Katrina Wampler has got that certain something that all good writers have. Katrina has posted her first chapter of her first novel entitled, “A Hope And A Future”. This book is part of the “Come Clean Series”. Katrina writes from the depths of her soul. There’s so much feeling and emotion running through her stories that you can feel everything the characters are experiencing. Could these emotions be coming from real life experiences? I will let you be the judge.

Katrina is a single Mom of three awesome kids ages 9, 10, and 11. Katrina has been blessed with working from home so she can be with her kids before and after school. Just with those two things alone one can wonder how she finds the time to write. Well when you’re passionate about anything you find a way.

A Hope and A Future will draw you in with the first chapter. Alls I can say is the story starts out with coffins, a song and suffocation. To read an excerpt from the first chapter visit Katrina’s blog here: Storm Faith Ministries

Katrina shares her writing journey with us through her blog. This is a great blog to hear more about the day in the life of Katrina Wampler. Make sure you subscribe to the feed so you won’t be left out on the publishing date or Katrina’s next book signing.

Happy Reading,
Michelle Rothwell

In April 2008 I had the privilege of attending the Minnesota Association of Christian Home Educators conference in Duluth, MN. This was my first year to attend and boy was I excited. There were over 200 exhibitor booths, 4,800 attendees, and 90 workshops. I was glad I had two days to be there! I didn’t have a clue as a new homeschool participant as to what workshops would be best for me. After prayer and words of wisdom from my homeschool forum, I attended each workshop by faith, and learned something I needed to at each one. Amongst the crowds I found some kindred spirits in the book industry. One of whom was Lehman Riley.

Lehman is the inspiration behind The Adventures of Papa Lemon’s Little Wanderers stories. Lehman’s concept is fabulous. Through the travels of the Little Wanderers, kids from 7 to 12 years of age learn about the history of America. The Little Wanderers learn about Dr. Martin Luther King, slavery, World War II and the Navajo Wind Talkers, the life of Babe Didrikson, plus more. Papa Lemon and Mama Sarah were Lehman’s grandparents who were born in West, Mississippi. These two saints of God shared their lives and faith freely with their children, grandchildren and anyone who came to visit them. Now their stories are living on through the writings of Lehman Riley.

Papa Lemon had a way of telling a story that made everything fun and I believe Lehman has inherited his grandfather’s gift. Each story involves five kids from the neighborhood. These kids visit Papa Lemon and Mama Sarah in their quest to have their history lessons in school explained in a lively fashion. Papa Lemon has a secret stashed in his barn which is revealed in the first book “Meeting Dr. Martin Luther King”. This hidden secret is the avenue the kids and Papa Lemon use to research American history.

When I read books I don’t like illustrations but kids are different. Kids like to see what they are reading and Joshua Wallace does a great job capturing the essence of every lesson. If I couldn’t read, the pictures would explain the whole story to me and I would understand it.

These two men, Lehman Riley and Joshua Wallace are a great combination. I hope they will continue together as the years go on. Keep up the good work guys!

For more information I encourage you to visit the website for The Adventures of Papa Lemon’s Little Wanderers. You will not only find out where to purchase these little gems but there are study guides for all classrooms.  If you need something to keep your kids busy, try the activity sheets listed on the website.  This work in progress is a must for all to add to their favorites list so you can go back and visit often.

Enjoy!

Michelle Rothwell

Jill Kalz, “Farmer Cap” (Picture Window Books).

As reported on March 31, the Minnesota Book Awards were conducted with a big gala this last Saturday, April 12. There were 8 different categories plus two special awards. The Saint Paul Pioneer Press has been covering this story through their online newspaper at http://www.twincities.com.

The Minnesota Book Awards is a project of Friends of the St. Paul Public Library in consortium with the St. Paul Public Library and the mayor’s office of St. Paul.

To read the full story click here: http://www.twincities.com//ci_8906177?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www.twincities.com

This is an awesome way to showcase local talent in our home state, the Minnesota Book Awards. Do you have an organization in your state that does the same thing? Please share with us so we can help celebrate with you.

Happy Reading,

Michelle

P.S. I’m planning on attending the gala next year at the Minnesota Book Awards, how about you?

At least for today.  We are revolting against tax day plus our customer appreciation is still going on.  April 15th is dreaded by many.  To make today a little less gloomy we are going to reimburse any sales tax people pay on their order.

