Every sort of craft imaginable was on display and being sold. I am a sucker for wooden items, and when I saw a wooden ferry boat, I knew I had to get it for my aunt and uncle who live on Whidbey Island. I was actually going to be crossing on the ferry to stop and see them on my way to Vancouver anyway, so it was the perfect time to buy. I also bought a little curio shelf which has some pegs on it, and we currently use that for holding our car keys and the dog leashes.

I should stop reminiscing and tell you why I’m blathering on about Woodinville. Just prior to Christmas, Misfit McCabe made the trip from Snohomish, where it was visiting with my friend Gail (the one who took me to the Basset Bash), to Woodinville. I haven’t heard anything from the book since it left Snohomish, and I’m afraid it may have gotten buried under a snow drift. Just look at this picture from Woodinville after the snow storm they had. I think it qualifies as having a White Christmas.

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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
To read book reviews by LK Gardner-Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

Motherless Child - stories from a life

Copyright © 2008

$ 17.99 Paperback
268 pages

ISBN: 978-0615212944

Opening the cover of Motherless Child - stories from a life is like arriving at Sarah’s home, where she welcomes you with that special brand of southern hospitality, invites you to sit down for a spell and have  a nice tall drink of ice tea while she tells you stories from her past.  Reading this book brought back memories from my own childhood of sitting in my grandmother’s parlor and having her tell us stories of life from yesteryear, while gently rocking back and forth in her rocking chair.  I could almost hear the creak of the floorboards as her chair went back and forth over that well worn track.

I tend to stick more with fiction reading than non-fiction, but as I was looking at the previews for potential review, Sarah Gordon Weathersby captured my attention.  The preview left me wanting to read more and to find out what happened to the people that I had already met through the pages of the preview.  Ms. Weathersby tells her life’s story in a very conversational style, inviting the reader to get to know her and her family in a very cozy manner.  She starts off with some of her earliest memories, which happen to be when she was two years old.  Being the youngest of 7 children of an Episcopalian minister, Sarah was both the pampered pet, and at the same time left to her own devices quite a bit because everyone was going in different directions all of the time.  One of her earliest memories was of being a two year old at Christmas time.

    My brothers enjoyed participating in the fantasy for me, and that year they came home on Christmas Eve wanting me out of the way so they could wrap gifts, told me I had to go to bed because they heard sleigh bells in the sky, and sent me off to bed clutching my favorite rag-doll, Sally. The next morning, there were animal footprints through the house, that my brothers said were made by the reindeer. I found out years later they had dragged the dog through the dirt, and walked him  through the house.

 Can’t you just imagine the boys dragging that poor dog through the house to make the footprints?  Although Ms. Weathersby starts with some of her earliest memories, and the book ends with the most recent, Motherless Child  is not written in a strictly chronological manner.  She starts off to tell you about one point in her life, and in order to help you understand will embark on another story which provides the back story to the fabric of her life.  Through the telling of her life, Ms. Weathersby also provides the reader with a keen perspective of history as it was happening from her point of view.  We see the major events, such as John F. and Robert Kennedy’s assassinations, as well as Martin Luther King’s through her eyes and her observations of her family and friends to the same events.

Motherless Child was written to give her daughter Teal, whom she had to put up for adoption 40 years before, the story of her life and why she couldn’t keep her baby.  The agony over the decision to do so, and the hole that left in her heart for all of those years after, come shining through the words on the page.   We feel the pain of separation along with Sarah, as well as her inability to forgive herself for having made that decision and how it colors her life from that point on.

Through Sarah’s eyes, we see her awakening to the division of people by the color of their skin, how her mother developed her sense of pride of self and what she could accomplish, and how it felt to go from an all black school to a racially integrated one.  Through the pages of Motherless Child  I came to admire Ms. Weathersby a great deal.  No matter what she set her mind to accomplish, she did.  After choosing to attend a university which only had six black students in her first year, she decided to learn German and ultimately studied abroad for a year in Germany.  She spoke the language so fluently that when she confronted a professor about the lack of black faculty on the staff, she was then offered a position at the school as long as she completed the necessary graduate work.  While she chose not to follow that course of action, she later decided to throw her hat into the extremely male dominated technology ring at a time when it was just starting to put its name on the map.  Working myself in the technology arena, I am well aware that it is still male dominated, but far less so than when Ms. Weathersby joined the ranks, and yet she continued to excel in her field.  I don’t think it ever occurred to her that she might not succeed at anything she tried, and so she did succeed.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the cover of the book.  It is very simple in concept as it appears to be family photos on a mantle, yet in its simplicity conveys to the reader a sense of what the book is about.  While Motherless Child - stories from a life was written for her long, lost daughter, and was extremely cathartic for the author to be able to tell her story, it has a much broader appeal.  My husband an I recently attended a production of the musical version of The Color Purple, based on the novel by Alice Walker, and I feel that the appeal of Motherless Child mirrors the appeal of The Color Purple.  Through the eyes of Sarah Gordon Weathersby, we see and experience a slice of life from a very intimate perspective.  This book delivers laughter and tears as we experience Sarah’s life with her, and leaves the reader feeling uplifted.  Bravo.

