Hello everybody! I hope you will be joining me for A-Z Blogging Challenge which officially begins April 1st. Just a reminder to people who I hope are reading this, please comment. I love comments as I am sure you do too.
I will come by your blog and say hello and you could possibly even have return trips from me if you get on the list over there to the right------------------->
In case you are new here, I am blogging children's book reviews all month long.
Just a shout out to authors: If you would like for me to review your book, I prefer a physical copy of your book and will review on Amazon and Goodreads. My blog gets cross posted in numerous social media too. email me at nailamoon1968 at gmail dot com
I look forward to this fun yearly event. Whoo hoo...
And, I, Am, Off!
~M.M.
PS>To follow others on Twitter go to #AtoZChallenge
Friday, March 31, 2017
Thursday, March 23, 2017
A-Z Blog Challenge Theme Reveal 2017 #atozchallenge
Hello, all. It is approaching April again and that means it is time to do the annual A-Z Blog Challenge that I participate in every year. This year I thought I would change it up and do something different but alas, my mind says, "nope!"
So, what am I going to do? Well, that is the whole purpose of the theme reveal. Of course, me, being me, is a bit behind as we were supposed to reveal on Monday and here it is Thursday. Okay, okay, I plain forgot that we do this and barely am remembering that it is almost April.
So, get on with it...right?
Here it is...my big reveal...drum roll, please
...I said, DRUM ROLL! bah, dah, dah, dah....bing...
I am doing a children's book review every day beginning with the letter of the day.
1. I reserve the right to leave off the words: the, a, and an
However, I also reserve the right to keep them if it fits the letter of the day. HA!
2. The review will likely not be as extensive as I usually would write for a book. This means I may or may not add the author or his/her links to a buy now page. The only exception to that will be if it is a book tour that I am part of.
3. There may or may not be giveaways attached to a book, again depending on if I am with a tour.
4. Some of the books that I will be reviewing will come from my own TBR pile and others will come from the library. All will get an Amazon review.
5. If you comment with a link, I will come visit your page and reciprocate. I appreciate you commenting and reading as I am sure you do too.
6. If you would like to be added to my sidebar linky for this challenge, let me know in a comment only with your link and I will add. I will not add however any kind of adult theme related links. This is to my discretion after I visit your blog.
HAPPY BLOGGING! Until then, keep visiting my page for new reviews, spotlights, and giveaways!
~M.M.
Friday, March 17, 2017
#Review & #Giveaway: How To Find Your Dream Dog by Dixie Tenny #nonfiction
Summary:
How To Find Your Dream Dog is here to fix the disconnect of dog ownership. It walks you step-by-step through the process of choosing the right type of dog for you—not only exploring the canine qualities that can determine your perfect puppy, adolescent, or adult dog but also assessing your lifestyle to make sure you’re a good match for the dog too. The book also looks at good (and bad) sources for finding healthy and sound pet dogs, gives guidelines for evaluating individual puppies, and warns of some red flags to watch out for during your dog search. With this guidebook in hand, you can be confident that the next puppy or dog you bring home will be the right companion and friend for you for the rest of its days.
My review:
I have been wanting a dog for awhile now. I do realize that there are all sorts of sizes of dogs and breeds but other than that, not much more do I know. Reading this book, opened my eyes to many things a potential dog owner should think about.
The author wrote a comprehensive book in just a few pages, less than 150 to be exact. She includes everything from breed types, to temperament, to care, and owner lifestyle. She is quick to point out that a new puppy is like having a new baby in the house, it takes time and patience to train to be with you and your household. The author is quick to tell the reader that this puppy is meant to be with you for the rest of its life. This is the sole purpose of the book so that the owner picks the right dog for him/her and does not have to return the dog to a shelter.
The author's years of training dogs are exemplified throughout the entire book and is a good guide to picking just the right dog. For this purpose, it is worth buying the book.
The only negative that I do have is that the book is meant to be just a guide. For reading other than that, it serves no other purpose. Also, the book could have been shortened even further into a novelettish or pamphlet size if the pages had been written in 12 point font and not larger font. The larger font to extend the book was unnecessary.
3 stars.
Buy the Book: Amazon
Where to find the author:
Dixie Tenny is a Certified Training Partner with the Karen Pryor Academy of Animal Training and Behavior. During her 30+ years spent working with people and their pets, she has seen again and again how mismatches between dog and its owner can create “behavior problems” that never would have happened if the right dog had been matched to the right owner in the first place. She wrote this book to help puppy buyers and dog adopters start out on the best possible foot with their new pet dogs, and stay on that path for years to come.
