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New Cover Reveals for The Lightning Road series + Amazon GC Giveaway!

Look at these awesome new cover reveals for the Lightning Road series! To celebrate I’m giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card at the end of this post PLUS get the first e-book in the series, Joshua and the Lightning Road, on sale now through October 15^th for just $0.99 cents!

All of these wonderful book bloggers have chosen to celebrate with me too! Check out their awesome book blogs (and follow them!) with special posts about the Lightning Road series, excerpts, and extra chances to win the $25 Amazon Gift Card all week long.

Lightning Road Series New Cover Reveals Blog Tour:

October 7th

This and That Book Blog
Joshua and the Arrow Realm told in Memes!

October 8th

Middle Grade Mafioso
About how I love scary stories and how they play into my writing

Log Cabin Library
How I harnessed my imagination to write the Lightning Road series

October 9th

Book Hounds
I share how I harness my inner child to write for kids

October 10th

Author Karen Pokras Toz
I share what stories affected my childhood and writing

The Author Chronicles
I talk about creating characters

Laura’s Ramblins and Reviews
I talk about the 10 elements to writing thrillers for kids

October 11th

Always In The Middle
I rewind myself back to being 9-years-old and share a day in my life as a kid

October 12th

Fundimental
I share my dream cast for Joshua and the Arrow Realm!

Enjoy an excerpt from Joshua and the Lightning Road!

Sweat ran down my back as the warm August air washed over me and the scent of earthworms filled my nose. Thunder rumbled far in the distance. I pushed aside the broken glass and knelt where Finn had stood. Water bled into my jeans from the rain pooled on the floor. It seemed like forever ago that I wished Finn would hurry up and get here.

Lightning flashed. I welcomed and feared it. My chest tightened, but there was no time for panic. The crystal warmed my fingers through the deep pocket of my jeans. Bo Chez had to be right—the crystal had powers. What would they be?

Thunder crackled.

“Yeah, just come and get me!” I yelled into the storm, and a bolt of light took the tree across the creek. The top exploded in a fiery ball, then sizzled black. Thunder broke loud over my head like a giant clapping his hands together, and blue light exploded through the broken window. Two rough hands yanked me up.

Light blazed everywhere and heavy, scratchy material bound me tight as I was pulled upward into a swirling wind tunnel.

Anger felt better than fear, so I kicked my kidnapper. “Where’s Finn?”

“You’ll find out soon, Reeker.”

Daring a peek, I saw a wide gray hat slung low over one green eye that blazed at me. Where the other eye should have been was a crater. One side of his face oozed red, melted mush!

The man from my nightmares!

ABOUT JOSHUA AND THE LIGHTNING ROAD:
Twelve-year-old Joshua Cooper learns the hard way that lightning never strikes by chance when a bolt strikes his house and whisks away his best friend—possibly forever. Armed with only luck and his grandfather’s mysterious crystal, Joshua must save his friend by traveling the Lightning Road to a dark world that steals children for energy. New friends come to Joshua’s aid and while battling beasts and bandits and fending off the Child Collector, Joshua’s mission quickly becomes more than a search for his friend—it becomes the battle of his life.

PRAISE FOR JOSHUA AND THE LIGHTNING ROAD:
“Vividly imagined characters in a gripping action fantasy that never lets you go until the very last page.” —Jenny Nimmo, New York Times bestselling author of the Charlie Bone series

**$0.99 DEAL!**
Joshua and the Lightning Road is available now through October 15th for just $0.99cents on e-book from these book sellers:
Amazon: mybook.to/TheLightningRoad
Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/2zwsiLx
Kobo: https://bit.ly/2Q6Kukn
Apple iBooks: https://apple.co/2NF5MZA

ABOUT JOSHUA AND THE ARROW REALM:
Joshua never thought he’d be called back to the world of Nostos so soon. But when his friend King Apollo needs his help in the Arrow Realm, Joshua braves this dark world once more in order to save him. With Joshua’s loyalties divided between Nostos and Earth, he must rely on his courage and powers to restore magic to this desperate world and to free its people. Abandoned by his friends in his quest, unarmed, and facing great odds, can he survive on instincts alone and not only save those imprisoned—but himself?

PRAISE FOR JOSHUA AND THE ARROW REALM:
“Fast-paced and endlessly inventive, this is a high-stakes romp through a wild world where descendants of the Greek gods walk beside you, beasts abound, and not everything—or everyone—is as it seems.” –Michael Northrop, New York Times bestselling author of the TombQuest series

Joshua and the Arrow Realm is available through these book sellers:
Amazon: mybook.to/ArrowRealm
Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/2N3OYGG
Kobo: https://bit.ly/2IjXYGX
Apple iBooks: https://apple.co/2xFU4Ea

Watch the Joshua and the Lightning Road trailer!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pumpkin Pie Forever

By Donna Galanti

This was the first autumn in years I didn’t cook my pumpkins. And without pumpkins there’s no fresh pumpkin pie.

This year there would be no orange pulp to cook, puree, and squeeze through cheese cloth. No dough rolled out from my mother’s worn, wooden rolling pin. No flour dotted pages to turn on the warped old cook book (the one I didn’t need anymore as I knew the recipe by heart). It was the first cook book I ever had. The one given to me from my mother to make my first kitchen complete. The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cook Book.

This year the book would sit on a shelf. There would be no home made whip cream laced with nutmeg and vanilla to grace that gooey pumpkin custard. No flaky crust to hang down from the over sized pie dish with flowers on the bottom. My mother gave me that too.

I didn’t plan it that way. It just happened. Too busy. Too many projects. For the first time it just didn’t feel important. I had proven to my mother once that I made a better pumpkin pie than her. She said so. And the truth was in her saying.

It was even good the year she pulled my pie from the oven and with one slip of her hands she flipped it over upside down on the oven door. We looked at each other and laughed. And as the guests waited in the candle-lit dining room with the cornucopia on the table, we quickly scooped up the mush and arranged it perfectly back in the crust. No one knew.

That was before the cancer came. Her body was strong and vibrant then, like her spirit.

I think I’ve gotten my mother’s gravy down. The jury is still out. And my mother will never be able to tell me so. But I’ll know. Then there’s her southern biscuits to be made with sorghum, lemon meringue pie, and mincemeat pie.

There’s no rush. I have time ahead of me. Lots of time. And her notes in the margin to help. That swirly, on-the-go, right-slanted script I know by heart. It was shaky at the end. Unsteady and weak. But not this handwriting. The one in my cook book is dynamic and purposeful.

Like my mother. Like me.

I don’t have to prove my pumpkin pie to anyone anymore, least of all my mother. She’s been gone these last few Thanksgivings, but I know she’ll be part of my pumpkin pie forever.

Even if I don’t make it.

Middle Grade Rewind: A Day in My Life at 9

By Donna Galanti

As middle grade writers, we find joy in putting ourselves into the young characters we write about. One way I love to do this is re-visit pictures of myself as a kid.

I stare at them, sifting through specific memories connected to that photo. What was I excited about? What did I most want? What made me sad? What made me happy? What was my biggest worry?

Then I journal in that moment, bringing in all the details on the edge of that photo and just out of reach. Often the details outside the picture are the ones that tell the story of that photo. I did this recently with this photo.

Bethel Woods Campground, Holderness, New Hampshire, 1978

Bethel Woods Campground, 1978

Every day I dream about getting my first dog. I imagine she is so real that when I come home from school I run to meet her (her name will be Beauty after Black Beauty). But not yet…so while I wait, I keep busy roaming the campground we own.

It’s fun to wear my strap-on roller skates and hunt the woods for dead butterflies and shotgun shells. They make cool noise makers when you put them in old coffee cans.

I’m lucky because there are always kids here to play with and swim with at the pool (awesome for an only child like me!).

I especially love to hang out in the recreation hall and play pinball machines and records on the juke box. My favorite song is Escape by Rupert Holmes. I asked Dad what a Pina Colada is and he said it’s like a party in a glass for grownups.

