Clowns - Evil or Funny?

The Magic Medallion (Book Two) of my 'Tween, time-travel series, Cynthia's Attic, has best friends, Cynthia and Gus, spending a lot of time at a 1914 circus. At first glance, they are thrilled to be there. What twelve-year-old wouldn't have fun at a circus?

Ah, but after the cotton candy, the circus acts and mid-way games, they run into an evil, bad-breathed (always has a cigar in his mouth) clown named Blackie who, apparently, missed the "Making People Laugh" session at clown-school. Seems it's his life's work to harrass, stalk and generally make everyone around him, miserable.

From my research, the polls are split about 50/50. You either love clowns or hate them. After The Magic Medallion was released, I ran into a reviewer who was deathly afraid of clowns and wrote a rather negative review about The Magic Medallion. I was given the choice to nix the review or use it, warts and all. I chose the former and have regretted it ever since.

Imagine the debate that could've started over my book! "Clowns-Love 'em or hate 'em."

Okay, so maybe it wouldn't stand up to current debates raging today, such as, does Lindsay Lohan deserve 90 days in jail, but I still regret that decision.

An early 1900's circus coming to town

So, where do you stand? Do you love clowns? Do you hate them or are you downright afraid of them? Before making your decision, read The Magic Medallion! I promise you won't be able to stay neutral. Not when it comes to Blackie.

I'm the author of the four-book (soon to be five!) 'Tween time-travel series, Cynthia's Attic.

Download the series on Kindle today!

Mary Cunningham Books
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Jules Verne: Unbelievable True Prophecies

Photos taken from Wikipedia

Jules Verne's novels are still read and studied today. But I've always been interested in the fact that his stories are prophetic in describing modern times. Paris in the 20th Century is an often cited example of this describing air conditioning, automobiles, electricity, television, even the Internet!

Another example is From the Earth to the Moon, which, apart from using a space gun instead of a rocket, is very similar to the Apollo Program, as three astronauts are launched from the Florida peninsula and recovered through a splash landing. In the book, the spacecraft is launched from "Tampa Town." Although Tampa isn't the NASA launch site, Tampa, Florida is approximately 130 miles from Cape Canaveral.

In other works, Verne predicted the inventions of helicopters, submarines, projectors, jukeboxes, and other later devices.

He also predicted the existence of underwater hydrothermal vents that were not discovered until years after he wrote about them.

In the Mysterious Island Verne predicts the development of Hydrogen engines. A group of castaways discuss what will happen when the world's coal reserves are used up, when one of them exclaims, "Water [will replace coal]. Water broken down into its component elements by electricity. . . the hydrogen and oxygen of which it is constituted will be used to furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light. One day, the holds of steamships and the tenders of locomotives will be filled with those two compressed gases, powering their engines with an incalculable calorific force."

Wish he'd predicted the use of other renewable energies like solar power and wind power to replace our dependence on oil! Hmmm...maybe he did.


To read more about this fascinating author, visit Jules Verne Wikipedia page.

Other novels by Jules Verne:

Around the World In Eighty Days

Journey To the Center of the Earth

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Off On A Comet

I'm the author of the 'Tween time-travel series, Cynthia's Attic.

Download the series on Kindle today!

Mary Cunningham Books
Amazon
Kindle
Fictionwise
Quake/Echelon Press

Resolutions - Schmezolutions!

This is not me. It's a picture of a slim, young lady using the same piece of equipment that sits in my bedroom, gathering dust. The same one I assured my husband I would use. "It's easy on the knees; low impact and will allow me to also exercise my upper body. It's perfect!

Yeah, right. Perfect. The first time I used it, I threw out my chronically bad hip. So, it sits. Gathering dust. Oh, I said that already, didn't I?

That was three years ago and hubby's mind has, mercifully, forgotten my previous declaration of vigorous, never-ending exercise and weight loss, and happily bought into my new sure-fire, motivational gimmick, er-uh...stroke of genius! Besides, he had no clue what to get me for Christmas, so...problem solved.

Wii Fit! How could I miss? Yoga, strength training, aerobics, balance exercises. It's perfect and I can do it in the comfort of my own home! We got it a few days before Christmas and loaded it into our existing Wii program. Before I can start playing, however, I have to set up my profile: Age, height, weight...WEIGHT???? This isn't good. Hubby is sitting on the sofa, watching my progress.

I make him hide his eyes while this stupid little animated Wii board shows me I'm overweight! Don't think for a minute you're going to find out the details if I won't even tell him! Let's just say if I weighed what they suggest, I'd be a walking, talking skeleton.

