CHINABERRY HOLIDAY 2010 Catalog!

http://www.chinaberry.com/prod.cfm/pgc/11100/scb/11103/inv/16606

Ted receives Gold Medal from Mom's Choice Awards

BOOK LAUNCH AND TED SIGHTINGS!

I had a BLAST OFF BOOK LAUNCH at my house with many friends and family support, it was a great day! Picture of me and Amanda from my critique group, she has been there from the very beginning, with Anne, Kathryn and Daniel, it's ten years of writing and dreaming come true.

Ted sightings in Seattle and NYC. Thank you to Dennis and Nancy in NYC for the great photo, it makes me so happy!

HAVE YOU SEEN BABY TED?

TIME FOR BED, BABY TED, book release is February 15, 2010! These are BEDTIME HERO, sticker badges that I'll give out to kids at my readings in bookstores and libraries. At the end of the reading we'll all cheer, "I'm a BEDTIME HERO!" Kids will get an extra one to put on their pajamas that night when they tuck themselves into bed, just like Baby TED.

FIRST REVIEWS ARE IN:
Time for Bed, Baby Ted, received a great review from Kirkus,
"Sartell keeps the structured, rhyming text predictable and satisfying for young ears." and "Should be a guaranteed hit with young preschoolers and their parents."

And BOOKLIST, ALA review,
"Mop-topped Ted and his pretend menagerie make this a fun read-aloud for parent and child and a natural for sharing with a young group of children."

Don't forget to look on www.indiebound.org to find the nearest independent bookstore to you and ask for TIME FOR BED, BABY TED if it's not on the shelves.

New Cover Design: Time For Bed, Baby Ted

I'm not sure if this is the final cover, but I love this new design. What do you think?

Sign up on Amazon to be notified when it's available. Go to Amazon and type in Debra Sartell, or sign in at http://www.indiebound.org to find the nearest independent bookstore to you and if they're not carrying it yet, ask them to order it.

It's the perfect baby book. Add it to your BABY REGISTRY and don't forget FATHER'S DAY, June 20, 2010.

It's not a series yet, but I'm working on, Time To Get Out Of Bed, Big Boy Ted. I love the idea that Ted grows up a little and has to get up to go to school and so starts a scheduled life that will stay with him at least 12 years and probably more like 70. Kay got the character of Ted so right the first time around that I'd love to see how he grows in her eyes.

So I'm back on my old schedule of writing every morning at 5:30 a.m. I hope to have something to show my critique group at our next meeting. It's difficult for me to show my writing at critique group because I don't write the whole manuscript all at once and then do rewrites, although I have done that with a few manuscripts. Instead, because this is in rhyme I play around with the words, rhythm and movement within the constraints of the story until something evolves and clicks into place. It's how I like to write, more like solving a puzzle.

How to sell 10,000 copies of my first book? Looking for ideas from anyone. But I've been thinking and I have a couple of ideas about how to use facebook. So, my dear friends both ideas require your participation and I'm counting on all of you. Idea #1, if every one of my 175 friends buys one of my books and they tell 175 of their friends and they buy one and those friends tell 175 of their friends, and well you get the idea. Okay idea #2, if any of my friends would like a little visit from yours truly in the spring then they could send me the name of their favorite independent bookstore nearest them and I'll try to set up a signing and we can have a sleepover. Sounds like fun friends!

In the meantime, I'll keep attending those media and promotional workshops and try to come up with more BIG ideas.