Never Ending...

It seems that the quest to finish Adventures of Bear B & Stone is a never ending one. Every time I think that I am almost finished, ready to write the last chapter, it dawns on me that there is something missing in the middle chapters.

I have edited and rewritten chapters 2-5 numerous times now, constantly adding fresh new content that contributes meat to the story. Chapter 6 took a dive. After editing and rewriting the preceding chapters I realized that between chapter 5 and chapter 6 I seemed to be missing something. So most of chapter 6 became the new chapter 7, chapter 7 became 8... So, this left me with only a couple of chapters to begin chapter 6. Now, I need to figure out what happened in the story between 5 & 7.

Previously, it was written that days went on in this fashion for some time and summer rolled around. That was a cheap escape that I apparently wrote for myself. I don't want to leave that trap door hanging wide open for my readers to fall through. They deserve better. I have my ideas on what can happen during 6. I have some thoughts on where it should go leading up to the newly appointed 7. Now if only I could tie it all together in a satisfactory manner. Satisfactory being the first step in achieving GREAT, which is of course my ultimate goal.

Needless to say, Adventures of Bear B & Stone probably won't be ready in time for Christmas as I had previously hoped. I will continue to keep you posted on the progress of the chapters. The end is in sight. Unfortunately, the middle has a giant hole in it.

It's much harder than I thought putting together a chapter book for tweens. My novel flowed more easily than this one seems to be.

OT Homemade Crayons for Halloween

Today, our 6 year old daughter and I sat down and made Halloween Crayons for her classmates trick or treat bags. They are so fun and easy to make, so I thought I'd pass it along. You can do these any time of year. Just grab yourself a pan with fun shapes (Wilton makes some fun cookie pans that work great, but we've done it with just a regular mini muffin pan too).

To make them, just save all those broken, useless pieces of crayon throughout the year. Take the little pieces and fill the tin cups just until full but not to overflowing. Preheat oven to 250*F. Set pan in oven. Bake for 10-20 minutes, just until all crayons are melted. Set pan on cooling rack. Cool completely. When crayons are fully hardened, press around the edges until you feel them pop free. Turn pan upside down on cooling rack. You now have fun crayons that will change colors as the kids draw/color with them. 

They make great party favors or fun gifts to give. This year we are including them in the treat bags for our daughter's class. We completed the bags with bookmarks, stickers, pretzels and candy. She had a lot of fun and is really proud of the fact that she "did all the work". 

Holiday Specials

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? We haven't. We have always been last minute Christmas shoppers. Every year I say that is going to change, but it never does. Perhaps it is because I have a November baby. Maybe it is just that there are so many holidays and birthdays piled up in the months before Christmas. Maybe I'm just lazy. LOL.

Well, if you are doing your holiday shopping (now or closer to Christmas) we have an irresistible offer for you. First, we have extended our $1.00 off offer on CreateSpace. Purchase any of our books straight from CreateSpace and use coupon code VDBK4S4B at the checkout. This will take $1.00 off of each book you purchase. This will continue until the new year.

For those of you that prefer to keep your collections in the more portable form of ebooks, we have a special for you too. All of our books are only $1.00 in eformat. Currently available at Smashwords and Amazon Kindle. For those that prefer to shop at B&N I will keep watching for their updates, but they inform me that they are extremely backlogged and cannot even project a time when their systems will update. Monster Beneath my Bed for Nook is still caught in that backlog somewhere. But I do have good news. Smashwords offers a format for ALL ereaders. This includes Nook, Kindle, iPad, and many many more.

Here are all the links you will need to take advantage of these wonderful offers:

Monster Beneath my Bed on CreateSpace
I Love the Changing Seasons on CreateSpace
We've Seen Santa on CreateSpace

Monster Beneath my Bed on Smashwords
I Love the Changing Seasons on Smashwords
We've Seen Santa on Smashwords

Monster Beneath my Bed on Amazon
I Love the Changing Seasons on Amazon
We've Seen Santa on Amazon

We love hearing from our readers. If you have read any of our titles, please leave us a review at Goodreads or Amazon or Barnes & Noble. This helps us to spread the word about our titles.

Review & Giveaway I Love the Changing Seasons

Check out the newest review of I Love the Changing Seasons over on Lollipops and Books.

Thanks to Krista and her CandyLand Crew for another great review!

Head on over and read what her and her Crew had to say about I Love the Changing Seasons and enter for your chance to win a copy for yourself!

Congratulations!!

Congratulations to Debbie Ritenour. She is the winner of the Lollipops and Books Monster Beneath my Bed giveaway! We hope you and your family enjoy your winnings.

We are offering $1.00 off for each of our books that you purchase directly from CreateSpace. i.e. if you purchase 5 copies of Monster Beneath my Bed you will receive $5.00 off, if you order I Love the Changing Seasons and We've Seen Santa you will receive $2.00 off, etc...

• Monster Beneath my Bed
• I Love the Changing Seasons
• We've Seen Santa

Simpy enter discount code VDBK4S4B at the checkout. 

We are so close to 100 fans on our Facebook Fan Page. Remember that when we reach 100 fans we will be celebrating with a giveaway. You can help us reach 100 fans by spreading the word to your friends and family. You could be the lucky winner.

OT Halloween Costume

So, our daughter (6) decided she wanted to be a cheerleader for Halloween this year. It's really not surprising since she did cheer at one of the high school football games with the high school cheerleaders and then walked in the Homecoming parade with them the following weekend.

Now I don't mean to offend here, so I apologize ahead of time if I do. Over the years we have found that girl costumes are far too (how can I be politically correct here?) grown up for a young girl. This is even the costumes geared towards toddlers and elementary school students. This left me wondering how I was going to allow her to have the costume she wants without dressing her in a way I find totally inappropriate.

