Temporarily Closed For Construction…

This year has been quite the roller coaster ride for many people…hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, murder hornets, furloughs from work, unemployment, and of course, a pandemic!

In the middle of it all, I’ve worked hard to juggle three careers…running a martial arts school, researching and writing book four of my HISTORY’S MYSTERIES series, President Lincoln’s Balloons, and finishing the publishing details of the re-release of my picture book, The Story Catcher. I also have a number of other projects and events I’m juggling, including the Star Catcher Young Writers Contest in October, the creation of my quarterly newsletter, and my upcoming year-long PAY A BOOK FORWARD event.

In order to be able to meet all my writing deadlines through the rest of 2020, I will have to step away from my blog for the next three months in order to focus on those writing commitments. I will continue all the activities I do on Facebook but will return to my blog with the new year and hopefully the world will have settled into a new “normal”.

Here are the plans for the rest of my 2020:

  1. My picture book, The Story Catcher…My illustrator, Estella Hickman, has completed all the new illustrations for the re-release. I’m currently working on the editing & formatting of the manuscript and with a little luck, I will have it ready for the 2020 holiday season.
  2. My Star Catcher Writers Contest…the second annual writing contest for ages 10-18 would normally take place during the month of October. I have a few more days to determine if I will be able to run the contest again this year or if I delay it until the fall of 2021. This contest would create 25 winners in five different categories for an anthology to be released by the spring of 2021.
  3. My book four, President Lincoln’s Balloons, of my HISTORY’S MYSTERIES series…this book is behind in the research stage. I need time to finish the research and complete the manuscript before editing, formatting, sketching, and setting up the book for production. Estella has already sent me the book cover but it’s the guts I need to work on.
  4. My website…there are some updates I want to do with my website and decide the continued direction of my blog for the new year. I will be creating a FB poll to find out what my readers want to see so I can ensure I’m providing quality content for my blog.
  5. My most ambitious project to date…the PAY A BOOK FORWARD event happening for the entire year of 2021. I have been blessed to be able to donate over $165,000 worth of books to different school and local libraries over the years. Beginning in January I will be giving away 10-15 books a month for FREE by authors from around the globe! I will also have a few signed or extra special books to be given away. A TOTAL OF 200 BOOKS TO GIVE AWAY! Home school groups, pre-schools, elementary schools, middle schools, and even individuals will be able to have a chance to win one or more of these books as my way of giving back to the Kidlit community while continuing to support children’s literacy. More details to come!
  6. My house…I live in a 95 year old house. The passage of time has created a number of repair jobs that can no longer be put off so in the middle of ALL the things going on in my life, I get to spend the rest of this year with various strangers coming in and out to fix things around the house.
  7. My drawings…I’d like to get back to my sketches sometime in the not too distant future. I have an evergrowing stack of ideas and pictures I’d like to get my hands on and see where they take me.

Fall brings with it cooler weather, but I’m hot on the trail to complete several projects at once. Like my Corona-Crazy World isn’t hectic enough, I have a whole new level of “Jumanji” to deal with through the end of the year.

All I can say is…bring it on…and I hope you will send me a friend’s request through Facebook so we can keep in touch until I return after the beginning of the new year!

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Amelia Earmouse travels back through time to uncover little known events. You may THINK you know your history, but wait until you see what Amelia uncovers in book three of HISTORY’S MYSTERIES.

Eleven-year-old Emma misses her father who’s serving in Europe during World War II. He leaves behind a treasure box with six compartments to be opened during her birthday week. He also tells her to watch for the gris-gris while he is gone. Looking out for swamp creatures and dealing with wartime rationing is hard enough, but now there’s a British refugee staying at the house! How will Emma enjoy her birthday and keep her decision to hunt the gris-gris a secret with a stranger following her around?

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Best-selling, award-winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of flash fiction, children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection.