Finally my audio book is here!!

It's been a while since I've written. Been very, very busy and finally, I can breathe and announce that the audiobook I produced, based on the book I edited and published, The Adventures of Charlie and Moon, by Martin Meader is LIVE and up on audible.com. www.audible.com/charlieandmoon

Brilliantly narrated by internationally acclaimed comedienne/novelist Alison Larkin, www.alisonlarkin.com The Adventures of Charlie & Moon takes kids (and kids at heart) on a wild ride through the village of Tumblegum to the City of the Qunicequonces to save the endangered species from the evil Skunk Weavel. Only Charlie and his friend Moon can save the day!

This book was a ForeWord Book of the Year Award Finalist, and is a fantastic book to recommend kids read and listen to at the same time!

6 hours of listening hilarity and fun!

Teacher's Guide available for free download www.martinmeader.com

I hope you'll download it onto your mp3 or iPhone and if you like it, be the first or 100th to review it!!

Pollen and me

This has got to be the worst allergy season I have ever encountered. How about you? Are your eyes watering? Are you sneezing? Itching? Breaking out? Yeah, me too.
It's all from pollen, that's right. I'm pretty sure.
What is pollen, you might ask?

pol·len/ˈpälən/

Noun: A fine powdery substance, typically yellow, of microscopic grains discharged from the male part of a flower or from a male cone transported to the female ovule by the wind, insects, or other animals.

I'm looking at pictures of pollen and they're scary to say the least, and what they cause, I can hardly deal with it. 

What types of pollen trigger allergy symptoms?
  Many trees, grasses and low-growing weeds have small, light, dry pollens that are well-suited for dissemination by wind currents. These are the pollens that trigger allergy symptoms. Seasonal allergic rhinitis in the early spring is often triggered by the pollens of such trees as oak, western red cedar, elm, birch, ash, hickory, poplar, sycamore, maple, cypress and walnut. In the late spring and early summer, pollinating grasses - including timothy, bermuda, orchard, sweet vernal, red top and some blue grasses - often trigger symptoms. Ragweed is the pollen most responsible for late summer and fall hay fever in North America.

Well there you have it!
Yuck! I can't say I'm looking forward to winter again, but kinda.

welcome

I just had to post these crocuses. I am in awe of the way they poke up through layers and layers of dead leaves. New life appearing on the barren ground and it couldn't have come at a better time, when we here in the Northeast are about to go mad from this cold. So hopeful. I raked for 2 1/2 hours straight, with my coat off! I kept these crocuses in their little patch of decay, not daring to disturb them. A man saw me raking and laughed at me from his car as he drove by, yelling something about a snowstorm on Saturday, but I didn't care. I just smiled at him.

My crocuses reminded me of a song by Beth Neilson Chapman, Life Holds On, "...when I noticed all the grass in the cracks in the concrete I said 'where there's a will, there's a way around anything.' Life holds on, given the slightest chance, for the weak and the strong, life holds on."

Life is coming back to the Berkshires, and even if it snows on Friday or Saturday, these crocuses remind us of how life will continue and continue given the slightest chance.

Alison Larkin's narration of The Adventures of Charlie & Moon Audio Book

Alison Larkin's many voices are resounding through my kitchen as I sit here listening to the new audiobook I produced, The Adventures of Charlie & Moon, by Australian author, Martin Meader. I have listened and listened again to this six hour children's fantasy adventure, and thanks to the incredibly funny and charming narration by British comedienne, author and friend, Alison Larkin, I could listen for hours more.

The Adventures of Charlie & Moon, is a fantasy for children about a boy named Charlie who opens his birthday present the night before his ninth birthday and the consequences that follow. Moon is a young eagle who needs Charlie’s help to stop an evil toymaker from turning all the eagles and endangered species into stuffed toys. The Adventures of Charlie & Moon takes children on a wild ride through the imaginary Shire of Tumblegum to stop the evil toymaker, Skunk Weavel from achieving his wicked ways. The Adventures of Charlie & Moon is in production to be a feature film and I will be updating you on that exciting news as well. http://charlieandmoon.com, www.crowfliespress.com, http://charlieandmoon.blogspot.com/

Alison's character voices can be heard in cartoons and movies all over the world from work by Robert Altman to The Wonderpets. Her own bestselling novel, The English American joins a nobel Laureate, E.B. White and President Obama on Audible.com's list of best author narrated audio books of all time. She is a comedienne, an entertainer (she certainly entertains me when we get together), author, screenwriter, playwright. To hear some of Alison's cartoon and movie voices click http://www.alisonlarkin.com/voice_work.htm. For more details go to http://www.alisonlarkin.com/index.htm

Kids are absolutely loving this crazy book, and they will now be able to read along with Alison, who does the voices better (sorry folks) than ANY parent could ever dream of doing. I am so excited about sharing this audio book with the world!

I will keep you posted on the launch date, but it will be SOON. It will be 6 hours of listening magic. Think of the long drives you'll be taking this summer. Think of the new Masterpiece Classics you want to watch, but it's bedtime. Or that paperwork you need to finish up, but your kids are bored and whiny. Now you'll be able to turn on the MP3 in your kid's room and go do your thing as they fall asleep (or crack up) to Alison's hilarious rendition of The Adventures of Charlie & Moon. But what I think will happen is, you'll wind up listening with them and you'll all be laughing your heads off. That's family time.

Jana's Musings...: Tsunami Help

Jana's Musings...: Tsunami Help: "It's scary out there. Earthquakes, tsunamis, radiation leaks, crazy dictators...it goes on and on. I am sitting here in front of my woodstov..."

Tsunami Help

It's scary out there. Earthquakes, tsunamis, radiation leaks, crazy dictators...it goes on and on. I am sitting here in front of my woodstove, watching yet more snow fall, trying to figure out what I can do to make even the tiniest helpful dent in all this mess.

Here's what I came up with: I can sell books and donate money to what I consider to be simply the best relief agency in the world, The International Rescue Committee. www.theirc.org

So if anyone out there reading this blog wants to get a good book to read and make a difference, even a small one, I am offering this: buy a book off www.crowfliespress.com and I will donate $5 for every book we sell to IRC for tsunami relief. Choose from Weeping Under This Same Moon by yours truly. "A Free Woman On God's Earth" by me and Ann-Elizabeth Barnes, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers, or The Adventures of Charlie & Moon, by Martin Meader.

Thank you for your help!

Thomas & Autumn

I'm so excited to share my news about my new picture book, Thomas & Autumn. My friend, Melody Lea Lamb is illustrating it. You've got to see this woman's art. She is amazing. Her book, Moonlight Memoirs has won a number of awards! http://www.melodylealamb.com/.
Thomas & Autumn is the sweet story of a little boy named Thomas who has a very special relationship with a very special chicken, Autumn. It is a book for tiny children and for chicken lovers of any age.

Thomas raises and shows chickens. He sells eggs. Thomas works hard in the barn. It takes him a while, but finally his egg sales earn him enough money to buy his very own chicken, a Banty hen that he names Autumn. Here's the first illustration!