04/28/2015

April Showers Bring May Flowers — and Ragworts!

Busy days ahead for the Ragwort family!

“The Ragworts are taking center stage for the month of May,” says Rawlink Ragwort. “My brother Roscoe’s story about his treacherous journey through the Dark Forest and Bandersnatch Swamp is about to be released in the very exciting book, The Ragwort Chronicles, Along the Way: Roscoe’s Journey.”

Such is the news from Winterfrost Publishing — hot off the press! Roscoe is still recovering from his terrifying journey and encounters with such creatures as the mold-trolls; Llora, the Witch of the Dark Forest, and her wolves. With help from his good friend, Timonius Toad, he managed to escape her clutches and survive!

See the wonderful illustrations of Annie Wilkinson and a new, exciting story about the lovable Roscoe Ragwort. Reserve your copy NOW by completing the form on this website — it won’t be available until May 19, 2015, OR come visit the author at these locations during the month of MAY …

05/02/15 – Arts Alive! at the Hylton Center for the Performing Arts, Manassas, VA

05/08 – 05/09/15 –

Prospero’s Books, 9129 Center Street, Manassas, VA

05/23/15 – Local Author Fair, Bull Run Library, 2-4 p.m., 8051 Ashton Ave., Manassas, VA

Orders for this newest version of The Ragwort Chronicles, will be taken at the Hylton Center or on this website.A SPECIAL pre-order price of $13.50 will be honored until 05/10/15.

Hope to see you soon!

03/30/2015

Easter is Not Just for Rabbits!

Edward the Squirrel, here! Just want to remind all of you that Easter is not just for rabbits, chicks and ducks! Squirrels like Easter, too! Oli, Piper and I have been busy since the Vernal Equinox, clearing and cleaning out the ol’ nest and getting it ready for the nice weather. Here, in Twistedoak, the buds have already burst and there are beautiful flowers everywhere. We’ve been busy digging up our buried acorns getting them dried out and ready for some of Oli’s famous biscuits, (page of Phillip’s Quest, Book 1: WInterfrost).

Now, back to the Easter thing. We’re always running around being busy and you should be, too! Especially because there’s Spring Break coming up! Instead of having those kids of yours inside, playing with those video games and driving you nutz, buy them a book! Even an e-book to read! Nutz and acorns!!! Expand their minds!!!

Did you know that our PQ books (short for Phillip’s Quest, in editor lingo)have all kinds of things in it? Goodness me, there are two maps, one from Twistedoak to Winterfrost and one, just a map of Twistedoak! That’s the one I like. Have your kids draw a map, like the ones in the PQ books, of your house, your street, your village! You can even get them started by teaching them which direction is North! Or, tonight, look for the North star!!! Who knows, they might even see Azur, the Blue Wizard!

In the back of Winterfrost, there’s even a family tree! Not my family tree — we’d need at least a whole book! But, there’s the Tuber family tree — funny names those Tuber folks! Sound like a bunch of potatoes, if you ask me. Anywho — the kids could do a family tree of your family, starting with themselves!

Oops, I hear Oli calling –needs more acorns for her biscuits! She has that recipe in the back of the book, you know! All of our books have recipes!!! Gotta run — will post more activities for the Spring break — please remember to put a few nutz out for us! And, nutz and acorns, Happy Easter!

— Edward the Squirrel. Editor-in-Chief

Winterfrost Publishing

03/26/2015

Springtime at Winterfrost…

May Release! Illustrations by Annie Wilkinson

Publishing, that is! Yep! Phillip and the crew have their very own publishing company — along with the Ragworts, of course. The beautiful Mushroom Castle in Twistedoak, has been converted into the WF headquarters! Everyone is very excited. Of course, Edward had to be named Editor in Chief, although he has a hard time keeping focused! (Rilefor and Holly do all of the editing.) Stinky, aka Dreamspinner, keeps the production rolling!

It’s been a wild ride since Phillip’s Quest, Book II: Above the Stars was published in December, 2014! So many things have been going on — 2015 is going to be a banner year! First of all, we have new illustrators! Can I just say, they are super? Well, they are!

Our first new illustrator for the Ragwort Chronicles is a talented and experienced artist from British Columbia, Canada. Her name is Annie WIlkinson. She is amazing and creates much of her artwork with a computer program — I tried it, not pretty — leave to the hands of the pros, which she is! Click on her link and check out some of her work, here is a sample!

May Rerelease! New cover design by Victor Rook

Yup! That’s the new Ragwort book, Along The Way: Roscoe’s Journey! And there is Roscoe Ragwort! The release date will be late May, 2015. Just in time for Summer break. And, she will be doing additional artwork for the republication of The Ragwort Chronicles, The Beginning: The Ragworts of Brokentfell! Also due in late May, early June!

