Karin Adams

I had my very first author visit today at a Winnipeg school, Arthur E. Wright. It was ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! Everyone at the school – teachers, staff, and students- was very friendly and welcoming.

It was truly terrific meeting Ms. Hershfield’s Grade 4 students and Mr. Price’s Grade 5 students ! You sure had  great questions, and it was lots of fun to read and chat with you! I enjoyed reading from Lights! Curtains! Cows!  – I hope you all had a chuckle or two! 🙂

I was thrilled to meet some students who are writing books, poetry, songs  –  all sorts of creative writing! Keep up your hard work, try to write as often as you can, and try to use those 3 tips we talked about to “make your writing (any writing!) shine!”.

To everyone that I met today: thanks for being so friendly for my first author visit ever, and all the best as you follow your different dreams. I know that you’ll all do amazing things!

– Karin

The official book launch for Lights! Curtains! Cows! will take place on January 10, 2010, at McNally Robinson (Winnipeg – Grant Ave Location), 2pm. If you’re in town, come on down!

I’m going to be doing a reading, signing books, and just generally mingling and having a good time. Hope you can be there!

I’ve actually never been to a book launch before, so it’s kind of cool that the first one I’m attending is my own.

Check out the info about the Lights! Curtains! Cows! launch here on McNally Robinson’s site:

http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/

Woo-hoo!

Got home yesterday from a terrific vacation. To my delight and surprise, I found that my forthcoming book, No TV? No Fair! is now listed on the Lorimer site and on all the major bookseller sites for pre-order. Maybe after book 55 it won’t feel as super duper cool, but I doubt it – I think it will always be a thrill to know that your story is really going to be shared with others.

No TV? No Fair will be officially available on March 25, 2010. It will be published in the Streetlights series (the same series as Lights! Curtains! Cows! – published by James Lorimer and Company). It’s the story of a family that decides to go “offline” for a month – no tv, no computers, nothing!

(I once lived a whole year without a TV, but I’ve never tried shutting off my computer and other electronic doo-dads. I should give it a try sometime, but I guess that means no blogging for a while – LOL!)

The main character is Chloe Lambert. What I love about the book is the surprising things that Chloe learns about herself when the constant distractions of TV and video games are no longer there. There are also a few super funny scenes where even Chloe’s parents are having trouble with their own rule!!!

Stay tuned to my site for more info about the book as we get closer to March -countdown starts…NOW!

On December 12, 2009, Winnipeg Free Press contributor Helen Norrie included Lights! Curtains! Cows! in her list of about 12 recommended Canadian books for young people that would make great Christmas gifts.

What an exciting honour for my book to be included in this list!

Here’s a link to the full article:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

I had my first radio interview earlier this morning with the awesome Hal Anderson of Hal Anderson Mornings on CJOB Winnipeg. What a great guy! I was excited and a bit nervous about the whole thing – but then I felt totally relaxed during the actual interview. Hal was so easy to talk to – as easy-going and friendly as he sounds during his show.

It was so cool to share with Winnipeg and Manitoba listeners a bit about Lights! Curtains! Cows!. We even gave away a copy of the book on air to the first caller through. A young man named Jose won – I hope you enjoy the book, Jose. Thanks for calling in!

There’ve been a lot of exciting firsts to come along with my first book, and this is one of them. Thanks Hal for having me on your show!

The other day, it occured to me that since Lights! Curtains! Cows!, has an old-time prairie legend at its heart, a theme song with a folksy, country style is just what this book needed! I composed some lyrics, and then contacted my brother, Paul Shrofel, who is a professional musician and music producer. Paul and I have been collaborating on songs, musicals, plays and amateur radio shows since we were kids. So, in a few days of bouncing ideas back and forth, we came up with the upbeat song “The Legend of Cow Valley”. The song retells the story of Lights! Curtains! Cows! in a fun, folksy style with a rousing chorus of “Moos” that kids can sing along with. I love how it turned out and I hope you take a listen! You can find it on the Fun Stuff page of my site.

I’m thrilled to be able to finally say that Lights! Curtains! Cows!, my very first novel for young people, is finally here!  It seems like a long time from the moment I began to imagine the story, to it being accepted by James Lorimer & Company for publication, to its release date – part of that though is just being so excited (like the night before Christmas, but for months on end!).  I hope you will enjoy the story, and that it will make you laugh. It was fun to write, and I hope you find it fun to read!

To read more about the book itself, please click here.

I hope you’ll come back to my site to check out the latest news about this book, and upcoming books, too. I have another book for James Lorimer & Company’s Streetlights series in the works  – it comes out in Spring 2010. I’ll be posting more about it here as we get closer to the release date, so stop by again soon!

And book lovers – don’t forget to download and print the free bookmarks I made just for you! (They come in a sheet of 5 – I don’t know about you, but between having several books on the go at once, and the uncanny ability to misplace little things like bookmarks, I thought 5 was a good number!)