Blog Tour~ Women of Faith in Latter-Days: Volume 3

06 May, 2014 by in Uncategorized 2 comments

I received this book for free from Deseret Book in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Blog Tour~ Women of Faith in Latter-Days: Volume 3

Women of Faith in Latter-Days: Volume 3

by Brittany Chapman, Jr., Richard Turley
Series: Women of Faith
Published by Deseret Book on 2014
Genres: Adult, Non- Fiction
Pages: 377
Format: Hardcover
five-stars
Source: Deseret Book
Buy the BookGoodreads

This groundbreaking series tells the stories of women in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints whose lives of faith and dedication deserve emulation. Each chapter recounts a woman's trials, triumphs, and testimony, often in her own words.

Volume 3 features women born between 1846 and 1870 and includes well-known women and other publicly unknown. Their lifespans range from the era of the Mormon pioneers to the beginnings of the space age. Al these women knew pioneer life firsthand. Many also experienced the gradual transition to modern life and the expansion of the Church to far-flung parts of the globe.

Here you will encounter such diverse women as Martha Hughes Cannon, the first female state senator in the United States; Tsune Ishida Nachie, and early Japanese convert and dedicated missionary; Ellis Reynolds Shipp, a medical doctor in early Utah; Mere Mete Whaanga, a leading Maori who migrated to Utah; general Relief Society presidents Sarah Louisa Yates Robison and Clarissa Smith Williams; and Cohn Shoshonitz Zundel, a Shoshone women who lived nearly fifty years as a widow.

The faith these women exhibited as they rejoiced in blessings and dealt with struggles provides a model for us in facing our own challenges as we strive to build lives of faith today.

Additional biographies of Latter-day Saint women of faith born between 1846 and 1870 are available in the eBook edition of this volume.

Wow! I had no idea Utah had such a rich early history of women holding political office, being doctors, and fulfilling prominent roles in society. This being the first volume I’ve read in the Women of Faith series, I jumped in at volume three, and at a time period I really love. Utah was just on the cusp of gaining statehood and the women activists were fighting for the right to vote and hold office. Women of religious conviction with large families and often with little ones at home who worked in their community post offices and stores, and traveled to the East to obtain higher education. For instance, did you know “in 1896, Martha Hughes Cannon ran as a Democrat” in Utah for one of the open Senate seats? One of her opponents was her Republican husband. Martha won and become the first female Senator in the United States of America. She served two terms in the Utah state legislature. Utah also had the first woman to serve as a Chaplain for the Senate, Maud Mary Babcock.

Between 1911-1913, five Utah women served on the first all-woman town council in Kanab with Mary Elizabeth Woolley Chamberlain as mayor. Women of Faith vol. 3 shares many stories like these, three of just how strong, determined and active LDS women were. I was fascinated by their desire to get their degrees, to serve in their homes an in their government. Other stories include, a sister in Japan who became like a mother to the missionaries in Tokyo, and a Maori sister who came to live in Utah from New Zealand. If you are looking for historical examples, journal entries, photos and testimony of hte early sister Saints, this is a book you will want to buy to have on your shelves. My testimony was bolstered, my faith encouraged and I came away wanting to pursue my dreams while maintaining roots at home. I highly recommend Women of Faith in the Latter Days volume 3, and I will be picking up the rest of the series!

heather

About the Authors

RICHARD E. TURLEY, JR., Assistant Church Historian and Recorder for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the chairman of the editorial board for The Joseph Smith Papers series. He is the author or co-author of several books, including How We Got the Book of Mormon, with William W. Slaughter; Massacre at Mountain Meadows, with Ronald W. Walker and Glen M. Leonard; and Stories from the Life of Joseph Smith, with Lael Littke. In addition, he is the coeditor of the series Women of Faith in the Latter Days, with Brittany A. Chapman. He and his wife, Shirley, live in Taylorsville, Utah.

Brittany A. Chapman is a historian in the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Learn more at Deseret Book.

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Book Reviewer Yellow Pages Blast and $100 Giveaway

02 May, 2014 by in Uncategorized 1 comment

Fire and Ice is happy to be participating in the Book Blast and giveaway for the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages!

