Sunday Post & Book Pre-order Campaigns Galore: 8/6/23

What’s been happening since my last Sunday Post:

I went to Spain and Italy! Check out my post with pictures and highlights of the trip.

Getting Danielle ready to go back to school. She leaves for Purdue on the 19th, so we’ve been making the most of her last couple of weeks home!

Playing a new D&D campaign – Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos. Danielle doesn’t really like D&D, but Jade loves it – so we thought we’d try a new campaign to see if it would interest Danielle more and get her playing. (Noah’s not a big D&D fan either, but we’ve given up on getting him to play.) Jade pointed out that Danielle was always the “DM” of their Littlest Pet Shop adventures when they were kids (LOL!) and talked her into trying her hand at DMing this new campaign. Strixhaven is a magic school with lots of opportunity for role-playing, and while we’ve only played a few times so far, I think it’s so much fun!

I’ve already completed my second round of edits! We’re mostly done at this point, but we’ll be doing one more round after a sensitivity read. The editing process has gone by much faster than I expected, so it’s all felt like a bit of a whirlwind!

A new title. That’s right. My book has a new title: THE SONG OF ORPHAN’S GARDEN

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What I Read:

• I finished reading Come See the Fair by Gavriel Savit, which I liked a lot. I was a little nervous, since I had read some not-so-great reviews that said it was too dark for middle grade, but I think MG is getting a bit darker of late, and it’s fine for the older MG reads it’s intended for.
• Then I read Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino. Loved this own-voices romance about a Deaf girl who spends her summer working at a summer camp where she hopes to learn more ASL and feel more a part of the Deaf community.
• And Year on Fire by Julie Buxbaum, a riveting YA contemporary that follows several teenagers through a school year of friendships (built and broken), romances, family issues, and the mounting pressures of the journey into adulthood.
• Next came Alysa Wishingrad’s marvelous Between Monsters and Marvels, a middle grade fantasy set in a world where dangerous monsters were said to have once existed – or perhaps they still do?
• I then read Jay’s Gay Agenda by Jason June, which ventured a little too close to cheating territory for me to truly love it (but that’s a me thing).
• Finally I read The Big Flush by Julie Buxbaum. Hey, I read two of her books since my last Sunday Post! This one is just a little different – a very goofy middle grade follow-up to The Area 51 Files. I recommend the first book to my younger MG readers at B&N all the time, and this one keeps the humor and excitement going!
• I finished listening to The Civil War of Amos Abernathy by Michael Leali, a book that highlights the mostly unknown history of LGBTQ+ Americans and features a sweet MG romance.
• Then I listened to You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao, which honestly felt a little slow to me, but I know everyone adores this book, so maybe I just wasn’t in the right headspace for it?
• Finally, I started listening to The School for Whatnots by Margaret Peterson Haddix, which is the Barnes & Noble monthly pick for August. I have been loving this one right from the very start – I didn’t want to stop listening when I got to work!

What I Watched:

• I watched a few more episodes of Manifest, but then (as is often the case for me), I ended up losing steam with it once I stopped watching over our vacation. I’ll probably watch again once Danielle is back at school, since I’ve mostly been watching shows with her lately.
• Danielle was craving some Spanish after leaving Spain, so we watched Welcome to Eden. This show is trippy, and the farther we got into it, the less many of the characters’ actions made sense to us, but it definitely pulls you into the mystery. By the end I’m not sure we actually liked any of the characters, though. And since the show is canceled, I guess we’ll never find out if those aliens are real or not. (I suspect yes, Danielle says no.)
• My “turn something mindless on while doing other things” show lately has been Is It Cake? season 2.
• And then we had to binge all of Heartstopper season 2 on August 3rd, the day it came out! It’s impossible to top season 1, which made us fall in love with Nick and Charlie, but we weren’t disappointed – and we liked that we got to know the secondary characters a little better in this one.

Here’s what you may have missed on the blog since my last Sunday Post:

• MY TRIP TO SPAIN AND ITALY IN PICTURES!
• JULY 2023 MONTHLY WRAP-UP ROUND-UP LINK-UP AND GIVEAWAY
• AUGUST 2023 DISCUSSION CHALLENGE LINK-UP & GIVEAWAY!

