Welcome to day 18 of the Writer Mama Every Day In May Book Giveaway! Today we will be giving away two books to two winners. Please help me welcome too incredibly interesting women, Marci Nault and Barbara Claypole White!

Introducing Marci Nault

Marci Nault hails from a small town in Massachusetts. Today she can be found figure skating, salsa dancing, hiking and wine tasting around her home in California. Marci is the founder of a motivational website that encourages visitors to follow their improbable dreams. Her story about attempting to complete 101 of her biggest dreams has been featured in newspapers and magazines nationwide, and she regularly speaks on the subject on radio stations in both the United States and Canada. The Lake House, is her debut novel. Learn more at www.marcinault.com.

Learn about The Lake House from Simon & Schuster May 2013

Achingly tender, yet filled with laughter, The Lake House brings to life the wide range of human emotions and the difficult journey from heartbreak to healing.

VICTORIA ROSE. Fifty years before, a group of teenage friends promised each other never to leave their idyllic lakeside town. But the call of Hollywood and a bigger life was too strong for Victoria . . . and she alone broke that pledge. Now she has come home, intent on making peace with her demons, even if her former friends shut her out. Haunted by tragedy, she longs to find solace with her childhood sweetheart, but even this tender man may be unable to forgive and forget.

HEATHER BREGMAN. At twenty-eight, after years as a globe-trotting columnist, she’s abandoned her controlling fiancé and their glamorous city life to build one on her own terms. Lulled by a Victorian house and a gorgeous locale, she’s determined to make the little community her home. But the residents, fearful of change and outsiders, will stop at nothing to sabotage her dreams of lakeside tranquility.

As Victoria and Heather become unlikely friends, their mutual struggle to find acceptance—with their neighbors and in their own hearts—explores the chance events that shape a community and offer the opportunity to start again.

I asked Marci three questions about our giveaway’s theme topic, self-expression:

1. Is self-expression an important part of your life today, why or why not?

As a young woman I felt like there were four of me: the person I was to please my family; the persona I took on to fit in with my friends; the perfect student; and the person I became when I was alone lost in my imagination. For most of my life I wanted to be the fourth person, but I didn’t know how. I was taught to make everyone else happy first and that my worth was how I took care of others. I was incredibly shy and viewed criticism as failure; I had to be perfect for everyone.

When my life blew up in 2008, I decided to make a list of dreams; things I wanted to do; places I wanted to see; changes I wanted in me. I think through the list I was looking for a way to become that fourth person in the world. Three of my items out of 101 dreams were: to be imperfect; to communicate without need or expectation; to fall in love with life, the world, and myself. Out of the 90 dreams that have come true these three were some of the hardest. But something magical happened when I began to pursue my dreams. I found confidence and I was able to be comfortable in my own skin. I stood up for myself and I no longer let people walk all over me. More than that I was able to express myself more easily.

As my debut novel, The Lake House, goes out into the world I’ve had the chance, through questions like these, to realize why I wrote the story I did. The Lake House is about two women from different generations who pursue their dreams but in the process become outcasts with those they love. I think I was expressing my fear that if I went after the life I really desired and became that fourth person that I would no longer be accepted by those I loved. Thankfully, it turns out I was wrong.

2. What does self-expression mean to you and how do you do it in the world?

Self-expression means showing the world who I really am without barriers. Sometimes it feels a little like standing naked in front of the world. I created my blog, 101 Dreams Come True, to express all the emotions that took place while I was pursuing my dreams with everything I had. So many people believed that I was a trust fund baby or had a rich boyfriend as they watched me travel the world and try all sorts of different activities. But the truth was that I was alone, determined, scared, and without a safety net. I thought if I could express those feelings, explore them through my writing, I would understand my own journey better and help others to pursue their dreams.

I also love to salsa dance and figure skate. Through these two sports I feel free. There’s something about movement that releases all thoughts and allows the spirit to come through.