Book Reviewer Yellow Pages Front CoverAre you trying to promote your books? Are you a writer, publisher, or agent?

Promote your book with this bestselling author’s reference, the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages. Make your book promotion easier, and get the publicity you need from book reviewers. Learn how and where to submit your book for review. There are hundreds of new book reviewers listed in this book. Each listing details the individual book reviewer’s:

  1. Contact information,
  2. Pet peeves,
  3. Preferred genres, and
  4. Submission guidelines

Reviewers are rated for quality and influence. This new edition includes several blog tour sites and their submission guidelines. Learn how to get the exposure that your book deserves! Authors and book reviewers can sign up for alerts at: http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net

*Note: This book is enrolled in the Kindle MATCHBOOK program. If you purchase the paperback from Amazon, the Kindle edition is free. The paperback has a genre index, which makes searching for accepted genres easy. The Kindle version has clickable website links (which is impossible to do in a paperback), so you can click directly to the reviewer’s site and contact page. The publisher of this book recommends purchasing the paperback and then downloading the Kindle edition for free using Amazon’s Matchbook program, and using both versions to maximize your promotion efforts.

PROMO TIP: This is a reference book with active hyperlinks in the e-book. It is easier to view and use the Kindle edition of this book on a computer using Amazon’s free Kindle app. That way, you can use the full screen to check genre preferences and submit your query right from your desktop.

 

Purchase

Barnes & Noble * Kobo * Amazon

 

Book Reviewer Yellow Pages EditorInterview with Christine Pinheiro, Editor, Defiant Press

The Book Reviewer Yellow Pages is a bestselling author’s promotional reference, designed specifically for authors who need book reviewers for their books.

Where did you get the idea for the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages?

At first, I did it purely out of self-interest! I wrote a nonfiction book in 2007, and I had a very difficult time finding book reviewers. It seemed like an impossible task. All of the regular outlets were closed to me—where do you go when you can’t get a review in the New York Times? Where do the “little guys” go when they need to promote their books? So I started the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages out of my own frustration. At first, the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages was just a big list on a simple website. I added to the list when I had spare time. Book reviewers started seeking me out, and asking to be put on the list, and it just grew from there. In 2009, I published the first “Book Reviewer Yellow Pages,” and the rest is history. The list just grew organically. Now we have hundreds of book reviewers on our list, and thousands of authors subscribe to the newsletter.

How about the book reviewers themselves, what do they get out of it?

Many book reviewers just do it for fun, and they get the benefit of free books and ARCs (advance review copies). Quite a few of them also earn money, either from sidebar advertising, blog tours, or other author’s services. There are so many self-published authors out there right now, trying to promote their books without the help of a traditional publisher, so there’s a lot of little business ventures cropping up to serve them.

Many reviewers list their “pet peeves,” is this something that the authors really want to know?

Yes! It’s the most popular part of the questionnaire—all the reviewers have their own horror stories. Sadly, many authors have terrible etiquette when they request book reviews. Many don’t take the time to even spell-check their queries, or find out if the reviewer is a man or a woman, so they can address them correctly! I used to review books myself, and it’s amazing how many times I’ve gotten a review request with nothing but a link to the book. No signature, no salutation, nothing! Why would I review your book, when you aren’t even willing to take a few minutes to send me a proper review request? We also added an “author etiquette” section to the front of the book, and that seems to help a bit.

Do Book Reviews really help sales?

They’ve helped my own book sales tremendously, and I know hundreds of authors who would say the same. Look, everyone knows that book promotion is boring work. Contacting dozens of book reviewers is time consuming, and you have to deal with rejection, but the payoff from a positive book review is enormous. That’s been the case in my own writing career. Reviews really help sales, and it’s nice to have a public testimonial that customers can refer to when they purchase. On the flip side, many of the reviewers accept ARCs and also work as beta-readers, so if you can get a few good reviewers to read through your manuscript before publication, they might be able to give you valuable feedback. I found a big plot hole in one of my novels that way—a reviewer found the problem, and I was able to fix it before the book went to publication.

Do reviewers ever drop off the list? Can authors get updates?

