Connect with J T Dutton: The Importance of STET
Today, instead of messing around with a difficult part of my new work in progress, I went for a walk. I also let Cricket off the leash. She bounded through a tangle of branches into a tilled corn field and I followed, trying to step in places where I didn’t sink to my calves in mud. I pretty much failed, and she watched me slog from forty feet away while she devoured the rotting remains of somebody’s Halloween pumpkin. I used to own a dog that came when called and I was angry that I had let nostalgia interfere with the common sense I should employ on a naughty new puppy. One of my shoes was sucked off and instead of putting it back on my foot I pried it from the deep and threw

Connect with Samantha R. Vamos: Books as Gifts
After our son was born, I began a tradition of purchasing one book for each birthday.  The books I’ve selected are not necessarily age-appropriate, yet they are books I want him to have for his personal collection.  Last birthday, he received “To Kill A Mockingbird.”  The year before that, I purchased “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” so that he would have it in hardback.  Now, he is a few days away from his fifth birthday and about to receive an illustrated version of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 100th Anniversary Edition.”  I inscribe each book with a note and the specific birthday that the book commemorates, and then store the book in our son’s bookcase.

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: S. Terrell French, OPERATION REDWOOD (GIVEAWAY ALERT NOW – 11/24/09)
S. Terrell French This week, we’re celebrating S. Terrell’s debut! As a child, Susannah Terrell French loved to read and write and once won $100 in a Harvard fiction competition. After graduating from college, however, she switched gears, moving to California and working for an environmental organization. She went on to Berkeley Law, spent a summer as a Forest Service volunteer in Alaska, then took a job at a public interest law firm. She also spent hours reading to her three children. Eve

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: LISA MANTCHEV, EYES LIKE STARS (GIVEAWAY ALERT NOW – 11/24/09)
Lisa Mantchev This week, we’re celebrating Lisa Mantchev’s debut! Lisa Mantchev wrote her first play in the fourth grade, and has been involved in the theater ever since. She has published numerous short stories, but Eyes Like Stars is her first novel. She lives with her husband, daughter, and four hairy miscreant dogs on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state. Here’s a little bit about EYES LIKE STARS (Feiwel & Friends). All her world’s a stage. Beatrice Sh

Connect with Donna St. Cyr: On garage sales, helping others, and the secret lives of books.
I helped run a garage sale this weekend. I’m a big believer in garage sales and recycling your stuff.  When my kids were young I loved to shop garage sales to find good toys and baby items at a fraction of the cost I would have to pay in the store. Alas, they’ve since grown up and are too savvy to pass of something as new when it isn’t.  This weekend’s garage sale was a charity event to help adults with autism and we posted a sign letting our customers know where the proceeds would go. Not only did the sign generate good will and a few extra donations but it also opened a conversation with several of our customers about people with autism who had touched their l