Hello and Welcome!

Red House Books is going through a bit of a update!

I've always had a pretty clear vision of what I wanted this space to be but I've been detoured from my path by...lots and lost of other people's opinions and ways of doing things...

I'm committed to this little chunk of the interweb but I've also branched out into other places so! Now it's time to think of Red House Books as more of a hub of all things me! And Me is a hell of a lot of book love!

Stay tuned!

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Books and Memories with Jaclyn Dolamore + A Giveaway :)

A big welcome to
Jaclyn Dolamore
whose 3rd novel, Magic Under Stone releases TODAY!

I asked Jaclyn to share with us some memories...

What book makes you think of...your childhood?
Elfquest, Book 1 by Wendy and Richard Pini. My sister and I were OBSESSED with the Elfquest comics when we were kids. We also kept getting the Elfquest role playing game through interlibrary loan again and again, although we never actually managed to successfully play the game.

What book makes you think of...your happiest memory?
The Ledge Between the Streams by Ved Mehta. One of the best times in my life was the first time I flew alone to visit a friend, and the first time I experienced a big city. I went to Toronto and fell in love with the place. I bought this book at a book sale at the University of Toronto library, and read it while I waited for my friend to get out of class. It's a great memoir.

What book makes you think of...your scariest memory?
Ramona Quimby, age 8 by Beverly Cleary. I was homeschooled, mostly, but my mom sent me to second grade because she was going to massage school. I was a nervous child and developed a terrible fear of throwing up in class. There is a chapter in the book where Ramona does just that, and I was so horrified by that chapter I wouldn't read it all the way through, even though I reread this book many times.

What book makes you think of...your road to publication?
Emily Climbs by L. M. Montgomery. I adored all the Emily books, although the last one wasn't as good as the first two. Emily got a little more serious about her writing in this one, although really the whole trio reminds me of my journey, which I still think of as "the Alpine Path" thanks to L. M. Montgomery.

What book makes you think of...your writing style?
A True and Faithful Narrative by Katherine Sturtevant. I love this book a lot, and I read it aloud to my boyfriend at one point, and sometimes I felt like I was reading my own prose.

What book makes you think of...your family?
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. My parents used to read to us before bed, and I have vivid memories of my dad reading about Laura twisting the hay and grinding the wheat just to survive. This was definitely the most memorable of all the books they read to us (although second place goes to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe).

Thank you so much for sharing Jaclyn!

~

To celebrate the release of Magic Under Stone, I'm giving away one of Jaclyn's books to a lucky reader - your choice!

Magic Under Glass
Nimira is a music-hall performer forced to dance for pennies to an audience of leering drunks. When wealthy sorcerer Hollin Parry hires her to do a special act - singing accompaniment to an exquisite piano-playing automaton, Nimira believes it is the start of a new life. In Parry's world, however, buried secrets stir.
Unsettling below-stairs rumours abound about ghosts, a mad woman roaming the halls, and of Parry's involvement in a gang of ruthless sorcerers who torture fairies for sport. When Nimira discovers the spirit of a dashing young fairy gentleman is trapped inside the automaton's stiff limbs, waiting for someone to break the curse and set him free, the two fall in love. But it is a love set against a dreadful race against time to save the entire fairy realm, which is in mortal peril. (from Goodreads)


Magic Under Stone
For star-crossed lovers Nimira and Erris, there can be no happily ever after until Erris is freed from the clockwork form in which his soul is trapped. And so they go in search of the sorcerer Ordorio Valdana, hoping he will know how to grant Erris real life again. When they learn that Valdana has mysteriously vanished, it's not long before Nimira decides to take matters into her own hands—and begins to study the sorcerer's spell books in secret. Yet even as she begins to understand the power and limitations of sorcery, it becomes clear that freeing Erris will bring danger—if not out-and-out war—as factions within the faerie world are prepared to stop at nothing to prevent him from regaining the throne. (from Goodreads)

