Giveaway (hurry!) and interview

The MotherDaughter Book Club blog currently features an interview with me and giveaway of copies of my books, which you can enter by posting a comment about where and when you would love to travel in time. But hurry: The deadline is tonight, Tuesday February 2.

Review of Don't Know Where, Don't Know When

Very nice review of my first book, Don't Know Where, Don't Know When at MotherDaughter Book Club.com's blog...

New Angles on the Saxons

My homeschooling adventure continues, as Alec and I are working on a unit on Anglo-Saxon England (AKA the Dark Ages.) Yes, I do mean both of us, because I haven't seriously considered the Anglo-Saxons since I took a less than stellar course on medieval England in the early '90s.

One of the great revelations has been Anglo-Saxon literature. We listened to part of the poem The Battle of Maldon in the original and unintelligible Old English, had fun picking out words we still use today from a transcript, and then read in translation. It helped that we sort of know where Maldon is (my brother lives in Essex.)

The Battle of Maldon, fragmentary though it is, whetted our appetite for more, and so I sprung for a translation of Beowulf for kids (see left), even though the fact that the edition about a hundred years old made me skeptical about its appeal.

Boy, was I wrong.

We read two chapters each day, and were enchanted by the imagery, the Saxon-style alliteration, and the simple but compelling narrative of our hero's triumph over Grendel, the Water Witch, and the dragon. We were both pretty sad when we ended this slim volume. I cannot recommend it too highly. As we speak, Alec is working on his own Anglo-Saxon-style story, starring, um, Alecwulf, and his foe, the half-man, half-scorpion Neegrash.

Author of the Day

I'm author du jour (with a side of croutons) at the Teens Read Too blog.

Annette on TV

Just appeared on TV in southeastern Georgia to plug my books...

The REAL Snipesville

I do feature a disclaimer that the Snipesville, GA in the book is NOT the real Snipesville, GA...
But I gotta love this. Thanks to Dusty Snipes Gres (descendant of the town's founder) for the pic. :-)

A Different Day, A Different Destiny: The Snipesville Chronicles, Book 2

It took me a little longer than planned, but it was worth it: A Different Day, A Different Destiny, the second entry in my Snipesville Chronicles series is now in print.
I'm pretty proud of it, actually. It was challenging but fun to take my three modern kids to a time beyond living memory--in this case, 1851-- and to explore what made the mid-19th century what it was.
Perhaps foolhardily, I look forward to hearing from readers and bloggers. :-)