Erutuf National Park

National Park Week – Accomplishment

Today’s national park week theme focuses on sharing your story about an accomplishment. Accomplishments come in all sizes and reasons. One accomplishment could be visiting a national park for the first time. Another person’s accomplishment could be hiking a difficult trail. Another accomplishment could be becoming a junior ranger. For me, I find accomplishments in our national parks every visit. I have been pretty lucky to visit quite a few national park sites. Check out our fun map of visits by clicking here. National parks can provide a sense of accomplishment in our lives in many different ways. How have national parks provided a sense of accomplishment to you? Happy National Park Week!

National Park Week – Accomplishment Read More »

National Park Week – Discovery

Today’s theme encourages people to find something new by visiting a national park – to discover. I love to learn and discover something new while visiting national parks. The Junior Ranger programs provide great opportunities for both children and adults to learn in greater detail about the park and its’ unique details. The visitor centers also provide a great resource for discovering something new. Stop in and enjoy some fun facts there! Talk to the Park Rangers and ask them some questions. If you can’t get to a national park today in person, visit one virtually online. Explore it virtually! Whether you go in person or online, what might you discover? “Learning never exhausts the mind,” ~Leonardo da Vinci

National Park Week – Discovery Read More »

National Park Fan Goodies

National parks visitor numbers continue to rise as more people discover our nation’s great treasures.  Since National Park Week starts on Saturday, I wanted to share some unique gifts for all the national parks fans in your lives for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays, or even for yourself. Enjoy some unique ideas for your friends and families who love the national parks suited for a variety of ages and at reasonable prices:   1. Yahtzee: National Parks Edition game It’s just like the original Yahtzee game, but has unique, colorful dice and a barrel-themed cup. A portion of the proceeds for this game benefit the National Parks Foundation. 2.  Uncommon Ground’s Redwood & Saguaro Crystal Growing Kit Kids will love this science fun of crystals forming on paper in this cool kit. 3. Turtle Tube: An Erutuf National Park Novel by Kathy Arnold Cherry In this first children’s book in the series, siblings Reese and Dean’s wild adventure at Erutuf National Park is sure to expand the reader’s imagination and, likely, a curiosity about animals and the world through a magical national park. 4. Rumpl National Parks Blankets Instead of giving boring blanket, add some splash with one of these awesome national parks blankets. I have the Yellowstone one and love it! 5. Park Project’s National Parks Candles Why not bring the scent of a certain national park to someone’s home? Give the unique scents of redwoods or lodgepole pines to a friend or family to enjoy. Enjoy some national park goodies for yourself or a loved one! Happy early National Park Week!

National Park Fan Goodies Read More »

Names

We all know the names of Pippi, Ramona, Winnie, Sherlock, Charlie Bucket, Harry Potter, and many more. Character names represent more than a word on a piece of paper. The name of the character comes to life and becomes a real person throughout a novel. Authors take great care in naming their characters. The ideas can come from many sources and places of inspiration. In my children’s book, Turtle Tube: An Erutuf National Park Novel, I selected the names of Reese and Dean by using my children’s middle names. Reese and Dean fit their characters really well. I based other characters’ names on their personalities and characteristics. I even changed a name at one point. Olivia was originally named Eva. In the editing process, I discovered that Eva and Emma were too similar of names to have in this book. I couldn’t imagine changing Emma, so opted to change Eva to Olivia. I’m working on the second book in this series and need a name for a 5 year old boy character. I decided to ask for some help and who else best to help than a class of children. 🙂 A local fourth grade class agreed to help and all wrote down name suggestions on pieces of paper for me to review. I love the suggestions! I am really impressed how serious the students took this task and wanted to help. Thank you to Mrs. Anderson’s class for all these thoughtful and creative suggestions!

Names Read More »

Signs and Stickers

National parks all have iconic signs such as these two examples below from Yellowstone National and Yosemite National Park. It came to my attention recently that my national park needed a sign. To explain, I created a fictional national park as the setting in my children’s book, Turtle Tube: An Erutuf National Park Novel, called Erutuf National Park. I have a map of the national park, but no sign. I really love the idea of creating this sign as a visual for children. In particular, I like the idea of creating it to use as stickers. Stickers are the rage right now covering water bottles, laptops, and more. So, I started the process of working with a designer (as I am definitely not an artist). Here are the first few draft designs: We went back and forth with ideas and came up with this final design: I love it! And I’m having it made into stickers! Yay! Just thought I’d share a bit of author life and work today. Thanks for reading! 🙂

Signs and Stickers Read More »

Library Shelfie Day

Happy Library Shelfie Day! Yes, it’s a thing! The New York Public Library created Library Shelfie Day back in 2014 and it’s celebrated on the fourth Wednesday of January each day. On this day, go and enjoy many photos on social media and blogs of books on shelves. Look for the #LibraryShelfieDay. Escape the news and work deadlines and check out some fun book photos! And maybe you’ll even find a new book to check out and read! 🙂

Library Shelfie Day Read More »

Scroll to Top