When I get to talk to women about my journey and my novel, I get to express the joy and the confidence and all that’s changed by realizing I was worth having my dreams.

Lastly, when I write I’m taken away. I love to describe settings because I get to express the way I see the world. It makes me look a little bit deeper at my surroundings – to taste, touch, feel, smell, and engross myself in this amazing world.

3. How does your self-expression impact the world—your family, your friends, your readers, and everyone else?

I’ve had letters come in from all over the world from people who’ve decided to change their lives and pursue their dreams because of the blog. When I speak to women about self-worth and giving to themselves, there’s a wonderful communication that opens and book readings turn into slumber-type parties. I believe by showing the world that dreams are possible even if you’re not rich or if you’re single that it opens the possibility for others to do it as well.

As for the novel, one of the first people who read it realized he was still in love with a woman he’d left and they got back together. So many women have told me that they curled up with my book and it took them to a way of life that they didn’t realize they desperately needed and it caused them to reconnect with family members or their community.

My family is very private and I think at first it was hard for them to have me blatantly putting myself out there, but they’ve been nothing but supportive. Even if some extended family members roll their eyes and shake their heads at the way I live my life.

Introducing Barbara Claypole White

Barbara Claypole White writes love stories about damaged people.

She grew up in rural England with dreams of becoming a novelist, but after a detour through women’s and medieval history at York University, landed a job in London fashion. One day her boss sent her to New York, and she fell in love with an American professor who followed her around JFK Airport. Eighteen months later she was a faculty spouse, freelance writer, and marketing director in a small Midwest college town. She also started writing her first novel.

After her husband was offered a distinguished professorship at UNC Chapel Hill, Barbara moved to the North Carolina forest and became a stay-at-home mom and a woodland gardener—factors that would shape her writing voice. She returned to her manuscript and slammed into another detour: her young son developed obsessive-compulsive disorder.

From that moment, fascination with mental illness framed her life. She ditched her first novel and began writing the manuscript that would become The Unfinished Garden (Harlequin MIRA, 2012). She also joined a nonfiction project for parents of children with invisible disabilities and blogs through the highs and lows of OCD at www.easytolovebut.com.  (Her son is now an award-winning teen poet, lyricist, and indie rock musician.)

Her second novel, The In-between Hour, will be published in January 2014.

You can find her on Facebook or at barbaraclaypolewhite.com.

Learn about The Unfinished Garden

James Nealy is haunted by irrational fears and inescapable compulsions. A successful software developer, he’s thrown himself into a new goal—to finally conquer the noise in his mind. And he has a plan. He’ll confront his darkest fears and build something beautiful: a garden. When he meets Tilly Silverberg, he knows she holds the key…even if she doesn’t think so.

After her husband’s death, gardening became Tilly’s livelihood and her salvation. Her thriving North Carolina business and her young son, Isaac, are the excuses she needs to hide from the world. So when oddly attractive, incredibly tenacious James demands that she take him on as a client, her answer is a flat no.

When a family emergency lures Tilly back to England, she’s secretly glad. With Isaac in tow, she retreats to her childhood village, which has always stayed obligingly the same. Until now. Her best friend is keeping secrets. Her mother is plotting. Her first love is unexpectedly, temptingly available. And then James appears on her doorstep.

Away from home, James and Tilly forge an unlikely bond, tenuous at first but taking root every day. And as they work to build a garden together, something begins to blossom between them—despite all the reasons against it.

I asked Barbara three questions about our giveaway’s theme topic, self-expression:

1. Is self-expression an important part of your life today, why or why not?

I’ve always been emotionally wide-open, and I’ve always celebrated the individual. However, when my young son was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), I had to rethink the boundaries between public and private. I had a strong desire to protect the family, but I also needed to speak up and become an advocate. I have always believed that hiding mental illness brings only shame.