As you may have seen in a previous post, I recently got my sewing machine back out and sewed some makeshift bedding for our Monster Beneath my Bed bed that we have in our front yard for Halloween. I took the leftover felt from the bedding and created a costume for our daughter for her costume.

I am not quite finished. I need to make a trip to Joann for some elastic. Then I will put a waistband on the skirt. It will be in the paler of the two purples. In the meantime, here are some pics of what I have done thus far.

I am really proud of myself. I didn't know I could do it. I haven't used a sewing machine, other than the night I sewed the bedding for our Monster bed, since I was a young girl in Girl Scouts, and I have never done clothing before. I guess it is a lot like riding a bike. Once you know how, you never forget.

I will post some pics of the finished product when I finish. Perhaps I will even get my little cheerleader to model it for me. :)

Bear B. & Stone Adventuring Again

Finally, the walls have come down....

Well, maybe it was never really walls. Maybe it wasn't even block. Perhaps it was just a simple matter of going insane staring at a computer screen.

Call me old fashioned. I just prefer the old, trusty paper and pen method. I get so overwhelmed and frustrated staring at a screen and wondering what the next words should be. Typing a sentence straight from my brain seems like I am missing something.

So, I printed out the chapters I have completed. I purchased a stack of legal pads. Who would've known they'd be so cheap by the bundle at Staples. Yay for unexpected finds. I wasn't even planning on going down that aisle, but there was a pull I just couldn't resist.

I admit that when my computer is on, I don't seem to find myself working. Instead, I wander over to that black hole we call Facebook. I check everyone's news and comments and anything else they got the inkling to share since I checked it five minutes ago. I then turn around and check on my apps, which quickly run out of energy. Then I wander to my emails. And, well, you get the point.

So, I promised some time ago that I would get a chapter book out there. My young readers have been begging for one. They enjoy the picture books, but they know they are too old for them. They are hoping (READ: counting on) my chapter books will entertain them as much as the picture books have. And, thus, I too am hopeful that I can please them.

In the meantime, we are also preparing for our upcoming event. Just in time for Halloween, we will be reading at our local library. We were initially doing just a small group of toddlers to preschool aged children. Recently, we learned that the librarian decided to invite all the local preschools to join us! We don't have a number count yet, but I have a feeling it will be more than the handful of kids we read to when we were there last Christmastime.

So, that is what is going on over here. Hope everyone is having a good time preparing for Halloween. Remember to read lots of spooky stories this month!

Spring Cleaning...

Yes, we know that it is fall, but we really needed to clear out and go through everything that had ended up stockpiled in the "office". See, our office is really a second living room. The set up of our house has two long (and unfortunately rather narrow) living rooms then a very large kitchen/dining room. The front living room (where you enter through the front door) is what we dubbed our office. It is also where our daughter does her art, plays with play dough, and keeps various toys that she doesn't take to her room. The kids computer (they get the desktop) is in there, and then the shoes and coats, mittens and hats are there as well.

As you can imagine, we are all guilty of dropping things off in the office on our way in the door. These things can pile up so quickly if they are left to be "dealt with later". Well, Spring or not, later has arrived in our household. We pulled everything (including furniture) out of that room. We scrubbed the walls and shampooed the carpets. Then, we cleaned the windows. This was all yesterday. Today, we put everything back. Not where it had been, but where we think it will work better. We are hoping this will help both work and household run more smoothly.

Of course, now that we have done one room, it is only right that we do the rest of the house. Tomorrow there are appointments and meetings, so I am not sure what we will get done. I am hopeful that wihtin the next couple of weeks we will have at least the entire downstairs finished.

So, when I find the time I am working Adventures of Bear B. & Stone, and promoting Monster Beneath my Bed. But, our main point of focus is getting our house clean from top to bottom, or more accurately bottom to top as we started on the main floor.

Please bear with me as I will not be posting as often as I should and there probably won't be much information on the upcoming books. Don't forget, Monster Beneath my Bed is a great family Halloween read, and there is still time to order your copy to arrive before Halloween.

Loving this fall weather and cleaning out the house for a comfortable winter.
~Tiffany

Review and giveaway plus what's next

Thank you to Krista and her Candyland Crew over at Lollipops & Books for our first review for Monster Beneath my Bed. Head on over there and check it out. She is also hosting a giveaway, so be sure to enter while you are there.

As for what comes next, Adventures of Bear B. & Stone is coming along fairly well. The story that once started out as a mystery type story has fast become a story about bullying and overcoming adversity. A story that I think speaks to the heart of the matter. I believe that there are only a few chapters to go. Of course once the chapters are finished, there will still be editing and rewriting galore.

Clark has not yet begun to work on the illustrations yet. These will be ink drawings. There will only be one per chapter as this is not a picture book. Mostly, we just need to settle in and get to working on it. Now that the kids are in school, and Monster has been released, it really shouldn't be too terribly hard to get these last chapters finished. (In theory anyways).

So, that is about all that we have going on. I am tossing around some ideas for some more books. Dragons and aliens seem to be at the top of my list. These will be illustrated children's books, but geared to the age group between our picture books and chapter books. At least that is a thought I am working on. Who knows, they could end up becoming picture books or chapter books. As of now, I just know that I want to work with dragons and aliens in the future.

Next month is NaNoWriMo, so my alter ego will be coming out to work on her next novel. Perhaps I should be thinking on what I want to do there too. Maybe dragons and aliens will play a role. LOL.

Good luck to everyone who enters this newest giveaway. Remember, if you read  Monster Beneath my Bed or any of our other books, please post a review at Amazon, Barnes&Noble and/or Goodreads. Thanks.

