Tag: books

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A Year of Yes: Midwest Book Review of my book, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters

Christa Avampato

Honored to share that Midwest Book Review reviewed my novel:

“A deftly written and unfailingly entertaining novel for teen readers, Emerson Page and Where The Light Enters showcases author Christa Avampato’s impressive flair for originality and master of the storytelling arts. Unreservedly recommended for both school and community library YA Fiction collections.”

The review has been provided to the Helen C. White Library’s “Cooperative Children’s Book Center” (University of Wisconsin, Madison) where it will be made available to school and community librarians throughout Wisconsin’s public school systems and community libraries. This review has also been provided to the Cengage Learning, Gale interactive CD-ROM series “Book Review Index” which is published four times yearly for academic, corporate, and public library systems.

Additionally, this review will be archived on the Midwest Book Review website for the next five years.

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A Year of Yes: I’ll be a featured speaker at the Virginia Festival of the Book

Christa Avampato

VaBookFestival2018-RGB-WEBI’m so honored that I’ll be an invited author at the Virginia Festival of the Book in March in Charlottesville, Virginia. This is a special honor for me because I went to graduate school at UVA, and this city holds a special place in my heart. It’s also where I began to dream, again, of becoming an author.

Over the course of two days, I’m visiting 7 elementary and middle schools to talk to students, teachers, and staff about writing, books, and storytelling. Here’s where I’ll be:

  • Village School, 215 E High St, Charlottesville, VA 22902
  • Walker Upper Elementary School, 1564 Dairy Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22903
  • Burley Middle School, 901 Rose Hill Dr, Charlottesville, VA 22903
  • Oakland School, 128 Oakland Farm Way, Troy, VA 22974
  • Scottsville Elementary School, 7868 Scottsville Road, Scottsville, VA 24590
  • Hollymead Elementary School, 2775 Powell Creek Dr, Charlottesville, VA 22911
  • Sutherland Middle School, 2801 Powell Creek Dr, Charlottesville, VA 22911

After that, I’ll be attending events associated with the book festival. The schedule is still TBD and I’ll let you know more as soon as I have that information. I’m looking forward to meeting readers and authors, and to revisiting a city that made me the person I am today.

To learn more about the festival, visit http://vabook.org/.

creativity

A Year of Yes: Going to Ireland

Christa Avampato

Last week, I put out a call for help to plan my first international trip of the year—to Ireland. I’m doing research for my next Emerson book and I’ve long been thinking about Dublin because of the stunning Trinity Library and the many treasures it holds. Once I got into researching the city and surrounding area, there were so many reasons why this is the perfect destination for Emerson to travel to in book two. It is, after all, a land of magic, history, and literature. It is, and has been for centuries, a hotbed of science and discovery. From its museums to its castles to its natural phenomenon, Ireland has everything that Emerson needs to make her next daring leaps into her future. And they will be daring.

Here are some of the places I’m planning to visit:
Trinity College & Library
Marsh’s Library
Newgrange
The Little Museum
Birr Castle Gardens
National Museum of Ireland, including the Natural History Museum
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
…and a short stop over in Wistman Woods in England because I really need to see that with my own eyes to believe it’s real.

A huge thank you to Museum Hack and several of its staff members and tour guides who provided great tips and encouragement, tour company Hennessey & Furlong, Jennifer O’Neill, and all the staff of the sites tagged above. All of your advice and the ideas you shared have made me more excited than ever to visit this inspiring country. I can’t wait for spring!

Have you been to Ireland? Are there place you’d recommend I see that inspire wonder? I’d love to hear about them.

creativity

In the pause: Interview about my book on Cheddar

Christa Avampato

A wonderful way to close the last week of 2017: a live on-screen interview on Cheddar about my book, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters. Thanks so much for to the team there, especially hosts Baker Machado and Jill Wagner, and to expert publicist, Dan Fortune. Happy to give thanks and shout-outs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, my inspiring home city of New York, and National Novel Writing Month. Watch the interview here: https://cheddar.com/videos/what-it-takes-to-get-a-novel-published

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In the pause: My live on-screen interview on Cheddar

Christa Avampato

Screen Shot 2017-12-27 at 5.34.04 PMI’m so excited to share that I’ll be doing a live on-screen interview about my young adult fantasy book, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, on Friday at 1:30pm Eastern on Cheddar. You can tune in at Cheddar.com, cheddar.twitter.com, and www.facebook.com/cheddarlive/. I’ll post the link to the interview on Friday afternoon once I have it. Thanks for all your support on this journey with special thanks to publicist extraordinaire, Dan Fortune.