My son is about to graduate from high school as an award-winning teen poet and indie rock musician. We both use writing as therapy; we both believe art can make a difference; and we have both found our voices. I can’t imagine how we would move through the darkness of mental illness if we kept things hidden. My son talks about pulling back the rug to reveal the dirt beneath. I feel that way when I talk, blog, or write about OCD.

2. What does self-expression mean to you and how do you do it in the world?

I hope to create believable characters whose struggles can start a dialogue off the page. The hero of my debut novel, The Unfinished Garden, has battled OCD for most of his life. I wasn’t trying to make a statement about OCD with my beloved James. I wanted only to show readers the courage it takes to live with a diagnosis of mental illness, the courage it takes to be open about struggles with that diagnosis, and the courage it takes to fight back.

At book clubs, I often answer questions about the stereotypes James contradicts. Even if readers come to those meetings believing all people with OCD are hand washers, they leave knowing the truth: that OCD is a highly individualized anxiety disorder. It manifests differently in everyone.

3. How does your self-expression impact the world—your family, your friends, your readers, and everyone else?

We have the best group therapy conversations at the book clubs I visit! I’m also thrilled when readers contact me to share their own stories of battling mental illness. We all need support systems. Sharing is good, people! It keeps us emotionally healthy.

And Now, Your Turn…

You remember how this works right?

Please read the complete rules at least once!

I ask you a question.

You answer in the comments for your chance to win a book each day.

Please just respond once, even if you make a typo.

Answer in the comments in 50-200 words (no less and no more to qualify to win one of today’s books).

Do you have any quirks? List them in an accepting way.

Ready, set, comment! I will hold the drawing tomorrow and post the results here in my blog.

Thanks for participating in the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway!

And thanks for spreading the word. We will be giving away great books by wonderful women authors all month.

View the complete list of authors and books.

View the giveaway Pinterest board.

I have had the distinct pleasure of knowing and working with Judy M. Miller for five years. Anyone who knows Judy will always notice that everything she says and does is full of heart. Whether she is writing about adoption or personal experience, readers always get the sense that Judy has kept her intelligence firmly in touch with to her emotions and soul. Please help me welcome Judy!

Introducing Judy M. Miller

Judy M. Miller is the author of the internationally selling What To Expect From Your Adopted Tween and has penned tens of dozens of articles and essays that grace magazines and anthologies such as A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Families, Pieces of Me: Who Do I Want to Be?, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom, Sensational Journeys, and Women Writing on Family. When not parenting her crew of four, she works with pre- and adoptive parents throughout and outside of the U.S. Judy also teaches her popular class Tweens, Teens & Beyond online. A sought after speaker, she has presented at numerous symposia and appeared on radio about parenting children who have been adopted. Learn more about Judy at www.judymmiller.com.

Learn about What To Expect From Your Adopted Tween

Research supports just how important it is for parents to understand the issues inherent in adoption. Adopting parents should be familiar with tools they can use to help their children navigate what they are feeling, and have the confidence to put feelings into action. What To Expect From Your Adopted Tween guides parents in assisting their tweens (ages six and older) in understanding, examining and resolving adoption-related issues as they happen, and empowering their children to feel self-confident, whether parents are in the “trenches”, on the cusp, or getting ready to parent a tween down the road. What To Expect From Your Adopted Tween has been called “a reference source, workbook, psychology manual, and a very wise encouraging friend.”

What To Expect From Your Adopted Tween covers:

• The complex issues inherent in adoption that parents may or may not be aware of and how they can manifest
• The psychosocial development of the child, from birth to adolescence
• The role of the parent and parental fears
• The importance of good communication and how to do it
• Ideas and tips for parenting, supporting and staying connected to the tween who has been adopted

I asked Judy three questions about our giveaway’s theme topic, self-expression:

1. Is self-expression an important part of your life today, why or why not?

The older I become the more expressive I’ve become, and the more comfortable I become with exploring new ways to express myself. There isn’t a day that doesn’t go by that I’m not expressing myself, sharing why I write, and why I teach.