How cool is this new cover for The Beginning? It was done by my dear friend and very talented artist, author and film-maker, Victor Rook! Another wizard to add to the list. We are loving our new look and new price! Look for it on Amazon in May — we’ll keep you posted!

Our second spectacular new artist for Phillip’s Quest, book three and beyond, is my amazing cousin, Lorraine Gonda! Book III: Across the Elusive Sea, will be available in November, 2015. It’s already written and I’m itching (no Edward does not have fleas), for the book to be available to you — alas, brilliant artwork takes time! Unlike Annie, Lorraine uses a mixed media. Not only are her sketches amazing, but the coloration rocks the house! A sneak peek!

Coming in November: Across The Elusive Sea! Art by Lorraine Gonda

This illustration was drawn from a passage in the last pages of Above the Stars, so if you haven’t read it … Needless to say, 2015 has been busy, already!

Before i sign off, the Winterfrost gang has partnered up with AIM-VA who is a part of the Helen Keller Foundation and have offices at George Mason University. AIM is the acronym for Assistive Instructional Materials. They, along with the Virginia Dept. of Education, provide FREE books — texts and literature, for children who cannot normally read. These children could be dyslexic, sight-impaired or physically unable to hold a printed book. All three books, Winterfrost, Above the Stars and The Ragwort Chronicles have been converted for use.

So, keep in touch and ENJOY, the new website, designed by Bethany Carlson of Artists Partner. Leave me a message, write us a review on Amazon or a note at: Winterfrost Publishing, PO Box 258, Manassas, VA 20108!

From all of us at Winterfrost Publishing — “Boots ‘n’ britches, find yourself a twisted oak to sit under and read!”

–Phillip Tuber, Publisher

Phillip Tuber

09/23/2014

Phillip’s Quest, Book II: Above the Stars

Do you remember how Phillip’s Quest, Book I: Winterfrost ends? There’s a large painting in Azur’s castle, and magically, the trio–Phillip, Edward and Dream–oops, I mean Stinky, are transported. To where? Why, a land of “extraordinary beauty and unbelievable cold.”

So many new adventures await them. Each of the friends find out how valuable the strength of their friendship becomes. Many dark forces are trying to keep them from their goal, but the brave companions are learning that together they are strong, strong enough to overcome adversity.

New characters–a wizard, a unicorn, bats and faeries! New stories of strength and deception. New clues about the magic of Winterfrost and the whereabouts of Phallow. All the excitement is waiting for you to join them “Above the Stars.”

Phillip’s Quest, Book II: Above the Stars’ release date will be 11/25/2014 and will be available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in both softcover and ebook.
BUT
To preorder your copy, right now, click the following link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1907899413/above-the-stars

And please, don’t forget “Winterfrost,” or “The Ragwort Chronicles!”
Still available on Amazon! Phillip’s Quest, Book I: Winterfrost, now available, with it’s beautiful illustrations, in an ebook!

09/20/2014

Fall for the Book & “Above the Stars”

My wonderful family and friends at the Fall for the Book event on Sept. 18, 2014. People got to see the cover of the new book, Above the Stars, and eat some of the food that came from Ivy’s kitchen and Violette’s Magic Forest.

Phillip’s Quest, Book II: Above the Stars will be released on Nov. 25, 2014. You may pre-order now through KickStarter. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1907899413/above-the-stars

Read about Stinky’s story, meet LLamont and LLemura, and a lizard who’s a wizard. New fantastical characters–bats and a unicorn! Join Phillip as he gets closer to Winterfrost Castle. The adventure continues.

09/02/2014

Live and in Color! Preorder “Above the Stars” on KICKSTARTER, NOW!

Phillip took a deep breath, and rose to his feet. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and turned towards his companions. With a stern, and focused voice, he said,

“LIVE from KICKSTARTER, it’s “Above the Stars!”

Dear Friends,

Boots and britches! I am excited to announce that Book II of Phillip’s Quest: Above the Stars is available for pre-order on KICKSTARTER, today!

THANK YOU to everyone who has supported Phillip and myself on this journey to publication. Phillip’s Quest is a series of beautifully illustrated Middle Grade books of the tale of an ordinary garden gnome, Phillip Tuber, on an extraordinary quest and is the inspiration of Tolkien’s Middle Earth and Lewis’s Narnia.

You can preorder your copy of Above the Stars on the KICKSTARTER site, until September 30–but, if you want to give Phillip, the book, and me a SPECIAL boost, please consider buying your copy today, on launch day, and help build an early momentum. And remember, if I do not reach my goal, I do not get one dime! All you have to do, to get to my KICKSTARTER page is click on the picture or the links embedded at the end of each paragraph!