Originally reviewed for the Lulu Book Review.
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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
To read book reviews by LK Gardner-Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

At the start of 2008, I had definite plans in place.  I created a list of goals to accomplish and was ready to tackle them.  Well, as is the way in life, things did not go exactly according to plan.  Looking back, I have still accomplished the majority of the goals that I set and I feel content with my accomplishments for the year.

2008 saw the distribution of Misfit McCabe, which was a very proud accomplishment for me.  To actually hold a bound copy of my work for the first time was fantastic and seeing it on Amazon.com and other online stores was even better.  One of my major goals for 2008 was to develop marketing materials for Misfit McCabe and to start the marketing effort.  So, I have bookmarks, handout cards, wrap sheets, book review blurbs, give-away copies, in other words, the standard marketing fare.  I wasn’t satisfied with my efforts on that score because I wanted something that would really help promote the book itself by giving it more visibility.  With the limited budget of all POD authors, I was trying to think of someway to get my book seen by a larger audience of my target readership.  The light bulb finally went on in October and I was hard at work ironing out all of the details for Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?

I love those Eureka! moments as an author.  As soon as I had the idea, I knew it was the one for me.  The Lulu Book Review kindly offered to help me bring visibility of this marketing concept to a wider group of people, you can check out what it entails by checking out the WITW is MMC? tab.  This also opened a few more avenues as far as marketing materials.  I have posters which have become a part of my marketing scheme for sending to schools and will be soon going to local bookstores and libraries with them.

One of the unexpected and exciting things to happen during 2008 was to start reviewing books for the Lulu Book Review.  I enjoy reading other authors work and reviewing it gives me the opportunity to help encourage other POD authors with their writing quest as well as helping to bring visibility to those works.  I also get to read things that I may not otherwise have run across.  And it keeps me writing.

Another unexpected happening in 2008 was an invitation to participate in the Pearson Prize Book Award contest for 2009 put on by the Learning for a Cause organization. To me it is an honor to have Misfit McCabe invited to participate in the contest, especially since invitiations are issued based on students requests. The winners for this contest are selected by a focus group of 100 high school students, which means that my work will be read by all of the members of the selection group. For me, as an author, it doesn’t get better than that.

One of my goals for 2008 is currently in progress and while I will not meet the original target I set for myself for completion, I will extend this one into the early months of 2009, which is to write the sequel to Misfit McCabe.  What is really nice is that I do have a readership which is clamoring for the sequel (ok, so it’s a small clamor, but clamor none the less), so that is spurring me on to completion.

As far as 2009 is concerned, right now, I am not making any new goals until I finish the ones I have, except I do know that I will be starting another writing project once the sequel has been completed.  Since I have several waiting in the wings, I just don’t know which one that will be as yet.  It’ll depend on which one grabs my attention when I am ready to move on it.
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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
To read book reviews by LK Gardner-Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

Copyright © 2005

$ 9.98 Paperback
$ 3.33 E-book
106 pages
ISBN: 9781411633155

 It’s time to let out your inner child and delight it with a fairy tale.  Fairy tales were something that as a child I couldn’t get enough of.  A trip into the land of fantasy where there were kings and queens, witches and wizards, beautiful damsels and handsome knights, and where trouble lurked around every corner.  Fairy tales were wonderful because good prevailed and evil always lost in the end, so you could be deliciously scared about what was happening, secure in the knowledge that the hero would prevail in the end.  Bob the Dragon Slayer brings this storybook format back to us, and this time, the fairy tale is for the adult.  Harry E. Gilleland, Jr. brings his unique sense of humor to us in this fairy tale, and it is a tale that will have you chuckling, chortling, and laughing out loud.  Mr. Gilleland begins the tale in classic style.

    Long, long ago, in a place far, far away there was an age of chivalry, a time of royalty, of gallant knights and fair ladies who were always getting themselves into distress and needing to be saved (seems like a clever dating technique to me, but whatever), of wizards and magic, and of course, of dragons needing to be slain.  It was a land of castles, fine clothing and jewels, great feasts, and live dinner entertainment with much dancing and music making. . .but not for Bob.

