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Nancy Drew Turns 85!

(copied from post on Facebook by “A Mighty Girl”) I just had to share this with you. I read and loved Nancy Drew as a girl and so did my daughters.

 

Nancy Drew's 1st book in seriesHappy 85th birthday to Nancy Drew! The first volume in the long-running girl detective series, “The Secret of the Old Clock,” was published 85 years ago this week under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. In a tribute on The Mary Sue, author Theodore Jefferson writes, “Agency. It is that which forms the foundation for any hero’s ability to save the day. In America, agency for teenage girls in literature made its debut in 1930 in the person of Nancy Drew.” This original Mighty Girl character paved the way for many more heroic female characters and inspired generations of real-life girls and women.

Ghostwritten by Mildred Wirt Benson and later revised by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, the first volume of Nancy Drew had a huge influence on young readers. Jefferson writes, Nancy Drew provided them with “stories of someone like themselves who had a positive effect on the world instead of passively sitting at home… She is a character with that magical ‘what if’ question woven into her identity, and one that effortlessly captures the imaginations of readers by allowing them to participate in a world where the answers to that question are just as entertaining as the stories themselves.”

Jefferson adds that the “echoes” of Nancy Drew can be seen in “Gidget, Wonder Woman, The Bionic Woman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Katniss Everdeen, Black Widow, Jessica Halloran and numerous other literary characters, television stars and comic heroes.” She also was at the forefront of a new literary idea: “the character upon which a universe could be created” for a series of related stories. For the first time, a whole world could be built around the adventures of one character, an idea that Jefferson notes was “powerful enough that Nancy Drew unseated many leading book series for boys in the process.”

At the time, some viewed Nancy Drew as a poor role model, “contradicting adults while she squared off with the villains… she is mechanically inclined and at the same time doesn’t act like most people in the 1930s would have expected a teenage girl to act.” In fact, many libraries and bookstores refused to carry the Nancy Drew stories. Despite — or because of — that disapproval, kids collected the books voraciously, and in the midst of the Depression, used copies were shared and traded like trading cards are today. As a result, “any kid, even those who couldn’t afford new books, would very likely get to read every adventure starring their favorite character.”

The tremendous influence of Nancy Drew continues to this day asserts Jefferson: “It is difficult to overstate how powerful Nancy Drew’s presence remains in literature and in other media. She has influenced film, comics, video games and animation for 85 years, and will continue to do so as long as teenage girls take the lead as our heroes in the imaginative worlds of adventure.”

Did you grow up reading Nancy Drew? Tell us about your favorites in the comments below. You can read Jefferson’s essay in honor of 85 years of Nancy Drew on The Mary Sue, visit http://bit.ly/1bk0r1o

To introduce a new generation to this classic girl detective, the Nancy Drew Starter Box Set featuring the series’ first six books, recommended for ages 8 and up, visit http://www.amightygirl.com/nancy-drew-box-set

Nancy Drew’s stories have also been brought to life in a wide range of Nancy Drew Video Games athttp://bit.ly/1c37uNp

Nancy Drew is also featured on a “Twisted Candles” t-shirt for teens and adults (http://www.amightygirl.com/nancy-drew-shirt) and in a Nancy Drew Paper Doll Set at http://www.amightygirl.com/nancy-drew-classic-paper-dolls

For more mysteries starring Mighty Girls — all for readers ages 8 to 12 — we recommend “The Case of the Missing Moonstone” for ages 8 to 12 (http://www.amightygirl.com/the-case-of-the-missing-moonstone), “The Fairy Tale Detectives” (http://www.amightygirl.com/the-fairy-tale-detectives), “Ruby Redfort Look Into My Eyes” (http://www.amightygirl.com/ruby-redfort), and “Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief” (http://www.amightygirl.com/sammy-keyes-and-the-hotel-thief).

To discover more Mighty Girl mysteries for readers of all ages, visit our “Mystery & Suspense” section athttp://www.amightygirl.com/books/fiction/mystery-suspense


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Summer Reads

I recently read a great article about summer reads that would give you a tour of the United States without leaving home. Each book is about someone in one of the states or takes place in one of the states. It would certainly be a much more economical way of meeting one of the things on your bucket list if you’re like me. I’ve been to 36 of the 50 states, so I still have a few to see. It may take you a year to read all of them, but think of the places you’ll have been by this time next summer.