Yes, on our website. Reviewers get added and removed on a regular basis—and the list goes through a complete overhaul once a year. I do a formal update every April. That’s when we put out a new edition of the book, as well as update the reviewer list on the website. The abbreviated list on the website is free, and authors and publishers can sign up for updates to the list here: http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net. The newsletter is also free.

Do you have any advice for authors?

Be polite to book reviewers, always. Not everyone is going to like your book, that’s just the nature of game. But publishing is a business, and it pays to be professional. It’s just like any other creative business. Reviewers are our critics, and they give us valuable feedback that we need to improve. One of the best reviews I ever received on the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages was mildly negative. The writer gave me tons of feedback on how to make the book better. I followed his advice, and the book has been more profitable since. Book Reviewers really want to help authors—I’ve never met a single book reviewer that was interested in just tearing an author down. We are all in this business together!

 

For more information visit:
The Book Reviewer Yellow Pages
Website * Facebook

 

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Blast Giveaway

$100 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 5/31/14

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Catch A Falling Star by Kim Culbertson

01 May, 2014 by in catch a falling star, kim culbertson, netgalley, scholastic, young adult fiction 5 comments

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Catch A Falling Star by Kim Culbertson

Catch a Falling Star

by Kim Culbertson
Published by Scholastic on April 29th 2014
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
four-stars
Source: Netgalley
Buy the BookGoodreads
A deliciously charming novel about finding true love . . . and yourself.

Nothing ever happens in Little, CA. Which is just the way Carter Moon likes it. But when Hollywood arrives to film a movie starring former child star turned PR mess Adam Jakes, everything changes. Carter's town becomes a giant glittery set and, much to her annoyance, everyone is starry-eyed for Adam. Carter seems to be the only girl not falling all over herself to get a glimpse of him. Which apparently makes her perfect for the secret offer of a lifetime: playing the role of Adam's girlfriend while he's in town, to improve his public image, in exchange for a hefty paycheck. Her family really needs the money and so Carters agrees. But it turns out Adam isn't at all who she thought he was. As they grow closer, their relationship walks a blurry line between what's real and what's fake, and Carter must open her eyes to the scariest of unexplored worlds - her future. Can Carter figure out what she wants out of life AND get the guy? Or are there no Hollywood endings in real life?

I’ve been on a contemporary YA kick lately looking for sweet, summer reads. Catch A Falling Star is just that! Small town girl Carter Moon lives in Little California and works in her parents’ sandwich shop. She’s perfectly happy with the way her life is now. No need to go off to New York or explore the world. She has roots in her town. Carter teaches the elderly dance classes and is not at all fazed when movie star Adam Jakes rolls in to town to shoot his latest movie. Adam is your typical arrogant child star turned young adult. He gets what he want s and he has an attitude. Carter’s best friend Chloe is the adoring fan, with poster plastered all over her walls. So no one is more shocked when Adam seems to take a liking to Carter. How did her friend make the radar and the cut to become Adam’s girlfriend?

Delicately yet realistically exploring addiction and the masks we all wear, Catch a Falling Star is a clean, sweet YA. We get a very clear picture of Carter, but not much fleshing out of Adam or the other side characters. I would have loved to know more about each of them! Carter had a functional relationship with her parents, she is down-to-earth and likable. She has the hard decision all seniors must make in the summer after high school. What to do, where to go to college, to take a gap year or to stay at home? In the vein of Wish You Were Italian and Jennifer E Smith books, Catch a Falling Star ended with a twist, and left me with a smile on my face. A cute read with some great poetic passages peppered through out. Thanks to Scholastic and Netgalley for the sneak peek!

Content: suitable for younger YA readers– boy taking off his shirt a few times, drinking at a party and kissing.

kim_culbertson

heatherAbout the Author

Sourcebooks Fire published Kim’s award winning first YA novel Songs for a Teenage Nomad (2010, originally Hip Pocket Press, 2007) and her second YA novel Instructions for a Broken Heart (2011) which was named a Booklist 2011 Top Ten Romance Title for Youth and won the 2012 Northern California Book Award for YA Fiction. Her third YA novel Catch a Falling Star will be published by Scholastic on April 29, 2014. When she’s not writing for teens, she’s teaching them. She’s a college advisor and teaches creative writing at Forest Charter School. Kim wrote her eBook novella The Liberation of Max McTrue for her students who, over the years, have taught her much more than she has taught them. Kim lives in the Northern California foothills with her husband and daughter.