I did write as a child, even creating and producing my own 132-page magazine in 8^th grade, complete with an advice column, stories, decorating and cooking sections, and ads. It was the most fun I had in grade school, and one of my proudest moments when I reflect back. I can still see the pages.

I didn’t write creatively until about five years ago, at the urging of my husband. I found I had a lot to process (and still do). I also found that writing centered and healed me. I was hooked, and continue to write and build my platform, casting wide and deep.

What does self-expression mean to you and how do you do it in the world?

Self-expression means the world to me, however I feel it comes with accountability, responsibility, thoughtfulness, and grace. I write in the niche of adoption, which can be quite complex and emotional. I write from the heart and from my personal experiences. I am truthful. I try not to make all-inclusive statements, unless supported by research, because they will bomb. I know how I feel when someone makes a blanket statement or assumes. I read and listen a lot and then write about what I’ve learned. Everyone, in some way, is a teacher.

How does your self-expression impact the world—your family, your friends, your readers, and everyone else?

There is much pain in the constellation of adoption, and I need to honor that. Don’t get me wrong, there’s immense joy as well, however the loss, grief (and other issues entwined with them) and tough questions and answers are always present—spoken or unspoken. I prefer to speak them and writing has given me the vehicle and confidence to do so.

My writing and speaking reaches out to others, encouraging them to do the same. I’ve become a very confident advocate for the vulnerable, oppressed, adoption, adoption issues, open records, and openness. I believe there has been a great deal of “wrong” in adoption and, like many, I want to see things change, improve. One of the nicest compliments I received recently was from an adult who had been adopted, who cried through my entire conference presentation, and then said, “I didn’t know an adoptive parent could be like you. Thank you.”

And Now, Your Turn…

You remember how this works right?

Please read the complete rules at least once!

I ask you a question.

You answer in the comments for your chance to win a book each day.

Please just respond once, even if you make a typo.

Answer in the comments in 50-200 words (no less and no more to qualify to win one of today’s books).

Describe a moment in your life in full detail when you felt completely content and fulfilled. Just pick one and describe it fully for us.

Ready, set, comment! I will hold the drawing tomorrow and post the results here in my blog.

Thanks for participating in the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway!

And thanks for spreading the word. We will be giving away great books by wonderful women authors all month.

View the complete list of authors and books.

View the giveaway Pinterest board.

I would have loved to give every author in this giveaway their own day. Certainly ever single author in this giveaway deserved her own day. But on days like today I can only say, you get double the awesomeness when I feature Christina Baker Kline and Jessica Maria Tuccelli. Please help me welcome them!

Introducing Christina Baker Kline

Christina Baker Kline is the New York Times bestselling author of five novels: Orphan Train, Bird in Hand, The Way Life Should Be, Desire Lines, and Sweet Water.  She is co-editor, with Anne Burt, of About Face: Women Write about What They See When They Look in the Mirror and co-author, with Christina L. Baker, of The Conversation Begins: Mothers and Daughters Talk about Living Feminism. She has edited three other anthologies: Child of Mine, Room to Grow, and Always Too Soon. Writer-in-Residence at Fordham University from 2007 to 2011, Kline has also taught literature and creative writing at Yale, NYU, UVA, and Drew University.

A graduate of Yale, Cambridge University, and the University of Virginia, where she was a Hoyns Fellow in Fiction Writing, Kline is a recipient of several Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellowships and research fellowships, and has been a Writer-in-Residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Born in Cambridge, England, and raised there as well as in the American South and Maine, Kline lives with husband and three sons in Montclair, New Jersey. She is at work on another novel and an anthology.