A little unconventional...

You've heard of billboards on the side of the road, right? People pay thousands of dollars to display their message the the motorist driving down the highway. But, you are going 70 mph (or faster), and you sometimes miss the message. Or, you are caught in rush hour traffic and you begin to notice that of the last 20 billboards you passed half were the exact same ad shoved in your face over and over again.

Well, the other day Clark and I were discussing new ways to drum up interest in the newest book, Monster Beneath my Bed. First, I printed up a poster sized rendition of the front cover. This we attached to our front door. Then we started hanging some of our Halloween decorations to draw attention. Then, Clark came up with a great idea. Why not bring the story to life in our front yard. After all, it is the month of Halloween.

So, over the course of the last few days he designed and we collected the materials we needed. He then began to build a rather large scale bed for the front yard. I got out the trusty old sewing machine, and I began to sew the bedding. We spent all day yesterday building, painting and decorating.

Now, we have a finished product to be proud of. We think it is pretty neat and it sits right in our front yard for everyone who drives by or walks by to see. The bonus is that we live 2 blocks from the elementary school. The kids seemed to really enjoy seeing our bed with eyes under it as they walked by this afternoon after school.

So here are the pictures:

Purchase Monster Beneath my Bed (Your Links in One Place)

While the giveaways have all ended, I thought it might be helpful to create a post of all the places you can still get a copy of Monster Beneath my Bed before Halloween. Monsters always make for great Halloween stories!

• WeveSeenSanta.com (we will autograph even personalized autographs & we offer gift wrap)
• CreateSpace
• Amazon (also available for Kindle)
• Barnes & Noble (coming soon for Nook)
• Smashwords (for any and all e-readers)

Also, check with your e-reader provider such as Apple & Sony & Blio. While I do not have these links readily available I do know that they carry our books.

We've Seen Santa and I Love the Changing Seasons are also available through these same channels. 

Happy Reading Everyone! Hope you enjoy your Halloween plannings, hauntings, and tricks & treats. 

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Vicki Sotomayor Leroy, Becky Leichty, & Ann Tagg! They were the winners of our Goodreads Giveaway! Your books will be headed your way shortly!

Last Day, Last Chance!

Just a quick reminder to everyone that today is the last day of the Back 2 School Sale that we have going on over on CreateSpace. There is still time to purchase Monster Beneath my Bed for $1.50 off the cover price. Simply enter TED89JYL in the coupon code section of the checkout.

This is also the last day to enter in our Goodreads Giveaway.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Monster Beneath my Bed

by Tiffany A. Higgins

Giveaway ends October 01, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Simply click on the Enter to win link and follow the instructions to be entered for your chance to win 1 of 3 autographed copies.

If you have already purchased and read Monster Beneath my Bed. We would love to hear your feedback. You can post reviews at Goodreads, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble. We love hearing what parents and kids think of our stories.

The hardest part...

The hardest part of releasing a new book (and drumming up interest) is getting the word out there. I have designed and printed up flyers, contacted all the local news networks, payed for Google and Facebook advertising, designed a press release.

It seems to be never ending. Now, here I am stuck again. I am not really sure what else I can do to get the word out there. As an Indie author, I rely heavily upon word of mouth. But, what do you do to get your name on someone's lips?

We've done coloring contests, hosted giveaways on GoodReads (reminder: it ends Oct 1st), had a sale for $1.50 off the cover price (reminder: last day is tomorrow). We have donated some of our books to great causes.

And yet, I feel like I am pulling my hair out. My next step is going to be taking out ads in the local newspapers. I looked into mailing out flyers via the post office, but even at the reduced rate they offer, that can get expensive.

So, here I am writing this blog, asking for ideas. What else can I do to get word out there. We finally finished (and releases) my favorite of all the stories. We've Seen Santa did really well at Christmas time. It practically sold itself as everyone was looking for Christmas books at Christmas time. I am hopeful that October will be Monster Beneath my Bed's Christmas. Monsters and Halloween do go so well together.

If you know of any newspapers (local or otherwise) or other venues that would likely be interested please either contact them for us or let us know that we should contact them.

This week, I will be sending out letters to all the local elementary schools to see if any of them will be interested in a visit. We have missed visiting with our little readers. Summer proved to be quite boring. We also have an event coming up at our local library, and hope to have another one near Christmas at one of the neighboring town's libraries.

Thanks for stopping by.

Children's Hospital of Michigan

We received this letter today. What a wonderful gesture. It's so great to know that we were able to help in some small way. 

We thought that some of you may want to help as well. Here is the link to gifts they can accept.  http://www.chmfoundation.org/ways-to-help/gifts-in-kind-donations/ There are many ways to offer help. All donations are tax deductible. 

An author without a voice...

I have been really sick for days. Unfortunately, it is one of those all over kind of sicks. I am achy and hurting and coughing and etc etc. You get the point. As this is not going to be a post about complaining, I think I'll leave it at that. As of today, I have officially lost my voice. Having not slept in 4 days I am already crabby and irritable. I have tried over the years to teach my family sign language. It is exactly for days like today. Now I have to keep a clipboard, pen & paper beside me at all times. Then I have to write what I want to say and knock on the clipboard to get someones attention. I know I am a writer, but it is a bit ridiculous and very frustrating. I only asked that they learn the letters A-Z in ASL and then I could hand spell everything out. But nobody was interested. :(

Needless to say, I am accomplishing absolutely nothing. I finally got around to posting on the Facebook Page some reminders about the current ways to win or purchase (at a discount) Monster Beneath my Bed. As I am running out of steam fast as I type this, I will only direct you to that page rather than type out all the information and provide all the necessary links again. I drew myself a monster today. Literally. I feel like a monster so I drew what I feel like. LOL.