This list of books in the article includes book covers, and a short synopsis. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Here is the link. Nonfiction Books about the 50 States.


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Happy Thanksgiving

Wow, can you believe that it’s time for the holidays already? Here we are taking our place with the crowds at the grocery stores and markets getting all the things we need for Thanksgiving dinner. Family members are gathering and the familiar fragrances of the holiday drift from the kitchen. No matter how large or small our group, it’s a time we look back at the year and see those things we’re thankful for.

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Our celebrations take place around a bountiful table with shared stories, laughter and memories. We all know from school about the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth. It was a feast to celebrate their survival. Did you know that the  holiday became official through a Presidential proclamation? In October of 1863 Abraham Lincoln declared a day of Thanksgiving in the middle of a Civil War. This official standing made it a nationally recognized celebration that had predominantly been observed in New England until then. Lincoln set the last Thursday in November as the day to observe Thanksgiving.

During Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, in 1939, 1940, and 1941, the holiday was moved back to the third Thursday to extend the Christmas shopping season and further stimulate the economy. A huge controversy ensued, as you can imagine, and Congress got involved. They passed a resolution in 1941 that set Thanksgiving as the third Thursday of November. All this did is cause more confusion and some states followed one way of deciding the date and some followed another. As a result in December of 1941, President Roosevelt signed legislation that designated the fourth Thursday in November as national Thanksgiving Day, to take effect starting in 1942.

This may be more than you wanted to know about how we actually set the day for our holiday, but Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!


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Hot Reads and Cool Drinks

Are you keeping track of the top sellers? J. K Rowling has done it again, but this time under a pseudonym – Robert Galbraith. Her book, The Cuckoo’s Calling, has sold tons of copies. She definitely has a way with words! Mysteries and thrillers have a huge followings (I love reading them, too). This one has a detective named Cormoran Strike.

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Of course, you all know about the new Dan Brown book, Inferno. This one delves into the classic from Dante that we all had to read in English class in high school or college. This is another popular author who weaves great stories.

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These books are not news to you, but let me share a couple of more that you may not know about that are also wonderful reads that you don’t want to miss. We have one more month left before school starts and the Fall routine begins. Just released earlier this month – The King: The Bowers Files, by Seven James. He is really good. I’ve read the other books in this series.

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Patrick Bowers has pursued the nation’s fiercest serial killers—and now one elusive foe is back for revenge.

Settling into a new post at the FBI academy, Patrick and his fiancée, Lien-hua Jiang, are planning their future together with his stepdaughter, Tessa.

But just when his life seems normal, a demon from the past returns to draw him down a dark road he hoped had closed forever. Forced into a desperate hunt to save the two women he loves most, Patrick is in a race against time to stop an international conspiracy from becoming the most widespread act of terrorism in U.S. history.

Okay, one more book to share before I go. Terri Blackstock is another author who will never disappoint you. As you know, she is one of my favorites. Truth Stained Lies is on my must read list and I hope it will be on yours if you haven’t already gotten to it.

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When truth doesn’t make sense, will lies prevail?
Cathy Cramer is a former lawyer and investigative blogger who writes commentary on high-profile homicides. When she finds a threatening note warning her that she’s about to experience the same kind of judgment and speculation that she dishes out in her blog, Cathy writes it off as mischief . . . until her brother’s wife is murdered and all the ‘facts’ point to him. The killer has staged the crime to make the truth too far-fetched to believe. Working to solve the murder and clear her brother’s name, Cathy and her two sisters, Holly and Juliet, moonlight as part-time private investigators. Juliet, a stay-at-home mom of two boys, and Holly, a scattered ne’er-do-well who drives a taxi, put aside their fear to hunt down the real killer.
Stakes rise when their brother’s grieving five-year-old son is kidnapped. As police focus on the wrong set of clues, the three sisters and their battered detective friend are the only hope for solving this bizarre crime, saving the child, and freeing their brother.