Between The Sea and Sky
For as long as Esmerine can remember, she has longed to join her older sister, Dosinia, as a siren--the highest calling a mermaid can have. When Dosinia runs away to the mainland, Esmerine is sent to retrieve her. Using magic to transform her tail into legs, she makes her way unsteadily to the capital city. There she comes upon a friend she hasn't seen since childhood--a dashing young man named Alander, who belongs to a winged race of people. As Esmerine and Alander band together to search for Dosinia, they rekindle a friendship . . . and ignite the emotions for a love so great, it cannot be bound by sea, land, or air. (from Goodreads)

GIVEAWAY DETAILS
*Open to anyone The Book Depository ships to, 18 years and older
*Ends March 20, 2012 at 11:59pm EST
*Fill out the form below to enter
*Bonus entry -- leave a comment with one of your strongest book related memories



18 comments:

  1. Some of my earliest memories are book related...my mother and I would walk to the library three times a week to take out books and then every night she would read them to me:) I have to thank her for my life long love of reading!

    melissaseclecticbookshelf at gmail dot com

    ♥Melissa

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  2. When I was a kid, every wednesday was public library book day and every saturday was bookstore day. My father would drop us off and come back a few hours later to pick us up. Those were the great times :)

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  3. Well, I never used to read. Anything. At All. Until....Harry Potter. My mom got me the first 3 since they were out. I was immediately hooked. My addiction only started. I read anything I could get my hands on. All thanks to Harry Potter, which I devoured. I couldn't WAIT to get my hands on the rest of the series. The wait, was just torture. The rest, as they say, is history.

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  4. Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix makes me want to get bubble tea :D

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  5. Power Play by Penny Jordan is a book I remember the most. It was a very good read. I read it when I was younger. Tore923@aol.com

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  6. I remember getting on the book mobile that came through the rural community I lived in each week they would come to my grandmothers and she would get books it made me want to learn to read and as soon as I did I started getting a box of books for myself it the most anticipated day of the week for me.
    flanagan@mebtel.net

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  7. I read Flowers For Algernon when I was about twelve. I finished the last page and laid on my bed and cried for hours. I was depressed for days afterwards. To this day it is still one of my all time favorite books. Go figure.

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  8. Thank you for the interesting post and giveaway! :D

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  9. I remember when I was 14 and my mom was in the hospital I brought the entire Alanna series by Tamora Pierce and read it while we stayed for three days.

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  10. As a girl scout leader we had a book drive for a teen shelter last year and it was so great for all the kids to collect books from book drives and take it to all of these kids who had no homes. At least they could loose some troubles in good books.

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  11. It would have to be listening in when my Mother read stories to my baby brother. It was such a peaceful feeling.

    marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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  12. It would have to be the first adult book I read,The Golden Mask,which got me started on reading. :D


    mangafaninu@yahoo.com

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  13. Hmm, a strong book-related memory. Some of my strongest memories are from being a child, when my parents would read to me, and the first books I read to myself. Since I can't recall any specific titles, I will also supply another.

    I remember reading All Creatures Great and Small on a car trip with my parents when I was in sixth grade or thereabouts. I remember we were all laughing hysterically at the old woman whose dog had gone 'flop-butt' again. Good times.

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  14. I was a bit of a naughty kid, so when we used to get book orders through at school my headteacher always asked for my help in organising the books - what books were going to what class room. If there were ever any *extra* books, I got to take them home.

    It was only last year (seven years after I left that school), when I went back to watch my younger cousins performance that the headteacher admitted that he used to order extra books just for me, because he thought it was amazing how much I read as an 11 year old.

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  15. My strongest book memories is going to the library at eight years old and made friends with the Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew. I was a loner back then. After reading these books, I got tips on how to make friends. One tip I got was not to be afraid of what I love, like books. I made real friends with whom I shared love for books. Thank you, books! :-)

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  16. My strongest book related memories relate to the series Little House on the Prairie, because when my kids were young I used to gather them together at bedtime and read a chapter or so a night. Those times were so special because the kids would all be laying around on pillows on the floor listening intently to the story! They still read a lot to this day and I like to think that it might be because I fostered a love of reading in them when they were young :)

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  17. I remember the first time my mother read through the Chronicles of Narnia books with us. It was fantastic. I remember begging her to read them over and over again. :)

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