Website ~ Facebook
Disclosure: The views contained here are 100% my own and may differ from yours. This review is also part of the iRead Book Tours.
~M.M. Hudson aka Naila Moon
Giveaway: Win one of 5 Dream Dog prize packages! Each package includes a copy of How to Find Your Dream Dog, a $15 Amazon Gift Card and an Outward Hound Slow Feeder Dog Bowl)
Open to USA & Canada. M.M. Hudson is not responsible for prize shipment. This giveaway is not associated with any social media outlet.
Ends April 8, 2017
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
KID LIT BLOG HOP-March 2017 #KLBH #KidLitBlogHop
HAPPY SPRING! We welcome you to the March 2017 Kid Lit Blog Hop. Apologies for missing last month's blog hop but life sometimes gets in the way. This hop takes place every 3rd Wednesday of the month. It is designed to engage a group of people who love everything that has to do with children's literature. Everyone is welcome to join us: bloggers, authors, publicist, and publishers!
This month I want to point you toward a review I did for the Multicultural Kid's Book Day that I did in January. This children's version of the story of Malala is excellent. Check it out! REVIEW HERE
Have you seen the Kid Lit Blog Hopper Facebook fan page? This page has all the news and information related to the hop plus ongoing posts, giveaways, news articles, etc. related to Kid's Lit. Check it out and of course, please like the page.
So for our hop, please make sure that your posts are related to Children’s literature only and add it to the linky. (Please make sure to add your direct post only) If you are an author, feel free just to link to your blog. Once you are done, then hop around to visit others. Please follow the co-host and visit at least the one or two people above your link. Please leave a comment when you do visit, we all like those.
Also, it would be appreciated if you grab the Kid Lit Blog Hop Badge and display it on your blog and/or your post. Note: Make sure you have the newest badge as the old one goes to the wrong page.
We would also be grateful if you tweet and/or posted on Facebook about the blog hop. Let’s grow this wonderful community.
Thanks for sharing your great children's books with all of us! The hostess will be around to see you.
Happy Hopping!
The Bookshelf Gargoyle, co-host
BeachBoundBooks, co-hostess
Pragmatic Mom, co-hostess
The Logonauts, co-hostess
Spark and Pook, co-hostess
Friday, March 3, 2017
#Spotlight: Secrets of Successful Virtual Book Tours by Roxanne Rhoads
Secrets of Successful Virtual Book Tours
Quick Tips for Authors Guide
Roxanne Rhoads
Book Description:
Are you considering a virtual book tour?
Not sure where to start or exactly what an online tour will entail?
Roxanne Rhoads, book publicist and owner of Bewitching Book Tours, shares her virtual tour expertise in this Quick Tips for Authors Guide.
Secrets of Successful Virtual Book Tours will guide you in utilizing the best marketing tool available- a virtual book tour, which can create online exposure for your book, jumpstart your book sales, help build your author brand, and expand your network.
In this guide you’ll learn:
· what you should do before a tour
· the components of a great author website
· the best social media outlets for authors to utilize
· tips for building your author brand
· how to write great guest blogs
· what to expect from an online book tour
· the secrets of successful book tours
· how to schedule your own virtual book tour
And you’ll receive in-depth details about what to do during a virtual book tour to guarantee success.
Excerpt:
The world of publishing is continuously evolving thanks to technology and the Internet. It is now easier than ever to publish a book. But with the growing number of new books being released every day it is also harder than ever to get your book noticed in the crowd.
If your line of thinking includes- “If I publish it, people will buy it,” think again.
Indie publishing requires a dedication to self-promotion. Gone are the days an author hermits them self away to write, then hands the book to the publisher who does all the leg work for promotion. Even NYT Bestselling authors and those with contracts through the big publishers still have to do a certain amount of self-promotion.
There are many ways to promote: social media, advertising on popular websites and blogs, print advertising in trade magazines, attending reader oriented conventions and events...but one of the best ways to get your book out there and build name recognition as an author is through a virtual book tour.
In this Quick Tips for Authors Guide, you will learn why a virtual book tour can be an author’s most effective marketing tool.