We are still happy to accept and post drawings of monsters from the kids. While the coloring contest may be over, we will still put up any Monsters that the kids want to share. You can email them to us at Tiffany@WeveSeenSanta.com or Clark@WeveSeenSanta.com or you can snail mail them to our PO Box at P.O. Box 34, Richmond, MI 48062-0034. 

Hope everyone is enjoying being back in school. Monster Beneath my Bed makes a great Halloween book to read. Great for those reading logs the teachers have been sending home. Who's gong to be a Monster for Halloween? We'd love to see some of those great pictures too. Halloween is coming up soon, better get to thinking about those costumes. 

Well, I'm off to rest. My eyes are going crossed. Thanks for stopping by. Hope to get back in the groove of things very soon. 

The Winner of the "Monster Beneath my Bed" Coloring Contest

The winner of the Monster Beneath my Bed coloring contest is Vaughn (Age 5). Congratulations Vaughn! We hope you enjoy your new book.

The Winner

While the coloring contest has ended, there is still a chance to win. You can enter the GoodReads giveaway, which is running until October 1st.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Monster Beneath my Bed

by Tiffany A. Higgins

Giveaway ends October 01, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

'Monster Beneath my Bed' Press Release

Goodreads Giveaway Up and Running...

Enter now for your chance to win!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Monster Beneath my Bed

by Tiffany A. Higgins

Giveaway ends October 01, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Monster Beneath my Bed update

Phew...it is finally finished. It feels like it took forever! We are just awaiting the print proof so that we can approve it and set it up for sale. This will hopefully happen in the next couple of days. Barring any errors or pieces that don't fit with the layout of the book, we should be able to release sometime between Wednesday and Saturday of this week.

I am super excited about this one. This story is my favorite of all the stories I have written, both published and unpublished, thus far. I can't wait to get this story out there to all the children and hear their feedback.

There are currently two giveaways scheduled. The first is the coloring contest. It ends September 14th and the winners will be announced on the 15th. The dates have changed since I posted. For more information, click the link above. The next is the GoodReads giveaway. This one is still pending approval by GoodReads, but I will post the information as soon as it is up and running. The winners will be announced on October 1st.

In the meantime, Monster Beneath my Bed is available for purchase for your e-readers at Smashwords or Amazon for Kindle.

From the back of the book:
"You're all tucked into bed when you hear a sound. Was it in the closet? Maybe beneath your bed? You tell your parents, but they say there is no such thing as monsters. You know what you heard, right? Monster Beneath my Bed is a (mostly) true story about a monster living beneath the bed at night. Follow one little girl's scary nights as she struggles with the noises she hears coming from beneath her bed. Find out what she learned about her monster in the surprise ending that will leave everyone feeling relieved about what lurks in their bedroom at night."

We look forward to hearing feedback from your little readers. 

Coloring Contest

Enter to win Monster Beneath my Bed.

To pick up your full page copy of the coloring sheet, visit us on FaceBook. Print off a copy and follow the instructions at the bottom of the sheet.

We are currently hosting a coloring contest. Details found on the bottom of coloring sheet. To enter simply print off this photo and have your child follow the easy directions. Contest open in USA/Canada only.

Entries may be posted for everyone to see, please do not include personally identifiable information such as last names, email addresses or home addresses on the coloring sheet. Thank you and Good luck!

Monster Beneath my Bed News

Monster Beneath my Bed is coming along nicely. We have finished and refinished the cover numerous times now. We believe we have the final cover now. Here it is.

The back of the book is also ready. 

We are slowly getting the inside together as well. In the next couple of days, we will be announcing how your children could win a copy of Monster Beneath my Bed when it is released. Check back often for more information. What I can tell you now is that it will be a coloring type contest involving drawing monsters. We will want to post them for everyone to see, but the entry itself will be a name in a hat kind of drawing. Everyone has an equal chance to win, whether they are a real DaVinci or can't do any more than stick figures (like myself) they will be entered into the drawing. Who are we to judge skill? So, that is what is going on in our little corner of the book world.

We will keep you posted on when to expect the release of Monster Beneath my Bed and our upcoming giveaway that coincides. Thank you all for having the patience to bear with me as I am horrible at posting and updating and all things blogging. (But at least I am willing to admit it lol). 

Hope everyone is having a great summer thus far. Keep up that summer reading!!

SmashWords ready...

After sitting down and reading the SmashWords Style Guide I figured out how to turn I Love the Changing Seasons and We've Seen Santa into a SmashWords ready book. Currently, I Love the Changing Seasons is ready and available for purchase. You can pick up your copy here. My goal for today is to get We've Seen Santa up and running on SmashWords. It takes some work and finagling, but it should be ready today. After that, working some on the upcoming Monster Beneath my Bed. We do not have a set release date on the latter yet, but I promise to announce as soon as I have that information for you. Thank you for your support and patience as we continue to learn how to maneuver through the publishing industry and learn what we can and cannot do as well as what we need to do to keep things moving along.

We've Seen Santa Re-released

Recently, we have taken the time to redo We've Seen Santa, and bring it up to industry standards. There was a problem with the dimensions that we have now corrected. The illustrations are the same as the ones we used with the publisher. However, they actually came out looking brighter. The story, of course, is still the same exact story. Even the cover remains the same. The original border around each page has also been removed.

To order a copy of the new We've Seen Santa, you can visit the publisher's website.

It is also available on Amazon in both print and Kindle formats. (yes we redid the Kindle version as well).




We are working on publishing through Smashwords, which will make the digital version available to all e-readers. We will keep you posted on the progress.