Bob, a peasant lad, is traveling the land just trying to keep himself fed through odd jobs and handouts.  He had no hope of glory, and luxury is something he can not even imagine.   Until he arrives in a valley where a dragon is terrorizing the people, and the king has declared that whichever knight slays the dragon will have his daughters hand in marriage.  Bob, being curious, decides to scope out the problem of the dragon, never dreaming of fighting the dragon himself.  But then he meets Stephen, self-proclaimed wizard extraordinaire, who has just graduated from wizarding school.  Stephen tells Bob that he will help him slay the dragon and gives him the brother sword to Excalibur, whom Bob had never heard of.  Since he is the first to wield the sword it is his duty to name the sword, so Bob names the sword Bruce, because he has always liked that name.  Armed with Bruce, Bob goes into battle against the dragon and slays the dragon.  When Princess Wendie realizes that she will have to marry the peasant, Bob, she whines to her father that she can not do it.  Lawyers get involved and it is determined that Bob is not eligible to win the hand of the princess in marriage, because the terms of the proclamation state “whatever gallant knight slew the dragon”, and Bob is merely a peasant.

   Bob turned to Stephen and implored, “Do something!  Use some magic!  They are robbing me of my future!”
   Stephen sadly shook his head.  “Even wizards are powerless against lawyers and their fine print.  I can be of no aid to you.”

Bob decides at that point that he will have to become a knight and goes off in search of a damsel in distress to save.  When none of the damsels in distress will let him save them because he is not a knight, Bob changes his plan to earning wealth by slaying dragons.  In his travels seeking out dragons to slay, Bob meets Lord Wilfred, whom he quickly dubs Willie.  Lord Wilfred is so relieved that Bob slew the dragon so he didn’t have to make the attempt that he brought Bob back to his castle and teaches him to be a knight.  After Bob leaves Willie, he rescues Lady Katherine, who is Willie’s fiancée and travels with her back to her father’s castle.  Katherine’s father turns out to be Edward, the Duke of Westmorland who has sworn to avenge the death of his best friend, the Duke of Westbury and rightful heir to the throne.  A few more twists in the plot has Bob leading the army put together by the Duke of Westmorland into battle against the King, brandishing Bruce astride his faithful steed, Spot.  This story has all of the fairy tale elements present and is delivered in a delectable tongue in cheek manner. 

The only modification that I would make to the book would be to remove the prologue.  In it Mr. Gilleland has the McClair family begging the patriarch to tell them a tale and he obliges with the tale of Bob. It is not necessary to the book and doesn’t add any value to the work.  Let the book start in the classic style of “Long, long ago. . . ” and carry on from there.   Bob the Dragon Slayer is a very quick read that will leave you smiling at the end.  Though written as a fairy tale, this is definitely not a story for children as there are references to Kate’s ample cleavage as well as other more adult themed comments which are scattered throughout the text.  So, talk to your inner child and let it experience Bob the Dragon Slayer.

Originally reviewed for the Lulu Book Review
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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
To read book reviews by LK Gardner-Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

Here’s hoping that you and yours have the very best!

Written by Beth Mahoney
Illustrated by Zachary Porter

Copyright © 2008

$18.95 Paperback
$10.00 E-Book

I can sum up Meet Robby the C-130 in two words:  Absolutely Delightful!  This children’s book is definitely a home run swing.  Meet Robby the C-130 is a book which was created to help military children handle the times when either mommy or daddy is deployed and away from home.  With the occupation of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, absentee parents have become a way of life for many military families.  Beth Mahoney writes of what she knows well, having grown up as a child of the military, turned military wife of 17 years.  She is raising her 3 children while her husband is frequently deployed, along with running a military parenting organization.

Meet Robby the C-130 starts off by introducing the child to the C-130 airplane and describes the types of cargo that this plane carries.  It then moves on to introduce the standard crew that takes care of Robby and what they do.  Ms. Mahoney then delves into the emotional side of how Robby feels when he has to be away from his family and the things he does that help make him feel better.  Throughout the course of the story, she relates what Robby is feeling to how the children feel when a parent is absent.  At the back of the book are several pages which prompt children to draw their own pictures depicting how they feel, what mommy and daddy look like and so on.  In addition to those pages, there is a page with tips for parents on how to use the book.

While the story is cute and written to the level of the intended audience, what makes Robby such a charming book is the illustrations.  Zachary Porter does a marvellous job of capturing the essence of the words.  Just to look at the pictures of Robby makes me smile.  There is one page which describes Robby missing his family while he is deployed and the picture shows Robby with his head on a pillow, crying while looking at a picture and clutching his teddy bear.  Priceless!  I can just hear my two year old niece saying, “Poor Robby!  He’s so sad.”  And just because she is such an empathetic little person, she may even shed a tear because she is sad that Robby is sad.

