Year in Review

My 2017 was epic. A little too epic.

I had three new book releases, I was nearly killed by a tick from the Writing Barn in Austin Texas, and I'm still struggling to recover.

And on JANUARY 2, 2018, my next book releases:

 This is possibly my favourite book in the series because I got to write in a wintery setting, it's a little inspired by my own family, and it has a wolverine in it - the coolest animal ever.
Also --- Avalanche! is my first book to receive a STARRED REVIEW from KIRKUS! 

Wolverines everywhere are cheering!

"A content-enriched page-turner with surprising depth." -- Kirkus Reviews Starred Review

If you PRE ORDER, just let me know and I'll send you a signed custom bookplate and other fun SWAG as a thank you. 

I wasn't able to do as much reading this year as I normally do. (or travelling) My brain was out of order for several months. But I did find some favourites to mention:

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor  - gorgeous prose as usual

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller - spunky, funny heroine

A Promise of Fire by Amanda Boucet (note: I didn't care for the second book in the series as much)

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling - unusual main character in MG

What were your favourite reads of 2017? 

Once again, I'm sitting on some news. I'll hopefully be able to share soon. 

Thanks for reading!

Falcon Wild - trailer day!

Making its film debut - the FALCON WILD book trailer has just soared in. 

Head to Twitter where there's a giveaway for a CLASS SET of copies. To enter, retweet the mini version of this trailer. Ends SEPTEMBER 19 - which is RELEASE DAY! Enjoy!

Interviews, Skype, and my poor dog

With three new releases this year, plus battling a major health issue (a tick-borne illness from the Writing Barn in Austin, Texas last February) I haven't been able to do any kayak expeditions at all. We've been on zero trips - so no awesome photos to share. But I hope in the future I'll be back to normal.

In the absence of awesome photos, here are some other awesome things:

1.  I now have new SKYPE dates for the fall - filling fast! These are all free this year, but when the   slots are gone, they're gone.

2.  Myself and Christine Krones, editor for the SURVIVOR DIARIES, were interviewed for Publisher's Weekly along with Lauren Tarshis for her I SURVIVED series. 

                                                          (yes, this actually happened!)

3. Here's my interview for School Library Journal where I talk about growing up with a reserved family, living off-grid, and more.

4. COMING SOON -- I'll be unveiling the film debut of my next LIVE ACTION trailers for                  Falcon Wild and Sled Dog School. 

5.  Not quite awesome thing: my dog cut both front pads of her feet so badly she needed stitches. This is what she thinks about the situation

Winners

Hard covers are here!

Congrats to:

Beth Charles

Jaden Keith

Diane Wolfe

Jenny Fry

I'll be sending you books! 

Very exciting news - a big box filled with hard cover copies of Survivor Diaries Overboard! arrived at my house. Such fun to open and smell and feel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has done an amazing job with all the covers of this series, I'm just thrilled. 

They also created a very cool game on their Survivor Diaries page of the Middle Grade Mania website. Got check it out!

                 

WILL YOU SURVIVE?? 

I'll hopefully be announcing tour plans soon. For now: 

JULY 15, 2017 I'll be signing at Chapters Indigo in Sudbury, Ontario. 

Stay tuned for more. 

ARC giveaways - OVERBOARD and FALCON WILD

It has been a while since I posted anything here.

Though, you may have noticed the change of scenery to the header - if you have time, head over to my brand new website to see new and fun information. Hope you like it!


The reason for my long silence - my life was somewhat upended in February when I returned from a workshop at the Writing Barn in Austin Texas. I was bitten by an unknown insect (along with several other workshop attendees) and became gravely ill. To be honest, I've been struggling in silence with this for almost three months. It's scary news to post about, mostly because I'm a joyful person - and I like to talk about happy things here.

So far, my test results have come back positive for Lyme Disease and Bartonella. But I'm on treatment right now, and I'm hopeful to make a recovery soon.


Now, ON TO HAPPIER THINGS....

 


I've just realized it's less than two months away from the start of release season for me!

SURVIVOR DIARIES - OVERBOARD! comes out July 4

I have a shiny ARC to send to a lucky winner randomly selected from comments. I'm also giving one away on my Facebook page.

Also up for grabs is as an ARC of 

FALCON WILD releasing September 19. 

I'm thrilled to tell you this title is a JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD SELECTION for fall 2017! 

Let me know in comments which ARC you'd like, and how to get hold of you if your name is drawn!

Survivor Diaries are coming this summer...

It feels like I've been sharing a lot of new covers here lately. I still can't believe how lucky I got last year selling so many books. But there are no guarantees that I'll keep selling books - so I'm going to enjoy it while I can. And hope hard that these little books do well.

I'm so thrilled with each and every one of these covers of my upcoming series,

SURVIVOR DIARIES, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Cover art by Owen Richardson

I'm thinking I need to make framed prints for my office. Has anyone ever done this? I've been blessed by the cover gods.

These books are illustrated inside too by Jani Orban. Can't wait to share them with you.

On Sale July 4, 2017

On Sale January, 2018

On Sale July, 2018

On Sale January, 2019

New Cover Alert - SLED DOG SCHOOL

I'm pleased to finally be sharing the cover for my new dogsledding novel coming out October 3, 2017. The story is about 11-year-old Matt starting his own dogsledding business for school. It somehow combines math and dogsledding - not sure how that happened since I really disliked math as a kid.

The publisher took great care to try and get this cover right - they went through three different versions that were eventually turned down by their sales team, and bookstore reps. Certainly the most involved process I've seen yet. This last version, they decided to hire the cover artist, Jennifer Taylor.


Hope you like the final product.

In stores October 3, 2017, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt