It’s Monday, which means it’s time to announce the winner of my giveaway of Jessica Lawson’s magnificent debut novel, The Actual and Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher. Congratulations to Lindsay Eland, who is the winner! *cheers* Monday also means that the All Four Stars blog tour is back at full swing. At Xpresso Reads, I have a guest post… Read more »
All Four Stars
The ALL FOUR STARS blog tour – stop 4
Happy July 4 to all who are celebrating! Today was the fourth stop on the official All Four Stars blog tour, and a great day for recipes. Over at A Baked Creation, Sylvia has created a crème brûlée recipe inspired by the opening scene from the book! Check out her beautiful pictures. As a bonus, it’s flavored with osmanthus (which, I… Read more »
The ALL FOUR STARS blog tour – stop 3
Today is the third stop on the official All Four Stars blog tour! Over at For What It’s Worth, Karen is featuring an excerpt from an early chapter of All Four Stars. Many thanks, Karen, for your enthusiasm for the book! 🙂 Also, over at Pop! Goes the Reader, Jen (who wrote this wonderfully in-depth review of AFS last week) has created a desktop wallpaper… Read more »
The ALL FOUR STARS blog tour – stop 2
Today, for the second stop on the official All Four Stars blog tour, I’m being interviewed at The Reading Date! Lucy has asked me some terrific foodie and literary questions, and my list of restaurant recommendations in NYC expands. 🙂 I am also at Literary Rambles today! My guest post, “The time it takes to get it right,” is… Read more »
The ALL FOUR STARS blog tour – stop 1
First of all, great news: All Four Stars has been named an Amazon Best Book of the Month for July! Many thanks to the editors there who selected it–I couldn’t be more thrilled. Secondly, the official All Four Stars blog tour has now begun! Hooray! The wonderful Wendy Darling of The Midnight Garden and I have been working hard together… Read more »
Four-star recipe: Green tea cupcakes with sesame icing
“Their flavors will send your taste buds on a trip around the world…the Chinese cake has green tea and sesame seeds…” –All Four Stars, page 268 Classy Cakes–the fictitious “dessert bistro” that Gladys is assigned to review in All Four Stars–is famous for its delicious, internationally-inspired cakes. As for how I decided to write about such cakes…well, if you… Read more »
Coming soon!
All Four Stars will be published in exactly two weeks! #excitement Today I’m over at Emu’s Debuts with a post called “How to Fail For Real.” It’s about overcoming fear of failure, and touches on my long journey to publication. (It’s also my last Emu post as an unpublished author. I’ve been blogging there for more than two years!)… Read more »
Four-Star Recipe: Gajar ka halwa
“What’s gajar ka halwa?” Gladys was intrigued. “It’s a traditional north Indian pudding made with carrots,” Parm said. “Carrots?” “Trust me, it’s the best dessert on earth.” –All Four Stars, page 208 Parm Singh is right. Move over, carrot cake–gajar ka halwa is the tastiest sweet dish made with carrots you could possibly imagine! The first… Read more »
Four-Star Recipe: Tree-Nut Tarts
“Omigosh, wasn’t Saturday so fun? I keep thinking about that tree-nut tart. Do you think you could find a recipe for it?” –All Four Stars, page 263 Why yes, Charissa–there is such a recipe! Charissa Bentley, one of the main characters in All Four Stars, loves desserts and nuts, so it’s no surprise that this dish from Classy Cakes… Read more »
A few more reviews
My fellow Baker’s Dozen Success Story Michael Gettel-Gilmartin has reviewed All Four Stars over at Project Mayhem today, calling it “classic middle grade, full of heart and humor.” Thank you, Michael! The post also features an interview with me, so if you’re dying to find out what middle-grade books influenced me as a kid or what my… Read more »