WHAT IS AROUND THE BEND

Good afternoon and happy Friday, dear Reader! I hope you all have a lovely weekend. We have some really fun and exciting things lined up on the old blog in the first part of summer, and I thought I'd give you a sneak peek into what I've got planned, "Just around the river bend..."Next Tuesday, of course, is Six Degrees of Kool Books. I will be making the connections from one of the character DJ wrote about last week. If you are interested in participating, you can read all about how to play the game HERE.

Throughout the rest of next week I will be sharing my reviews of each of the stories that comprise the FIVE GLASS SLIPPERS compilation. You may have heard rumblings about it, or remember me talking about it. It is the culmination of the contest I entered last Fall, and even though I wasn't one of the winners, I am super excited to read the five stories did make the cut!

Then, on Monday, June 23, I'm having Ashlee Willis back over for a book spotlight - as her debut novel is releasing in paperback! I am excited to let you know more about that.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday of that week I will be participating in a blog tour for the Five Glass Slippers compilation, and on each of those days I will be featuring one of the authors of the winning stories.

In the following weeks, I'll be going back to the list of questions I received a while back and will be revisiting some thoughts on character-building - this time with examples from my own books (particularly from King's Warrior and Second Son). I'll also answer the questions: "Where do you draw ideas from," "Do you know where a story is going from the beginning, or does it happen over time?" and "How do you make your characters feel 'real'?"

I'll also throw in a few book and movie reviews along the way... as I'm going to try to fill up my Recommended Reads page a bit more with actual reviews.

And, of course, there will be various more random posts along the way. Hopefully, by the time I'm done with all of this, I will also be done with the content editing of Yorien's Hand and will be able to share an excerpt or two with you... just to sort of whet your appetite. I'm not making any promises at all, but we are hoping to release Yorien's Hand before the end of 2014!!!!!

Exciting stuff!

Is there anything in particular you'd like to see on the blog this summer? What do you have planned for this summer? Please let me know in the comments!