Book Giveaway and Author Spotlight for "Night Buddies, Imposters and One Far-Out Flying Machine"!

Today's We-Read Wednesday Series is bringing you a spotlight on a new juvenile chapter book for ages 7 and up, called "Night Buddies: Impostors and One Far-Out Flying Machine" by Juvenile author, Sands Hetherington.

This is the second book in the Night Buddies series; the first being "Night Buddies and the Pineapple Cheesecake Scare."  Don't you just love that title?  I think a scare would be well worth eating a pineapple cheesecake!  Today, I'm excited to not only share this delightful book with you, but to top it off, we are offering a book giveaway!   Yep, we're usually cool like that, and if you share this blog post with your FB friends and fans and let us know in the comments, we'll add your name to our drawing for a giveaway of "Night Buddies, Impostors and One Far-Out Flying Machine!"  Below, you can catch a glimpse of this engagingly fun tale perfect for young readers, and you'll also get to dive into a little game of 20 q's with Sands!

About the book:

 

For young John Degraffenreidt, lying awake at night is no reason to fret when it brings a bright red crocodile named Crosley out from under his bed.  Night buddies like Crosley promise a big adventure to any kid not sleepy yet-- and tonight is no different!  Out of bed, and into the city, John starts on a very special program, (Night-buddies-speak for adventure), with his crocodile friend.  Crosley is a unique, wacky character, the only red crocodile in the world for sure, but look-alike's have started popping up all over town, committing crimes, causing confusion, and making Crosley crazy at the sight of them.  The impostors must be stopped, and the Night Buddies John and Crosley are just the ones to stop them!  Stake-outs and wild chases in a fantastic flying machine, far-out schemes to snare the impostors, with the help of old friends and new ones, and a never-ending supply of Crusted Creme Fro-Madge frozen yogurt make for one totally super night.

 

Twenty Questions with Sands Hetherington
 

 

1. Could you tell us a little about yourself?

I'm an old man and live by a small lake in North Carolina with my Saint Bernard's Dudley and Maggie.  I didn't finish tenth grade but got into our state university by the back door.  I have two advanced degrees, two children, have been a hod carrier, a laborer at a newspaper, a mutual fund counselor, and a sporadic storyteller.  Now it's just the stories.

2. Describe your desk/workspace.

Sometimes the kitchen table, but usually it's the old chaise in my living room.  There's a little table on one side, and I always use an ancient green clipboard on my knees like I'm doing right now.

3. Do you have a favorite quote?

No.  There are too many great ones.

4. What are you currently reading?

Huckleberry Finn.

5. What is the best advice you've ever received?

Don't just do something.  Stand there.

6. If you could have coffee with anyone (living or dead, real or fictional), who would it be and why?

Caesar (the Dictator).  I'd give anything to see what some of these ancient colossi were really like.

7. What are your top three favorite books and why?

That's really a hard one, because there are probably 35 in my top 10.  Three that I really, really like are the one just mentioned that I'm reading for the fifth or sixth time, Joyce's Ulysses, and The Catcher in the Rye.  Obviously for different reasons which are too complicated to explain in fifty pages.  I could easily add twenty more books to these three.

 8. What was your favorite book as a child and why?

The OZ series.  Critics said Frank Baum had no literary merit, and I understand what they meant, but kids weren't interested in literary merit.  They knew what they liked, and that guy had a captivating imagination if anybody ever did.

9. What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

Really goofy ideas.

10. Do you write full-time or part-time?

I don't know any fiction writers who do it for more than two or three hours.  I call that full time.  It's certainly as much as I do.  I suppose you could consider this part-time if the writer goes off and plies some other trade for the rest of the day, but this is muddying the issue.

11. If you could do anything in the world, what would it be and why?

I would have a time machine, and a device to make me invisible like my character Crosley has, and I would go back and snoop on all of the great people and events.  Just the past, mind you: I don't want to know the future unless it's just the stock market.

 12. What is the craziest thing you ever did? This could be as a writer or any other time in your life.

During the oil embargo in the early seventies, I hoarded 120 gallons of gasoline in an aquarium in my garage.  The gasoline started dissolving the aquarium sealant and leaking, and I had to move it to proper containers just before the neighborhood would have been incinerated!

 13. Did you feel like a celebrity when you held your first published book?

No, that was just the start.  For all I knew, it might be a bust.

14. If you could have a star like on Hollywood Blvd, who would you want to have your star by?

This can be an actually star on Hollywood Blvd. or someone you just admire.

L. Frank Baum.

15. Is there anything in your life you wish you could do over and why?

The number of things is legion.  (There were approximately 6,000 soldiers in a Roman legion.)  All of the usual stuff like bad marriages, bad investments, and I really wish I had done something to prevent two of my dogs from getting run over.

 16. Who has been your biggest support or inspiration?

Probably my grandmother.  She was a prominent educator and role model who raised and put up with me.

17. What would be the best way for readers to contact you?

www.dunebuggypress.com

info@dunebuggypress.com

 18. Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Thanks for having me.  I've got to go try to get John out of the fix he's in.

Cheers, Sands

 

Follow Sands and the Night Buddies series!!!

www.nightbuddiesadventures.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/nightbuddies

Twitter: @Night_Buddies

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/nightbuddies2/

Goodreads: Author Sands Hetherington

Press: Dune Buggy Press, www.dunebuggypress.com

I hope you buy a copy of "Night Buddies, Impostors and One Far-Out Flying Machine" online or at your local bookstore!!!

Happy Reading,
Anna