Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly celebration created by VikLit and now hosted by Lexa Cain to celebrate the happenings of the week, however small or large. You can learn all about it and sign up for it here.

Wow, I don’t know where this week went. It just flew right on by. Things to celebrate:

The Burlington Book Festival last Saturday provided two great opportunities. The League of VT Writers’ table where I was volunteering was right next to the BBF table. A woman who worked at Barnes & Noble when I did my book signing was volunteering at the BBF table. She remembered me, and we got to talking, and she invited me to do a radio interview on her show Books, Yarns, and Tales for station WBTN 1370 AM. I’d never done a radio interview before, but said sure, why not? She called me on Monday morning, and we did a live/on air interview over the phone, which included a reading from the first chapter of my book. I wasn’t expecting to do the reading. She sprang that on me without much notice, but I think it sounded okay.

Here is the link for anyone who’d like to hear it: http://www.wbtnam.us/imlogger/index.php. Where it says “Pick a Feed” choose “Books, Yarns, and Tales” from the drop-down box, then put in Monday’s date (9/28). That should pull it up. At the moment, there’s only one option, and it starts at 9:04 and runs about 46 minutes.

I also met the book buyer for the University of Vermont bookstore at the BBF. She stopped by the table, so I pitched my book to her, and she said she’d order it for the store. It will be great if I can get into the college market.

On Monday, I donated my book to four more libraries, who all accepted it into their collections. It’s fun looking up online to see if my book is being read, and right now, it’s checked out of four of the libraries I’d donated it to earlier. Whoo hoo!

I had some time to really get into the final edits for Book 2. It’s still going to be a few months before it’s ready, but I’m excited about it!

I sold a couple more books at my book signing event at Bear Pond Books in Stowe, VT, yesterday. Quite a few people came through the book store / souvenir shop / café complex, but a lot of them were from a bus of 65+ age tourists there to see the foliage. I haven’t met many senior citizens who are into fantasy adventure, so I didn’t have a lot of sales, but the people were fun to talk to.

Looking forward to the local cable channel interview on Monday and a library book signing event on Tuesday!

What other celebrations are going on out there?

UPRISING (Children of the Gods #2) — Jessica Therrien’s new release now available!

UPRISING (Children of the Gods #2)

Jessica Therrien follows up her best selling novel OPPRESSION with UPRISING, the second book in the Children of the Gods series. OPPRESSION, translated and sold around the world, was one of the bestselling YA novels of 2012.

UPRISING continues the story of Elyse, William and the Descendants. Elyse has been in hiding for most of her life. Only now she’s hiding with William, and she knows who she’s hiding from. The Council wants a child Elyse and William have yet to conceive, a child who will be the next oracle, and who will provide the final piece to a plan Christoph has been organizing for years.

Charged with leading the rebellion against Christoph and his Council, Elyse feels well out of her depth. But she has good friends and strong allies who are willing to fight with her to the end, regardless of how far they have to go, and how many lives will be lost in the process.

They have one goal: to live freely and openly with the rest of humanity, out from under The Council’s oppressive rule. The stakes could not be higher for Elyse and the Descendants longing for freedom. They’ll have to learn to fight if they want to stand up against The Council, and to find allies in a world ruled by their enemies. The hardest part of waging a war is knowing who to trust. Elyse knows their uprising will change the world. She doesn’t realize it will change her, too.

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OPPRESSION (Children of the Gods #1)

Elyse knows what it means to keep a secret. She’s been keeping secrets her whole life. Two, actually. First, that she ages five times slower than average people, so that while she looks eighteen years old, she’s well over eighty. Second, that her blood has a mysterious power to heal.

For Elyse, these things don’t make her special. They make life dangerous. After the death of her parents, she’s been careful to keep her secret as closely guarded as possible. Now, only one other person in the world knows about her age and ability.

Or so she thinks.

Elyse is not the only one keeping secrets. There are others like her all over the world, descendants of the very people the Greeks considered gods. She is one of them, and they have been waiting for her for a long time. Some are waiting for her to put an end to centuries of traditions that have oppressed their people under the guise of safeguarding them. Others are determined to keep her from doing just that. But for Elyse, the game is just beginning-and she’s not entirely willing to play by their rules.

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Coming Soon!

REDEMPTION (Children of the Gods #3)

The Series from Acorn Publishing:

OPPRESSION (Children of the Gods #1) – AVAILABLE NOW!

UPRISING (Children of the Gods #2) – Released October 2, 2015

REDEMPTION (Children of the Gods #3) – Coming November 2, 2015

© Lori L. MacLaughlin and Writing, Reading, and the Pursuit of Dreams, 2015. All rights reserved.