Lone Star Book Blogger Tour: YAZZY'S AMAZING YARN by Cathey Graham Nickell ***DELETED SCENE & GIVEAWAY***

YAZZY'S AMAZING YARN

by

CATHEY GRAHAM NICKELL
Illustrated by Emily Calimlim

  
Genre: Children's Picture Book, Ages 4-8 

Publisher: Twenty-Eight Creative

Date of Publication: August 1, 2019

Number of Pages: 32

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Yazzy is a creative girl, always sketching out her next adventure. She loves yarn, and she loves to knit! Her neighborhood park is dull and rusty, but Yazzy has a grand plan. 

With a little help from her friends, Yazzy’s knitted wonders transform Penny Park into a fuzzy rainbow of warmth and color. What yarn-tastic idea will Yazzy think of next? 

The book includes a “History of Yarn Bombing” page for readers who are not familiar with this creative and whimsical type of art.

“As a teacher, it's refreshing to find a book that exposes children to an alternative art form. I'm inspired by Yazzy's story, and I know my students will be, too.” -- Deborah Horwitz, Art Teacher, The Emery/Weiner School, Houston, Texas.

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Author Cathey Graham Nickell had to kill her some of her darlings

It's always fun to hear about deleted scenes, and I have a few whoppers that occurred during the creation of Yazzy's Amazing Yarn. I'm a member of a fantastic weekly critique group, which we've named the "Innerloopers." When my critique group read my first draft of Yazzy's Amazing Yarn, it was way too long and needed a lot of trimming. For instance, I initially had this whole section about Yazzy living in a barn with her family. A barn!! Why? I have no idea! I think my brain was trying to justify Yazzy's love of knitting by saying that her family owned a yarn business that they ran out of their barn. My critiquers wisely reminded me that it was okay to write that she loved to knit simply because it's fun. No further explanation needed. So I took out all the barn references, thank goodness! I also had a homeless woman named Marge in the first draft. Marge felt important to me because I planned to use her in a scene that would help me demonstrate that Yazzy was kind and thoughtful. My early version depicted a scene in which Yazzy knits a blanket for Marge and delivers it to her at the cold park on a wintery day. Well, this is a book for children ages 4 to 8. I woke up one morning and thought: I shouldn't let Yazzy go to a frozen park and speak to a homeless woman all by herself. That might not be safe! I cannot advise children to talk to strangers! So after much deliberation, even though my heart had a soft spot for Marge (and her dog!), I took that whole section out too. In the writing world, we are advised that we must be willing to "kill our darlings," which means that we often need to delete our favorite scenes for the greater good of the literary work. So I, uh, well I guess I, um... I murdered fictitious Marge and Boomer. It not only made the story better, but it also trimmed out hundreds of unnecessary words.

Cathey Nickell is a busy author and elementary school speaker, having presented at more than seventy schools to date. Yazzy’s Amazing Yarn is her second children’s book about creativity and outside-the-box artistic endeavors. She is also the author of Arthur Zarr’s Amazing Art Car, which was awarded first place by the Texas Association of Authors in the category of Children’s Picture Books-All Ages. Cathey lives with her husband, Kevin, in Houston, where they raised their four children.

WEBSITE  ✦  FACEBOOK  ✦  TWITTER INSTAGRAM  ✦  GOODREADS    AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

Emily Calimlim, while not a knitting whiz herself, loves creating art with humorous and lively watercolor pictures for children. She lives in Houston with her fiancé, George, and silly studio bird, Simon. Emily spends her days capturing her ideas and imagination with paint and pencil.

WEBSITE  ✦  FACEBOOK 

TWITTER ✦  INSTAGRAM 

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THREE AUTOGRAPHED COPIES OF YAZZY'S AMAZING YARN

August 27-September 6, 2019

(US ONLY)


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Lone Star Book Blogger Tour: ROUNDING HOME by Sarah Swindell ***EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY!***

ROUNDING HOME

by

SARAH SWINDELL

  Genre: Memoir / Family / Autism

Date of Publication: August 2, 2019

Number of Pages: 256

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In 1991, twenty-one-year-old Sarah, the recently divorced mother to two-year-old Hayley, moved from the dusty small town of Farmington, New Mexico to the bustling city of Houston, Texas with dreams of a better life. A year later, she was swept off her feet by Greg Swindell, an established Major League Baseball player who had just signed a lucrative contract with the Houston Astros and was quickly becoming the talk of the city. 

Six weeks after their first date, Greg asked Sarah to quit her job as a hairdresser and marry him during Spring Training in Florida. Over the next several years, Sarah's Cinderella story continued with the addition of three more children, a lifestyle only a few ever dream of living, and a love story even fewer ever experience.