That’s right!  We will pay you back for taxes you pay today until midnight.

Here at BookWorms United we love our customers so we are celebrating. We appreciate each and every one of you. I know it’s unheard of to celebrate when we’ve only been in business since December. If we want to have Customer Appreciation every April, then we need to start with this year.

This April we have some special offers for each and every one of our customers listed below:

Customer Appreciation begins with FREE SHIPPING from April 1 to April 15^th this continues until the end of April.  Woo!  Hoo! Any customer who makes a purchase we will reimburse their shipping. If you make a huge order for yourself, we will pay you for the shipping. If you make an order and ship to someone having a birthday, we will pay you for the shipping. If you make an order and ship to someone having a bad day, we will pay you for the shipping. Is that a good start to Customer Appreciation month?

Our second Customer Appreciation gift goes from April 8^th to the end of the month. If you want to start your own online bookstore, I will pay your start-up costs (a $45 value). Your own online bookstore includes two free websites, training from the best online marketer’s available, access to 1.5 million books, cds, DVDs, video games and textbooks plus more.

Our third Customer Appreciation gift lasts all month. Anyone who sends five new preferred customers to the website, they must sign up as a Preferred Customer, will receive a $35 shopping spree at BookWorms United. Your friends and family will receive from me their choice of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, “Little Women”, “The Iliad”, or “Beowulf” in either MP3 or eBook format just for signing up.

What more could you want?

How’s that for a celebration?

Remember to sign up as a Preferred Customer it’s FREE. No membership fee.

Shop whenever you want and in whatever you want (LOL!). No minimum purchase requirements.

Up to 42% off best sellers.

1% of sales goes to charity to help stop illiteracy.

This month you also receive a FREE copy of “Call of The Wild” by Jack London in eBook format, after making any purchase.

Plus

You receive FREE “Call of The Wild” by Jack London in MP3 format with any purchase.

Whew! That’s a lot of freebies! We will see how the celebration is going and maybe I will be able to add some extras next week.

Once again I would like to say thank you for using BookWorms United for your online bookstore.

Happy Reading,

Michelle

P.S. Don’t forget to order by midnight to have your taxes and shipping reimbursed.  NO MORE TAXES!!!

Contests are everywhere on the net except here. This will change I hope but in the meantime I thought I would share with you the ones I do find which I believe will be beneficial to my subscribers. The first contest I would like to share with you is actually the first contest this blogger has ever done. Eileen Astels Watson is a Christian Romance writer. She comes from St. Agatha, Ontario. Eileen’s first contest is for the book, “Daily Devotions For Writers” compiled and edited by Patricia Lorenz. This book is an encouragement for anyone who aspires to be a writer. To get the details for this contest visit Eileen’s blog here: http://eileenastels.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-first-official-writing-blog-contest.html#links.

While you are at Eileen’s blog make sure you are added to her e-mail feed as she has a daily writer’s tip as well as a list of special appearances by Eileen.

If any of you know where there’s a good contest for book lovers, please send me an e-mail and I will be happy to add it here.

Happy Reading!

Michelle

Here at BookWorms United we love our customers so we are celebrating. We appreciate each and every one of you. I know it’s unheard of to celebrate when we’ve only been in business since December. If we want to have Customer Appreciation every April, then we need to start with this year.

This April we have some special offers for each and every one of our customers listed below:

Customer Appreciation begins with FREE SHIPPING from April 1 to April 15^th. Any customer who makes a purchase we will reimburse their shipping. If you make a huge order for yourself, we will pay you for the shipping. If you make an order and ship to someone having a birthday, we will pay you for the shipping. If you make an order and ship to someone having a bad day, we will pay you for the shipping. Is that a good start to Customer Appreciation month?

Our second Customer Appreciation gift goes from April 8^th to the end of the month. If you want to start your own online bookstore, I will pay your start-up costs (a $45 value). Your own online bookstore includes two free websites, training from the best online marketer’s available, access to 1.5 million books, cds, DVDs, video games and textbooks plus more.

Our third Customer Appreciation gift lasts all month. Anyone who sends five new preferred customers to the website, they must sign up as a Preferred Customer, will receive a $35 shopping spree at BookWorms United. Your friends and family will receive from me their choice of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, “Little Women”, “The Iliad”, or “Beowulf” in either MP3 or eBook format just for signing up.

