October 5th is National Depression Screening Day!

October 5th is National Depression Screening Day. A good day to encourage more conversation on this important topic. Recently named People magazine’s Teen Pick, Debi sheds light on living with depression in her new book, NIGHT SHIFT, with charcoal-like illustrations and minimal text. Readers follow a young girl as she uses her “night skills” to battle dragons haunting her. The book is for everyone battling their dragons and those that love them. Sneak peak: she soon learns that not even long, dark nights filled with monsters - will last forever. Here are SAMPLE PAGES.

Night Shift by Debi Gliori

From beloved author and illustrator Debi Gliori (No Matter What) comes Night Shift, a groundbreaking lushly illustrated picture book based on Gliori's own personal history with depression.

Fighting dragons is one way of fighting depression. This book is another.

Through stunning black and white illustration and deceptively simple text, author and illustrator Debi Gliori provides a fascinating and absorbing portrait of depression and hope in Night Shift, a moving picture book about a young girl haunted by dragons. The young girl battles the dragons using 'night skills': skills that give her both the ability to survive inside her own darkness and the knowledge that nothing—not even long, dark nights filled with monsters—will last forever.

Drawn from Gliori's own experiences and struggles with depression, the book concludes with a moving author's note explaining how depression has affected her and how she continues to cope. Gliori hopes that by sharing her own experience she can help others who suffer from depression, and to find that subtle shift that will show the way out.

A brave and powerful book, give Night Shift to dragon fighters young and old, and any reader who needs to know they're not alone.

About the Author:

Debi Gliori lives in Scotland. Debi is well known for both her picture books and her novels for children and has been shortlisted for all the major prizes, including the Kate Greenaway Award (twice) and the Scottish Arts Council Award. Debi was the Shetland Islands’ first Children’s Writer-in-Residence. She published her first book in 1990 and since then has published so many successful books that she has lost count. She has written and illustrated No Matter What, The Trouble With Dragons, Stormy Weather, The Scariest Thing of All, What's the Time, Mr Wolf?, Dragon Loves Penguin and, most recently, Alfie in the Bathand Alfie in the Garden for Bloomsbury.

'Dream Big, Princess: Belle's Special Edition' Book Spotlight + Giveaway

Calling all Beauty and the Beast fans! Disney’s live action film Beauty and the Beast has officially been released in theaters!

I’m thrilled to share that at Put Me In The Story, the #1 personalized books platform in the U.S., we’ve created a brand new personalized book featuring Princess Belle and… YOU!

In Dream Big, Princess: Belle’s Special Edition, fans of bookish and fearless Princess Belle can learn all about all 11 Disney Princesses who teach by example that they are strong and capable of achieving whatever they dream of!

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Dream Big, Princess: Belle’s Special Edition

This special edition has a brand new cover featuring Princess Belle with book in hand. As your little princess flips through the rest of the book, she'll discover details she's come to know and love from the original telling, such as song lyrics and additional illustrations of the Beast's castle, Mrs. Potts, and Chip.

Your child's journey begins with a personalized letter and Princess Passport, which she can use to check off each princess as she reads their stories. Whether she’s comparing her bookshelf to Belle’s, putting together a restaurant menu alongside Tiana, or listing treasures she’s found on her travels like Ariel, your child will learn that being a princess is more than just wearing fancy dresses and living in a castle...it’s about being brave, honorable, kind, and hardworking.

At the end, your child can match up each princess with her greatest wish, then fill in a special page with their own hopes and dreams. Nothing is more powerful than writing your own story!

Hardcover Personalized Book: $34.99

Paperback Personalized Book: $24.99

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Prize Details:

• 1 Grand Prize Winner will receive a personalized copy of Dream Big Princess: Belle’s Special Edition + $50 Gift Card to see Beauty and the Beast
• 2 runners-up will receive a personalized copy of Dream Big, Princess: Belle’s Special Edition

Contest Dates:

Begins 2/17/2017 - Ends 4/17/2017

Terms & Conditions:

No purchase necessary to enter or win. A purchase does not improve your chances of winning. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

Open to legal residents of USA & Canada who are 18 years or older. Giveaway begins 2/17/2017 at 12:15 am EST and ends at 4/17/2017 at 11:59 pm EST (“Promotion Period”). Enter the Giveaway during the Promotion Period online by submitting the entry form. The entry form can be found on the following website at WEBSITE ADDRESS HERE. Winner will be selected by Random.org and be notified by email. Winner has 48 hours to respond before a new winner is selected. One (1) Grand Prize Winner will receive one (1) copy of Dream Big, Princess: Belle's Special Edition and a $50 gift card to purchase movie tickets for Beauty and the Beast (approximate retail value or "ARV": $84.99). Two (2) runners-up will each win one (1) copy of Dream Big, Princess: Belle's Special Edition (ARV: $34.99 per runner-up). By providing your information in this form, you are providing your information to Put Me In The Story. Put Me In The Story does not share or sell information and will use any information only for the purpose of this giveaway. Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are in no way associated with this giveaway.