Learn about Orphan Train

I asked Christina three questions about our giveaway’s theme topic, self-expression:

1.  Is self-expression an important part of your life today, why or why not?

Exactly a year ago I discovered a lump in my breast and entered a bewildering world of treatment, from chemotherapy to surgery to radiation. In the intervening months I have learned more than I ever wanted to about my own capacity to endure uncertainty and illness. One of the things I’ve learned is that being sick and vulnerable gives you a kind of authority of experience. I move with less hesitation now. I am more sure of my beliefs, more direct, more willing to step forward to help. Rumi said that the wound is the place where the light enters you. As a result of this experience (which seems to be over, thank goodness) I am both more aware of joy in the world and the depth of people’s sorrows. I understand, in a way that I never did before, the value and the power of self-expression.

2.  What does self-expression mean to you and how do you do it in the world?

There are many ways to address this question, but I’m going to give one specific answer: When I was in treatment I was astonished by people’s generosity in ways large and small. I’d wake up to find fresh-baked muffins at my front door, care packages of body lotions, cheerful Gerbera daisies in a vase. One friend organized a meal train that chugged along for months; another set up a blog to post updates. I wasn’t surprised that my close friends came through for me (though I was amazed by their stamina through the marathon length of my treatment and recovery). But the gestures from near-strangers humbled me. People I barely knew reached out with a hand or a hug, gave of their time, anticipated my needs without being asked. Having learned first-hand how much even the smallest gesture can mean has definitely made me a better friend.

3.  How does your self-expression impact the world — your family, your friends, your readers, and everyone else?

As far as my writing goes, it will be interesting to see how my experience in the past year affects the way I tell stories. I’m just beginning a new novel about a lonely, misunderstood woman who is afraid to let go of the familiar and head into the unknown. I’m certain that the story I tell will be different than it would’ve been a year ago. I’m eager to find out how.

Introducing Jessica Maria Tuccelli

Jessica Maria Tuccelli is a writer and filmmaker. Her debut novel, Glow (Penguin 2013), was named a Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Okra Pick, its highest honor. According to the Fredericksburg Freelance Star, Glow is “full of love, hate, discrimination, heartbreak, hardiness, ghosts and hoodoo. Every page seems to introduce a new twist to draw the reader in and keep the pages turning. You won’t be disappointed.”

In film, Tuccelli’s lighting finesse can be seen in over 100 film shorts, commercials, and documentaries, most notably the Sundance Film Festival Audience Favorite Hoop Dreams, the Emmy Award-winning How Do You Spell God? (HBO), and Sesame Street (PBS). A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in anthropology, Tuccelli travels the globe, where she finds inspirations for her stories.

Learn about Glow from Penguin 2013

October 1941. Eleven-year-old Ella McGee sits on a bus bound for her Southern hometown. Behind her in Washington, D.C., lie the broken pieces of her parents’ love story—a black father drafted, an activist mother of Scotch-Irish and Cherokee descent confronting racist thugs. But Ella’s journey is just beginning when she reaches Hopewell County, and her disappearance into the Georgia mountains will unfurl a rich tapestry of family secrets spanning a century.

Told in five unforgettable voices, Glow reaches back through the generations, from the eve of World War II to the Blue Ridge frontier of 1836, where slave plantations adjoin the haunted glades of a razed Cherokee Nation. Out of these characters’ lives evolves a drama that is at once intimately human and majestic in its power to call upon the great themes of our time—race, identity, and the bonds of family and community. Lushly conceived, cinematically detailed, and epic in historical scope, Glow announces an extraordinary new voice in Southern fiction.

I asked Jessica three questions about our giveaway’s theme topic, self-expression:

1. Is self-expression an important part of your life today, why or why not?

Self-expression is present in my life everyday, from the moment of waking to the moment of sleep, perhaps even within sleep, if you consider the fantastical realm of dreams and nightmares, which, now that I think of it, could be the most authentic form of self-expression.