Sit down with your iced tea and enjoy!


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Picnics, Summer Camp, and Baseball

What do picnics, summer camp, and baseball have to do with books?

PIcture taken at a rotary family picnic found on Yahoo images. Credited to Rotary5280, DSC_0141

Picture taken at a rotary family picnic found on Yahoo images. Credited to Rotary5280, DSC_0141

In my world, everything has to do with books and stories. Are you surprised? Story ideas come from everywhere. I receive a church newsletter that keeps me apprised of all the coming events, prayer requests, and service opportunities. Our annual beginning of summer all church picnic is this weekend at a local park. The meal is catered so we need to sign up early to be counted or just bring our own food. Everyone has a great time. The sounds and smells remind me of family picnics as a kid when we drove across country to get there. Within 24 hours of our arrival, grandparents, uncles, cousins, in-laws and out-laws from multi-generations gathered at Sinissippi Park on the Rock River. We had mountains of fried chicken, potato salad, green beans, home made baked beans, jello salads, and apple pie.  It started at lunch time and lasted until dusk. We swam and played baseball. Some of the more sedate cousins sat under the huge shade trees and read books or walked hand-in-hand with future spouses along the river bank.

My brother and I spent part of our summer at Scout camp and loved every minute of it. We experienced things we never would have other wise — stoning rattle snakes to death and curing their skins, skinny dipping in the moon light, and hiding the camp bell in hopes of getting up late the next morning. Great memories!

When I was growing up in Amarillo, Texas, the library had book mobiles that made the rounds of the city parks. The neighborhood kids could check out books, participate in the summer reading program, and return their books for more two weeks later when they returned. I loved it. My best friends and I would line up with the other kids and then spend the afternoon reading. I’ll bet you have picnics, summer camp, and baseball in your summers past and present. Go out – have fun and make more memories, read a new book, and enjoy yourself.


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OWFI and DIY Alphabet Soup

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We live in a world of alphabet soup. Everything has an abbreviation that comes down to either a letter combination that we use instead of the name or the anachronism we use as a word in place of the full name. Have you noticed we even do that for the names of the churches we attend, at least we do in our area. Those of us who text and tweet a lot write and read in an abbreviated language that I’m not sure I even understand part of the time. I have to admit that my daughter had to explain what lol and roflol meant and then I felt quit smart and hip, one of the in-crowd because I knew what that meant. Then? I found out that there was a whole lot more to the shortened vocabulary … so much for speaking fluent text and tweet … lol 🙂

My friend and fellow author, Kimberly Black, and I went to the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation, Inc. Conference this weekend or commonly known as OWFI, this past weekend.  About 300 attendees and a great faculty presented workshops for people of all levels — we all found something of interest and learned a lot. I found out I’m a hybrid author and here I thought I just aspired to owning a hybrid car someday to be environmentally responsible. With the changing publishing industry, many authors are combining the traditional pathway with a traditional publisher and then self-publishing as well.

I have a great relationship and wonderful books produced with Buoy Up Press from awoc.com, Dan Case publisher. He is a royalty publisher and produces great quality books and takes good care of us authors. We have to give him top quality writing and the editing process is stringent, as you would expect. About 18 months ago I waded into the shallow end of the pool as a self-published author with my nonfiction book, Tools and Tips: What Every Writer Needs to Know to Go Pro. At the time I wrote and published it, I have no plans to go out on my own with everything, but I had no idea that made me a DIY and hybrid author. It seems to be part of the journey for many of us. We as authors need to be flexible and adapt. A couple of jewels I learned this weekend are:

1. The fastest growing market for ebooks in the next three to five years is in the third-world countries because of the explosion in cell phone availability. Inexpensive ebooks available on iphones give us a market previously not available.

2. Ebooks priced at $2.99 – $3.99 sell approximately 4.2 – 4.3 times more books than those prices $.99 – $2.89 or some catagories prices more than than, up to $9.99. You actually make more money selling at $3.99 than at $9.99 in the long run.