Meet Robby the C-130 was created with military children as its primary market, however, I feel that the appeal of this book is much broader.  It appeals not only to military children who have to deal with mommy or daddy deploying, but also to any child who has a parent who must leave for any reason, and as a tool for teaching children who are not dealing with separation that there are children who do.  A copy of Robby will definitely be finding its way into my niece’s Christmas package this year.  It is a terrific addition to any Christmas stocking.

Orignially reviewed for the Lulu Book Review
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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
To read book reviews by LK Gardner-Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

Here’s what Misfit McCabe would have seen had it come in on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Guage Railroad.

I first ran across Will and the Soaring Seed while reading some posts on the Lulu Promote Your Book Forum.  I was not actually looking for books to review, but doing some research prior to drafting a post promoting the Where in the World is Misfit McCabe? project, which is featured here on the Lulu Book Review under the WITW is MMC tab.  As I was reading through the multitude of posts plugging authors’ work, I read a post by author and illustrator Devin Boone and his description captured me enough to click the link to take a look at the children’s book he was promoting.  I was glad that I did.

The cover alone made me smile because it is bright and happy.  It draws the reader in and makes them want to dive inside and start turning pages.  Will and the Soaring Seed starts off with the magical seed busily soaring around the world, enjoying the sights and sounds and moving on.  Then the seed notices the town of Spirit and is attracted to it because it feels special to the seed.  As the seed moves through the town of Spirit, it sees several of the townspeople carrying out their jobs that make Spirit a better place to live.  Ultimately, the seed spies Will and knows that there is something special about Will because of his enthusiasm and love of school.  The following is the description of when will finally meets the seed.

     Will could not believe his eyes.  He had never seen such brilliant colors.  The soaring seed was the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen.

Being a former pre-school teacher, I feel that Will and the Soaring Seed is perfect for this age group.  I know that is one that we would have read again and again in some of the classes that I taught.  The illustrations are bright and colorful and friendly-looking.  Having a mother who is an artist, I was interested in how Mr. Boone achieved the effects in his illustrations.  To me, they had the look and feel of torn paper art collage, called Chigiri-e in Japanese style artwork, but with something a little different to them.  Torn paper art collage is an art form that has been used in several children’s books.  An example is author/artist Eric Carle, author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a very popular book among the pre-school set. 

I asked Mr. Boone how he achieved the effects and his answer was enlightening.  Being self-published, and having the story already conceived and written, Mr. Boone needed illustrations.  Not having the budget to hire a professional illustrator and having some artistic talent, he decided to illustrate the work himself.  He also utilized a software program so that once the artwork was scanned to his computer, he manipulated some of the colors and then applied a cubism filter which gives the artwork that consistent, slightly blurry aspect.  This was done in his own words, “. . .to cover up any of my errors or deficiencies as a make-shift illustrator.“  Some adults might find the artwork to be a little fuzzy, which is caused by the cubism filter that has been applied.  Pre-schoolers, on the other hand, will more often than not, view the fuzziness as softer and friendlier.

Will and the Soaring Seed is definitely a work of love on the part of the author who dedicates the book to his son and wife.  I believe this is a first time effort by this author and we can look for more stories to come in the future from him.  If you have a pre-schooler on your Christmas list, Will and the Soaring Seed would make a great present.

Originally reviewed for the Lulu Book Review
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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
To read book reviews by LK Gardner-Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
To read book reviews by LK Gardner-Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

Thanksgiving is a very special time because it allows us all the opportunity to review our lives and realize all of the wonderful things which we have been given. I even think back on those things that were negative in nature and find something to be thankful for in that situation. For example, earlier this year I had abdominal surgery for a suspected tumor. I am very thankful that the doctors did not find a tumor (no cancer) and that they performed the surgery when they did because, to be blunt, my insides were a mess and things were caught before I had serious problems. I was very fortunate even though I was laid up for a few weeks, and had to battle post surgery infection. So for that I am thankful.

I have a good life, good family, and good friends. I have published Misfit McCabe, come up with an exciting plan to send it to be read in as many places as possible (Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?), and I am working on the sequel. Through the process of getting the word out there about Misfit McCabe, I have met a dynamic writer, Shannon Yarbrough, who champions self-published authors and have begun writing reviews for him for the Lulu Book Review, all of which are very positive activities and I am thankful that I can take part and thankful for the opportunity.

Along the lines of the first Thanksgiving, I am thankful that I have survived thus far and live in a country where I am free to pursue my dreams.

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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
To read book reviews by LK Gardner-Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review