RRBC Book and Blog Party 2016!

Blog Party 1

Welcome to this stop on the blog tour! This is our first time participating, and we’re really excited to join you from Vancouver, Washington. We’ll have two winners today here at Redbirds & Rabbits, and all you need to do to enter is comment on this blog post. Our two prizes today (both randomly drawn by the RRBC team) are:

  • One $25 gift card to Old Navy (perfect for back-to-school shopping!)
  • One paperback copy of There’s Always a Catch, the first book in my Christmas Key women’s fiction series. Along with the book, I’ll send you some “book swag” like a magnet and my own homemade soundtrack of songs inspired by There’s Always a Catch and the forthcoming Wild Tropics, which is book #2 of the series!

It’s exciting to have you join us from wherever you are on this beautiful planet, and we’d love to tell you a little bit more about ourselves. My name is Stephanie, and I’m the mom. Holland is my 12-year-old daughter, and we’re the co-authors of a series that Holland dreamed up two summers ago. From her original idea, we decided to write books about what it might feel like for young girls to move to America. Each book is about a girl from a different country, and the main character’s story follows her as she moves to our country and gets assimilated. We published our first book, Iris, about a year ago, and we’re incredibly excited to announce that we just put out our second book, Mai, a few days ago.

Iris-FINAL.jpg          Mai-f

In addition to the books I write with my daughter, I also pen a women’s series based on a fictional island off the coast of Florida called “Christmas Key.” The main character, Holly Baxter, is the 30-year-old mayor of a tropical island where the only traffic comes from slow-moving golf carts driven by retirees; the commute to work involves getting sand between your toes; and happy hour means salty margaritas with a view of the ocean. The only drawback for Holly is the lack of romantic options on Christmas Key! Book one, There’s Always a Catch, came out in the spring, and book two of the series, Wild Tropics, will be out in September.

TAAC-CK-BK-ONE-f          WildTropics-TAAC-f

And finally (as if two series and being a full-time teacher wasn’t enough!) I write YA under the pen name Reed Hall. My first YA book, @Robertopancake, came out last year, and it was a book that I absolutely loved writing. The whole thing was inspired by an exchange about music that I had with a kid on Twitter back when the site first became popular, and it moved me to write this book from the perspective of a teenage boy. The real @Robertopancake kindly gave me permission to take his (often hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking) teenage boy tweets out of context and use them in my own fictional tale. The result is a book that I’m still incredibly proud of, and the main character is someone I love as if he’s a real, live boy (and many of my readers have said they wished he was real!).

Robertopancake - High Resolution

Thank you for stopping by today–we’ve loved being a part of the Rave Reviews Book Club the past few months, and this blog tour has been a great example of what a wonderful, supportive community it is. Happy reading and writing, everyone!

~Stephanie & Holland

105 thoughts on “RRBC Book and Blog Party 2016!”

  1. Good morning, Stephanie! I love your post very much and think it’s a real privilege to to something as important as writing with one’s daughter. I think IRIS and MAI will be on my TBR List and I’ll acquire them for my granddaughter who is a bookworm. She turns ten in October. I hope you have a successful blog tour today. Kind regards

    • Thank you so much, Maretha! That pleases us that you might share Iris and Mai with your granddaughter…we’d love to have true middle grade readers check out our books (and of course we’d love it if you did, too)! Have a great day!

  2. Hi. I really enjoyed your blog. I immediately added your book “There’s Always a Catch”, to my kindle. When I see a Christmas theme– I am there! I really love the fact you write with your daughter! I look forward to reading those books, too. Thanks!

  3. Wow, yet another neighbor that I’ve met on the tour this year. I live in Tacoma, and I have several good friends down in Vancouver. I’m glad you’re enjoying your first time on the tour. Hope to see you back next year. 😀

  4. Good to know you Stephanie and Holland. It is the cover of your books that is so full of sunshine, and inviting. 🙂 I cannot find a Kindle copy of “Iris” on Amazon… So I bought “Mai.” :D. Can you check that?

  5. Hi Stephanie. What a lovely looking blog! The covers for “Iris” and “Mai” are gorgeous. Your books sound like my kind of read, so I’ve added “There’s Always a Catch” and “@Robertopancake” to my TBR. Have a great day at the party!

  6. Wow, a mom and daughter team! That’s awesome. I’ll be adding your books to my TBR for sure! Very best wishes with everything, Stephanie and Holland 🙂

  7. What a great idea about what it feels like for girls to come to live in America. if you ever consider writing one about girls from Bulgaria, I think I could hook you up with someone who moved here as a child for her insight.

  8. What a great adventure you are taking with your daughter! Your daughter has a beautiful mind, and I have no doubt that your books will reach many children who have also immigrated to our beautiful country. Good luck on your book release, and make sure you use #RRBC on your tweets so that we can all help you promote the books! 🙂

  9. WOW! I’m in awe of your writing adventure! Your header photo is amazing, and it certainly drew me into your storyline. I love that you write with your daughter…and will most certainly read the books. Your other books beckon as well. Thank you for the Party — full of surprises and great fun!

