Celebrate #14 plus Cover Reveal

This lovely blog hop led by Lexa Cain and her two co-hosts Tonja Drecker and L G Keltner always makes me smile.  Why not join in by clicking the button above?

This week I am celebrating:

1) Finding the next book n a series by Alexander McCall Smith that I've been searching for in second hand book stores and charity shops over the past couple of weeks - on one of our bookshelves!! I think this goes to show the amount of bookcases we have - I'd obviously bought it previously and because of its height (it is hardback) couldn't put it with the rest of the series so had put it upstairs on another taller book shelf.  Thank goodness I hadn't found it and bought it again!!

2) Having a local radio station come out on a Nordic walk with me and one of my groups so that they can do a recording to be broadcast next week on the morning slot (an excellent time as many people will be listening to the radio as they get up and drive to work).  The interviewer was a very pleasant chap and my group were excellent not only in the way they walked but all of their comments when interviewed whilst walking!!  Which is not as easy as it sounds!

3) Getting housework done.  It's certainly not my favourite thing but this week I seem to have really been able to get going and do a lot of clearing out of things - either to charity shops or the bin/recycling as well as do the dusting and hoovering getting ready for visitors next week which will include my son and his girlfriend - which will be lovely :)

4) Lastly, I am celebrating making a cushion cover with a ruffle round its edge out of a charity shop sequinned and beaded skirt - which I got done over the Bank Holiday weekend.  This is for a charity craft competition I organise each year and to be honest I wasn't going to put an entry in this year as I don't do cushion covers (each year we do something different) but I thought I'd better show willing and I'm happy I did as I learnt new skills through doing it.

I'm looking forward to finding out what everyone else has been up to this week and are celebrating in their lives.  Please feel free to drop me a comment below :)

Now on to the second part - the COVER REVEAL - which I am delighted to be taking part in.

This book, by the very talented Sharon M Himsl - our Celebrate friend - is due for release this July by Evernight Teen publishers.

When notorious Uncle Azman disobeys orders, and sends Callie and Lucas to meet their mother's long lost family in Malaysia, fourteen-year-old Callie believes their troubles are over. After all they've endured, what more could go wrong?

Their American dad is dead, Mom is missing, and their foster dad in Seattle was murdered, with Callie falsely accused. If that wasn't enough, Callie and eight-year-old Lucas stowed aboard a sailboat to escape, only to be targeted by their uncle’s boss in Hawaii upon arrival for immediate sale in Thailand’s human trafficking market.

Disguised in case Azman’s boss sends someone after them, Callie believes it’s simply a matter of time. They need to find safety with family in Mersing and begin the search for Mom, but a shell box, a ruby, and a boy from Chicago named Sam are about to change everything.

  

Sharon loves adventure. Whether traveling through Malaysia on a jungle train, sailing in the San Juan Islands, or flying in an experimental airplane she helped her husband build, her life has been on a road less traveled. She has experienced hurricanes tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, and more. She has seen sunsets that take your breath away.

Her first publishing credit was as a travel writer in Malaysia, traveling by rail from Kluang to Kota Bharu on the now defunct "jungle train." Some of the Malaysian and Thai settings and characters she later wrote about in her novel, The Shells of Mersing, came from her experience living in Malaysia and the diary she kept.

She later edited, researched, and wrote young adult nonfiction for two educational publishers, Greenhaven Press and Lucent Books. Her interest in history stems from a degree in American Studies. Her day job at Washington State University also included editing science papers, articles, and books.

As a storyteller, Sharon knows that facts and life experiences are the foundation of good storytelling. If she were to credit one life experience behind wanting to be a writer, it would be the term paper she wrote in the ninth grade on the bubonic plague. "I don't know why, but I have always remembered the pride I felt writing that paper," Sharon said. And if she were to credit a character in a book who inspired her, it would be “Jo March” in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Jo wanted to be a writer.

Today Sharon is working on a second novel at home in Central Washington, where she lives with her husband on the edge of a desert runway . . . but that's another story!

You can find out more about this book launch by visiting Sharon's web page at http://shells-tales-sails.blogspot.com