What Readers Are Saying About Secrets of Successful Book Tours
“As a book blogger, I am often surprised by the number of new authors I meet that do not really promote their books. There are a lot of inexpensive and free ways for them to do so. Roxanne Rhoads does an excellent job of laying these ideas out. The book is well-organized and easy to follow. She points out author mistakes and faux pas. She speaks from her past experiences. I have a background in marketing. Roxanne Rhoads has a strong understanding of marketing and does a great job of explaining her suggestions and ideas. I highly suggest this book to all authors. There are many great ideas in this book that can help brand you as an author as well as get your books noticed. There are so many books out there. It is absolutely necessary for an author to promote themselves.” ~ Diane Lynch, Book Blogger
“Jam-packed with useful tips that had be scrambling for my calendar. And the conciseness is frankly another selling point for a busy authorpreneur. Who has time to wade through a bunch of fluff? Not me. And Roxanne doesn't waste our time with that -- she gets straight to the business of book tours. Want to run your own tour? No problem. The book provides advice on DIY'ers as well. From lists of blog ideas to the legal in's and out's of using images, Secrets of Successful Virtual Book Tours has something for novices and old hands like myself. And I believe her branding advice was spot on.” ~ Kirsten Weiss, Author
“This is a must have for any author planning to do a virtual book tour. Most of us wouldn't even think of half this stuff. Roxanne's advice is golden.” ~ Serena Synn, Author
“This book is packed with information on how to not only promote your book but also promote yourself as an author.” ~ Bonnie Amazon Review
I have been doing blog tours with Roxanne for quite some time now and I can say her organization and skills are without a doubt top notch. If I ever actually get around to writing my novel I can assure you that I will use this as a guide. She covers everything from building your brand to what to expect on a blog tour.
Her knowledge is well shared and I think every author that wants to build their brand should read this guy. Simply put this is a must read for any author that wants to exposure that can come with a blog tour. ~Jen Brooks The Cubicle Escapee
In this era of self-publishing, an author needs to do as much as they can to get themselves noticed. Enter the virtual book tour, a tour of blogs on the Internet - as opposed to visiting book stores - with the aim of increasing an author's online presence and ultimately increasing book sales. Roxanne Rhoads guides you through the dos and don'ts of virtual book tours, with great advice on providing fresh material for each tour stop. She covers both tours run by established tour companies and tours you plan yourself, and she includes a list of sites where you can find book bloggers to contact. She also gives you some great advice about setting up your online and social media presence, as well as social media mistakes to avoid.
Roxanne Rhoads is the guru behind Bewitching Book Tours, the first book tour company I ever signed up with. If you're interested in a well-organized blog tour, be sure to check out Bewitching Book Tours. As Roxanne states, "Publication is only the beginning of the process ... promotion is the road to success."
An excellent quick guide for all authors. ~ Lynda Dickson - Books Direct
Recommended reading for anyone considering a blog tour. There is information here that I didn't know and have never come across before. If you want to do-it-yourself, there is a section to help with that as well. How to write a good guest blog, do's and don'ts, even copyright information. It changed the way I think about blog tours and I will be doing things differently the next time around. ~ kmontemayor Amazon Review
This little gem was borne out of Ms. Rhoads' experiences and speaks for itself. It is a must-have reference for authors old and new. ~ AoBibliophile
Secrets of Successful Virtual Book Tours is fantastic compilation of tips, tricks, and learning tools for ensuring your book tour is to your liking. The guide is filled with do's and don'ts as you navigate your tour whether it's your first or your 10th. Learn what a book tour is all about, how to market your author brand, write guest posts, and much, much more. Highly recommended for authors and bloggers, alike. ~Amber Marr Saph’s Book Blog
About the Author:
Roxanne Rhoads has been working in the world of online book promotion since 2005. She has worked as a freelance writer, author, book reviewer, book blogger, editor, self-publisher and book publicist. She has a unique advantage of knowing how multiple sides of book publishing and promotion operate.
Roxanne understands how book bloggers work and what they want to make their jobs easier while also understanding that authors need promotion to be streamlined, easy, and less time consuming.
Roxanne shares some of her knowledge in Secrets of Successful Virtual Book Tours.
Author Website http://www.roxannerhoads.com
Bewitching Book Tours www.bewitchingbooktours.com
Twitter @RoxanneRhoads
Thursday, March 2, 2017
#Spotlight & #Giveaway:Pistols and Petticoats by Erika Janik
Pistols and Petticoats
175 Years of Lady Detectives in Fact and Fiction
by Erika Janik
March 2nd 2017 Book Blast
Synopsis:
A lively exploration of the struggles faced by women in law enforcement and mystery fiction for the past 175 years
In 1910, Alice Wells took the oath to join the all-male Los Angeles Police Department. She wore no uniform, carried no weapon, and kept her badge stuffed in her pocketbook. She wasn’t the first or only policewoman, but she became the movement’s most visible voice.
Police work from its very beginning was considered a male domain, far too dangerous and rough for a respectable woman to even contemplate doing, much less take on as a profession. A policewoman worked outside the home, walking dangerous city streets late at night to confront burglars, drunks, scam artists, and prostitutes. To solve crimes, she observed, collected evidence, and used reason and logic—traits typically associated with men. And most controversially of all, she had a purpose separate from her husband, children, and home. Women who donned the badge faced harassment and discrimination. It would take more than seventy years for women to enter the force as full-fledged officers.