Learn more on her website*facebook* twitter

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Listen to The Exile Soundtrack by Kevin Emerson

30 Apr, 2014 by in epic reads, HarperCollins, soundtrack, the exile 1 comment

Listen to The Exile Soundtrack by Kevin Emerson

The Exile

Catherine Summer Carlson knows how to manage bands like a professional—she’s a student at the PopArts Academy at Mount Hope High, where rock legends Allegiance to North got their start. The never-skipping-class Catherine part of her knows, though, that falling for the lead singer of her latest band is the least professional thing a manager can do. But Caleb Daniels isn’t an ordinary band boy—he’s a hot, dreamy, sweet-singing, exiled-from-his-old-band, possibly-with-a-deep-dark-side band boy. And he can do that thing. That thing when someone sings a song and it inhabits you, possesses you, and moves you like a marionette to its will.

Over tacos on lunch dates to far-off outlet-mall planets and during practices at the Hive with their new band, Dangerheart, Catherine—no, Summer—falls in love with Caleb.

She also finds herself at the center of a mystery she never saw coming. When Caleb reveals a secret about his long-lost father, one band’s past becomes another’s present, and Summer finds it harder and harder to be both band manager and girlfriend. She knows what the Catherine side of her would do, but she also knows what her heart is telling her. Maybe it’s time to accept who she really is, even if it means becoming an exile herself. . . .

 

 

Kevin Emerson has a new book called EXILE publishing this month. He’s an author as well as a musician!  Listen to the songs at Harper Collins site, plus read the first 60 pages or download the songs.

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Blink YA Blog Tour~ Remnants by Lisa T Bergren

29 Apr, 2014 by in blinkYA, blog tour, christian, lisa t bergren, Zondervan 5 comments

I received this book for free from BookSparksPR in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Blink YA Blog Tour~ Remnants by Lisa T Bergren

Remnants: Season of Wonder

by Lisa T. Bergren
Published by BlinkYA, Zondervan on April 8th, 2014
Genres: Christian, Young Adult
Pages: 567
Format: ARC
four-stars
Source: BookSparksPR
Buy the BookGoodreads
Andriana is a Remnant, one of the gifted teens born on the seventh day during the seventy-seventh Harvest after the Great War, and destined to act as humanity’s last shield against the horrors that now plague those who remain.

After years of training in stealth and warfare, Andriana and her Knight protector, Ronan, are finally ready to answer the Call and begin the life they were designed for. But as they embark with the other Remnants on the first of their assignments, they quickly discover that the world beyond their protected Valley home is more dangerous than they imagined.

The Sons of Sheol will stop at nothing to prevent Dri and Ronan from rescuing anyone sympathetic to the Remnants’ cause. And as the Remnants attempt to battle the demonic forces, other enemies close in. Dangers intensify, but so do Dri's feelings for Ronan--the one emotion she is not meant to feel. In the midst of their mission, Andriana must find a way to master her feelings, or risk compromising everything.

Lisa T. Bergren has become one of my “go to” authors when I need a well-written, clean Young Adult book. Her newest offering, Remnants: Season of Wonder, explores a world where the Ailith are fighting against the power of evil. They are gifted youth, raised and called up for a purpose. Born with gifts–to see angels, to feel others’ emotions, to sense the will of their Maker. But these powers are not welcome in all the places on earth, and their very lives are in danger as they journey to save their own.

I love the pull between the feelings and emotions of every day human and and the need to pull deeper, to meditate and trust The Maker. Bergren does an amazing job of showing the juxtaposition a youth would feel in trusting in the arm of flesh or leaning on a higher power. There is an attraction, a spark, between Adriana and her protector Ronan, that is forbidden. Yet they both feel it. Adriana goes through a growing into her role, and the trial of losing what she holds dear. As a character she becomes more brave, more centered. There are a lot of side characters in Remnants, and at times I had a hard time keeping them all straight in my mind. But the world they live in reaches from Zanzibar to Pacifica–dangerous desert where women are threatened to the unknown land where the gifted are hunted.