    • Thank you, Gwen! There’s a character in my Christmas Key books named Gwen…and she’s a triplet with sisters named Gen and Glen–I thought of her when I saw your name! I love writing with my baby girl–it’s a fabulous thing to be able to share as she enters the teen years. Thank you for your kind words! 💖

  11. Hello, Stephanie and Holland. What an awesome thing to share as mother and daughter. I can see what a close bond that would create and one that will last forever. Your Women’s Fiction series is very appealing to me. I can see my TBR list growing! Enjoy your party day!

  13. Love your blog! What a wonderful adventure to take with your daughter. I have two daughters and the bond between mother and daughter is strong. So awesome you are cultivating her creativity in this way. I’ve been working on a story with my grandson and it has been a blast! Best wishes.

  14. It’s great to meet another mother and daughter writing team. My mum and I both write our own novels, but we also co-write and illustrate children’s books. It is such a joy to work together and she inspires me every day.
    Your work, together and individually, looks really interesting and I will add them to my TBR list. My own daughter has just had her first work published, so the cycle begins again! Have a great party today.

  18. Good Morning Ladies! Such a novel idea for books by a ten year old. Actually, all of your books have novel ideas. I love the uniqueness quality. Thank you for hosting this stop. I have re-blogged, tweeted, and loved everything!! 🙂

  22. Its very nice to meet you Stephanie & Holland! And its nice visiting Vancouver, Washington which is far west of where I live. I will certainly take a second look at your books. They’re on my radar now. Good luck on your tour.

  23. What a super idea for books. Your daughter is very clever. The experience of doing this with your daughter must draw you so much closer together as you share a passion.The books written by both of you as well as your own sound like they need a closer examination so will add them to the list.Thanks for the post.

  25. Wow- what a great idea for books your clever daughter had and what an adventure sharing your passion. Wish the two of you the best of luck. Will investigate all the books further and put some on the list. Thanks for the post.

  27. Hi, Stephanie! As I’ve mentioned before, I’m so impressed that you and daughter writer books together. What a wonderful experience to bond over. The idea behind the series is great. I also really like the sound of your Christmas Key series, and I wouldn’t mind living there, LOL. Have a wonderful party day!

  30. I think writing with your daughter, Holland, is very special indeed, Stephanie! Considering some of the social problems faced in your country and mine (Canada), I think Holland’s idea for a series has a great deal of merit! I’ll look forward to checking out your books!

  31. It’s lovely to meet you, Stephanie and Holland. A mother and daughter writing team is so special and precious. I love the idea for your work too. Congratulations on the recent release of Mai. That’s always so exciting!
    Stephanie, the Christmas Series sounds like a fun read. Best wishes with the release of Wild Tropics next month! My TBR list just got a lot longer! Thanks for sharing your work with us. Have a fantastic party day! 🙂

    • Thank you for all the kind words, Natalie! I’m having such a great time today with all of the comments and love! I’m a teacher and it’s our first day back, so I’m enjoying my breaks from prepping to read and appreciate everyone’s kindness! 💖

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  35. What a great idea. My 6 year old grand daughter asked for a journal from Books A Million. I thought she was looking to get there so I could buy Shopkins. I was thrilled when she got the journal and she has started writing.

  36. Greetings from Sydney Australia! What a lovely combination of mother and daughter ideas. Perhaps you could feature an Australian girl being indoctrinated into the US culture. I have some young family members who would enjoy your books, so have added them to the Christmas purchases list. Hope the remainder of your day is just great!

  45. Whoa, you are some busy lady!! What fun writing with your daughter. My 12 yr old grandson wrote a short story about a future world of robots and we worked on it together. Then he lost interest and I needed his imagination to finish it. When a movie come out almost identical to his story, I wanted to cry–or make him cry lol. I love your selection of books and will be choosing one to try since I happen to like reading YA myself. Best of luck with your tour.

    • I hate when you have a good idea that just misses the boat…I wrote an angel/paranormal one years ago and then shelved it…only to find that very thing was a craze! Oh well. Thank you for dropping by (and I love reading YA, too!) 🤗

  46. Thank you so much for hosting the party today, Stephanie and Holland. It is wonderful that you are encouraging and living by example how art can bring people together. Art is a necessity and under-appreciated as a tool for learning how to world works. Thanks for raising an author of the future!

  47. Mother and Daughter writing together. That’s wonderful. I have all sons and grandsons. I think me and my youngest son could write well together. We both love the same YA books and movies.

  50. Hi Stephanie! Sorry to be late to the party but I was on holiday this week and spotty internet. Thanks for sharing your insights and great idea to ‘team write’ with your daughter. Good luck with all your work – MikeL