Ways you can enter the contest are:

• Share on Twitter with a pre-set tweet: “#Win a #personalized Princess Belle book & gift card to see the Disney live action #BeautyAndTheBeast @putmeinthestory #BeOurGuest”
• Visit Put Me In The Story on Facebook – facebook.com/putmeinthestory
• Comment on blog post. Question: Which Disney Princess are you the most similar to?
• Follow Put Me In The Story on Pinterest – pinterest.com/putmeinthestory

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Book Spotlight: Killer Potential by After Brook Szymanski

Today, I have the pleasure of hosting Aften Brook Szymanski for the release of her YA thriller, Killer Potential! Keep reading because there is information about how you can win a $50 Amazon gift card!
 

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Killer Potential
Author: After Brook Szymanski
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Released: July 17, 2016
Publisher: BookFish Books

Seventeen-year-old Yvette Gibbs was just admitted to the hospital psych unit in handcuffs as the main suspect in a murder case, which she refuses to talk about.
 Drugs and depression claim her family—leaving Yvette to fight her own demons alone. Adopting the skill of master of passive-aggressive vengeance lands Yvette in the psych unit with no family support, unless she cooperates with her therapist to clear her name, also a convicted murderer.

Yvette wants revenge on the world that taught her to be afraid, claimed her mother to depression, hid her father in a fog of job hopping, turned her brother to dealing drugs, and swallowed her sister whole, but to achieve this she must lie, manipulate, and most of all survive. Pitting her dead sister’s shady friend whom she fears against the man who reminded her she’s not immune to victimization, is her perfect solution to all life's hassles, even if that means she ends up with blood on her hands. Until everything backfires.

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Aften Brook Szymanski, at the age of five, once fell on her bum looking out a large picture window while eating a pickle and people laughed. She thought she was funny, life has never been the same. She’s obsessed with LEGOs, cozy reading nooks, and over-the-knee socks. A graduate of the College of Southern Idaho with an Associate of Arts degree, Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Science degree, and the University of Utah with a Master of Education degree. Learning is more fun than testing, sometimes we have to endure both.

She lives in a very cold Wyoming valley with her husband, three kids, and one unhappy cat, where they are being cryogenically preserved for all time—thanks to how cold it is.

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Giveaway:

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Book Spotlight: Reliquary by Sarah Fine!

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Reliquary

Reliquary #1
Author: Sarah Fine

Reading Level: Adult

Genre: Fantasy

Released: June 14th 2016

 

The magic she carries can save the man she loves—or the man she can’t resist. Will she use her hidden magic to save the man she loves—or the one she can’t resist? The magic she carries can save the man she loves. Or destroy them both.  

Mattie Carver’s engagement party should have marked the start of her own personal fairy tale. But when her fiancé, Ben, is violently abducted the next morning, her desperate quest to find him rips her away from small-town life and reveals a shattering truth: magic is real—and Ben is hooked. It’s not the stuff of storybooks. It’s wildly addictive, capable of producing everything from hellish anguish to sensual ecstasy almost beyond human endurance.

Determined to find out who took Ben and why, Mattie immerses herself in a shadowy underworld and comes face-to-face with the darkly alluring Asa Ward, a rogue magic dealer, infamous hustler . . . and her missing fiancé’s estranged brother. Asa has the power to sense magic, and he realizes Mattie is a reliquary, someone with the rare ability to carry magic within her own body, undetected. Asa agrees to help find Ben on one condition: Mattie must use her uncommon talent to assist his smuggling operations. Now, from magic-laced Vegas casinos to the netherworld clubs of Bangkok, Mattie is on a rescue mission. With Asa by her side, she’ll face not only the supernatural forces arrayed against her but the all-too-human temptation that she fears she can’t resist.

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Sarah Fine is a clinical psychologist and the author of the Servants of Fate and Guards of the Shadowlands series. She was born on the West Coast, raised in the Midwest, and is now firmly entrenched on the East Coast.