I just can't keep up...

Admittedly, I have been majorly slacking on my blog posts. I cannot recall the last time I was here to post. I apologize for that. Life sometimes sneaks in and gets in the way of keeping up with everything I should be doing. However, I have been working. Clark has been, too.

We will start with Clark. He has been working with Indian Ink. Trying out new things for the upcoming Adventures of Bear B. & Stone. Here is one of the things he has accomplished. 

Bear B. in Indian Ink

Clark has said that he believes this image will grace the cover of the first Adventures book. Of course, he will add an image of Stone to it, so it will not be this exact image. He has also been working on the new picture book, Monster Beneath my Bed, which we are aiming to release near the end of the summer. 

As for me, I have been writing as much as I can manage. I am pleased with the way Adventures is unfolding. I wasn't planning, or expecting, to write a story about bullying. I didn't expect these 2 bullies to pop up, but when they did I knew that this was what the story was meant to entail. So, every time Bear B. & Stone run into the bullies, things get a little more intense. The bullies are getting physical. Stone was injured (fortunately it was just a few bruises and they healed nicely). However, the boys are now afraid to go outside. As often is the case with bullying, the bullied become afraid to live their lives. They must learn to overcome this fear. They must find a way to "beat" the bully without becoming a bully themselves. It is my hope that this is the story I will tell. The story of overcoming the fear and the trepidation that comes with bullying and overcoming the bullies themselves. I have an idea for the end of the book. But of course I won't be revealing that to anyone. Guess you'll just have to wait for the book's release. 

I will try to get on here more often and keep up with my posting. 

Review of a Product...

Ordinarily, I do not review products. If I like something, I may tell a few people about it, and if I don't like something I may speak up when asked, or if I hear that someone else is considering purchasing the product. However, I feel that this product deserves to be reviewed, not because it is a good product, but because it is an epic failure. That product is the Lysol Healthy Touch No-Touch Hand Soap System.

When we first purchased this product, I would have given it 5 beautiful stars. It was great. No contamination on the soap dispensers, no yucky goo from our hands getting on them either. The product was easy to use, and dispensed a perfect amount of soap for my (then) 5 year old daughter to not be left in charge of judging on her own. 

Now, I would give this product a sad single star. I am not sure it is even worthy of the 1 star. After a couple months of use, the bathroom dispenser began to bubble and take on water. How did this happen? The best we can come up with is that it could not handle the steam of the shower. We changed the batteries when the light started flashing, and it quit altogether. Perhaps the battery compartment got wet as well? 

So, we moved the kitchen dispenser into the bathroom and set the one from the bathroom to air dry. Almost immediately, this second dispenser began asking for new batteries (it has a red light that flashes to indicate dying batteries). So, we changed the batteries. That is when this dispenser began making funny clicking noises. I went into the bathroom to investigate the noise. The dispenser was grinding away and dispensing copious amounts of soap onto the counter top.  Not only did it drain an almost full soap refill, but it was also filled with water. 

What an utter disappointment this (not cheap) product has been. I attempted to post my review on Lysol.com. I even registered for an account so I could do so. It refuses to let me log in after I click write a review. Out of curiosity, I scrolled through the reviews. Many of the 4 & 5 star reviews that I have read sound like how we originally felt about the product. The 1 & 2 star reviews all bear similar complaints to the one that I am posting here. 

I wanted to share this because I figure that many of you, like us, have young children and think what a great thing a no touch dispenser would be. I do hope that this review has been helpful. Thank you for taking the time to read my product review.

Bear B. & Stone are adventuring along...

Bear B. & Stone are working their way through this first Adventure. I wasn't expecting to write a story about bullying, and I really didn't plan on either of our babies to end up hurt. That's what happened today. Stone has been injured by the mean bullies. Now, I have to figure out how hurt he is. I have to decide what's going to happen next.

The bullies aren't the only new characters to make an appearance in this story. There is the girl down the street that pops up from time to time. Not really sure what her purpose is yet, but I'm sure she will reveal it to me in time. Then there is Cupcake and Danger. They are fast becoming a couple of my favorite friends. Bear B. is enjoying getting to know them, as well. I hope that they establish themselves to appear in many more Adventure books in the future.

There is of course the humans, Bear B.'s humans. There is one to represent each of the four of us. I suppose they bear some resemblance to the real humans in our household, but they are only background in the story. Bear B.'s humans play an important roll in his life, and I want to show how much he loves each and every one of them, but I do not want them to overpower the story.

I really wasn't expecting to end up as far as I have. For a while there, I was suffering from writer's block that I thought I would never break through. Then, the fog in my brain cleared, and the story began flowing once again. I have now completed chapter five. There is still a long way to go before their first story is complete, but I am thoroughly enjoying the Adventure already.

On a side note, my 14 year old son even said he enjoyed hearing what part of the story I had to tell already. I take this as a good sign!

Bullying...

As I watch the news and see all these stories about bullying and anti-bullying, I am so sad. Initially, the biggest problem that Bear B. was going to have to deal with was moving. He was going to deal with being the new dog in town, and also there is a missing toy that must be packed in one of these boxes somewhere.

I am still sticking with the initial story line. Bear B. And Stone have moved into a new home with their humans. Everything is slowly being unpacked and put away. Bear B's favorite toy is still missing. However, as they go exploring the neighborhood, they have encountered a couple of bullies. 

They are not who you would expect to be bullies. I wanted to break away from traditional stereotyping. As a matter of fact, the "big, mean" dogs that you would expect to be the bullies will be making an appearance, with an opportunity to show off the sweeter side of these mean breeds. I thought anti-stereotype would be a good lesson to learn along with an anti-bullying theme.