Yet within the covers of popular fiction, women not only wrote mysteries but also created female characters that handily solved crimes. Smart, independent, and courageous, these nineteenth- and early twentieth-century female sleuths (including a healthy number created by male writers) set the stage for Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski, Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta, and Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, as well as TV detectives such as Prime Suspect’s Jane Tennison and Law and Order’s Olivia Benson. The authors were not amateurs dabbling in detection but professional writers who helped define the genre and competed with men, often to greater success.
Pistols and Petticoats tells the story of women’s very early place in crime fiction and their public crusade to transform policing. Whether real or fictional, investigating women were nearly always at odds with society. Most women refused to let that stop them, paving the way to a modern professional life for women on the force and in popular culture.
Book Details:
Genre: Mystery, NonFiction, History
Published by: Beacon Press
Publication Date: February 28th 2017 (1st Published April 26th 2016)
Number of Pages: 248
ISBN: 0807039381 (ISBN13: 9780807039380)
Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Barnes & Noble 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗
Read an excerpt:
With high heels clicking across the hardwood floors, the diminutive woman from Chicago strode into the headquarters of the New York City police. It was 1922. Few respectable women would enter such a place alone, let alone one wearing a fashionable Paris gown, a feathered hat atop her brown bob, glistening pearls, and lace stockings.
But Alice Clement was no ordinary woman.
Unaware of—or simply not caring about—the commotion her presence caused, Clement walked straight into the office of Commissioner Carleton Simon and announced, “I’ve come to take Stella Myers back to Chicago.”
The commissioner gasped, “She’s desperate!”
Stella Myers was no ordinary crook. The dark-haired thief had outwitted policemen and eluded capture in several states.
Unfazed by Simon’s shocked expression, the well-dressed woman withdrew a set of handcuffs, ankle bracelets, and a “wicked looking gun” from her handbag.
“I’ve come prepared.”
Holding up her handcuffs, Clement stated calmly, “These go on her and we don’t sleep until I’ve locked her up in Chicago.” True to her word, Clement delivered Myers to her Chicago cell.
Alice Clement was hailed as Chicago’s “female Sherlock Holmes,” known for her skills in detection as well as for clearing the city of fortune-tellers, capturing shoplifters, foiling pickpockets, and rescuing girls from the clutches of prostitution. Her uncanny ability to remember faces and her flair for masquerade—“a different disguise every day”—allowed her to rack up one thousand arrests in a single year. She was bold and sassy, unafraid to take on any masher, con artist, or scalawag from the city’s underworld.
Her headline-grabbing arrests and head-turning wardrobe made Clement seem like a character straight from Central Casting. But Alice Clement was not only real; she was also a detective sergeant first grade of the Chicago Police Department.
Clement entered the police force in 1913, riding the wave of media sensation that greeted the hiring of ten policewomen in Chicago. Born in Milwaukee to German immigrant parents in 1878, Clement was unafraid to stand up for herself. She advocated for women’s rights and the repeal of Prohibition. She sued her first husband, Leonard Clement, for divorce on the grounds of desertion and intemperance at a time when women rarely initiated—or won—such dissolutions. Four years later, she married barber Albert L. Faubel in a secret ceremony performed by a female pastor.
It’s not clear why the then thirty-five-year-old, five-foot-three Clement decided to join the force, but she relished the job. She made dramatic arrests—made all the more so by her flamboyant dress— and became the darling of reporters seeking sensational tales of corruption and vice for the morning papers. Dark-haired and attractive, Clement seemed to confound reporters, who couldn’t believe she was old enough to have a daughter much less, a few years later, a granddaughter. “Grandmother Good Detective” read one headline.
She burnished her reputation in a high-profile crusade to root out fortune-tellers preying on the naive. Donning a different disguise every day, Clement had her fortune told more than five hundred times as she gathered evidence to shut down the trade. “Hats are the most important,” she explained, describing her method. “Large and small, light and dark and of vivid hue, floppy brimmed and tailored, there is nothing that alters a woman’s appearance more than a change in headgear.”
Clement also had no truck with flirts. When a man attempted to seduce her at a movie theater, she threatened to arrest him. He thought she was joking and continued his flirtations, but hers was no idle threat. Clement pulled out her blackjack and clubbed him over the head before yanking him out of the theater and dragging him down the street to the station house. When he appeared in court a few days later, the man confessed that he had been cured of flirting. Not every case went Clement’s way, though. The jury acquitted the man, winning the applause of the judge who was no great fan of Clement or her theatrics.