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Book Blogger Birthdays and Blogoversaries:

Guys, I think I’m going to stop posting these for now. Since I haven’t been putting up a Sunday Posts every week, I’m not consistent about them.

Working on Sundays has made it a lot harder to do the tasks I used to always do on Sundays, which means I’m getting to most of these birthdays and blogoversaries late, so I’ve basically stopped posting them on Twitter.

And honestly, I don’t think that anyone pays attention to them here on the blog? Feel free to let me know if I’m wrong.

Maybe at some point, I’ll figure out a new routine and start posting on Twitter again, but for now I’m cutting this section of the Sunday Post.

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NEW Pre-order Campaigns

Head over to my Pre-Order Campaigns Page to see ALL of the pre-order deals, including pictures!!

I recently realized that Barnes & Noble has a page on its site listing their own BARNES & NOBLE PREORDER SWEEPSTAKES. There are almost 50 books currently on this list, and it gets updated all the time. Pre-ordering any of these books from B&N will enter you to win special prizes! If any of the books have regular pre-order campaigns too, you can still enter those as well, of course.

Here’s a list of the pre-order campaigns I added to the list this week:

Pre-order PIPPA PARK CRUSH AT FIRST SIGHT by Erin Yun to receive a signed bookplate, a bookmark, exclusive stickers, and an invite to a live Q&A with the author! (US only) (Ends 9/12) CLICK FOR DETAIL

Pre-order the hardcover edition of ROOK by William Ritter to receive an exclusive art print set of all five covers from Rook and the bestselling Jackaby series! (US only)(Ends 8/21) CLICK FOR DETAILS

Pre-order GIRL, INCORRUPTED by Megan Bledsoe to receive a printable bookmark and an auspicious quote from the book! (Ends 9/12) CLICK FOR DETAILS

Pre-order THE MIS-ARRANGEMENT OF SANA SAEED by Noreen Mughees from Doylestown Books to receive a custom signed bookplate and a beautiful custom bookmark! (Ends 10/9) CLICK FOR DETAILS

Pre-order SKELEANOR THE DECOMPOSER by Emily Ettlinger OR request it from your local library to receive a bookmark and two bookplates! (Ends 8/15) CLICK FOR DETAILS’

Pre-order DRAWN TO CHANGE THE WORLD by Emma Reynolds from a participating Indie bookstore to receive n exclusive wooden pin and signed bookplate! (US/UK)(Ends 9/11) CLICK FOR DETAILS

Pre-order THE LIBRARY OF SHADOWS by Rachel Moore from the bookshop Nashville to receive a signed/personalized copy and an exclusive print! (Ends 9/4) CLICK FOR DETAILS

Pre-order CHAMPION OF FATE by Kendare Blake to receive a metal pin! (US only–but there’s a chance for an INT giveaway)(Ends 9/18) CLICK FOR DETAILS

Pre-order THRONE OF THE FALLEN by Kerri Maniscalco to receive access to an exclusive newsletter filled with early content! Also if you pre-order the UK edition, you are guaranteed to get a copy with the beautiful Envy foil design under the cover (which will only appear in the first UK print run). (US/UK) (Ends 10/2) CLICK FOR DETAILS

Pre-order THE MIDNIGHT KINGDOM by Tara Sim from Books, Inc to receive a signed copy and a series of four exclusive character cards! (Ends 8/21) CLICK FOR DETAILS

Pre-order THOSE PINK MOUNTAIN NIGHTS by Jen Ferguson OR request it from your local library to receive a signed bookplate and stickers and/or magnets. Plus, $1 will be donated to The Bear Clan Patrol! (INT)(Ends 9/11) CLICK FOR DETAILS

Pre-order FAMILY MEAL by Bryan Washington from Blue Willow Bookshop to receive a signed, personalized copy, plus photo prints courtesy of the author! (Ends 10/9) CLICK FOR DETAILS

Pre-order THE GLASS SCIENTIST by S.H. Cotugno to receive an enamel pin, sticker, and more (final details to come). (Ends 10/2) CLICK FOR DETAILS

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Lots of good stuff! Have any news? Feel free to share in the comments!

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