That is until 2002 when her picture-perfect life came to a gut-wrenching halt, and Sarah was faced with more pain than she ever thought possible. For almost a decade, the puzzle pieces would cease to align due to an avalanche of events; a devastating autism diagnosis, a painful affair, multiple marriages, multiple divorces and her children's own personal struggles with self-harm, eating disorders, and attempted suicide. 

If you have ever felt lost, betrayed, or heartbroken, this story will inspire you to never give up on finding true joy and happiness again. It will prove there is no such thing as the “perfect family” and that difficult times can actually make you stronger than you ever dreamed possible.

 

PRAISE FOR ROUNDING HOME:

"Rounding Home takes you on a riveting journey through the eyes of an exceptional woman who embraced struggle, love, success, and the unimaginable, autism. Get ready to laugh, cry, and flutter with romance; it’s one hell of a love story!" -- Gena Lee Nolin, actress, author, advocate, “Thyroid Sexy,” wife & mother

"In Rounding Home, Sarah writes with gritty honesty, a deeply moving account of life with her autistic son. This testament to the resilience of the human spirit will touch your heart and soul." -- Gayle Nobel, life coach, autism mom, and author of three books about living with autism

"This story of the Swindell family is a poignant demonstration of how each family member responded and was changed, for better or worse, as they struggled to come to terms with how their lives had been altered. And although there was damage along the way, they ultimately triumph by rekindling the love that created their family unit in the first place." -- Dr. Bryan Jepson, author, physician, and father of two sons with autism

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PROLOGUE, PART TWO

FROM ROUNDING HOME

BY SARAH SWINDELL

*Click to read Part One of the Prologue with Lone Star Book Blog Tours

Austin, Texas - Winter 2011 (continued)

I backed out of the driveway and pushed my Dixie Chicks CD in. I knew that I was only torturing myself by listening to it when I was already so upset, but I did it anyway.  This was our music, Greg’s and mine.  

            As the Dixie Chicks sang, my mind raced back to all that had happened in the last year and a half. Tears started to pour down my face as a profound sadness filled my entire body. Even though Greg’s affair with my best friend had happened over a year ago, the heartbreaking images of them together were etched in my brain. It played over and over and over like a horror movie that I was being forced to sit and watch. I was still filled with so many questions and no real answers. 

            I missed Greg so much it hurt, while at the same time I hated him for what he had done to me and to our family. But I hated her more; she plotted, planned and pretended to be my best friend as she intentionally shattered my family into a million pieces. 

            How was I going to continue living this way? I was so tired in every way possible, I felt as if life was dragging me down a path I didn’t have the strength to endure any longer. I felt like a failure as a mother; not only was I unable to help my son who was so clearly struggling, I wasn’t present for my three daughters who desperately needed me. My life had once been a beautiful fairytale, and now it felt like an ugly living nightmare, and I was terrified to continue living in it. My dark, clouded mind whispered that my children would be better off without me, a new stepmother down the road would most certainly do a better job than I ever could; at least she would be a better example for my daughters. I loved Dawson so much, I just couldn’t figure out how to watch his daily struggles through life anymore. I wondered if he was as miserable as I was. How could he not be?

            I sped up as I approached the overpass. It was still dark out, the only illumination detectable emanated from the dim lights of empty stores in the distance, fuzzy through the thick layer of fog still blanketing the city. There were hardly any cars on the road this early in the morning, and I wondered if anyone would even notice when we sailed through the concrete barrier. 

          Would my car crashing to the pavement below make a sound loud enough for anyone to hear? Was the overpass high enough? Was I going fast enough? I sped up a little more as I gripped the wheel a little tighter. 

Sarah Swindell lives in the Austin area with her husband, Greg, a former Major League Baseball player and 2019 Texas Sports Hall of Fame inductee. Sarah is a commercial actress/model and has been working in the industry for over thirty years. She enjoys spending her free time with her four grown children and several grandchildren who reside in Texas as well. Sarah is an avid moviegoer, loves yoga and true-crime podcasts, and advocates for children and adults with autism and other disabilities. Her son was diagnosed with severe autism at the age of eighteen months and continues to touch peoples' hearts to this day.

WEBSITE  ⬧  BLOG     GOODREADS ⬧  TWITTER ⬧  INSTAGRAM AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE



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FOUR WINNERS: 
SIGNED COPIES OF ROUNDING HOME
+ SIGNED GREG SWINDELL BASEBALL CARD

August 22-September 1, 2019

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