Be There Bedtime Stories

I just saw this press release for Be There Bedtime Stories.  Be There Bedtime Stories is a great service for those who would like to read to the little ones in their life, but can't be there in person.  All you need is a webcam and an email address and they will create a video of you reading a book.  The book and the video will be sent by email to be enjoyed at bedtime, or any other time.  If you're traveling on business, stationed in the military or just live too far away, I think this is a terrific way to stay involved in a child's life.

Their press release includes a You Tube video that contains excerpts from two of my books, The Soggy Town of Hilltop and If I Could Be Anything.  The Sister Exchange is also available there.  How cool is that?

I've included the press release below, but if you would like to see the video, please follow the link below. 

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/12/prweb4841194.htm

New Website Enables Families to Be There for the Holidays

IRVINE, CA, December 1, 2010 - Webcam bedtime stories is an innovative new technology being added to the list of family-friendly media, this Christmas. ALISON SANSONE is Creator of BE THERE BEDTIME STORIES, a new website that combines e-books and video of a family storyteller.

Grandparents Read Bedtime Stories with a Webcam

“We believe this broadens the scope of users and the value to families as a fun and new alternative to existing multi-media products on the market,” Irvine, CA (PRWEB) December 1, 2010
The process takes place entirely on the BE THERE BEDTIME STORIES website in three steps: 1) select a children’s book from the bookstore, 2) read the story in front of a webcam as it displays on the computer screen, 3) the child receives an email with the link to view the e-book on the website with video of the storyteller positioned on each page.
The beta website went live in September of this year with over one hundred published children’s books available in the online bookstore. There are one hundred more titles in production with the interface, from five different publishers so far, including ten original works to be published by BE THERE BEDTIME STORIES.
The business model for BE THERE BEDTIME STORIES was inspired by her own problem of living far from her only two nieces, who live in Chicago. SANSONE was working in video production at the time, in Orange County, California. “I was unable to be a part of their development - unable to be recognized when I would visit once a year,” SANSONE explains her frustration. “Bedtime stories seemed a convenient and entertaining activity that would solve that problem.”
SANSONE explains the findings of the initial two months of testing. “The effects exceeded my expectations. When I visited my nieces for the first time after four story recordings, they instantly latched onto me from the moment I walked in the door.”
An additional finding from the beta launch is children were excited to read a story back to family members, regardless of their reading level. “We believe this broadens the scope of users and the value to families as a fun and new alternative to existing multi-media products on the market,” SANSONE concludes.
SANSONE expects grandparents and military families] to see the value of a recorded bedtime story over live or real-time webcam services as a way to utilize more family members for childhood development, and to preserve those family memories for future generations. The stories are priced at $11.99 for unlimited children and there is currently a Buy One Get One Free holiday special. Live storytelling and Mobile App delivery are options scheduled for subsequent development.

ALSO SEE:

Guardian Angel Publishing, Sylvan Dell Publishing, Illumination Arts Publishing and Lobster Press are the initial four publishers to license works for sale in the BE THERE BEDTIME STORIES online bookstore.

ABOUT:

ALISON SANSONE, Creator and CEO, started her career in the hospitality industry. After a decade of working in diverse leadership roles ranging from national Quality Assurance Manager to Human Resources Director to Investor Relations, Alison decided to pursue a focus in marketing and business development as her true passion. In 2005, she combined her training in videography with her marketing acumen to start her own company, producing web-based media tools for small businesses and non-profit organizations throughout Orange County, California.

The idea for Be There Bedtime Stories came from a personal frustration, during that point in her career. The youngest of 6 children with just 2 grandchildren out of the bunch, she was frustrated living so far from her only 2 nieces, who lived in Chicago. Her experience with video media inspired the business model of connecting families across miles through the simple activity of a bedtime story.

She began building the business plan in early 2007, but the idea ended up on hold for two years, after the unexpected death of her husband that summer. Beginning in October 2009, she decided to commit full attention to the business plan, dedicating her own personal time and resources to the launch of Be There Bedtime Stories, based in Orange County, CA. The Beta site went live in September 2010



Nice Review for The Soggy Town of Hilltop

I received my first review for The Soggy Town of Hilltop from The Children’s and Teens’ Book Connection and it’s a really nice one. I was excited to see what kind of reception this book would get, and I have to say, it’s a great start. An excerpt of the review is below.

