Lorijo Metz lives with her husband and little brown dog in a small town in Indiana. Though she has a degree in acting and directing, she much prefers the anonymity of the keyboard, allowing her characters to revel in the spotlight while she sits quietly sipping tea or coffee, nibbling on cookies, and dreaming up ways to complicate their lives. She is the author of Floridius Bloom and the Planet of Gloom, illustrated by Matt Phelan and published by Dial Books for Young Readers; as well as over 30 nonfiction, educational books for kids, published by Powerkids Press. WHEELS is her first middle grade novel and first venture into self-publishing. The book review site, Pocketful of Books, called WHEELS “Brilliant” and said, “It is one I know I’ll re-read, which isn’t something I say about a lot of books.” SFNetcast picked WHEELS as its June, Indie book of the month. In 2013, Lorijo made her début as a lyricist on Owen Duggan’s newest children’s cd, Puppy Dog Jig, for which she wrote the lyrics for the title track.
Journal Entry: 3.29.12 Triberr Spent the day trying to learn how to be a better social networker. (I can just imagine some mom of the future saying, “Johnny, no girl is ever going to date you unless you expand your social network. No one wants a guy with only 50 followers.) Anyway, this means I…
Fantasy author and writer friend, Shawn Wickersheim, recommended I read The Iron King. Let me be more specific: tough, scary-if-you-happened-to-be-alone-when-you-run-into-him-in-a-dark-alley Shawn Wickersheim, author of the gritty, dark, fantasy adventure, The Penitent Assassin, recommended I read The Iron King. I point this out only because The Iron King is a Harlequin Teen novel. Ha, ha—that’s right,…
The other day I commented to my spouse that it surprised me our good friend, who is gay (as in, lesbian), likes Superman so much. Assuming the reason I like Superman has more to do with his tights than his personality, it seemed to me that it would be more logical for our friend to…
Searching for something meaningful to bake for the holidays? Look no further. Today I’m sharing a favorite old family recipe, Swedish cardamon bread. That’s right, nothing deep about this post, just something warm, sweet and delicious to bite into. Toast it, top it with butter or, better yet, peanut butter, and you’ve got the perfect…
I am the proud owner of a Starbucks gold card. I still remember the day I received the announcement in the mail… I mean, in my inbox. I was like—Wow, really? You’re sending me, little old me, one of those shiny gold cards? My husband already had a gold card. He loved to whip out…
I’m a worrier. I’m a woman. Sometimes I think they’re the same. My husband doesn’t worry about anything. No, I take that back, he worries about business. He’s a man. Maybe I’m being sexist but, in my house, that’s the way it is. Lately, I’ve been worrying about people I love and circumstances I have…
It seems like every other day I hear writers talking about building their web presence… Pontificating on how you’ve got to be on twitter, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on Google+, have a website, write a blog, etc., etc., etc.… as the King of Siam would say. And there are all the groups associated with whatever…
Every night, while the bath is filling, I play fetch with my dog, Henry. All I need do is start the water, and no matter where Henry is, he comes running. One night, I decided to multitask. I had Words With Friends, a scrabble-like game on my iPhone, going with two or three different players.…
Ebooks or Real Books? First, let me point out, eBooks are real books. You might not agree—but you’re wrong. Sorry. Which one you prefer reading, however, is up to you. So let me revise my title to: eBooks or Paper Books? It’s a hot topic, and it’s been covered so much lately, I probably shouldn’t…
Not very far into The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan, only 85 pages to be exact. (I’m reading an old-fashioned paper book this time), I was already furiously highlighting favorite passages. I love Duncan’s style, a sort of dark, twisted, Victorian humor/horror with a modern-day twist. Here’s an example of how the protagonist and coincidentally,…