Book Giveaway: THE THREE LITTLE PIGS AND THE ROCKET PROJECT by Lynne Marie

Today we have Lynne Marie’s newest picture book, THE THREE LITTLE PIGS AND THE ROCKET PROJECT, illustrated by Wendy Fedan and published by Mac and Cheese Press with Create-a-Way Publishing. Lynne Marie has agreed to send a copy to the one lucky winner in the US.

All you have to do to get in the running is leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know other things you do to share the good news, so I can put the right amount of tickets in my basket for you. Sharing on Facebook, Twitter or reblogging really helps spread the word for a new book. So, thanks for helping Lynne Marie and Wendy.

If you have signed up to follow my blog and it is delivered to you everyday, please let me know when you leave a comment and I will give you an extra ticket. Thanks!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Author Lynne Marie delivers a clever fractured fable based upon the popular tale of The Three Little Pigs! Perfect for fairy tale lovers and science geeks.

When the three little pigs get an assignment to build a toss rocket, they are over the moon excited! But what materials should they use to build it? And will school bully Bibi Wolf blow down their high hopes?

With colorful art and fun characters to amuse readers on every page, this timeless tale shows that even a failure can turn into a success.

BOOK JOURNEY:

The story of three little pigs was a favorite and familiar tale during my childhood. My father absolutely loved pigs as a result of raising them. As a child, he hung out with them in the pighouse, played with them like dogs and rode them like horses. He is always championing pigs as being the friendliest, smartest and cleanest animals. He never had pigs as an adult, but affectionately called me, my sister and my brother his three little pigs when we were little (LOL). 

Many years later, when my former Agent reached out to me with an opportunity to write a fractured fairy tale series, I jumped at the chance! I knew exactly which fairy tales I wanted to fracture. But I had effectively written such a tale before, with Moldilocks and the Three Scares, so I knew it wasn’t so easy to pull it off. 

I decided it would be fun (and challenging) to pair the fairy tales with STEM / Science topics. I drafted six story summaries and mulled them all over to decide which one to start with.

Since I had success in the school market with Hedgehog Goes to Kindergarten and Hedgehog’s 100th Day of School, I decided on a school setting – Fairy Tale Elementary!

The Three Little Pigs stood out because it was a favorite. Also,  I could easily tie in the elements with a school project, as they were all builders. I imagine what they could make with bricks, twigs and straw that would flip the viability of the materials (to make it a bit unexpected). My mind drifted to my daughter’s toss rocket science project in early elementary school, and voila! All the elements came together in my head. I had a Three Little Pigs story that was fresh and new, and yet hit all the familiar beats with a big bad wolf, their building materials and failed experiments. And it also presented an opportunity for an early elementary school child to make an easy project and perform an easy experiment using scientific methods to determine the best materials and size.  

It seems my newer Agent had submitted it and it wasn’t selected, but I wasn’t discouraged. I felt I had a solid project that would someday come to life. 

The process of writing this book was so fun! I even nodded to author James Halliwell, the first person credited with the telling of the pig’s tale. And I nodded to the original three little pigs by creating names from the first letters of a rare version of the original pigs’ names. Such fun to research the stories behind the story!

I even got to weave in some of my other favorite fairy tale characters and some puns! More fun! But then I put it aside and moved on to other bright and shiny ideas. 

Flash forward to a totally unrelated experience. I was working with Sande Roberts and a cat walked across her desk. I remarked how I loved cats too and she told me the story of that cat’s origin as well as other cats that she had watched for her brother, Glen. One of his cats had even won a Cat of the Year Award for saving him from a seizure. Well, I was hooked by this story. I suggested that this is the story to work on and put her others to the side, and she did! We met many times to work on BLAKE’S BIG DAY and it turned out wonderful! I even found a publisher who was willing to consider it. However, Sande didn’t want to wait the long time that it takes for traditional publishing. So she paired up with a friend, artist Wendy Fedan, to collaborate on the book. 

At first, I was a bit hesitant to support the decision of publishing the book on her own. But I had been involved in the editing process and knew it was a solid story. And, when I saw Wendy’s art and expertise and how it really brought the story to life in a perfect way, I was totally on board! And the quality of the book, published through Kindle Direct Publishing, was impressive. And, since many of my coaching and mentoring clients (www.thepicturebookmechanic.com) speak to me about independent publishing and I didn’t have any personal experience to offer, I decided to pair with Wendy and get that experience. 

As someone who has been studying the art and craft of writing for children since 1998, who has published many traditional books and who works as an editor for a small press, I knew that I had the background, education and expertise to create a book outside of the traditional publishers. And with Wendy’s guidance as a book shepherd, I would be able to navigate the Amazon Kindle process. I created Mac and Cheese Press, which nods to several of my heritages (Scots, British, French and Dutch). 

I went through my many, many completed manuscripts. Right away, I knew her art style would be perfect for my THE THREE LITTLE PIGS AND THE ROCKET PROJECT story! So I pulled it out, dusted it off and sent it to her. Thankfully, she loved it and through her talented hand, my fairy tale characters came to life! I am so grateful to Sande for the connection, and to Wendy for her amazing art. Our book is now out on Amazon, with a Kindle version, and coloring book version coming soon!

I am so proud of the way this project turned out, and the wonderful response to it from readers! I look forward to working with Wendy again on our next project, a mighty Greek myth!

LYNNE MARIE’S BIO:

Lynne Marie is the author of Hedgehog Goes to Kindergarten – art by Anne Kennedy (Scholastic 2011), Hedgehog’s 100th Day of School – art by Lorna Hussey (Scholastic 2017), The Star of the Christmas Play — art by Lorna Hussey (Beaming Books 2018), Moldilocks and the 3 Scares — art by David Rodriguez Lorenzo (Sterling 2019 and Scholastic 2019)  and  Let’s Eat! Mealtime Around the World — art by Parwinder Singh (Beaming Books 2019), American Pie (Dancing Flamingo Press Spring 2022), and There Was a Blue Whale Who Tangled with Plastic (Dancing Flamingo Press Spring 2023). She’s also the Owner and Administrator of RateYourStory.org and a Travel Agent. She currently lives on a lake in South Florida with her family, a Schipperke named Anakin, where she can be found daydreaming and fracturing fairy tales. Visit her at www.LiterallyLynneMarie.com. Lynne Marie is represented by Marisa Cleveland of www.theseymouragency.com Follow her on Facebook here and on twitter here.

WENDY FEDAN’S BIO:

Wendy Fedan is a freelance illustrator and product designer living in Amherst, Ohio. She worked for 10+years at American Greetings until 2008. After that she continued to grow her freelance business as an illustrator and designer. She’s self-published eight books so far, and is a huge proponent for indie publishing. She just launched her own publishing/book shepherding biz called Create A Way Design and Publishing, LLC.

Lynne Marie, thank you for sharing your book and journey with us. Love how you mashed up learning the scientific method with a fun retelling of the three little and then provided a hands on activity for children to do. Wendy’s illustrations are full of action and fun. Children, teachers, and parents will love this book. Good luck! 

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy