Here’s something fun to start off the week — I’m a guest on Bookscope, a new feature on the Children’s Literature Network website that gives authors an opportunity to talk about how they came to write a particular book.  Click here to read all about the personal voyage that led me to write my very first book, THE VOYAGE OF PATIENCE GOODSPEED.

(Tip:  for fans of my Mother-Daughter Book Club series, Patience Goodspeed may remind you of a cross between Cassidy and Jess.)

By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to THE VOYAGE OF PATIENCE GOODSPEED, which celebrates 10 years in print this month, and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to Children’s Literature Network, which just celebrated ten wonderful years connecting readers to the world of children’s books!  If you’re not familiar with this fabulous website resource, you should be…

And the winner is…

MEGAN WONG!

Here it is, my friends, hot off the design table.  Is this a gorgeous cover or what?  I love everything about it — the color scheme, the wonderful retro look of the luggage and the stamps on the blue background, the sunglasses and bracelets on our aspiring fashion designer — absolutely everything!  As Wolfgang would say, it’s FABULOUS, darlings, simply FABULOUS!

And you know what else is fabulous?   Since several of the characters will be hitting the road in this story, one of YOU suggested using a pile of suitcases instead of books!  How cool is that?!  (I ♥ my supersmart, supercreative fans.)

Can you guess where Megan is going?  Who do you think is taking her there?  What’s on her Top Ten list of things to do & see?  I know what would be on my list if I was going on a trip to–oops, I almost gave it away.  But I’ll bet you guessed anyway, didn’t you?

Ta-da!  I promised you all a sneak peek of ONCE UPON A TOAD, my new book coming out in April, and it’s finally ready.  Click here to hop on over (*groan*–bad pun, sorry!) and read the excerpt.

I also promised you a fun giveaway, so here we go.  Since this book is WILDLY different from my mother-daughter book club stories, take a deep breath and switch gears.  Then leave a comment below telling us which is your favorite fairy tale and why.  That’s it, simple as that.  You’ll be entered to win an ARC (Advance Reader’s Copy) plus a copy of the original book jacket (the one pictured here has been tweaked–you’ll have fun spotting the differences).  I’ll autograph both for you.

If you tweet this, blog about it, mention it on Facebook, or tell a friend who then also comments below, you’ll receive an additional entry for the drawing.  (U.S. and Canada only, please.)  Two winners will be chosen at random after midnight Pacific Time on February 20th, and announced on the 21st.

**For all of you baby boomers out there — or non-baby boomers, why not? — a bonus entry for the first three people who recognize the TV show catchphrase mentioned somewhere in this post and email me about it…