I want to help give children something they can relate to. Something innocent that perhaps can help them to express their feelings and to be able to talk about bullying. For example, while reading with their parents, parents can ask how their children feel about what is happening and ask them if they've ever had any similar experiences. 

Don't worry, I still intend to keep Bear B. & Stone fun. I don't want to write a story that will bring everybody down. I will show how they overcome the bullies, and who helps them. You can't lick bullying on your own. This is a lesson I have struggled to teach my children over the years. I figure I am probably not the only parent who searches for ways to help my children understand bullying and how to overcome it without losing themselves. 

It is going to be a harder story to write. I am going to have to go deep back in my memory. Back to when I was the new girl, in a new town, in a new school, and I wasn't very welcome. Back when I was the chubby girl that needed a bra long before my classmates did, and dealt with ridicule and downright meanness. Then, I have to turn all of that into what happens when doggies and kitties are being bullied (or doing the bullying). 

I only pray that I can do this story justice. I want to tell an entertaining story, but I also don't want to make light of the epidemic that is plaguing our schools. 

In the future, I would also like to make a book for the younger crowd about bullying and seeking help. The schools teach about tattle-tailing, and then the students become fearful of being a tattle-tale and therefore do not want to tell on the bully. We must find this line for our children and draw it. 

Congratulations!!!

Wow! We had 477 entries in our Goodreads Giveaway! Thank you all for your interest in our newest book, I Love the Changing Seasons.

Congratulations to the winners, Sara Lloyd and Angie Nielsen! Your books will arrive in the mail soon. We would love to hear from you after you've read I Love the Changing Seasons. Please post your review to Goodreads, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble. Thank you.

For those of you that did not win, but were still interested in reading I Love the Changing Seasons it is available for purchase in a few places:

Directly through the publisher's website
At Barnes and Noble
Or you can purchase on Amazon (where it is available in both print and Kindle formats)





Thank you all again for your interest and congratulations once again to the winners!

Bear B. & Stone adventure on...

Today, I think I broke the writer's block. Bear B. has been out exploring, and there is some sort of tension developing. I am not yet sure where it will lead, but I am enjoying the unfolding of this particular story. I was unsure what I would do when it came to writing a children's chapter book. It is not anything I had every thought to do before, but after a few little fans brought it up, I had to explore the idea. I am so glad that I did. It is really a lot of fun.

Meanwhile, the real Bear & Stone are being incredibly boring as of late. They aren't providing any inspiration. I guess I will just have to write on without them and hope that they catch up.

Changes to my Blog

For the past few hours, I have been editing my blog to make it more compatible with everything else that is going on.

First thing I'd like to point out is that I have removed the option to contact me for reviews. For those of you who I have promised reviews, I will still be reviewing your books. I don't want you to worry. However, I am finding that with writing and promoting and events etc etc etc, I really don't have as much time to read as I used to.

Everything else was pretty much cosmetic. I will continue to post about books that I do find the time to read, and I will try and keep you posted on all that is going on with the books, both published and in the works, as best I can. Please bear with me as I am still learning about blogging, publishing, and being an author. Who would have thought it was such a learning experience?

Thank you for your patience and support. If you would like to follow this blog, you can select one of the options along the right hand side of this blog.

Mailbox Monday

I've never actually had a mailbox Monday before. ;) I am excited to announce that today I did have a special gift waiting for me in my mailbox!





I have not begun reading it yet, as I've only had it for a couple of hours, but I am truly excited to be reviewing this book. Initially, I put it on my wish list before Christmas, and had really been hoping to receive some Amazon gift cards. I did not receive any Amazon gift cards and therefore did not knock anything off my wish list.

I was delighted when Ms. Goodwin contacted me and asked if I would be interested in reviewing The Christmas Village for her. Of course, I replied with an unequivocal "YES!". I will be reading it with my (soon to be) 6 year old daughter. I am looking forward to sharing it with her.

A special thank you to Ms. Goodwin for thinking of me. I will post my review as soon as we finish.

Ms. Goodwin, my husband had a couple of questions regarding your cover art, if you happen to be reading this post. As my cover artist, he is always paying close attention to the covers that come through the house.

His questions were:

1.  Do you self illustrate?
2.  What paint was used on the wood panel? (acrylic, oil, or tempera)

He absolutely LOVES the smoothness of the colors with the textured look of the wood panel.

Thank you for stopping by to read my blog. Don't forget, you can sign up to follow my blog via blogger, email or networked blogs.

As promised...

As I promised last night, here is the information for entering to win one of two free copies of I Love the Changing Seasons.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

I Love the Changing Seasons

by Tiffany A. Higgins

Giveaway ends March 10, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

                      Enter to win

Good luck! I will try and post a real blog post later today.

Release and more writing...

First, as you may have seen in the press release, I Love the Changing Seasons has been released. You can pick it up on CreateSpace or Amazon.






We would love to hear from our readers. Please, if you read I Love the Changing Seasons take a moment to write up a review. Thanks.

As for the writing, I have actually managed to get a bit more done. Today was one of those days where my two personalities were fighting over the keyboard. I managed to appease them both.

The writing for The Adventures of Bear B. & Stone was very successful today. I almost have chapter 2 completed. We met a new character. I was not expecting her to make an appearance, although I knew that new characters were on their way. She may be stemming from an old dog of mine whom I miss dearly. So far, she has begun to remind me of this old dog. Only time will tell if that is who she really is.

They have started to actually explore. Thus, their first adventure is underway. What will they find? Where will they go? Only time will tell the answers to these questions, but I am anxious to move along with the writing simply to find out what Bear B. & Stone have in store for me.