The Soggy Town of Hilltop is a funny, rhyming story by Kevin McNamee. Having read McNamee’s The Sister Exchange and If I Could Be Anything, I was eager to read his latest book. The author has a great knack for turning something seemingly ridiculous into an engaging story for youngsters. In The Sister Exchange it was a young girl who wanted to trade her sister in at The Sister Exchange. In this latest book, the rulers of Hilltop are bored and decide to make up a silly new rule for the people to follow.

To see the full review, please click the link below.

http://childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/the-soggy-town-of-hilltop-by-kevin%c2%a0mcnamee/

Not bad, huh?

The Soggy Town of Hilltop

Whoo Hoo!!! My first accepted picture book manuscript has finally been released! I have two other picture books that came out before this, namely, If I Could Be Anything and The Sister Exchange. However, this manuscript was the icebreaker that got the ball rolling for my writing career. I’m excited to see its release.

It’s titled The Soggy Town of Hilltop and is illustrated by Eugene Ruble. Eugene is the illustrator of several picture books and was an illustrator for the Voltron cartoon series.

The book info is below. (Woot!)

“You want us to do what?!!!”
This fun, rhyming picture book teaches more than just a new way to drink water.

The High Council of Hilltop wants the people to learn a new way to drink. But when the people find out why, everyone has something new to learn.


This book is available as a print book, a downloadable e-book, and a book on CD from guardianangelpublishing.com.

Books are also available at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, or ask your local bookstore.

Autographed copies of this book are available at http://www.kevinmcnamee.com/

:-)

Dr Seuss Makes an Appearance

I attended a Read Aloud Jamboree on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun and the kids were great. I went into about nine classrooms armed with my rhymer, If I Could Be Anything for the younger grades and The Sister Exchange for the older grades. It was very entertaining for everyone involved, I think... I didn’t see any bored faces anyway, so I guess that’s a good sign.

Most of the kids at this school were already familiar with my books and had been told that I would be visiting. But the day of my visit also coincided with Dr. Seuss’s birthday, which the students had been informed of as well

When the teacher asked one class if they knew who I was, one student answered, “Dr. Seuss!”

Not quite, but it’s still pretty nice to be compared to him. But from now on I’ll have to check the calendar first before I schedule any future school visits.

From the Slush Pile to the Reserved Pile

A member of my critique group recently bought two autographed copies of my book, If I Could Be Anything, for the school library where her kids go to school. She recently reported back that my book has been in the Requested/Reserved pile at the library for the past few weeks. She told me that it’s not a big pile, and only the best books wind up in that pile. How cool is that?

My books have gotten some pretty good reviews so far. But this tells me more than anything else, that I’m doing exactly what I should be doing. Kids actually waiting to read my book, is probably the most glowing review of all. I'm doing the happy dance!

Sweet Reviews

I just received two new reviews of my books at the Children and Teen’s Book Connection. After all the work that went into these books, it’s really great to hear some positive remarks from others.

To read the full review of The Sister Exchange, please click the link below.

http://childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/the-sister-exchange-by-kevin-mcnamee/

To read the review of If I Could Be Anything, please click on this link.

http://childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/if-i-could-be-anything-by-kevin-mcnamee/

While it’s great to get a professional review, my favorite reviews to date come from kids. My wife is a teacher and read The Sister Exchange to one of her classes. They all wrote letters to me about the book.

They all had the same favorite character, Toecheez, and quite a few of them were upset that I didn’t dedicate the book to my wife. This particular book is dedicated to my nieces who gave me the idea for this story.

I took my constructive criticism in stride and have made a mental note to myself to include more “wife related” dedications in my future books. I also received some rave reviews that this was the BEST BOOK EVER!

