News About Some Published Practicing Writers

I love drafting posts with the express purpose of congratulating practicing writers on their publication successes. Today, we're celebrating Lori Ann Bloomfield and Alison Ashley Formento.

Lori's novel, The Last River Child, was recently published by Second Story Press. Lori was kind enough to send me an e-mail with this note: "Way back in July 2008 you posted that Second Story...was looking for fiction manuscripts. I had just finished writing my first novel, so sent it off to them. Well, they bought the manuscript! It came out in Canada last fall and is being released in the US this month. I've been wanting to share my happy story with you for a while and to thank you for your part in my success story. Please encourage your readers to keep writing and to keep submitting!" Lori, I think you've just encouraged them! (By the way, Lori is also the power behind a "First Line" blog, which provides fiction writers with some inspiration. And for those of you on Goodreads, Lori is hosting a book giveaway there this month. Now I may have to join yet another social networking site!)

Alison Formento's children's picture book, This Tree Counts!, was published earlier this month by Albert Whitman & Company. Alison and illustrator Sarah Snow have done an outstanding job with this book. How do I know this? Alison apparently reads Practicing Writing attentively enough to know that I have a young niece and nephew, and she very graciously offered to send a copy to share with them. Some of you may know that my niece is developing into a very picky reader (you can't begin to know how much this bothers me), but both she and her little brother were fully caught up in Alison's story when Grandma read it to them for the first time the other day. I can't come up with a better "review" than that.

I thank both Alison and Lori for sharing the news of their successes so generously with me. Let's give them a big round of virtual applause, shall we?