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!

Ice Dogs Trailer debut

You will not guess where my trailer is debuting today. 

It's being revealed exclusively over at School Library Journal! 

I'm so honoured to be part of Betsy Bird's wonderful blog. And I'm thrilled with the results of the trailer made by Bookcandy Studios. It's full of mushing goodness. 

To share my good fortune, I'm giving away:

• FREE CRITIQUE of your first ten pages. 
• FREE SWAG
• Winners randomly selected from comments. 

Please go check out the ICE DOGS TRAILER here

I've had other good news lately for ICE DOGS, so I'll share now:

• Ice Dogs was picked up by Scholastic Book Fairs for 2014! 

• It's a Junior Library Guild Selection!

• It's a featured book in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's MIDDLE GRADE MANIA website with its own page! Check it out for excerpt

Publishers Weekly full review

"a page-turner full of white-knuckle action…Readers will be riveted until the end." -- Publishers Weekly

Add it to your Goodreads list 

Preorder a copy

Leave a comment - what do you think of the trailer? Now you're entered to win. Easy as that!

A few of my sled dogs

Today I woke to find Susan Fields had reviewed my book, DOGSLED DREAMS on her blog. WOW! I'm so happy that she enjoyed the book. And so did her kids! Susan mentioned how much she liked it when I posted a picture of one of my real dogs from the book. Here's a few more.

Doppler with some admirerers

Tarzan - unfortunately I don't have any pictures with him smiling

Doppler (bottom), Ulu, (left) and Orbit (smiling) as pups in the dog truck

On the stake out line at camp. Denali is the big white guy carefully not sitting on his straw

giving rides. Apollo and Soho in lead

Fall training. Blaze in lead. Doppler and Tarzan in point. Ulu and Apollo in Swing (or Team position). Orbit and Belle in Team. Elsie and Denali in Wheel

Elsie



dogs howling on the stake out line



Best part of being an author, and a challenge

First, I have to show you what I watched this morning while having breakfast:

My dog watched for a while, then shrugged her shoulders and went back to her squeaky toy. She's seen this show before.



Now, allow me to share with you what I think is the best part of being an author. Here are a few awesome emails I've been receiving from young readers of DOGSLED DREAMS.
note: some are editted to take out spoilers and I've replaced the name with the first initial


Dear Ms Johnson,

I really liked your book "Dogsled Dreams" and really liked how you described the characters. My favourite dog would be Apollo, because I think Apollo is a good dog.
I thought the book was REALLY FUNNY, interesting, and sometimes surprising. Sincerely J (gr. 5/6)



Dear Ms. Johnson,
I loved your book Dogsled Dreams. the dogs love running and stuff like that. I would love to try dogsledding. It sounds fun.
It was funny when the teacher slipped and landed on the pups’ pee. And I’m just like Rebeca I do those things and say those words !
Sincerely,
B


Dear Ms. Johnson,
I love your book "Dogsled Dreams". I thought your characters were fun and adventurous.
My favourite characters in "Dogsled Dreams" are Rebecca, Apollo, Rebecca’s dog team and Rebecca’s dad. But my favourite character would have to be Rebecca. She was exiting!
I probably like her so much because I am a girl too!
I liked it because of the thrill. It made me nervous exited and worried.
From,
K Grade 6



Dear Ms. Johnson,
I loved your book Dogsled Dreams sooooo much. I think it is the best book our teacher has read so far. I am going to read all your books.
My favourite dog is Doppler it is also Rebecca’s favourite dog. The book is so funny, I really liked the part when Rebecca and her dad went to the school to show the dogs to little kids and the dogs ran outside the classroom and to the hallway and one of the dog peed in the hallway and made the teacher slip, that was hilarious.
I think you write awesome books and I cant wait to read them all.
Sincerely, Y Grade 5



Dear Ms. Johnson,
I loved your book, Dog Sled Dreams. My favourite part was when the teacher slipped on the pile of pee. It was so funny. Your book was so cool. I loved it so much because it also had humor. One thing is that I hate Robin, she is so bad.
Sincerely,
S Grade 5



Dear Ms. Johnson,.
I thought your book was interesting, EXTREMELY funny, and sometimes surprising.
My favourite part is when Rebecca and her dad brought the puppies to school and they went to the bathroom on the floor. Then the teacher slipped and landed in the puddle the puppy made.
My favourite dogs are Tarzan, Doppler, Apollo, and Blaze.
Do you actually have a dog named Apollo? And do you race dogs yourself?
Your #1 fan
E. Grade 5




LOVE ALL OF THESE! And yes, Emma, Apollo was my leader for many years. Here he is:

And finally, I know I've already posted a cell phone pict, but please indulge me again. And to make it worth your while - here's a challenge -

if you find my book in your own bookstore, send me a photo and I'll send you a YA or MG book. Simple as that!