Tomorrow will begin the giveaway for I Love the Changing Seasons. It will be held on Goodreads, and Goodreads will select the winners for us. Two [autographed] copies will be given away. The giveaway will last for a month and the winners will be selected on March 10th. I will post the details to that giveaway sometime tomorrow.

In the meantime, I am hosting a giveaway for my novel. This is something for mom & dad to enjoy. This drawing ends on March 1st.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

    Child Eater

    by Tifanne Messer

                         Giveaway ends March 01, 2012.
                   See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Thank you for stopping by to read my blog. Sorry I don't have anything more exciting to announce or talk about today. Two releases, two blogs, and two works in progress kinda takes a lot out of you. I do hope you will bear with me. Please feel free to follow my blog.

Press Release

Can I do it again?

So, I just finished posting an awesome post over on my other blog. I can say that, because admittedly my blog posts are rather bland. Therefore, I thought that I should come over here and try and do it again. I make no promises, as that one took a lot out of me. LOL.

I have been trying to keep you up to date on everything regarding my husband's and my picture books, as well as the (in the works) chapter book. So, I thought I would try to share a little bit about these things.

First, we are looking to release I Love the Changing Seasons sometime this week. It is already available for Kindle. Here is what you can expect. I Love the Changing Seasons follows the seasons through the course of a year. It talks of the fun things that you can do during those seasons and some of the things you can expect the weather to do. Once more, I told the story entirely in rhyme. The rhythm of the story is meant to sooth a young child while entertaining an older one. Clark dabbled with watercolor for the first time (if you exclude the cover to my alter ego's recently released novel) and the illustrations turned out beautifully. We are excitedly awaiting the release of our second book.

This second book is dedicated to the students, staff and families of Gardens Elementary, where we visited just before Christmas. We were delighted by the reception there, and awed by the powerful and wondrous questions and thoughts posed by the students and staff during our visit.

I have told you some of what I am working on with my first chapter book. The idea of doing  a chapter book came from some wonderful students from the aforementioned school. When one of their students stood up to ask if I was going to write a chapter book, I had to say that I honestly had not planned on it. However, the more I mulled it over in my mind, the more fun the idea became.

This is the birth of The Adventures of Bear B. & Stone. The series is actually going to center around my dog and my husband's cat. Perhaps you would be interested in hearing a little bit about the two characters that you will be meeting when the first adventure is completed. First, there is Bear B. His real name is Bear, but one day I was attempting to call him "Bear Baby" and the two words melded together, producing his new nickname and the name of the main character in my new series. He is an interesting hybrid of Border Collie and Chow Chow. Having a hard time picture it? Here he is.

Bear B.

He is quite the character. He is an unusual dog who does not like to play outside for more than five minutes, isn't in your face needy of attention all the time, and plows into anything and everything wherever he goes. He is almost 3 years old and the sweetest, most loving dog you will ever know. There are a few things that will change about his personality during the course of the series, but much of what makes him unique will stay intact. I don't want to reveal too much, as I hope you will meet him soon enough.

The other crazy character is my husband's cat, Stone. He was a wildcat when my husband picked him up on the side of the road just over 14 years ago. He barely opened his eyes, and fit comfortably in Clark's flannel pocket. His mother had abandoned him on the side of the road, and Clark was loathe to leave him there. The first thing he fed his new kitten was Frito's. He still has a love of all things potato chip. He also loves Italian cooking (perhaps proving he is a relative of the famed feline, Garfield). He has been with Clark ever since, and by default with me since Clark and I began dating more than a decade ago. His personality is strange in itself. He is more dog than cat. In fact, he trained one of our previous dogs on how to be a dog, and has confused many a cat on the art of catness. He has absolutely no grace. He NEVER lands on his feet, and knocks things over on a regular basis. I hope that his counterpart in the new series will leave readers laughing as much as he makes us laugh on a daily basis.

Stone

Our pets are a part of our family and, thus being, will provide inspiration and entertainment to our books. Clark will be including one black and white drawing per chapter.

I hope that you have enjoyed meeting the main characters of our upcoming chapter book. They look forward to entertaining all of you in the years to come. Please remember to follow my blog to stay up to date on the latest news about all things books. We thank you for your continued support.

Released to Kindle

We are happy to announce that I Love the Changing Seasons is finished! Clark completed the last of the illustrations yesterday. Today I put everything together. The Kindle version is ready for your reading pleasure. However, it will be another week or two before the print version is ready. I will keep you posted on the progress. In the meantime, here is the link to the Kindle version. We'd love to hear reviews by you and your children.

Reading and writing and everything in between...

First, I owe my apologies to Michelle once again. I thought that I would have time to participate in the read-a-thon as Child Eater had been released and I Love the Changing Seasons is still a work in progress. However, once again I fell short on the reading. Partially it is because I am sick and cannot focus on anything for long before the pressure in my head builds beyond bearing. This includes reading and writing, unfortunately.

I did manage to get some reading done. I started on a Kathy Reichs novel. I had a hard time getting into it. It is very technical, and there is a French-Canadian aspect that I was not expecting from my experience with the TV show Bones. I was unable to get into the book. I am not giving up on her books, but as I said before, my head is in a fog and focus has been lacking. So, I switched to another book on my list. I began reading Bodyguards in Bed. It is a compilation of three stories from three different writers. I did read the first story in it, which I enjoyed quite a bit. However, as is often the case with collaborative works, I found myself wishing that the story was a full length novel instead of part of a compilation. I felt robbed of what could have been a far more intense story. However, it serves a secondary purpose in itself. I now have another author to add to my list of new authors I would like to explore more thoroughly. I will include my thoughts on this story as well as the other two when I write my full review.

