• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Elizabeth Van Tassel

Teens & Tweens

  • Whispers of Legend
  • Emissaries Fan Club

Blog

  • Thorn and Vine
    • - Book Reviews and Interviews
    • - Life 101
    • - Beautiful Life
    • - Life Stories

For Parents, Teachers, and Librarians

  • Speaking
  • Resilience
  • Starting Over
  • Resilient Authors Project
  • Resources and Links

About

  • About Elizabeth
  • Writing
  • Press Kit
  • Contact

Shop

  • Products
    • - Resilient Authors Project
    • - The Bridge
    • - Seven Steps
  • Teens & Tweens
    • Whispers of Legend
    • Emissaries Fan Club
  • Thorn and Vine Blog
    • Book Reviews and Videos
    • Life 101
    • A Beautiful Life
    • Life Stories
  • For Parents, Teachers and Librarians
    • Speaking
    • Resilience
    • Starting Over
    • Resilient Authors Project
    • Resources and Links
  • About
    • About Elizabeth
    • Writing
    • Press Kit
    • Contact Elizabeth
  • Products
    • Resilient Authors Project
    • The Bridge
    • Seven Steps
  • Show Search
Hide Search

Happy Birthday Narnia and Everything C.S. Lewis

Oct 17, 2018

In honor of it being the birthday of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and Narnia, which is sixty-eight years old this week, under the magical gazebo for MMGM I wanted to share some memories of my summer C.S. Lewis study abroad program. I also have some great Narnia-themed products and books to share. When I was a young girl, I discovered the world of Narnia and wonderful books by C.S. Lewis, never suspecting that those wondrous moments stepping through the wardrobe would shape my writing and love for portal fantasy stories. I didn’t know about the spiritual allegory… 

Read More

Fall Delights! What’s coming from Thorn & Vine

Oct 1, 2018

I’ve been collecting great ideas for a wonderful fall series and wanted to give you updates about what to expect and some recent happenings! Due to a death in the family and some tech hiccups, the blog has been a bit sporadic. Thanks for your patience as we fixed everything! And nurtured our family for a while. Sometimes it’s important to slow down and simplify things while caring for one another. The good news, now, is I will share great content and hopefully some neat guest authors this fall. From entertaining posts we’re looking at changes at Disneyland (what will… 

Read More
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief among gems and jewelry books with gemologist Elizabeth Van Tassel

Happy Birthday Percy Jackson And The Jewelry Of The Gods

Aug 19, 2018

How meeting Percy Jackson shaped a generation of tween adventure books AND What the jewelry of the Greek and Roman gods might have looked like   I’ll never forget the first time I read Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief. Oh, I loved that scene in the museum where everything goes wrong and the hero side of an awkward kid emerges with lots of magic and mythological characters coming to life. And the fact that the story continued with other novels and took us through all kinds of adventures meeting making real and mythic history come to life was so… 

Read More
All the beauties including historic necklace, my character inspirations and setting for my middle grade fantasy with author Elizabeth Van Tassel

Pitch Wars 2018 #BOOSTMYBIO

Jul 31, 2018

My WIP: LAUREN GOLDRAY AND THE CRYSTAL TIMESCOPE Middle Grade Fantasy This is my entry for #BoostMyBio for Pitch Wars 2018. Thank you to Auggie for hosting this great time to visit and meet other aspiring authors and get more involved in the fun of Pitch Wars, and everyone who makes this such a super event. About my WIP: When I was in gemology school (at the Gemological Institute of America – GIA) we studied the history of gems. I kept being intrigued that there were still unsolved mysteries about certain centuries of techniques and gems with special powers or… 

Read More

Great Fake, Great Escapes – Royal Wedding Repost

May 17, 2018

In honor of the Royal Wedding, I’m re-posting this fun tidbit about the royal crown. Did you know there’s a mystery right there? What are your plans for the wedding this weekend? Did you know that the large ruby, called the Black Prince’s Ruby, on the front of Britain’s Imperial State Crown isn’t a ruby at all? For centuries there was no way to really tell the difference between red spinel and rubies. But this gem has such a rich history that its value stands out. Touching the lives of royals The gem’s first documented appearance is in fourteenth-century Spain…. 