3.If you’re interested in publishing your own ebooks, check out Smashwords.com – I’m not actually endorsing them, but their founder was one of the presenters at OWFI and had a lot of impressive and valuable informative information that was backed up with substantial facts. They have a lot to offer including marketing.

For those of my blog followers who are authors, as well as readers, a lot of what we do besides the actual writing is a do-it-yourself process. We cannot afford to hire a staff to do everything else for us, at least not to begin with in our careers. That’s why it’s important that writers share and help each other with what we’ve learned, not only through our books, but also when we meet each other and talk over a cup of coffee or a glass of tea. In my experience, those authors who are ahead of me in their careers have always been quick to offer a hand to bring me along and it’s my turn to pass it on. We all have the opportunity to pay it forward to someone else coming up behind us with a bowl of alphabet soup.


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How Do YOu See Yourself?

I know my blog is focused on writing and reading, but this video impacted me and I wanted to share it with my friends, fellow writers and readers. The way we see ourselves affects the way we write and the way we perceive the world around us.

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This is hugely important.

One of the best videos I have seen in a while. My confession today is I have always had a hard time loving myself, but by the grace of God, I am His child. I would never treat anyone the way I treat myself. How about you?

God doesn’t make junk.
How do you see yourself?

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Any Ghostwriters or Aspiring Ghostwriters Hiding Out There?

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Ghostwriters and aspiring ghostwriters- -take off your cloaks of invisibility for a moment and check out these two upcoming opportunities to meet other ghosts, learn new skills and techniques, and join our growing community of professionals.

1) Ghostwriting Certificate Program is now online at Cal State U., Long Beach. The next class begins February 16, 2013. Go to www.ccpe.csulb.edu and search for “ghostwriting& quot; for full information and registration.

2) Ghostwriters Unite!, the first international conference for, by, and about ghostwriters, takes place at the Long Beach Hilton on May 3, 4, and 5. Go to http://ghostwriters unite.com for info and registration. Early bird special rates end April 1st.

These are great opportunities for anyone who is interested in ghostwriting. Even though the first listing may be too short for you to make the deadline, if you live in the Long Beach area, then you can sign up for the next course cycle. I have done some ghostwriting, as many of you know, and enjoyed it. If you don’t live in that area, then check at your local colleges and universities. They may have ghostwriting programs or classes available. Best of luck.


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Snowflakes, Daffodils, and Lincoln

What could these three possibly have in common? It’s February! Still don’t get it? Okay, maybe you have to live in my part of the country – the Panhandle of Texas where the weather changes on a dime. People have said for decades “if you don’t like the weather right now, wait a little while and it’ll change.”

We can have snowflakes blowing sideways 30 minutes after the sun was out and you need your winter coat, muffler and gloves when you went into the grocery store with only jeans and a T-shirt ( okay you do have to have your shoes on or there isn’t any service). That is the weather in February.

We find daffodils turning up their faces to greet us at the florists booths in the grocery stores and at Wal-Mart. They are my favorite flower. Daffodil bulbs are at Home Depot and Lowe’s. Because the temperatures are bouncing between 70° and 25° the daffodils already planted in my yard are peeking about an inch through the mulch trying to figure out if it’s time yet to come up. Actually now I look around me, the walls in my new office are painted daffodil yellow with white wainscoting and trim. It’s February.

And of course, it is Lincoln’s birthday this month. I know that we only celebrate President’s Day now, but it’s February. As with many people, Abraham Lincoln is one of my favorite presidents in American history. If you’re wondering, no I didn’t forget that today is the day I recommend good books and good authors. One of my favorites is Jennifer Chiaverini. She is the author of the Elm Creek Quilter series. However, one of her latest releases is Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker. I haven’t read it yet but it is on my list of books to read. It is the story of Mary Todd Lincoln and her dressmaker, a former slave, Elizabeth “Lizzy” Keckley. The two women develop an amazing friendship that takes the reader behind the closed doors of the White House, through the emancipation of slavery, the First Lady’s loss of her son and assassination of her husband. We will get to know the president’s wife and a former slave in personal ways through their experiences together. Ms. Chiaverini is an impeccable researcher. Enjoy the read.