Only a Few ARCs of Me and Jack Remain!

Me & Jack A boy--an outsider--trying to fit in. A dog from the pound with an unknown past. A father serving as a recruiter during the Vietnam War.

Each has something to fight for. Together, they have something to live for.


Three ARCs stand available for readers willing to post their reviews on sites such as Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, or their own blogs.

The first chapter is available on my website. (Click on Me & Jack in the sidebar, and then click on the book icon for the excerpt.)

If you'd like to review Me & Jack, send me an email (dhaworthbooks at yahoo dot com) with your snail mail address.

Read Me & Jack FREE before it's released!

Me & Jack is the first book I ever wrote. The boy, the dog and the Pennsylvania mountain setting are especially close to me. I can't wait to see how this story is received.

I have twelve advance copies available to send to readers who would be willing to post their reviews on sites such as Amazon, Goodreads, or their own blogs.

Me & Jack A boy--an outsider--trying to fit in. A dog from the pound with an unknown past. A father serving as a recruiter during the Vietnam War.

Each has something to fight for. Together, they have something to live for.

The first chapter is available on my website. (Click on Me & Jack in the sidebar, and then click on the book icon for the excerpt.)

If you'd like to review Me & Jack, send me an email (dhaworthbooks at yahoo dot com) with your snail mail address.

Thank you, and happy reading!

Violet Raines Nominated for California Young Reader Medal

Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning has been nominated for the California Young Reader Medal! Nominated for the Intermediate Category, Violet Raines is one of only three books vying for the award. Students will be reading over the next few months, then voting. I'm so excited!

In other good news, The Summer of Moonlight Secrets is in Scholastic Book Fairs happening in your schools right now! YAY!

Hot Debate on the Big W

Whilst working on my super secret manuscript this morning, I found myself in need of a synonym, so onto Thesaurus.com I hopped. Wham! Hot debate going on in the comments of the article titled, "If “w” is double u, why is it made of two v’s?"

Indeed!

I had just been talking about this not two days ago with my son! We agreed W should be called "double vee," and my son tasked me to contact the literary powers that be with our epiphany. Thank gosh I don't talk to Noah Webster anymore (because he's dead and my therapy's over), or I truly would have embarrassed myself. According to the enlightening and timely article, the sounds we attribute to U, V, and W all derived from classic Latin's V, which originally was pronounced "wa." Surprised? There's more!

The first mutation was the use of V as a voiced bilabial fricative! Fricative-A! Can you believe it? Do you even know what a fricative is? I didn't until I read this article. But those in the know argued in the comments against the voiced bilabial fricative label: V is a voiced labio-dental fricative. V is a labiodental fricative. There was even reference to --gasp!--bilabial nasal [fricatives] in connection with a different letter.

Anyway, as V became overloaded with responsibilities, what with representing ugly vampire want-to-bes, eighth century writers decided that the wa sound would be depicted by a U and a U--a double set of Us--and it looked like this: uu.

At this point, I felt the question posed in the title remained unanswered. ("If 'w' is double u, why is it made of two 'v’s?'") If anything, my curiosity had been further stoked, but the article ended abruptly, summing up too quickly, leaving me without hope of resolution.

My hands stretched toward my monitor like those of a sunburnt, dehydrated soul upon the appearance of an oasis that dissolves into mirage. Why, oh why, I lamented, if double-u is based on U, why why WHY is it pointy like a V?

Scrolling for answers, I stumbled upon a wiseman.

Mark II answers thusly: "Because…. in Latin (of which most of the English language is based), “U” looks like a “V”. You boneheads."

At the Breakfast Table

SCENE:
Mother and son sitting at breakfast table. Mother sips cappuccino while eating Entenmann's Rich Frosted donut. Son eats Trix. Both stare thoughtfully out the window, through which the mist rises from boggy woods and birds alight in the oak, waiting their turn at the bird feeder.

Son: Mom?

Me: Yes?

Son: What's thirty-six divided by twelve?

Me: Three.

Son: Oh. I was just wondering.


END SCENE