And so -  a few pictures that I can't stop looking at and grinning:

 Cole's bookstore. bottom left - that's me!

Chapters bookstore - holy crap!!!

Don't forget to enter my Insanely Mega giveaway. Nine winners! Nine fabulous books up for grabs.

Reviews!

Wow! I'm liking google alerts lately! Here's what some people are saying about Dogsled Dreams. It's such a strange feeling to know your book is out in the wild without you. Readers are keeping it alive now - it's out of my hands. I LOVE LOVE LOVE readers!

Just One More Chapter

The Writing Room

Just Jemi

Book Dreaming

A few random things before Christmas

photo credit sympatico.ca pets

1. We had our Christmas last week - step families get to have TWO Christmases. And I'm in love with my new Kobo Reader.

2. I plan to finally get some snowshoe adventuring in during the Christmas break. Photos to come.

3. Don't forget the DOGSLED DREAMS giveaway here. Merry Christmas to all!

4. I don't think I'm going to make the 100 book reading challenge, but I did read 75 books. Check out my list here.

5. I've been up to my eyeballs in promotion prep for DOGSLED DREAMS. My amazing publicist has made a snazzy little booklet that includes the first chapter, reviews, and info about a secret junior musher video contest that I'll be announcing shortly. If anyone wants booklets they could use to help me with promotion, please contact me.

6. The Book Dads have reviewed Dogsled Dreams. Check it out here.

celebrating snow, reviews, and 200 followers!



our deck - gateway to winter wonderland

We finally got our snow, the lake is making ice as I write this, I've got 200 followers! And Dogsled Dreams continues to get good reviews! So much to celebrate! What should we do?

First, let's make fun of my step-daughter's little Remmington, and his snow ball plight.

little dog likes to tromp through drifts like the big dog but doesn't have the fur for it!

Now, let's announce that NEXT WEEK, author Kate Messner will be stopping by to talk about winter, and her latest book SUGAR AND ICE.

Next, I'd like to share a review Dogsled Dreams received from a famous musher and author.

Dogsled Dreams by Terry Lynn Johnson is a story that demonstrates the bond between mushers and their dogs, the devotion mushers feel for their dogs, and the lengths to which they will go to ensure their dog’s health and well-being.


The most important lesson in this book is that it shows a young person being responsible and treating animals humanely and that this behavior is admired by their peers.
This story also truly shows that mushing is a family sport that enhances family connections and one that bring joy to humans and canines. People of all ages will enjoy reading Dogsled Dreams.
--Pam Flowers, Author of Alone Across the Arctic: One Woman's Epic Journey by Dog Team

All this great news - makes me feel like giving away signed copies of DOGSLED DREAMS! Any cool ideas out there on how to make it fun?

Dogsled Dreams on Biblio Reads

Biblio Reads gave Dogsled Dreams FOUR stars in their review!!

Check out the review here.

Reviews coming in

After the ARC's are sent to reviewers, it's yet another thing to wait for in this business. Will they like it? What if they think it's sucky? Will they write and print a review that it's sucky? What if everyone reads the review and decides not to buy the book because of said suckiness? Really, the waiting can be torture.

With three weeks left till the publisher's deadline for reviews, I still have a while to wait. But, I have received TWO REVIEWS before the deadline and they are most awesome! Someone out there gets the story. They like the writing. Not one mention of sucky.

I was going to wait to share the reviews, but I just can't.






Dogsled Dreams is an inspirational story about a girl learning the rewards of persistence, hard work and bravery. It is much more than an adventure story about a young musher; it is about a girl determined to prove her knowledge, abilities and maturity to her family, peers and, most importantly, herself. Rebecca's experiences are applicable to any young girl ready to emerge from the security of childhood to the freedom of adolescence. Dogsled Dreams is a captivating and exciting debut novel and introduction to dogsledding.

Superior Outdoors Magazine



This is an engaging, often exciting, and sometimes humorous story full of rich details and fascinating information about dog sled racing. Rebecca and her dogs not only came alive, but they brought me along on their adventures.

Cynthia Chapman Willis, author of Dog Gone and Buck Fever

First review

This is way cool!

Not only did the amazing Cynthia Chapman Willis, author of DOG GONE and BUCK FEVER, agree to review my ARC, but she also provided a BLURB. That's the short quote that goes on the cover of the final book.

I'm delighted that my first review is positive - in fact, she liked it so much, she's posted about it on her blog. I'm feeling a little star-struck, and completely honoured.

 Check out Cynthia's blog to read what she thought of DOGSLED DREAMS.

DOGSLED DREAMS is available for pre order at the publisher's site. PRE ORDER HERE.