr. Death, the strange and creepy Undertaker.  

With a jar of pickled pig’s feet, a wacky fortuneteller, and an cranky skeleton mouse, Cindy is afraid this curse has really gotten under her skin. 

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And now, for the stunning cover...

Coming February 2018! I'm sure this book will be a huge hit! Good luck and congratulations, Amie, Bethanie, and Roch! 

About Amie...

Amie Borst loves glitter, unicorns, and chocolate. But not at the same time. That would be weird. She’s a PAL member of the SCBWI as well as a founding and contributing member of The Mixed-Up Files…of Middle-Grade Authors, a group blog dedicated to middle-grade books. Amie lives in Virginia with her three beautiful daughters, her handsome husband, and two cute dogs named Lily and Maggie. She wishes she could travel the world in a hot pink elevator but for now, her minivan will have to do.

 About Bethanie...

Bethanie Borst is 17 and the author of three books. When she was only 10 years old, she wrote her first book, Cinderskella. She enjoys reading, writing, and STEM. Bethanie is fluent in both sarcasm and humor and is prepared for the zombie apocalypse and/or spontaneous combustion of the world. Because, let’s face it, both of those things are totally realistic.

You can find Amie on her website www.amieborst.com, her blog www.amieborst.blogspot.com and Facebook www.facebook.com/AmieBorstAuthor

You can find Bethanie on her joint pages: Facebook www.facebook.com/amieandbethanieborst and her website www.amieandbethanieborst.com

You can visit Roch's Facebook Page, Portraits, and Portfolio 

How To Give Yourself An Eyeball Papercut

*Note: Do this while at work for maximum effect.


First, hold the piece of paper at just the correct angle so the corner of the paper is aimed directly at your face.

Next, swing it between two fingers with exact precision.

Third….Fling! right towards your eyeball at a speed so quickly you don't have time to react.  Or blink.

Lastly, drop the paper, clasp both hands over one eye and smear all your eye makeup into one huge exaggerated mess. Now, when someone comes by to see what the commotion is about, drop your hands away from your face and let the mess do the talking.

The watering from your eye mixed with the mascara, eyeliner, and possibly eyeshadow will have meshed together very nicely at this point. It will most likely look as if you were given a black eye. You may be given extra sympathy at this point. Take what you can get. You want to delay the actual "what happened," questions from your co-workers (or witnesses) as long as possible. 

Try to make a mad dash to the bathroom, when possible, and scour away all the remains of your makeup. Wash out your eye. Repeat to yourself, "I am tougher than the paper." Get a wet paper towel and hold it against your eye. Even better, get an ice pack. This will rack up more sympathy points when you explain that you were actually tackled by paper. 

And that's how a pro does it. And by pro, I mean me. It was such a random moment. People hesitated to ask, “How does THAT happen?” and I could only respond with a shrug and mumble of “I don’t know”.

I came out of that situation a bit squinty but luckily without an eye patch (Aarrgh!). My supervisor banned me from handling paper products at or above eye level. True story!

I can fortunately say that I haven’t experienced any other papercuts anywhere in the facial region. Although I do have a lot more random and unexpected moments of “how does THAT happen?” which may or may not include face plants, almost accidental theft, and clothing disasters in public.

What is your most random or awkward moment? 

xx,

I TEXT DEAD PEOPLE Amazon Giveaway!

To celebrate the release of my next book, THE UNGRATEFUL DEAD, I'm doing an Amazon Giveaway for the first book in the Dead Serious series...I TEXT DEAD PEOPLE! You'll find out immediately if you're a winner...and so far no one has won yet, so maybe it will be you!

ENTER HERE!

I will do another Amazon Giveaway for the 2nd book in the series on Monday, September 19th. Good luck!

Did you win the giveaway? Comment and let me know

XX,

SNOW FRIGHT Cover Reveal

The final installment of the Scarily Ever Laughter Series is here! Or, well it's on its way. October 4th is its big debut.  But no need to wait until October for all the excitement! You can see the cover now! (And be sure to check out the first two books in the series, Cinderskella and Little Dead Riding Hood!) And be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of this post!

Sarah White is gorgeous even if she is a little bit rotten. A mirror arrives on her twelfth birthday and she thinks it’s the perfect gift. But when an innocent game of laser tag gets out of hand, the mirror swallows her whole!

