UP!–First GIVEAWAY WINNERS of 2015!

Posted on January 3, 2015 by writersideup

So, gang, another giveaway has come and gone! And it’s amazing to me, but the same two people won the 6 prizes offered (3 per blog)! Their odds of winning were very strong due to the smaller-than-expected turnout, so they won’t just be getting little envelopes…they’ll be getting big ones! 😀 And it turns out that Cool Mom doesn’t use mousepads (she won BOTH lol), so she said to throw them back into the pot—so I did! Thanks, Cool Mom!

Being relatively new at this blogging thing and having only done two giveaways so far, the first being for the blog launches, I’m not sure my timing was right on this one since it was the holiday season. With that in mind I let it run for 11 days, but I don’t think that made a difference! What I didn’t do, as you may remember, was to be specific about clicking on the links to enter. What I’ve decided is that, for future giveaways, I will number commenters in order of comment succession, then will use Random.org. I think that will work out much better and will be less complicated for everyone overall. Live and learn, right? 😀

So, with all that said, the lucky Writer Side UP! winners ARE:

Continue reading →

UP!–My First Book of 2015

Posted on January 1, 2015 by writersideup

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not one to participate in meme’s and challenges, but Sheila at Book Journey (she’s a veteran at this kind of stuff!) hosts a few that are simple and fun and don’t add stress to my life (this is a KEY factor! lol). Last year was her first time hosting a “First Book of the Year” meme and though my blog wasn’t launched yet, I couldn’t resist participating 🙂 So here we are and it’s that time of year again!

Seeing as she already hooked me into her Harry Potter ReRead-a-long, fitting in yet Continue reading →

UP!–It’s GIVEAWAY Time!

Posted on December 21, 2014 by writersideup

Hello, everybody! 😀

OK, I realized today, while scheduling a couple upcoming posts, that it’s been way too long since I’ve done a Giveaway! That’s why I decided, to close out 2014, I’m going to run one on BOTH my blogs 🙂 Yay! The prizes are the same, so if you didn’t win one of the three I offered to celebrate my blog launches, here’s an opportunity (and there will be more next year) to give it another go! Continue reading →

UP!–Library Love <3

Posted on December 19, 2014 by writersideup

I LOVE LIBRARIES!

Seriously—can you imagine what it would be like without them? And in this day and age, libraries are not solely for the housing and sharing of printed material. Along with owning video and audio libraries, many serve as the sole source for computer and internet activity for a lot of people. In many cases local libraries are the hub of community activity! Continue reading →

UP!–John Newbery: The Man Behind the Medal

Posted on December 11, 2014 by writersideup

Portrait by Stephen Marchesi

Born in England on July 9, 1713, at the age of 16, John Newbery left his home town and parents’ farm to work for a printer. So was his first step into the world of publishing. In 1737 he became co-owner of a publishing company. At that time, the books typically given to children were tedious and lesson-filled, or handed-down folktales written for adults. These were considered “tall” tales, so thought of more for children. Books such as Gulliver’s Travels and Robinson Crusoe were among them, though young children weren’t capable of reading at that level. Newbery eventually came up with the groundbreaking idea to publish books designed specifically for children by making the books fun to read. It was risky and he could’ve ultimately lost his business if the idea failed, but he was confident children would like them. He was right. Continue reading →