What more could you want?

How’s that for a celebration?

Remember to sign up as a Preferred Customer it’s FREE. No membership fee.

Shop whenever you want and in whatever you want (LOL!). No minimum purchase requirements.

Up to 42% off best sellers.

1% of sales goes to charity to help stop illiteracy.

This month you also receive a FREE copy of “Call of The Wild” by Jack London in eBook format, after making any purchase.

Plus

You receive FREE “Call of The Wild” by Jack London in MP3 format with any purchase.

Whew! That’s a lot of freebies! We will see how the celebration is going and maybe I will be able to add some extras next week.

Once again I would like to say thank you for using BookWorms United for your online bookstore.

Happy Reading,

Michelle

Today at midnight is the end of the voting season for the Minnesota Book Awards. If you want to vote, go to TwinCities.com and cast your vote right away after clicking on the Minnesota Book Awards icon.

Sometimes when you get started with something new all kinds of related subjects or items tend to pop up all over. When I went to work at our local history museum last Thursday I found bookmarks on our research table advertising the Minnesota Book Awards. I never knew we had such a thing! The Minnesota Book Awards are being sponsored by the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, the Saint Paul Public Library, the Saint Paul Chamber, and the Pioneer Press at TwinCities.com. Some of the awards are being sponsored by local Minnesota businesses. The voting will end with the Minnesota Book Awards gala on Saturday, April 12. Here are the details:

This is an awesome way to promote our homegrown authors, the local libraries and also literacy. From now on I will have to keep my eyes open for more Minnesota grown literature to share with everyone here.

Do any of you have book awards in your home state or a way to find out who your local authors are? If so, please share them with us here.

In the meantime, happy reading,

Michelle

We are back on track. This derailment lasted too long in my book. (No pun intended.) The Book Club choice for April is “Reluctant Smuggler” by Jill Elizabeth Nelson. Okay, we are a backwards book club by having Jill’s third book in the “To Catch a Thief Series” as our first one but I believe this one will inspire us to get the first two. If you’re anything like me, I hate jumping in the middle of a story or movie. Things are talked about in this book that are a continuation from the first two books hence the word “series”. Not to mention this is my first time for reading anything Jill Elizabeth Nelson has written. All in all it was a great experience.

Jill kept me going on a roller coaster ride through all emotions a person has which I like. The roller coaster ride means I was entertained. Just like on a regular roller coaster you never know what’s around the corner or at the bottom of the next hill. This book is exciting. Back in the good old days when Disneyland was first created there was a ticket system to get on the rides. If you had an “E” ticket, it meant you were on the biggest, baddest roller coaster ride Disney had to offer. “Reluctant Smuggler” in my opinion is an “E” ticket ride. Now you have to remember I’m over 46 years old so what I consider an “E” ticket might be someone else’s “D” or “C”. The book got me going nonetheless. If this isn’t the kind of book that trips your trigger remember with our book club our readers decide which books we read. I picked the first two since we were just getting Bookworms United Book Club off the ground. All future choices are being submitted by book club members and then voted on.

Here’s a little excerpt from the back cover of “Reluctant Smuggler”:

“They say keep your friends close and your enemies closer… but what if you can’t tell the difference?

For security consultant Desiree Jacobs, the assignment was simple: make off with an ancient Mayan artifact and hand it over to the good guys in time to plan her wedding to ultra-fine FBI agent Tony Lucano.

Yet, in a world where no one is as he seems, Desi must decipher who the good guys are-before she ends up in the hands of a ruthless enemy.

Suddenly, artifact recovery turns into archaeological espionage, and the woman who finds all the answers must now ask questions: Who’s looting priceless antiquities underneath the nose of the baffled Mexican government? And what does a violent gang of drug and human traffickers have to do with missing artifacts?

Even with Tony on her side, Desi will need way more than luck to survive against the odds. She’ll need the truth-not just to set her free, but to liberate many innocents caught in the snare of calculating evil.”

How’s that for tempting? If you haven’t purchased your book yet, go to Christian Book Distributors here and join us next week. You have plenty of time to join the discussion and if we are lucky, Jill Elizabeth Nelson will join us one night.