Anyhoo, hope everyone has a great 2010, and please, leave a comment with the resolutions you enjoy breaking the most! Gotta go. I'm making chocolate fudge and snickerdoodles!

Happy New Year!

Mary Cunningham is the author of the award-winning 'Tween fantasy/mystery series, Cynthia’s Attic. She is proud to announce book four, "The Magician's Castle," is due for release in December, 2009. Her children's mystery series was inspired by a recurring dream about a mysterious attic. After realizing that the dream took place in the home of her childhood friend, Cynthia, the dreams stopped and the writing began.

She is also co-writer of the humor-filled, women's lifestyle book, "Women Only Over Fifty (WOOF)," along with published stories, "Ghost Light" and "Christmas Daisy," a Cynthia's Attic short story.

Mary Cunningham Books
Cynthia's Attic Blog
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Kindle
Fictionwise
Quake/Echelon Press

Moral: DON'T PICK THE TULIPS!

This may not be my most embarrassing moment. Those I choose to keep to myself...thank you very much!

This is, however the FIRST embarrassing moment I remember. I was only about six years old, but I remember it like it was yesterday.

Before turning into a brooding, smart-alec teenager and well before Mom turned into the mean, "know-nothing" MOTHER of a brooding, smart-alec teenager, I wanted to please her with something special.

The most special thing I found that spring day was in our neighbor's tulip bed. Gorgeous blooms! Vibrant reds, warm yellows, vivid violets. They captivated my young eyes.

What better gift to show my mom how much I loved her! I'm not sure I picked every single flower, but I came close.

Now, to the embarrassing part. Instead of the anticipated smile of appreciation, all I remember is the look of horror on my mother's face right before she grabbed my hand and marched me up the street to apologize.

Poor Mrs. Boaz was so nice, and tried to tell Mom that it was okay. "No harm done." But even a six-year-old could see the pain on her face having lost an entire bed of beauty she'd nurtured for years.

I never pass a bed of tulips that I don't think of that day.

(Admit it. Wasn't that story better than the one about blowing milk out my nose in the lunch room...all over my new 7th grade "love," Roger?)

Mary Cunningham

Cynthia's Attic Series

Quake

The Perils of Team Projects

It was probably Socrates, or some equally impressive scholar and mentor, who came up with the grand plan of partnering students for a single project, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. There wasn't a school year that went by that didn't involve at least one of these ominous team efforts. If the word on the street is right, partner projects seem to torment students today as well.

Oh, it all starts out fine, especially if you like who's on your team, but then someone (usually the person with all the notes) gets sick, someone else's dog eats the diorama, or someone just 'forgets' their part. Knowing you'll share the final grade, do you cover the weak link on the team, or just cross your fingers and hope for a miracle? When it's over, do you prepare a power point and take your case to the teacher, clearly labeling everyone who dropped the ball?

Partner projects are supposed to teach us how to work with others, how to organize an effort and how to blend individual talent into a cohesive presentation. Nice theory, but how do you make it happen? How do you influence others to participate when they'd rather use group research time to catch up on their sleep?

Looking back, I have to wonder if partner projects weren't created just for the amusement of the administration. It might have started as a social experiment complete with hidden cameras: leave children alone with an assignment and watch the sparks fly – from a safe distance. Or maybe those pesky projects gave the super smart kids a chance to be popular. Everyone envied the group with the genius, especially if they could convince the genius to do all the work.

I suppose partner and team projects are really opportunities to learn how to learn and there's no doubt it takes lots of practice to learn how to play nice with others. I'm trying to recall a team project that went smoothly…and coming up empty. Unless marching band counts? That's where I learned to apply humor, compassion, and snack foods in equal measure to soothe the wounded and weary during long practices and competitions.

Are there any perilous team tales in your past - or present?

Regan

Download the first Pixie Chicks story at Quake today and find more adventure with Regan's Dream Works novella in the Missing anthology available now from Echelon Press.
To learn more about Regan visit her website or her blog.

Fall In Love With A Book

February 14th. The day commonly known as Valentine’s Day. To some people, it is referred to as the ‘Day of Romance’.

With Valentine’s Day only four days away, there are some people who are looking forward to curling up with a good book and reading until they have finally finished the very last page in whatever book they have fallen in love with. At least, I know that is taking up part of my agenda this Saturday.