When we dream, we don’t intrude upon our expression with our conscious thoughts; it includes all that we’ve absorbed through a lifetime, an expression of our deepest hopes and fears and everything in between. For example, many years ago, in December 1988 to be exact, I had a dream in which I was looking for my high school friend, Danny Rosenthal, in a thickly wooded forest in Scotland. Danny had been, in real life, a passenger on Pan Am 103 when it exploded in a terrorist attack over Lockerbie, Scotland.

My dream brought me solace as I found him in the forest, and we hugged, and I was able to tell him how much we all missed him and how devastated we all were. When I awoke, I could still feel the warmth and weight of his embrace. This visceral experience was so deeply moving to me that I needed to give it to one of my characters in my debut novel, Glow. I needed to share it with the world. I wondered if anyone else had had this kind of experience.

2. What does self-expression mean to you and how do you do it in the world?

In the home sphere, I pour my self-expression into everything from the meals I cook for my family to how I decorate our apartment. Of course, there must be a balance at home, one must allow for all family member’s self expression, and that’s not always easy. Different tastes, different beliefs all in one small New York City apartment!

In the public world, I put my self-expression into my work in theatre, film, and now novels. Before making my debut in the world as an artist, I tried to be a scientist—I went to MIT to study molecular biology. But science wasn’t my calling, and once I acknowledged this, I felt an immense weight lifted from my shoulders.

People often ask about how I transitioned from MIT to writing. All I can say is that science and art are both forms of self-expression: The difference, of course, is that a scientist is working on a new theory of physics, and the writer is working on inventing the physicist who is working on the new theory of physics!

3. How does your self-expression impact the world—your family, your friends, your readers, and everyone else?

Hmm. That’s a good question. I don’t know how it impacts the world, but I hope it adds to it in a positive way, that it creates dialogue that leads to a deeper understanding and tolerance of differences, be they ethnic, gender, racial, cultural, sexual, or religious differences.

I grew up in a bi-ethnic, bi-religious household, which resulted in a lot of emotional tumult within my family. I like to think I can take those experiences, add a bit of alchemy and craft to it, and create something that provides solace or comfort for someone else, as well as good story that stays with you after you read the last page.

And Now, Your Turn…

You remember how this works right?

Please read the complete rules at least once!

I ask you a question.

You answer in the comments for your chance to win a book each day.

Please just respond once, even if you make a typo.

Answer in the comments in 50-200 words (no less and no more to qualify to win one of today’s books).

What are the things you know you were put on earth to do and be? Past, present, future…answer any way you like.

Ready, set, comment! I will hold the drawing tomorrow and post the results here in my blog.

Thanks for participating in the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway!

And thanks for spreading the word. We will be giving away great books by wonderful women authors all month.

View the complete list of authors and books.

View the giveaway Pinterest board.

I have known Krysty for over five years and she is one of the most committed and passionate writers I know. Krysty doesn’t just skim the surface when she opens up an topic. She dives in deep and doesn’t come up for air until she has something precious to share with the rest of us.  And then, when she does share, she does so thoroughly and conscientiously. Please help me welcome Krysty!

Introducing Krystyann Krywko, Ed.D.

Krystyann is a writer and education researcher who specializes in hearing loss and the impact it has on children and families. She offers both a parental, as well as a personal perspective, as her and her son were diagnosed with hearing loss one year apart. She holds an Ed. D in International Education Development from Teachers College, Columbia University. With ten years of early childhood teaching experience, Krystyann’s current research interests include: hearing loss, brain development and the impact on literacy; hearing loss in the classroom and making schools hearing-accessible; raising public awareness of hearing loss detection and treatment; and community and parent involvement.

Krystyann’s writing has recently been featured in Brain Child, and Volta Voices. She blogs about hearing loss, children, and families at www.lateonsethearingloss.org.

Learn about Late Onset Hearing Loss: A Parent’s Perspective

Your child has been diagnosed with late onset hearing loss, now what? I am sure you are feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, and a million questions are racing through your head.