For fans of Dystopian with the gift of magic, Remnants is a great choice. Bergren is a masterful writer who weaves Christian truth into  a new futuristic world. Thanks so much to BookSparksPR for inviting us to be a part of the blog tour!

Content (highlight to reveal): some tension, moderate war related violence, threat of assault to women.

heatherAbout the Author

Lisa T Bergren
Lisa T. Bergren is the author of over forty books, with a combined count of over 2.5 million copies sold. She has written best-selling children’s books, award-winning YA (River of Time Series: Waterfall), popular historical fiction, contemporary fiction, women’s nonfiction, and gift books.

She is a writer and editor residing in Colorado Springs, CO, with her husband and three children. You can find out more about Lisa at LisaBergren.com.

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Whitney Award Winners and Gala Photo Gallery

28 Apr, 2014 by in Heather Gardner Photography, lds storymakers, whitney awards 1 comment

whitney_awards

On Saturday, the best of the best gathered for the Whitney Awards gala to honor this year’s awards winners.

What are the Whitney’s you ask?

From their website

“The Whitneys are an awards program for novels written by LDS authors. Elder Orson F. Whitney, an early apostle in the LDS church, prophesied “We will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own.” It is our hope to be a part of that journey toward excellence by honoring the LDS writers also working toward that goal.”

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to a wonderful group of authors, publishers, judges, our president and the committee who put in countless hours of work to get the results. This year I had the chance to work as a committee member and judges coordinator, and realized just how much has to go in (by many hands) to coordinating the process. You can find all the titles nominated and past years’ winners on Wikipedia.  Thanks so much to everyone who received our numerous emails and mailings, and to those who were kind along the way!

Here are my photos from the event and the 2013 Whitney Award Winners…

Best Novel of the Year

Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson

Best Youth Novel of the Year

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Best General Fiction

Mile 21 by Sarah Dunster

Best Historical

Esther the Queen by Heather B. Moore

Best Romance

Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson

Best Mystery/ Suspense

Deep Cover by Traci Hunter Abramson

Best Speculative

Dark Memories by Jeffrey S. Savage

Best Young Adult Speculative

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Best Young Adult General

All the Truth That’s in Me by Julie Berry

Best Middle Grade

The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Best Novel by a New Author

Pivot Point by Kasie West

Lifetime Achievement

Blaine Yorgason

Outstanding Achievement Award

Rachel Ann Nunes

View all the Gala photos as  they are edited and uploaded this week on Heather Gardner Photography’s  facebook and smugmug page.

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Photography Friday – Air Force National Guard Engagements

25 Apr, 2014 by in air force, engagements, Heather Gardner Photography, national guard, photography, photography friday 3 comments

 

airforce_engagements

 

I had an amazing opportunity yesterday to capture some engagement and family photos for an Air Force National Guard officer and his soon-to-be bride. We took a bus out to the tarmac for  a close up with the planes. I truly admire our troops and the sacrifice they make for our country. Being on base again reminded me of my childhood, since my father was a colonel in the Army and I grew up on several military bases.

military_rings

Best wishes to this beautiful couple and their family! I can’t wait to shoot the wedding.

 

air_force_bride

 

All photos on this page are copyright Heather Gardner Photography.

Facebook * Blog * SmugMug* Etsy

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Bookish Quotes I Love

24 Apr, 2014 by in Uncategorized 4 comments

books

 

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” ― Groucho Marx

 

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” 
― Charles William Eliot

 

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” ― Stephen King

 

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” ― Ray Bradbury

 

“A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them.” ― Lemony Snicket

 

“Sleep is good, he said, And books are better.” ― George R.R. Martin

 

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.” ― Maya Angelou

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” ― Margaret Fuller

 

“All morning I struggled with the sensation of stray wisps of one world seeping through the cracks of another. Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes — characters even — caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you.” ― Diane Setterfield

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