Bookreads Giveaway

I wanted to thank everyone who entered my Goodreads book giveaway for Mr. Kite and the Perilous Flight. We had a very successful one. Nine hundred and forty people entered to win two signed copies, and also an original sketch by Sahin. Congratulations to the winners, and thank you.

Today is Sunday Feb. 23, and Mr. Kite and the Perilous Flight will be available today as a free Kindle download!

 Here is the Amazon link. I would love some reviews!

Free Book Giveaway

Hello all! I just wanted to let you know that I am doing a free giveaway for my book, Mr. Kite and the Perilous Flight! It will be available for a free download from Amazon this Sunday, Feb. 23.  Just so you know, you don’t need a Kindle tablet, you can view it on your favorite device with the free Kindle App from Amazon. I would be very grateful for some reviews on Amazon and/or Goodreads. 

Click here to view details. I'll post this again on Sunday with the free price. 

 For those who have a Kindle device and are an Amazon Prime member, it is also available for free download through the Kindle lending library for the next 90 days (Feb. 17-May 19).

Thanks!

Goodreads Giveaway

Just wanted to say that we are doing a book giveaway for Mr. Kite and the Perilous Flight on Goodreads. The dates for it are 2/13/14 to 2/20/14. Should have mentioned it before. We are doing very well at the moment. Five-hundred and fifty people have entered to win!

Some Di-verse

Here is some Di-verse, the opening stanzas of Mr. Kite and the Perilous Flight.
    

I am a kite

Afraid of heights.

It's quite absurd.

I hate all birds.

I hate all planes, and helicopters

Make me want to see a doctor.

Trees and branches, telephone wires,

Roofs and bridges, steeples, spires,

Growing daily ever higher,

Join together and conspire
To make my situation dire!


Poor Mr. kite!  He would, I think, rather be or tree, or at least something firmly rooted to the ground. 
Here are just a few of the book's fantastic illustrations, by Sahin Ersoz. The influence of all the great French and Belgian comics that he grew up with (Asterix, Spirou et Fantasio, Lucky Luke) shows in his work.

The girls are Izzy and Daisy, two fun-loving, inexhaustible best friends, who drag the reluctant, heights-phobic Mr. Kite out of his peaceful closet bed, and take him on a harrowing day of flying. They are again featured in the next book in the Izzy and Daisy series, The Mad, Mysterious Mansion, in which they follow their dog Pepper into a huge, crazy house on Halloween night. More on that in upcoming posts.


Hope you enjoyed this Di-version.         

First Post!

Hello everyone! I'm Diana LeBost. This is my first blog post for Di-version, a blog featuring Di's version of events and other things (See what I did there?)

I write poetry (Di-verses) and short stories. I suppose I write with kids in mind, but I don't really think of it that way. I write when an idea comes to me that I find amusing and want to read myself, and since I still read the great books I loved as a kid, I guess that means I write for kids!

I also illustrate, and have been an artist all my life. So has my fiance, Sahin Ersoz. We have both worked in animation for over twenty years.  This past year, 2013, we decided to take all the artistic and story ideas we'd been harboring for years and turn them towards creating excellent kid's books that are FUN to read and expertly drawn. Sahin, who is a fantastic artist ( comic book artist, storyboard artist, and animator for Disney, Amblimation, etc.), set out to illustrate a poem I had written eight years ago, called "A Lament of a Sensitive Kite." He then went on to illustrate a  Halloween poem written by his daughter. These books became Mr. Kite and the Perilous Flight and The Mad Mysterious Mansion. These books are volumes 1 and 2 in the Izzy and Daisy series, featuring two little girls, Izzy and Daisy, characters Sahin came up with while he was illustrating the stories.

We formed Pepandolie Books and published them in November and December 2013. We will soon publish "Gus the Platypus," written by me and illustrated again by Sahin, and I have a book in the works, which I am illustrating as well, entitled " Over the Moon" (working title).

 In this blog, in addition to presenting Di-versions and entertaining you with Di-verses, I want to chronicle my experiences as an independent author, both creating new books and trying to market the ones we have just published. I have only just begun to realize what a huge effort the marketing part is going to be. We will need to do many things I am unfamiliar with, like participating in social media, or just being social in general! I shall need to Di-versify! Damn, I'm unstoppable...

Here are the books. Take some looks!