I did manage to get a little bit more writing done on The Adventures of Bear B. and Stone Kitty. I thought I might share an excerpt from the beginnings of this new adventure here.

   My name is Bear B. I lived in a wonderful little house right in the center of town with my humans. I could watch the kids coming and going from school right out my window. Sometimes, I could even bark at them when someone forgot and left me in the yard. But one day, that all changed. They bought us a new house out in the country.

   I don’t know why my humans insisted on moving us to this new house. I was content with the old one. When we arrived, everything was in boxes and bags. I got lost trying to find my way from room to room. I am not a fan of change, and to make it all worse, I couldn’t find my froggy.

   I wandered from room to room, lost and confused. The furniture was all there. It was all the same pieces I was used to, but the boxes were stacked everywhere. Just as I was wandering through the last of the bedrooms, I saw Stone Kitty peeking out of one of the boxes.

   “What are you doing?” I asked him.

   “Exploring,” he answered vaguely.

   “Did you discover the location of my froggy during your explorations?” I inquired next.

   He replied with a grunt and gracelessly hopped out of the box, sending it tumbling to the floor. Its contents spilled out before me. I nosed through the mess. There was no froggy there.

   I wandered back into the living room. My boy was there on the couch. I whimpered and whined. I tried to ask him for my froggy. He wasn’t listening. I collapsed on the floor at his feet.

   “Harrumph.”

   I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew it was dark outside.

   “Mom, I can’t find any pajamas,” my girl yelled from down the hall.

   “Wear one of your brother’s t-shirts,” Mom yelled back from the kitchen.

   “What t-shirts?” my boy shouted back.

   Mom headed towards my little humans. I followed on her heels. Perhaps while she found the pajamas she could also find my froggy. 

I would love to hear some thoughts and feedback on this excerpt. I know it isn't much, but it's what I have thus far.

What's in the Works?

So, we have quite a few projects going on right now. First, my alter ego just released her first book. For more information you can visit her blog here. You can also stay up to date on her plans and progress by becoming a fan on Facebook.

Meanwhile, Clark is working hard (although today he is taking a break so it is more accurate to say hardly working LOL) on the illustrations for I Love the Changing Seasons. It is a process and we anticipate it being a few more months before it is ready for release.

In the meantime, by popular request of our older readers, I am working on a chapter book for the older elementary students. The Adventures of Bear B. and Stone Kitty (working title only), has begun its decent into the literary world. I have been scratching out ideas and working hard on pulling together the first chapter.

To stay up to date on the latest news and information about both works, check out our new fan page on Facebook here.

Time for another read-a-thon!

Today starts another read-a-thon, hosted by Michelle over at The True Book Addict. If you would like to join, you can sign up here.

Now to decide what to read. I have such a huge stack of TBR. Where shall I begin. Between the Kindle Books I now have on my new Kindle Fire and the stack of books I have won over the last few months and the stack I have of books I received for Christmas, I am definitely not short of any to choose from.

The mini challenge for today is to take a photo of my TBR and to choose my titles. I will start with the photos.

My Christmas Presents TBR

My Prize Winning TBR

My TBR that's been waiting FOREVER, lol

This doesn't even include the stacks of TBR inside my Kindle, as I am not sure a picture would turn out for that. I believe I am going to start with Kathy Reichs. I absolutely LOVE the show Bones, and have wanted to check out the books since the beginning of the show. My husband finally located the first three books in the series this last Christmas. So far as I can tell, this is the first book.

So, it is where I will begin. I look forward to not only reading the start of a TV series I love, but also comparing the differences and similarities between the book and the show, as I often do with books and movies, so why not for a TV show?

Good luck and happy reading to my fellow read-a-thoners, and thank you again Michelle for hosting. :)

The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

Well, The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge comes to an end in a few hours. I guess I didn't do to bad considering that I had a much busier Christmas season than I am used to. I made it to mistletoe level on the reading challenge levels ladder.

Levels:
--Candy Cane: read 1 book
--Mistletoe: read 2-4 books
--Christmas Tree: read 5 or 6 books (this is the fanatic level...LOL!)
Additional levels:
--Fa La La La Films: watch a bunch or a few Christmas movies...it's up to you!
--Visions of Sugar Plums: read books with your children this season and share what you read
*the additional levels are optional, you still must complete one of the main reading levels above

I managed to complete a total of 3 books and one short story. I am so close to finishing what was intended to be my final novel for the challenge, but I seem to have fallen short. I will still finish the novel, of course, but it does not appear that I will manage to finish it in time to include it in my wrap-up. For more detailed information on my reading during The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge, you can visit this post.

I did make it to Fa La La La Films level. Lordy, did I ever watch a bunch of Christmas films. Between all the childhood favorites that continue from generation to generation (Classics such as Rudolph or Frosty) and you cannot forget Lifetime, LMN, and Hallmark for all the romance Christmas movies. Then, there were also a few movies picked up on other channels. My favorite of course was It's a Wonderful Life. The Christmas season is never complete without that movie.

And, I managed to make it into the Visions of Sugar Plums level as well. I must have read We've Seen Santa a billion times. Okay, probably not really, but it sure felt that way. My daughter has it memorized. The other day when the kids received a late Christmas present from their Nonnie; she said, "Let's open up gifts and have some fun." Proof that she has either heard it or read it far too many times, LOL. We also read Jingle All the Way. You can read my thoughts on this book/stuffed friend set on the previous reading challenge post as linked above.

Thanks again Michelle for inviting me to participate in this reading challenge. I look forward to the many more events you will be hosting throughout the year. Also thank you to everyone for being so patient with me as I lapsed on updating or even existing on the internet these last couple of months. Slowly getting my groove back I swear. Now to just get rid of this dang upper respiratory infection...