Debbie Dadey's Blog: Congratulations!

Ideas are everywhere! So how come when we start to write a story they somehow disappear? Marcia Thornton Jones and I put our heads together to come up with strategies for getting ideas, developing them, and polishing them into a completed children’s story. We poured them into Writing for Kids The Ultimate Guide. It is everything we wished we’d known when we first began writing. We hope you’ll enjoy it and let us know how your writing journey is going. Writing for Kids The Ultimate Guide is available for pre-order now and releases Feb. 26, 2019. Happy writing! https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Kids-M...

Thanks to all who entered the Goodreads giveaway for Ready, Set, Goal! Years ago, my daughter and I wrote a girl's sports-themed book. It was rejected with "Girls don't want to read about sports." My daughter was livid! So years, later I'm happy to say that Simon and Schuster just published Ready, Set, Goal! where mergirls and merboys alike play to win the Shell Wars Championship in Atlantis. Let the games begin! If you live near Marietta, GA I hope you'll join me Sept. 16th at 11:00 for a Mermaid Party on the Town Center Prada Barnes and Noble.Ready, Set, Goal!

Wow, somehow it is the new year! I blinked and here it is. I am excited to share that I've joined forces with Stephanie Faris and Gail Nall to do a multi-state tour called Girl's Read. We're starting in my home state of Kentucky at the Blue Marble Bookstore in Fort Thomas on March 24th from 4-6. March 25th will be busy with two Barnes and Nobles events, one at Summit Plaza in Louisville from 12-2 and in Elizabethtown at 4:00. We'll finish up the weekend with a mermaid party at 2:00 on March 26th hosted by the Lexington Public Library Beaumont branch with Joseph Beth Bookstore providing books, including my newest Flower Girl Dreams. I'm tickled to announce that the school with the most kid's attending that weekend (we'll make a list as we autograph) will win a school visit from me! Hope I get to see you!

Welcome to the year of giving books. At least that's what I plan to do. At the end of every month, I want to give at least one book to a needy school. Perhaps you'd like to do the same to help out a struggling school library. Another thing I hope to do this year is to become involved with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Since starting in 1995, they have given away more than sixty million books! That's something I must find out more about. If you want to, visit their website at https://imaginationlibrary.com/.

The last two years have been very difficult for me. First, my mother dying beside me in a terrible car accident and then my father-in-law passing away just after Christmas in 2015. I know they are in a better place, but it is still difficult to live through the loss. I hope that this will be a year of peace and happiness for me and for you.

Gift-giving gives me great joy and the gift of a book is the best! So, I hope you'll win one of two contests available for my newest Mermaid Tale chapter book, The Crook and The Crown (Dec. 15th). One is here on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...) and the other is on the blog of an amazing young man (and I do mean teenage!)named Erik. On This Kid Reads Books you can win my newest book, Mermaid Tales T-shirt, mermaid Barbie, and a whole slew of mermaid goodies. Oh, and did I mention it is a poetry contest? All you have to do is write a fun mermaid poem and one will be selected randomly to win! Check it out at http://thiskidreviewsbooks.com/2015/1...The Crook and the Crown Good luck and Happy Holidays (for me that means Merry Christmas!), Debbie

I hate being unorganized, although you'd never tell it from the state of my desk. Stacks of files, random papers, receipts, water glass, scanner, pilers, and even a screwdriver combine with other junk to make the fall scenery on my desk. I need to get organized, but I need to write more-so I put the post-move organization off to another day. But I know there will come a day when I can't stand it any more and I will have to put things away. But perhaps not this week-on Friday I'll be in my home state of Kentucky for the Kentucky Book Fair's Children's Day from 9-2, speaking at 9:15 (hope to see you!). On Saturday, I'll be back in Tennessee at the Etowah Arts Commission's Young Author's Conference. Sunday is a day of rest and then Monday-perhaps a day of organizing? But, I really want to write the next chapter of my current story so I'm thinking maybe my desk isn't so messy after all!

What a bummer to work two years on a book, writing and rewriting hundreds of pages only to find out it's not any good. My editor and agent all found good parts, but when I reread it I knew-it wasn't good enough. But eureka-I had an idea. One little part of the story was what I loved the most and that was the idea I grasped. Yesterday I started writing a new story based on that one little kernel-I hope it works this time!

Congrats to John, Jackie, Melanie, Daleine, and Eric for being winners in my Goodreads giveaway of A Tale of Two Sisters. If you enjoy it, I hope you'll share nice comments here on Goodreads. Stay warm and happy reading, Debbie

I was really blessed with having three books coming out in 2015 (hope you'll win my upcoming A Tale of Two Sisters), so why was I so crushed when my latest novel was rejected by my agent? I tell myself I'm lucky and I know it's true. So why does it hurt so much? It hurts because writers pour their hearts and souls into their stories. The stories and characters become a part of them, like an arm or a leg. So when someone wants to hack it off, it's bound to hurt. But like a starfish (or sea star) I am determined to start again (regrow that appendage-fix that story). So that's my 2015 pledge-to try again! What's yours?

It has been a terribly rough month. My mother passed away in a car accident. I was right beside her when she died. So please forgive me for being a bit delayed in getting my give-aways sent out. Thanks to the 559 people who requested free copies of A Royal Tea, Mermaid Tales #9. I wish I had copies to send to all of you instead of just the five winners. I will send them out today! Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you live in the NJ/PA/NY area hope you'll swing over to Sparta Books in Sparta, NJ tomorrow at 11:00. I'll be there doing a booksigning and would love to say hello. Wishing you much happiness.