Sarah finds herself dead center of the Underworld. As if repeated run-ins with Mr. Death weren’t bad enough, Sarah now has to deal with her decaying flesh and sudden craving for brains. Not to mention she keeps having brain freezes, all due to the seven worms living in her head.

Of corpse, by the time Sarah escapes the Underworld, she finds her new zombie life less than appetizing. Even worse, she needs to return to the Underworld to save her friends, Cindy and Scarlet.  With a poisoned apple, a crow named Raven, and a glowing necklace, Sarah’s pretty sure that if she doesn’t rescue her friends, she’ll be a brain craving zombie forever. And that’s more dead-ication than she’s willing to accept.

Add Snow Fright to your Goodreads  or pre-order your copy at Amazon , Barnes & Noble, or Indiebound!

Amie Borst loves glitter, unicorns, and chocolate. But not at the same time. That would be weird. She’s a PAL member of the SCBWI as well as a founding and contributing member of The Mixed-Up Files…of Middle-Grade Authors, a group blog dedicated to middle-grade books. Amie lives in Virginia with her three beautiful daughters, her handsome husband, and two cute dogs named Lily and Maggie. She wishes she could travel the country in a hot pink elevator but for now, her minivan will have to do.

Bethanie Borst is 16 and the author of three books but she was only 10 years old when she wrote her first one. She enjoys reading, writing, and archery. She’s also interested in paleontology and astronomy. Bethanie is fluent in both sarcasm and humor and is prepared for the zombie apocalypse and/or spontaneous combustion of the world. Because, let’s face it, both of those things are totally realistic.

You can find the authors on Facebook www.facebook.com/amieandbethanieborst, as well as their website www.amieandbethanieborst.com

Rachael Caringella is an artist, illustrator, intuitive reader, and healer. And deep down, she is just like you; a rebel and truth seeker. Her days are spent in a little cabin as she paints, dances, sips delicious coffee, reads tarot cards, and, of course, illustrates! When she’s not in her studio, she can often be found wandering the woods, honoring her wild nature in the great outdoors searching for beauty adventure and inspiration.

You can find the illustrator on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/treetalkerart and her website (http://treetalkerart.com/) 

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How My Indecisiveness Landed Me in a Ditch

Who here is  indecisive? If you're unsure, raise your hand. I can't make a decision to save my life. Well, sometimes. Or sometimes not.

It was a summer day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing. I was bike riding, the wind blowing in my hair. It was a perfect day.



I rode over the bridge and continued onto the bike trail. I started to feel a little courageous.



Then REALLY courageous.

And because my fun wasn't meant to last, up ahead the bike trail split off into two different directions.



Which meant I had two choices. 

But decisions never come easy for me. And I tend to overthink.

Such as, if I go one way.... maybe it will take me in a different direction. And what if its the long way and then I'm too tired to ride back and then it gets dark and I'm stuck out here?

 But if I choose the other way, maybe I'll come across a snake. Because there are snakes out here. And what if it's a rattlesnake and I don't realize until I'm practically running over it and it strikes...

But there could be rattlesnakes going the other way too.

But maybe the trail gets really narrow the other way and someone is riding from the opposite direction and neither of us can decide who should stop and who should go so we collide and fall off the cliff.

But the other way might have a narrow trail too. Who decided to split this trail. And WHY??

So which way is the right way to go?

Which way is the better way?

Eeny Meeny Miny Mo....

No! I can't decide like that! I must make an informed decision. I must...

As my brain is arguing over how to make this difficult yet important decision, I began swerving all over the bike trail as I keep changing my mind.

And that's when I ran into those two wooden posts next to the CLIFF sign, which was smack dab in the middle of those choices.

My bike spun circles. It skidded across the trail (while I was still attached to my bike), and came to a stop in the opposite direction of the cliff, which landed me in a ditch.

My clothes were torn. My legs and arms were bruised and scratched. And behind me I hear laughter. The laughter of my dear husband who comes to a halt beside me and says, "Did you mean to do that?"

Why yes, I did.  And tomorrow I'll be performing same time, same place.

Did I learn to become more decisive from this incident? Nope. The fact that I had to make a decision for not just me, but another person, only added too much stress.

So what did I learn? That I shouldn't ride a bike again. Ever.

What kind of situation has your Indecisiveness landed you in?