More about Cheddar:
Cheddar focuses on covering the most innovative products, technologies, and services transforming our lives. The programming is available on Sling TV, Amazon, Vimeo, Twitter, Xumo, Pluto TV, and 60 percent of smart TVs in the U.S. They also stream live on Facebook and on Twitter’s homepage during certain hours. Certain Cheddar hours also air on Fusion, the cable news network available in over 60 million homes.

Other past guests include Ford CEO Mark Fields, CBS CEO Les Moonves, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, Thrive Global Founder Arianna Huffington, T-Mobile CEO John Legere, New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley, Hearst Magazine CMO Joanna Coles, Twitch founder Justin Kan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Tory Burch, Tony Robbins, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, DJ Khaled and more.

Here are links to recent interviews with Will.i.am, SNL’s Kenan Thompson and Lea DeLaria. Check out their sizzle reel, too.

creativity

In the pause: Iceland’s beautiful Christmas Eve tradition of books and chocolate

Christa Avampato

Iceland has the most lovely Christmas Eve tradition. There they give books to each other on Christmas Eve and then spend the night reading, usually curled up under a cozy blanket while eating chocolate. This tradition is the reason for the word Jolabokaflod, or “Christmas Book Flood”. It signifies the time between September and December when the majority of books are sold in Iceland in preparation for Christmas giving. 1:10 Icelanders is an author, and they buy and read more books per capita. What a country!

Now that Emerson Page is out in the world, I’m going to have to figure out how to get her to Iceland, in book two and into Jolabokaflod. I’ll be glad to tag along to see what she finds.

Wishing you a cozy, comfy December 24th filled with books and chocolate.

creativity

In the pause: A momentous weekend as a writer

Christa Avampato

A great big day today: my book, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, had nearly 2500 downloads on Kindle this weekend, hit #1 in its Kindle categories, broke into the top 100 Kindle books across all categories on Amazon, and the incredible Dan Fortune landed me a huge interview for the end of this month. I am literally floating. Thank you to everyone for being a part of this wild literary ride. I love you. Keep dreaming.

creativity

In the pause: How other authors bring out the best in our writing

Christa Avampato

Earlier this week a new author told me that he was afraid to let his characters be harmed. And I told him that he has to let them breathe and live, and that means that difficult things can, will, and must happen to them. It’s the overcoming of obstacles that makes for powerful storytelling.

What I didn’t realize is that giving this advice would give me new Emerson material. I have had the ending scene of the second book in my mind for some time and it puts a beautiful bow on this arc of Emerson’s journey. And then, after this conversation with this author, it came undone. Another very small scene came into my mind when I got home and it wouldn’t let me go. Though it’s only four lines, it’s jarring, even to me. And it’s absolutely what must happen. It hurt my heart to write, and so I had to get it down in ink. No matter how long we’ve lived with our characters, their stories will still surprise us.

While I’m busy working away on book 2, you can download the Kindle version of Emerson’s first book, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, for free for one more day today. Visit Amazon to get one for yourself and for all the readers on your list!

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In the pause: Messages in dreams

Christa Avampato

I believe that our dreams can send us the messages we need exactly when we need them. Yesterday I had a dream that I had handed in my manuscript for Emerson’s second book. There was a note on top of it that said, “Dedication – that’s your only goal now.”

Though it was a very short dream, it had a powerful impact on me. It gave me encouragement to stay on this path, to keep creating, dreaming, and growing. To keep helping other people. To keep standing up and speaking out to help build a better world. I hope that by sharing this message, it helps to encourage you, too. Stay true to who you are and the impact you want to have. We need you.

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In the pause: Get your free copy of my book on Kindle today

Christa Avampato

Screen Shot 2017-12-10 at 6.15.22 PM.pngToday’s the day! Today, tomorrow, and Saturday my book Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, is available for free as a Kindle download. Just go to the book’s page on Amazon, and you’ll see that the price has been reduced from $4.99 to $0 for these days only. Download it for yourself and to give as gifts to all the readers on your list. Happy holidays from Emerson Page!