Valentine’s Day is as good as any day to fall in love with a good book. And the world is filled with amazing books that are waiting for the right readers to pick them up and fall promptly in love with them after the first pages. So go pick a book and allow yourself to be pulled in to the wondrous storyline laid out before you.

Check out the teen titles available for purchase now at http://www.quakeme.com/ and fall in love with one of them!

Alyssa Montgomery

What's In Your Locker?

by Pam Ripling


Do you have lockers at your school? Not talking gym lockers. These are hallway lockers, with steel hinged doors and combination locks acting as temporary storage units for your books, snacks, quick face fixes and whatever else you bring to school but don’t want to lug around.

When I wrote LOCKER SHOCK!, a story about a middle school kid who finds something really terrible in his school locker, our local schools still had hundreds of these storage units on campus. But not long after the book came out, the lockers were removed. Yeah, just ripped out and thrown away! Students were issued a set of “home” textbooks, matching the ones that stayed in the classroom, so that they wouldn’t have to load up their back-breaking backpacks every day.

If you still have them at your school, you might be wondering why our district took them away. Well, it seems that it was costing a lot of money, because a lot of the lockers were damaged every year. Beaten, kicked, scratched, gummed up and soiled. They were infested with cockroaches, too, when kids left behind apple cores, Twinkies and near-empty soda cans.

Also, the school was spending money on “drug-sniffing dogs”—can you imagine? And worst of all… some districts actually found that lockers had become depositories for weapons. The cost of dealing with all these problems far outweighed the cost of the second set of textbooks for each student.

I loved having a locker. My dad built me a little shelf for mine, so I’d have two levels of storage. I had my mirror, and some stickers that actually made me smile when I stopped in between classes. I could stash notebooks, workbooks and my lunch there. Today, kids must drag all that stuff around with them.

What do you think about the locker issue? Should schools keep them, and find other ways to keep lockers safer and cleaner?

Pam Ripling is the author of middle-grade mystery, LOCKER SHOCK! Buy it at Quake, Fictionwise or Amazon today! E-book version now available for your Kindle! Visit Pam at www.BeaconStreetBooks.com.

Searching For A Starry Night on Grill Today at Book Roast blog

Hear that sizzle?

I'm being roasted, grilled and put to the test today. Come see what's cooking today at the Book Roast blog.

Stop by and read a new excerpt from Searching For A Starry Night, A Miniature Art Mystery.

** Visitors can take a chance! Answer a question at the Book Roast blog and you may win a copy of Searching For A Starry Night, A Miniature Art Mystery or get a copy from Quake.

See you at the grill and bring your chef's hat. It seems to be up late so stop by mid-morning.

What do you think of 'zines?

We're trying one out for Team Quake news and you can take a peek at our first Aftershock by clicking here.

If you want to sign up for the 'zine mailing list, you can go here. As a bonus for signing up, you'll get a free pdf of Death Match by Quake author, Sam Morton. It's an especially good read for guys who like wrestling, and it's got a scary real-life challenge in it, too. Happy ending though.

If you liked that read, you can take a look at some more of our downloads at the Quake Publishing site.

How do you read your downloads? Leave us a comment here.

Prepare for Pixies

Four very different girls are best friends and so inseparable the drum major for the marching band dubbed them The Pixie Chicks when they were freshmen. Together they face the typical challenges of high school (homework and guys) and the atypical mysteries of the secret band hangout known as Hobbitville (how DO those statues become portals?)

Inspiration for the series came from my teenage nights spent sneaking about my hometown on several covert missions through a very unique neighbor's garden. I don't think there's a statute of limitations on trespassing, but still - Shhh, don't tell! No, sadly in our case the garden statuary didn't transport us to other cool gardens, or launch us into curious mysteries, but the risky fun we had made for great adventures – at least in our minds. LOL.

Naturally, each of the characters has their own issues and agendas, but one of my favorite quirks is Austin's ability to know every detail about every hot guy in the vicinity. The other Pixies find this informative and amusing, and more than a little scary. After all, Austin doesn't look like a stalker!

As for me, Regan, I'll be posting to the Teen Seen on Fridays. You can wait for blurbs here, or find out more about me and my books at my website. For example: we foster retired racing greyhounds (you can expect a few to pop up in future Pixie tales), have two keeper greyhounds at the moment, two cats, a parakeet (who is sure he's a small, feathered person) and two finches. It's a little like Noah's ark meets a petting zoo, without the admission fee (or the reptiles). Hmmm...maybe I should change that - the fee, not the reptiles!

Happy reading,

Regan

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To buy this $2 e-book click here!