I’ll take their word for it. After all, who am I to argue with them? ;-)

Great Reviews and a Great Start to the New Year

I received a great review of my two books from Dixie Philips at Writing4littleones that I want to share here. In her review Ms. Philip’s says:

“I am fast becoming an avid fan of children's author Kevin McNamee. I was trying to think exactly what it is about his two new children's books The Sister Exchange and If I Could Be Anything that won my heart. I believe I know the answer - His writing keeps the reader grounded as to what is of utmost importance in life. Before you read the last sentence of his books, you realize, more than you ever did before, just how precious and important family and loved ones are.”

I think that’s the nicest thing I’ve heard about my writing in all the years I’ve been doing this. To read the full review of If I Could Be Anything and The Sister Exchange, please go to:

http://writing4littleones.blogspot.com/2010/01/if-i-could-be-anything-by-kevin-mcnamee.html

What a great start to the New Year!

Ah, that New Book Smell

The moment that I have been waiting for has finally arrived. If I Could Be Anything has been officially published.

I’ve been scrambling to update my websites and get everything in place for this book’s release, so I haven’t been posting here too often. But I think that will be changing since I have the majority of my tech projects completed. I’m sure I will be tinkering with my websites here and there, and I’ll still be putting together new games as I go along. I’m also joining a virtual book tour in January. So I still have plenty to keep me busy. I just won’t be working at the same frantic pace. That makes me happy. I need to get back to the basics and all this stuff I’ve been working on has distracted me from what I really want to be doing, which is writing.

I haven’t really had time to work on any writing projects. I miss coming up with ideas, and watching as the story unfolds, and how the story sometimes takes me in entirely different directions from what I originally planned. My tech projects involved a lot of creativity, which made them fun to work on. But it’s not the same as writing.

I received my author copies for If I Could Be Anything, and plan to make signed copies available to any one who wants them. I've included links on the sidebar and on my websites for anyone who would like to pick up a copy. I’ve already sent some to family members and I’m donating a copy to my daughter’s school.

There’s nothing quite like opening up a box of books and to hold a crisp copy in your hands. What was once a vague idea now has form and substance, and it didn’t exist until I thought of it. That’s pretty awesome!

Although I do have a lot of people who helped make this happen as well, my family, friends, critique groups and publisher, to name a few.

The printer did a good job. The artwork pops out at you, and the pictures and words flow from page to page. Nice…very, very nice, even if I do say so myself.

Into the Home Stretch

Well it looks like the moment I’ve been waiting for is finally arriving. I approved the galleys for If I Could Be Anything and it’s been sent off to the printers. As soon as the copy comes back and is approved by my publisher, I am officially published.

To coincide with this monumental occasion, I’ve also just about finished my website. I have all the games and activities loaded and I’ve been testing the links, the look of the site, and everything else. This is actually the second site I came up with. I designed the first site and threw it up on my web server. It completely crashed and burned. But I was able to salvage some text and graphics for my new site.

If you would like to take a sneek peek, my new website, please go to http://www.kevschildrensbooks.com/

Please be warned that this site is still under construction and I am working furiously to get this site ready to coincide with my book’s release. I’ll let everyone know when this site is officially launched.

After this site is launched, I plan on doing some more writing and having some champagne to celebrate my book’s release, but not necessarily in that order. :-)

Some More Things Coming Together

I think I have enough games and activities to start assembling my kid-friendly website, so that’s the next thing on my list. I need to put together the opening page and figure out how I want to organize the games. I’m thinking about organizing them by the game type and having a puzzle page, word game page, etc. But I’ll have to see how that works out. It’s still going to be a lot of work though, between designing the pages and testing the links. I’m going to be glad when the website is launched and I can get back to the business of writing again. I’m itching to write some new material. I did get a chance to submit some more work though and that makes me happy. I have five more submissions making the rounds out there.

On the publication front, I received the cover for my book, If I Could Be Anything. Marina Movshina did the illustrations and I’m very happy with them. She was a pleasure to work with and I’m looking forward to the book’s release. The latest word I’ve received is that the book will be coming out in November. Here’s a sneak peek at the cover.

Happy Writing.

Kevin

More Tech Stuff

I must have spent the past two months up to my eyeballs in technology, while I tried to piece together some online games. I managed to get a working matching game, puzzle and online coloring book. I also reserved the domains kevschildrensbooks.com and kevinschildrensbooks.com, that I’ll be using to host these games. I’m not quite sure which domain I’ll eventually use, but I figured that I should probably reserve both.