In the meantime, talk to you tonight for the last discussion on “Pump Up The Power”.

Reading Rocks,

Michelle

As we approach the end of the first quarter of 2008, how are your book business goals looking? (For those of you who are content to be where you are now in your book business, please ignore this post! For those who wish to grow their business, read on!)

There are only three states… You are:

** On target with your business
** Ahead of target, OR
** Behind target

Whichever state you are at, ask yourself why?

If you are on target and profits are where you planned on your bottom line, was your goal high enough? Yes, I’m the constant overachiever.

For those of you who are behind target, what got in the way of your success? Was your target realistic? If they were, add the portion that you didn’t realize to the next quarters target income. (For example, if you came in $10,000 under target, you need to add that $10,000 to the next quarters target income).

For those of you who have exceeded your target - GOOD JOB! Now, raise your target for the next quarter and find out what it was that worked for you and DO MORE OF IT!

Questions that I suggest for you are:

NEGATIVE TASKS:

Is there something negative that is draining your time - time that could be spent working towards prosperity?

Are you spending too much time chatting to clients, where a minute or three less would have sufficed?

TIME MANAGEMENT:

Are you wasting time by not scheduling efficiently? Time is money!

PAYING ATTENTION TO DETAIL:

Are you losing money because you forgot to put in your quote that costs/expenses will be passed on to your client, as an example?

Are you pushing follow-up calls to the next day, because you forgot to call a prospect?

BUSINESS BUDGET:

Do you HAVE a budget? (Most Entrepreneurs don’t!) Without a budget, it is too easy to overspend on a project and thereby make less profit.

If you have a budget, do you stick to it?

Do you run your business from your credit cards (VERY expensive money!)? Take out a new account that has a zero interest rate for (example 6 months and transfer high interest balances to a zero interest account.

TRACKING:

Do you track your advertising and marketing efforts and do you know what is working and what isn’t?

Wouldn’t it make better sense to pursue those things that are working and perhaps put more money into THOSE projects, rather than throwing money away on things that have a zero ROI (Return On Investment)?

LEVERAGE:

Are you leveraging the alliances that you have? I am not talking about asking for help nor am I telling you to ask for a handout, but rather to build balanced alliances that are ‘win/win’.

For those of you who would like to run your business by design, rather than by accident, let’s hear your suggestions - what works for you?

** Is it direct mail or newspaper advertising?
** Where do you advertise?
** What ONE method of marketing has produced the most results for you?
** Name ONE successful balanced alliance that you have

Remember sharing is a good thing.

Have a great night,

Michelle

Good evening fellow bookworms!

As promised here are the notes from last week’s book club meeting. Please keep in mind that we were off for several weeks and had to get caught up on our personal lives at the same time as covering the book of the month. So our notes from the book club meeting are sparse but our sentiments are still the same.

Our book for the month of February/March has been “Pump Up The Power - Get The Life You Want” by Rebecca Simmons. Rebecca has a way of reproving her audience while showing them a better way. This week we explored pages 39 through 56. This is an awesome self-help book for our club to start off exploring. Please join us this Thursday night at 9 p.m. CST. Even if you didn’t read Pump Up The Power yourself, you will still benefit from the discussion. As always, please e-mail me and I will give you the phone number and pass code to join the conversation.

Principle #13 - God gives us gifts & skills to make a great life for ourselves and to make the world a better place. These gifts are to be shared and not hoarded.

Excuses are the quickest way to self defeat. So no more excuses!

On page 41 we liked what Rebecca said, “No matter what it looks like, keep moving forward. Don’t look back.” This is just as important in our personal lives as well as successful businesses.

Principle #15 - Strength & character are developed through adversity. Embrace adversity knowing it will bring good results into your life.

Affirmation - I will stand tall in the face of trouble and declare that it has no power to defeat me.

This too shall pass. Adversity doesn’t last forever.

Principle #18 - Do what needs to be done today and have a fresh start tomorrow. This reminds me of the book, “Anne of Green Gables” by Lucy Maude Montgomery.

Principle #19 - Press on in spite of your fears. Fear reigns only in your mind.

Principle #20 - Moving forward in spite of fear builds mental muscle.

Well that’s all folks!

Have a great night,

Michelle Rothwell, Founder

Bookworms United

An Independent BookWise Associate