In addition to the books, there are all kinds of great perks available at the campaign. They range from the original artwork of Dean Kuhta and Louise Goodchild to my own jewelry and an Italian dinner for four! Please check out the campaign for more details.

Again, many thanks for your support. I will be back in touch with campaign updates throughout the month of September! Ciao, grazie.

Love,

Belinda

PS – In case you’ve never visited KICKSTARTER before, or you don’t even know what it is, I’ve attached a little example that shows how to order something there.

It’s a few easy steps. KICKSTARTER is the largest crowd funding platform in the world, having raised over $1Bn for creative projects like Above the Stars. They process payments through Amazon, the largest retailer in the world. So, preordering Above the Stars on KICKSTARTER is a snap!

And, just in case you missed the link, here it is: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1907899413/above-the-stars

08/24/2014

Boots ‘n’ Britches, Phillip is Above the Stars!

Phillip Tuber

Available, November 25th, 2014

Houston, we have a tentative lift-off date of November 25th, 2014 for Phillip’s Quest, Book II: Above the Stars! Phillip is over the moon! Just in time to buy for Christmas! in December, 2014, he and his friends are planning “launch” parties all over Manassas. So watch the skies! You might even see a blue fire-drake! They hope that they can invite you all to attend. I keep telling Edward, “Party Animal Extraordinaire,” we’re on a tight budget, but he already has Llemura making wiskits like crazy!!! I guess we’ll have to get funding all these events–Llemura ain’t cheap, y’know.

So, on September 2, 2014 a Kickstarter Campaign will begin so that the gang in Phillip’s Quest, can keep partying on! The campaign will defray some of the costs that we have incurred for this publication and allow the Phillip Phollowers to read more about his adventures. It takes a whole village, larger than Twistedoak, of gnomes and humans, to put this book together. The funds raised by Kickstarter will help to pay my teammates, and for us to travel to different events and schools. Dinosaurs and dragons are tough to transport. We already are scheduling going into schools and teacher events, for the 2014-2015 school year. Then, there are always Edward’s parties–he likes to do it right!

The Phillip’s Quest crew is excited to be able to offer some cool rewards at all levels of contributions, starting at just $5.00! There will be discounted, as well as free books and ebooks, the fabulous “Winterfrost” and tree necklaces; original art, Oli Warrior Squirrel and Dreamspinner (who’s Dreamspinner?), an Italian Gnome dinner, cooked by yours truly, and so much more! They will all be listed on the Kickstarter site.

OR during the campaign, you may wish to reserve copies of the whole series; Winterfrost, Above the Stars and Across the Elusive Sea (to be released in 2015) and the remaining four titles.

Ultimately, our goal is to raise $3000.00 on Kickstarter. With Kickstarter, it’s all or nothing and Phillip and his friends have until September 30th to do it. So, please pre-order your copy on Phillip’s Kickstarter Campaign

Please look for the “Above the Stars” Kickstarter Campaign beginning in September, so that Llamont, Llemura and their spotted goats can leave the cold Ice Cave Canyons to the pages of “Phillip’s Quest, Book II.”

Thank you so much from me, Phillip and the team of Phillip’s Quest!

Follow all the updates, information and offers through this newsletter and all The Winterfrost Updates on http://belindamiller.me.

08/12/2014

August is almost halfway gone…

“Good grief, Charlie Brown, it’s almost time for school!” Certainly, that phrase was said over and over again, by the wonderful Peanuts’ kids. And here we are again, almost mid August.

I don’t know about you, but my summer has definitely been eventful–in a good way. Every time I look at my blog page, I am more and more aware of how far the internet stretches. I see people from all over the world that have looked at my page. I wish I could meet them all. Regardless, thank you!

I think it takes a year for things to really start to percolate for a writer. As some of you know, my year–Phillip’s one year anniversary was July 7th. Since then, things just started to rock ‘n’ roll. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/061593739X" title=“Phillip’s Quest, Book I: Winterfrost”>Winterfrost” has received new energy and new followers. The Gnome Gnewsletter was published and accepted by most. Personally, I would recommend a newsletter for any author. It allows one to get the word out to those who are not a fan of social media–yes there are some “un-fans.”

It certainly takes a village to market a book. So, I was able to put together a team of unbelievably professional women to help me out. From one of the sweetest and most brilliant ladies I know–Ms. Katherine Gotthardt, who helped me when I was a floundering guppy (floundering flounder?), to the amazing Bethany Joy Carlson, of The Artists’ Partner (my personal cheerleader and marketing guru), to the wonderful Jessica Parker and her team, at BookLogix Publishing Services, I couldn’t be in better hands.