Each morning as I pick rotten apples in the orchard to feed our fat hogs, I get to pretend I’m my favorite hero, Laura Ingalls from Little House in the Big Woods. Mom says we’ll even be butchering the hogs soon – just like Laura did!

Mom wants to make head cheese Like Mrs. Ingalls did (ewww!) but I want to blow up the pig’s bladder like a balloon and roast its tail over the fire, just like Laura did. Little House on the Prairie is my favorite show and sometimes I even pretend that Mr. Ingalls is my dad.

After hog feeding time, I get to gather the eggs in the chicken coop. Today I found a double yolk egg without a shell. It was see-through and wobbly just like a Weeble. Although, I think it would fall down if I wobbled it.

Tomorrow is dump day. I get to collect the trash with Dad from all the campsites (we even saw a bear last week!). It’s a totally smelly chore but the best part is that I get to stand up in the back of our 1965 Ford truck and hang onto the wood sides as we cruise to the dump. Wheeee! It’s almost as fun as snowmobiling on the camp trails in winter.

If I help Dad out good, he even promised to take me fishing on Squam Lake this weekend to use my new tackle box. I caught my first pike there last month. Dad almost crashed the boat up on the rocks just so I could reel it in!

Heading out fishing with Dad and friends, in his Boston Whaler

Oh, and there’s a big thunderstorm coming tonight so I plan to sleep on the screened-in porch and watch the lightning all night long (just don’t tell Mom, okay?). Well, time to go practice my after-dinner show for Mom and Dad. I’m singing and dancing to The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers and On The Good Ship Lollipop on my record player. I even made my own sailor and Tigger costumes (I’m a blue fuzzy Tigger in my one-piece footed pj’s, Dad’s striped tie for a tail, and Mom’s wig).

Being nine is the best. Getting a dog would make it even better.

Me and Beauty’s son, Windsor. I got to pick him out from her litter.

Now Live: Free video training series for writers & first-time authors!

By Donna Galanti

For all of you awesome writers here (and friends and family of writers), today is the day that I have to share that the project I’ve been working on for so long is LIVE! My FREE 3-part video training series on building author platform.

If you’re a first-time author or are seeking publication with your first novel, sign up to check it out HERE: https://www.yourawesomeauthorlife.com/free-author-training/

Some of you may be on my sign up list already and I hope you’ve been enjoying the weekly guides I’ve sent out.

This system I’m sharing with you helped me build a following of thousands to include loyal readers, book bloggers, librarians, and authors plus get invites to teach at conferences, present at schools, attend fan conventions — and sell more books!

Doing this project was a H-U-G-E challenge for me in facing my fears over doing video and putting myself out there. So many of my writer friends over the years have encouraged me to create a course on this and so I met their challenge .

Here’s what one new subscriber had to say about my free author platform series:
“I appreciate all of the information that you share so freely. I have really sunk my teeth into your articles and the links attached to them. I would have been lost (and potentially robbed) had I not found out about the right way to approach publishing. What you share is all tangible. It credits me as a serious writer but doesn’t go beyond what I can understand as a beginner. I have caught the entrepreneurial bug. I’m hungry for more info. Thanks Donna!”
–Patrick Kaufmann

I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for all your support and please share with any first-time authors you might know.

#AuthorToolboxBlogHop: Resources RoundUp

By Donna Galanti

Today is all about resources for writers and authors! And it’s an info-packed post 🙂 . To continue hopping through other great blogs in the monthly #AuthorToolboxBlogHop.

First, I was super excited to be part of the Indie Author Fringe Festival recently. The event’s focus was on running an author business. Registration was free and you can still access all of the speaker presentations from this event and past events for free. My presentation was on 5 steps to build author platform before you publish.

Are you a debut author or writer looking to get published? Visit YourAwesomeAuthorLife to get an info-packed cheat sheet on how to connect with readers before your first book even comes out and read my blog tips for writers.

Below I’ve gathered a round up of advice from writing craft to book marketing and also listed my go-to books and online resources as well!