Thursday, December 24, 2015

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Buy a Book, Protect a Child

When you buy a book, author Sandy Hill will donate the profits to stop child trafficking. Before the publisher’s official release date for Leyni’s God Adventure, Sandy is offering a 20% discount off the $9.99 retail price for either of her books. Want a free book? For every book you buy your name will be entered in a drawing. Refer a friend and if they buy a book both your names will be entered. The winner of a free book will be announced December 15th. Coming in 2016, Sandy has a new book about making friends.

Click here to BUY.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Sneak Preview of Leyni’s God Adventure


Can a five-year-old make a difference in our world today? Can she dream a big dream and make it come true? Follow Leyni as she explores the possibilities of her dream. Leyni’s true experiences inspired this story. This is a picture book for children age five to eight.
The book is in the printing phase and the first books will be ready the end of this month. We will be offering copies for sale before the official release date which probably won’t be until after Christmas. Be sure and check your Christmas list, you may want a copy for a special little one.  I’ll being offering a discount to website followers. 

Friday, April 24, 2015

And the Answer Is...

My friend, Ellie, came up with the answer to dash or not to dash and to end the controversy once and for all. We should all join the revolution and use electronic mail!

The results are in from your voting. The majority wanted, “email” so in Leyni’s God Adventure you will find four no dash emails.

Thanks for voting. I appreciated your help. The edited manuscript has been sent back to the publisher and the next stop will be illustrations!

Monday, April 20, 2015

To Dash or not to Dash-That is the Question!

We have a controversy on my upcoming book. Is it email or is it e-mail. Please read the following article and email or e-mail me back and vote within 24 hours...on to illustrations this week!  SandyHill.writer@gmail.com

Re-posted from the Fiction Writer April 2008.

Nobody knows how to spell email. You might say, ‘nobody knows how to spell e-mail,’ but you’d be wrong. Or would you?
The issue of email vs. e-mail clearly raises blood pressures across the world. At the time of writing, the spelling question is right at the top of the Wikipedia article on e-mail. Meanwhile, a group calling itself the Email Experience Council has declared the official term to be email. They’ve even got a petition.
The Compact OED in Britain allows email, while both Merriam-Webster and theChicago Manual of Style in the States demand e-mail. It’s interesting to note that the OED prides itself on reflecting trends in spelling and word usage—they were in the news last year for dropping 16,000 hyphens from the Shorter Dictionary (no jokes, please)—while Chicago takes a more dictatorial stance. However, this isn’t really an Atlantic question.
Let’s have a look at the word in the wild:
  • Apple uses email
  • Microsoft usually uses e-mail but sometimes email
  • Adobe uses both
  • Google uses email
  • Yahoo uses email
  • CNN uses e-mail
  • Perhaps maintaining the famous “BBC balance”, the BBC website uses e-mailwithin news stories but seems to use email on the rest of the site
  • The New York Times uses e-mail
  • direct.gov.uk uses email
  • usa.gov uses both
There’s a definite trend here. People who write about technology tend to go for e-mail, while the people who actually work with technology either use email or both. I think that’s a good argument in favour of email.
The argument that supporters of e-mail often make is the lack of precedent. X-ray has never become Xray, T-shirts are not Tshirts, and you drive round an S curve rather than a Scurve. However, these are very specific words which use their initial letter for its shape rather than any specific meaning. If you’re interested, they’re covered in 7.67 of the Chicago Manual of Style. (The possible exception to this is X-ray, where the “X” simply stands for unknown—see also The X-Files and Cold War B-movie X for Unknown.) (Again, the “B” in B-movie isn’t an abbreviation. Even if it was, I don’t see bmovie ever happening.)
Regarding other e-words, the OED still supports e-commerce, e-government, etc. This doesn’t have to be a contradiction, though. The hyphen doesn’t come packed into all words by default. It’s used specifically where it’s needed to aid comprehension. When it’s no longer required it can be removed, as shown by the OED’s latest revision. Unhyphenated, words like ecommerce and egovernment might trip us over, so they need a helping hand. Nobody is seriously in danger of not understanding email. (’What’s this? Email? Some French chap trying to communicate with me through my computer, perhaps. But…how?’)
What we have in e-mail is a spelling which has come into existence and then become antiquated, all within the space of a few short decades. As Angus Stevenson, editor of the Shorter OED, comments in the BBC article linked above, e-mail—with the hyphen—is ’starting to look like something your grandmother might write.’
At least there’s one thing that everybody is agreed on: whether it’s e-mail or email, it isn’t capitalised. Unless it’s at the beginning of a sentence, obviously.

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Christian Children's Book Review needs Managing Editor

In Search Of: Managing Editor


The ideal candidate for this position loves kids and probably has some of his or her own (even if they are grown). If not, he or she works with children regularly. He or she loves children's books, too, and has a passion for Jesus. Professional writing or editing skills are a plus, but not at all necessary. 
The job of Managing Editor entails seeking out review copies of books (via publishers) and distributing them among the reviewers. The Managing Editor also has other, light jobs, including keeping the blog functional, updating bios, and the like. The Managing Editor may also review books, if he or she desires, but it's not absolutely necessary.

There is a very small stipend involved in this position, but applicants should look at the role of Managing Editor of Christian Children's Book Review more as volunteering for a ministry.

To apply, send an email with a sample of your writing (in the body of the email, or include a link to work published online; please do not send attachments) and a cover letter explaining why you'd like to be Managing Editor at CCBR.










Kristina (kriswrite@aol.com)