So, Phillip will be ready for his next adventure without the bumps and bruises he suffered before. Can I just tell you how important it is to find the right people!

Our next endeavor happens September 1, 2014. The Kickstarter Campaign begins for Phillip’s Quest, Book II: Above the Stars. Don’t let anybody kid you, it is definitely laborious. But, with the support of a great team, it can be done. We have put in many pledge rewards. There are different rewards listed for the level of pledge you make. When I say “pledge,” I mean MONEY! As I said, producing and marketing a book takes some outgo of cash to pay the team members and help defray other costs, so anything you can spare to keep Phillip’s Quest, on the shelves is very much appreciated.

September 18, 2014 will be the closing night for Virginia’s <a href="http://fallforthebook.org/2014/08/10/haute-cuisine-at-the-hylton/" title="Fall for the Book”>Fall for the Book festival. The event starts in Fairfax, Virginia on September 11th at George Mason University and ends at the Hylton Center for the Arts in Manassas, Virginia–you can follow all the activities on their app. The event is a Haute Cuisine event and will have food tastings, demonstrations and discussions by a variety of chefs, foodies, cookbook authors and Cluadia Lefeve, a fellow author and friend. Oh! And me! From the recipes of “Winterfrost”, and “Above the Stars”, to the recipes from my Mom’s table. I was and am honored to have been chosen to participate and will be serving; Ivy’s Tater Dumplings, Phillip’s Mater and Hazlenut Sauce and one of the recipes from the new book!

This week, I was able to start scheduling my signings for the Christmas season and was thrilled when the owner of <a href="http://www.thethingsilovemanassas.com" title=“The Things I Love”>The Things I Love, an exquisite shop in Old Towne Manassas, allowed me to do that on December 5, 2014, during the Tree Lighting Festival. This store and the downtown area comes alive and turns into a Winter Wonderland. I am thrilled, to say the least. Then, on Sunday, December 7th, I have another signing at <a href="http://www.flowergallerymanassas.com" title=“The Flower Gallery”>The Flower Gallery. Another magical shop where I will be part of their Holiday Open House. Such a special opportunity and I am grateful.

Not to leave out one of my favorite events for November! I will again be reading to the children at Mayfield Elementary School–as I did last year.

So, this summer has flown by, but what a great summer it has been. Thank you to all my gnomes, fairies and angels! I’ve loved every minute.

07/31/2014

Haute Cuisine at the Hylton Center for the Arts

Who’d a thunk?! Little Ivy’s recipes have been chosen as part of the Fall for the Book event on September, 18th, 2014 by the Prince William, Virginia Arts Council!!! I mean, who’d a thunk??? I am so excited, and so is Phillip!

So, in the back of each book, from “Winterfrost“ and “The Ragworts,” to beyond, there are and will be recipes that have been shared by the gnomes and sprites, fairies and elves! And yes, they have been written exactly as they have been told to me, but I have managed to translate them into real recipes for us humans. Made a few twists and changes, but basically, just like magic, voila! No, Razorsnoot did not contribute. Ugh!

Well, the ever so kind people at the Prince William Arts Council, chose those recipes (1 is Ivy’s, 1 is Phillip’s and 1 is Violette’s from “Above the Stars“) to showcase at their event. Cool, huh?

Unfortunately, the gnomes are way to shy to show up, but I’ll be there–with a friend or two and a few books and recipe cards! Oh! and FOOD! As Edward would say, “Nuts ‘n’ acorns lot’s of food!” There’ll be “Ivy’s Tater Dumplings,” “Phillip’s Mater Sauce with Hazelnuts,” and well, Violette (the snow sprite) is not ready to tell us what her recipe is (but I think it’s cookies).

The gnomes and sprites are, as I type, gathering up all of their supplies to cook for you so don’t disappoint. Boot’s and britches, it’s sure to be fun! Mark the date on your calendars: Sept.18, 2014 at the Hylton Center for the Arts!

(And, don’t forget the Kickstarter Campaign, beginning on Sept. 1, 2014 thru the 3oth where you can pre-order Phillip’s Quest newest book, “Above the Stars.” Or, you can go to my “Buy…” page and do it right now! Those are the only two places, besides this event that you can get a signed, first edition. And only until Sept. 30.)

07/15/2014

Winterfrost’s Gone International!

Hello, Brazil, Italy, Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, England, Wales! Wow! All of you have visited the land of Winterfrost and have met my friends Phillip Tuber and Rawlink Ragwort! Have any of you bought a book for your children, or for yourself? Please let me know. I would love to hear from you!