I am here to tell you that it will all be okay. Sit down and take a deep breath. There is a long road ahead of you, I won’t tell you that it will be easy, but I will tell you that both you and your child have strengths that you have not even recognized yet. My e-book offers a “from the trenches” perspective that will walk you through the emotions that are involved from the moment of diagnosis and will help you learn to cope with these emotions so that you are able to move ahead and be there for your child.

This e-book is geared towards parents whose children have some residual hearing and who will be aided – either through hearing aids, cochlear implants, or a baha device. The intent is to educate and inform, without overwhelming.

I asked Krysty three questions about our giveaway’s theme topic, self-expression:

1. Is self-expression an important part of your life today, why or why not?

Self expression has always been an important part of what I do and I have always tried to bring part of it to whatever project I am involved in. There have definitely been times in my life where it has been more difficult to figure out what it is that I am trying to say or express. I am very much at a stage in my life where deep, creative self-expression is becoming more important to the work that I do. I now have the confidence and the wisdom to attach myself to projects that support and nurture my self-expression and to turn from those that don’t. I am fortunate enough to be in a position where I spend a large part of my day focused on self-expression and what I want to share with the world.

2. What does self-expression mean to you and how do you do it in the world?

To me self-expression has a lot to do with believing in yourself and allowing yourself the room to create. It also has a lot to do with following that voice inside that knows what is best for you, but that can be easy to ignore. Self-expression is really at the root of all that I do, not just in my writing, although that might be the place where it is most powerful. I believe self-expression comes through in all aspects of my life through the books I choose to read, the decisions I make in raising my children, the way I connect with my husband, the food, the friendships I become involved in – everything is connected to everything.

3. How does your self-expression impact the world—your family, your friends, your readers, and everyone else?

Tough one – because some days I wonder if I make an impact at all. But, I think that’s where staying true to yourself comes into play, where you repeat yourself a million times and then there is that one blog comment, or you see your teaching reflected in a choice your child makes and you know that all is right in your world, at least for that moment. You never know how your work is going to impact anyone and I think in today’s world where we are constantly bombarded with information and sound bytes it’s more important than ever to earn the respect of those you interact with – whether that’s your family or your readers. Authenticity is such an important part of self-expression, you can only fake it for so long before cracks begin to appear. It’s too easy to become involved in superficial relationships, but in order to have an impact you need to dig beneath the surface of the work you do and to fully believe in yourself.

And Now, Your Turn…

You remember how this works right?

Please read the complete rules at least once!

I ask you a question.

You answer in the comments for your chance to win a book each day.

Please just respond once, even if you make a typo.

Answer in the comments in 50-200 words (no less and no more to qualify to win one of today’s books).

What do you love to listen to? Is it your favorite band, you child’s voice, the sound of the birds outside your window? Name ten of your favorite sounds. Describe them but do not analyze them.

Ready, set, comment! I will hold the drawing tomorrow and post the results here in my blog.

Thanks for participating in the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway!

And thanks for spreading the word. We will be giving away great books by wonderful women authors all month.

View the complete list of authors and books.

View the giveaway Pinterest board.

Today is publication day for Laura Whitcomb and we will be giving away both of her latest books to one lucky winner!

Laura has an amazing imagination. I also like her writing instruction books for Writer’s Digest, Novel Shortcuts and Your First Novel written with her agent, Ann Rittenberg. If you like YA and any kind of supernatural writing, you really must check out Laura’s books. Please help me welcome Laura!

Introducing Laura Whitcomb

Laura Whitcomb is the author of the supernatural YA novels A Certain Slant of Light (a Discover Great New Authors pick at Barnes and Nobel) and its companion novel Under the Light (published May 14) as well as The Fetch (in the Top Ten YA books of 2009 by the Indy Next List.) She has also written two books on the craft of writing, Novel Shortcuts and Your First Novel which she co-authored with her literary agent, Ann Rittenberg. Laura’s fiction has been published in nine foreign languages, produced as audio books, and Slant is optioned for film by Summit Entertainment, the producers of the Twilight movies.