One person who did manage to outwit Clement was her own daughter, Ruth. Preventing hasty marriages fell under Clement’s duties, and she tracked down lovelorn young couples before they could reach the minister. The Chicago Daily Tribune called her the “Nemesis of elopers” for her success and familiarity with everyone involved in the business of matrimony in Chicago. None of this deterred twenty-year-old Ruth Clement, however, who hoped to marry Navy man Charles C. Marrow, even though her mother insisted they couldn’t be married until Marrow finished his time in service in Florida. Ruth did not want to wait, and when Marrow came to visit, the two tied the knot at a minister’s home without telling Clement. When Clement discovered a Mr. and Mrs. Charles C. Marrow registered at the Chicago hotel supposedly housing Marrow alone, she was furious and threatened to arrest her new son-in-law for flouting her wishes. Her anger cooled, however, and Clement soon welcomed the newlyweds into her home.
Between arrests and undercover operations, Clement wrote, produced, and starred in a movie called Dregs of the City, in 1920. She hoped her movie would “deliver a moral message to the world” and “warn young girls of the pitfalls of a great city.” In the film, Clement portrayed herself as a master detective charged with finding a young rural girl who, at the urging of a Chicago huckster, had fled the farm for the city lights and gotten lost in “one of the more unhallowed of the south side cabarets.” The girl’s father came to Clement anegged her to rescue his innocent daughter from the “dregs” of the film’s title. Clement wasn’t the only officer-turned-actor in the film. Chicago police chiefs James L. Mooney and John J. Garrity also had starring roles. Together, the threesome battered “down doors with axes and interrupt[ed] the cogitations of countless devotees of hashish, bhang and opium.” The Chicago Daily Tribune praised Garrity’s acting and his onscreen uniform for its “faultless cut.”
The film created a sensation, particularly after Chicago’s movie censor board, which fell under the oversight of the police department, condemned the movie as immoral. “The picture shall never be shown in Chicago. It’s not even interesting,” read the ruling. “Many of the actors are hams and it doesn’t get anywhere.” Despite several appeals, Clement was unable to convince the censors to allow Dregs of the City to be shown within city limits. She remained undeterred by the decision. “They think they’ve given me a black eye, but they haven’t. I’ll show it anyway,” she declared as she left the hearing, tossing the bouquet of roses she’d been given against the window.
When the cruise ship Eastland rolled over in the Chicago River on July 24, 1915, Clement splashed into the water to assist in the rescue of the pleasure boaters, presumably, given her record, wearing heels and a designer gown. More than eight hundred people would die that day, the greatest maritime disaster in Great Lakes history. For her services in the Eastland disaster, Clement received a gold “coroner’s star” from the Cook County coroner in a quiet ceremony in January of 1916.
Clement’s exploits and personality certainly drew attention, but any woman would: a female crime fighter made for good copy and eye-catching photos. Unaccustomed to seeing women wielding any kind of authority, the public found female officers an entertaining—and sometimes ridiculous—curiosity.
Excerpt from Pistols and Petticoats: 175 Years of Lady Detectives in Fact and Fiction by Erika Janik. Copyright © 2016 & 2017 by Beacon Press. Reproduced with permission from Beacon Press. All rights reserved.
Readers Are Loving Pistols and Petticoats!
Check out this awesome article in Time Magazine!
“Erika Janik does a fine job tracing the history of women in police work while at the same time describing the role of females in crime fiction. The outcome, with a memorable gallery of characters, is a rich look at the ways in which fact and fiction overlap, reflecting the society surrounding them. A treat for fans of the mystery—and who isn’t?” ~ Katherine Hall Page, Agatha Award–winning author of The Body in the Belfry and The Body in the Snowdrift
“A fascinating mix of the history of early policewomen and their role in crime fiction—positions that were then, and, to some extent even now, in conflict with societal expectations.” ~ Library Journal
“An entertaining history of women’s daring, defiant life choices.” ~ Kirkus Reviews
Author Bio:
Catch Up With Our Ms. Janik On: Website 🔗, Goodreads 🔗, Wisconsin Public Radio 🔗, & Twitter 🔗!
Tour Participants:
Don't Miss Your Chance to Win Pistols and Petticoats!
This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Erika Janik and Beacon. There will be 5 winners of one (1) print copy of Pistols and Petticoats by Erika Janik. The giveaway begins on March 3rd and runs through March 8th, 2017. The giveaway is open to residents in the US & Canada only.
a Rafflecopter giveawayGet More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours
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