Read More

How Huey Lewis Taught Me The Art Of Possibility

Apr 19, 2018

Recently I read that Huey Lewis, a great rock star with songs like “The Power of Love” from Back to the Future, “I Want A New Drug”, and “If This Is It” that were especially popular in the ‘80s, has suffered extensive hearing loss. I was remembering how he impacted my high school and early college years, hoping he recovers well. A dream come true When I was in high school, I wrote a letter thanking him for his great music and message (against drugs) and somehow, miraculously, it actually made it to him! I had seen him in town and… 

Read More

One little voice

Apr 5, 2018

Can one little voice make a difference? I hope so. Having taken pause to notice a few things in the world, and help us craft our own world a bit more after our recent move, I’m going to be fine-tuning the blog and my social media in the coming months. A force for the positive It’s been a bumpy year and I can’t thank my writing community and friends enough for your support. I’ve noticed that even the smallest gesture can make a difference – an email, a call, a positive or funny post on line. Just that one little… 

Read More

Great Reads: Tesla’s Attic by Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman

Feb 25, 2018

This week under The Magical Gazebo, where I like to sit for the reviews, is a super middle grade adventure by best selling authors Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman called Tesla’s Attic. Rating: 5 stars out of 5 stars. Is it a clean read? It depends. A couple of things to consider: What could make this slightly more young-adult aged is some kissing and one character’s assumptions about life. Also, Nick and his family are dealing with losing their mom and one of the characters perishes in the novel, too. I feel it’s not completely clean, but the great writing,… 

Read More
Max Tilt: Fire The Depths by author Peter Lerangis, shark floating by, on Thorn & Vine blog by author Elizabeth Van Tassel

Great Reads: Max Tilt: Fire The Depths by Peter Lerangis

Jan 7, 2018

New from Thorn & Vine: MMGM Book reviews! Due to the terrific response to our December, 2017 post HERE about great reads for kids, we are going to regularly be featuring new (or favorite) books for middle grade and young adult readers. I’ve listed the link to MMGM below as well. This week under The Magic Gazebo, where I like to sit for the reviews, is a super middle grade adventure by author Peter Lerangis. You may already know him from his fantastic series based on Greek myths, The Seven Wonders. He’s started a new series recently based on the… 

Read More

Cheers to 2018! Great things on the way this new year!

Jan 2, 2018

Greetings in the new year! I’ve had a quiet holiday, our first in our new home in the Bay Area. I wanted to touch base and let you know what’s coming up this first part of the year. 2017 was an emotional year, supporting many who’ve lost everything in life and need to make a new beginning. I’m finding I need a reboot as well, so will be refocusing the blog on the following areas given some neat opportunities that have recently come to light. Series: Becoming a resilient writer After 10 years of corporate writing and years blogging and… 

Read More
  • « Previous
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 7
  • Next »

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Warriors Against The Storm Anthology
  • Dust Blog Tour Stop #12 and Interview
  • A Walk In The Garden With An Author’s Eye

Categories

  • A Beautiful Life
  • A Great Story
  • All
  • Book Reviews and Videos
  • Deaf Talent
  • Disney
  • Emergency Preparedness
  • For Wildfire Victims
  • Gem tours
  • Gems
  • giveaways
  • Guest Blogs
  • Holidays
  • Hope
  • Kids
  • Let Resilience Arise
  • Life 101
  • Life Improvement
  • Life Stories
  • Lockout Series
  • Mentors I've never met
  • New Beginnings Series
  • Podcasts
  • Resilient Parenting
  • Right Turns
  • School events
  • Stress Knock-Out Series
  • Stress Management
  • Teens & Tweens
  • The Beauty Quest
  • Thorn & Vine Blog
  • Tributes
  • Uncategorized
  • Unexpected heroes
  • Writer's Conferences
  • Writing
  • Writing Tips

Archives

Recent Comments

  • Beth K Vogt on Safe In His Embrace with Author Darlene Turner
  • Carol Lauder on Safe In His Embrace with Author Darlene Turner
  • Susan Snodgrass on Safe In His Embrace with Author Darlene Turner
  • Elizabeth Van Tassel on Dust Blog Tour Stop #12 and Interview
  • Stephanie@Fairday's Blog on Dust Blog Tour Stop #12 and Interview

Subscribe to my blog

Your information will never be shared with any third party.

Top Categories

LinkedInTumblrYouTube Channel

Copyright © 2023 Elizabeth Van Tassel   ·   Website by Stormhill Media

Copyright © 2023 · Monochrome Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

  • Teens & Tweens
  • Thorn and Vine Blog
  • For Parents, Teachers and Librarians
  • About
  • Products