Most of the games I came up with are based on The Sister Exchange, illustrated by Kit Grady. But now I’m waiting on some graphics from Marina Movshina who illustrated If I Could Be Anything. After, I see what I can do with the new graphics, I think I’ll be close to finishing the new website. Because, then it will just be a matter of creating the main page, along with any links. That should be a piece of cake compared to what I’ve been trying to teach myself lately. I’m planning on officially launching this site in the Fall to coincide with my first book’s release. I’ll be posting more information when I have a firm date.

On to other things, I actually wrote something new. It seems like forever since I’ve actually written anything and it felt terrific to exercise the creative portion of my noggin again. But Gayle Krause, a member of my poetry critique group, came up with a contest that was too much fun to resist. It was about creating a poem blending characters from two different fairytales. My entry is called “The Date”, and you can see that and others on her blog at,

http://thestorytellersscroll.blogspot.com/

And you can always post one of your own if you like. The grand prize is an autographed copy of her picture book, Rock Star Santa.

Whoo Hoo!!!

I’ve still been researching promotional possibilities for my books and have been trying to develop some online activities for kids. As a result, I have been up to my eyeballs in tech stuff and not writing much. I’ll talk about that some more in a later post when my new website is up and running and I can show you some results.

But right now I’d like to share some good news. Guardian Angel Publishing continues its streak of being my dream publisher and has accepted another picture book of mine. It’s a rhyming picture book titled, Just For Today. It’s about a child dealing with separation anxiety. I don’t have a release date yet, but I will keep you posted when I have more information.

This makes book number seven for me and it feels both great and strange to be saying that. I guess that’s because none of my books have been released yet. I guess it won’t be entirely real for me until my first book, If I Could Be Anything, comes out in the Fall. Meanwhile, does anyone know how to center a flash file in html?

Cover for The Sister Exchange

Just a quick update, I received an email from my publisher the other day with the cover art for The Sister Exchange. So without further adieu, here it is. I haven't seen the rest of the illustrations, but I really like what I've seen so far. I think Kit Grady did a great job.

The book is finished but won’t be released for another five or six months. But another book of mine, If I Could Be Anything, should be coming out before that. So it looks like two of my books will be out before the end of the year. (Insert a “yippee” and the sound of clicking heels here) To check out my publisher’s upcoming releases, go to

http://www.guardianangelpublishing.com/comingsoon.htm

Lots of Stuff Happening

Today has been one of those crazy days when everything seems to be happening at once. My first foray into virtual book tours will begin on March 1. I’ll be appearing on Kathy Stemke’s site and I’ll be hosting Ransom Noble. It should be interesting. I’ve been working on completing a new interview and that’s exactly what I started out doing this morning.

Then I received an email from an old friend of mine. We lost touch a few years ago. The last time we spoke was right after 9/11. He told me that he had been trying to find me for long time. He’s been working on a memoir type book about growing up in the Bronx and wanted my input on it. We were in the same Kindergarten class together and were friends right through high school. After that, he moved to the west coast and I’ve only spoken to him sporadically since. He’s got a friend out there who would like to make a movie out of this memoir, but he needs the completed book first. This should do wonders for my writing since it will force me to go exploring through the nooks and crannies of my own childhood. Without going into particulars, I have to warn you that if this book is turned into a movie, there’s a very good possibility that it will have an R rating.

Then, I received an email from my publisher. It looks like my rhyming picture book, “If I Could Be Anything” will be the next book to be published after “The Sister Exchange”. I was a little surprised since that book was the most recent submission I made to Guardian Angel Publishing. But it’s nice to know what’s coming so I can plan for the book’s release.

Finally, Kai Strand is a member of my critique group, The Prose Shop. She interviewed me and several other members of my group. She posted the interviews today. If you would like to see the interviews of some very talented writers, please visit her blog at http://cleanwriter.livejournal.com/


Whew! I’m exhausted, but in a good way. Now what did I do with those new interview questions? …