Laura grew up in a mildly haunted house, which may be why she writes about ghosts, death escorts, and (soon) fairies. She got her English degree from California State University at Northridge and taught Language Arts in California and Hawaii. She has won three Kay Snow writing awards and once was runner-up in the Bulwer-Lytton contest for the Best First Sentence of the Worst Science Fiction Novel Never Written.

She broke in as a professional novelist after writing twenty manuscripts over a period of twenty years. To keep her life interesting she works with the Portland Christmas Revels and sings madrigals with the Sherwood Renaissance Singers at fairs across Oregon and Washington. In August she will be teaching a workshop called “The Ten Day Revision” at the Willamette Writers conference. She lives in Wilsonville, Oregon with her son.

Learn about Under The Light

Helen needed a body to be with her beloved. Jenny had to escape from hers before her spirit was broken. It was wicked, borrowing it, but love drives even the gentlest soul to desperate acts.

And Helen, who has returned to help Jenny, finds herself trapped, haunting the girl she wished to save. Jenny and Billy’s love story begins out-of-body and continues into the tumultuous realm of the living, where they are torn apart even as they slowly remember falling in love.

Learn about A Certain Slant Of Light

In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: for the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now.

And Helen — terrified, but intrigued — is drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess.

Here is an example fan trailer made for A Certain Slant Of Light.

I asked Laura three questions about our giveaway’s theme topic, self-expression:

1. Is self-expression an important part of your life today, why or why not?

Yes, self expression is important in my life. Absolutely. It’s what it’s all about.

2. What does self-expression mean to you and how do you do it in the world?

Being a novelist and being a mom, the two jobs that take up most of my time, are all about self expression. Telling stories draws on my true self and beliefs, my most personal ideas and deepest emotions–it’s a big messy wonderful self expression circus. And being with my son, loving him, showing him what I find delightful in life, opening up to him every day my flawed self and yet saying by demonstration, “It’s okay to look up to me and be like me, because I survive life well and I’m a happy person who loves myself” . . . these things are all about self expression, too.

3. How does your self-expression impact the world—your family, your friends, your readers, and everyone else?

If you spend most of your time storytelling and learning all over again from a three-year-old how to live in The Now and to enjoy the wonder of simple things, you are rewarded with mountains of blessings. People who get and love what you write tell you why when they run into you at book events, or when they send emails or FB messages, or even when they send snail-mail letters, or fan-made videos. They give you a piece of themselves–they tell you the secret of what made them cry or why they fell in love with your fictional hero or which chapter was like a painful chapter of their own lives. Or if they’re fellow writers they’ll start up fabulous conversations with you over tea about how they struggled with the same bit of self expression you dealt with in your last draft. And if you walk around with your self expression set on “maximum silly” because of hanging out with a preschooler all the time, you become almost impossible to embarrass and people will let their hair down around you, even strangers, and give you wonderful gifts: smiles, shared jokes, spontaneous anecdotes, cool advice, and sudden inexplicable friendships.

And Now, Your Turn…

You remember how this works right?

Please read the complete rules at least once!

I ask you a question.

You answer in the comments for your chance to win a book each day.

Please just respond once, even if you make a typo.

Answer in the comments in 50-200 words (no less and no more to qualify to win one of today’s books).

Quickly, without censoring or over-thinking write your top five favorite movies of all time. Then pause, and look at the list. What are the themes? What do the themes mean in connection to you? Whatever you notice quickly counts.

Ready, set, comment! I will hold the drawing tomorrow and post the results here in my blog.

Thanks for participating in the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway!

And thanks for spreading the word. We will be giving away great books by wonderful women authors all month.

View the complete list of authors and books.

View the giveaway Pinterest board.