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Showing posts with the label backlist

Backlist Spotlight: The Ninja Librarian Series

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Since I'm off gallivanting and not creating new content, it's time to call out another section of my back-list: the Ninja Librarian series. Skunk Corners. Where it all began, in a way. The Ninja Librarian wasn't the first book I wrote (far from it, actually, given I started writing at age 6), but it was the first I published. A series of essentially free-standing stories threaded together into a longer story, I wrote much of this book at the library, in the quiet stretches of the evening shift. I just worked that shift in those days, because with two small children at home it was the only time I was free. The Ninja Librarian is a wholly fictional character. But he does share some characteristics, and most of his looks, with Tom Goward, who was the Head Librarian at Daly City's Westlake Library in those days. And the initial spark for the book came from something he said.  Now you know. I wrote the original collection of tales over the course of several years, and two mo

Halitor the Hero

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It's come to my attention that I really need to highlight my backlist from time to time. Over the past 12 years I've published 4 middle grade novels and a picture book in addition to 6 cozy mysteries, and they deserve a little love now and again! Today's feature: A Fair Maiden who breaks all the rules.   A would-be Hero who fails everything by the book.   It’ll be the adventure of a lifetime… if they survive past breakfast. Okay, for one thing, this may still be my favorite cover. For another, I love the story and so will you--and your 8-12 year old kids! I wrote this out of my own love of fantasy, tempered by an awareness of the absurdity of many high fantasy conventions. A would-be Hero in training, looking for a princess to rescue. A Fair Maiden who breaks all the rules, working as a kitchen wench. In this fun fantasy adventure they form a team that seems doomed to failure. But things don’t always go as expected in the lands be