Category Archives: Rachel Barnard

All About the Donuts: Donuts in an Empty Field (For the Love of Donuts Book 1) Publication Day June 3rd! – Contest

by in Author Thursdays, For the Love of Donuts, Local Events, Rachel Barnard and tagged

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Want to be featured in the second edition of Vanessa’s Book of Awesome Things? Submit your vignette, opinion piece, essay, or short story with the theme of “donuts” to rachel.author.barnard(at)gmail(dot)com

Submissions should be between 250 – 2500 words.

The contest winner will win the following:

  • Their piece will be featured in the next version of Vanessa’s Book of Awesome Things
  • Donuts swag bag, including the original edition of Vanessa’s Book of Awesome Things

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Vanessa’s Book of Awesome Things already features:

The Food Challenge,
Tips to Help You Win a Food Challenge,
10 Challenges at 10,
Facts About Corgis,
20 Challenges at 20,
The Secret of Tree Beach,
Fat Boy Run,
30 Challenges at 30,
Your Local Hangout,
40 Challenges at 40,
Reasons to Bask in a Sea of Puppies,
50 Challenges at 50,
Kale is Not a Curse Word,
Doughnuts Recipe,
Object Scavenger Hunt,
Photo Scavenger Hunt,
To Do with Donuts, Yes or No?,
Top Ten Worst Donut Flavors,
Top Ten Donuts You Have to Try,
For the Love of Donuts Books,
Donuts in an Empty Field Chapter One,
About the Author

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Donuts in an Empty Field (For the Love of Donuts Book 1)

Letting go of anger is life’s greatest challenge.

Vanessa Smith hasn’t been the same since her father’s death. A hero until the end, he died saving a restaurant owner’s wife and son from a burning building. Nessa has always blamed the boy, Ben, for her loss, and her thoughts are consumed with ways to make him as miserable as she is.

Nichole Adams knows Nessa can never heal until she learns to let go of her hatred, but bringing back her best friend is proving more difficult than she could’ve imagined. In a last ditch effort to break Nessa’s obsession, Nichole hopes signing up for the local food challenge is just the thing to bust her out of her shell.

A single choice defines the road ahead for Nessa. Doing the right thing isn’t easy, but living with the consequences of doing nothing might be worse.

St. James Espresso Multiple FVP Authors Event Wrapup

by in Author Thursdays, Author Tuesdays, Free Valley Publishing, Local Authors, Local Eats, Local Events, Rachel Barnard, Seattle Specific Saturdays and tagged ,

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We had fun last Saturday at St. James. I got to try their green power smoothie for the first time. It was delicious! Hope to see you at our next event!

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Sheri implemented our new idea for showing prices – with number beads on our lovely new bookmarks!

 

All About the Donuts: Local Donut Shop Review – Voodoo Too Donuts

by in Foodie Fridays, For the Love of Donuts, Local Eats, Rachel Barnard and tagged

Voodoo Donuts

Portland, OR

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1501 NE Davis St, Portland, OR 97232

(206) 496-3670

Website: http://voodoodoughnut.com/

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Review criteria:

Most popular donut at the shop: Bacon Maple Bar

Signature shop donut: Voodoo Doughnut

Most popular US donut: glazed

2nd most popular US donut: Boston Crème

Donut Hole: Not available

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What I tried:

Bacon Maple Bar, Portland Creme, Raised Glaze, Voodoo Doll, Lemon Chiffon Crueler.

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What to expect:

Expect to wait. If you want to get your hands on doughnuts faster, visit the Voodoo Too shop rather than the original or visit at a non-peak hour. There are Disney style gates to funnel customers inside and the menu is available online and on the wall and with representative doughnuts in display cases. It helps to know what you want ahead of time so you don’t stop up the line. Expect the employees to be fast and helpful. Now move along and enjoy your doughnuts.

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Perks:

You get to visit the infamous Voodoo Doughnuts. You get to try out some crafty and well-made doughnuts. There is more than one Voodoo to choose from. Doughnuts.

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Don’t Worry:

You’ll understand what to do when you get there as they are totally set up for large customer volume.

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My favorite:

Going to a place like Voodoo (Even Too) is fun in and of itself because it is one of the most well-known little doughnut shops in America. Voodoo is an experience. My favorite doughnut, thus far, is their raised glaze.

WAAAlk for Autism Last Saturday

by in Local Events, Miscellaneous Mondays, Rachel Barnard and tagged , , ,

Saturday was autism awareness day. I supported my family’s walk for autism to help collect funds for the Washington Autism Alliance & Advocacy in my donut costume.

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THE STORY:
Sensory Sensitive, Child & Teen Suitable Activities, Family Fun & Resource Fair – WAAAlk for Autism is a day for our community to come together to honor and recognize the 2,800 families and 12,000 individuals that WAAA has helped statewide. It is a day to celebrate the unique gifts that each individual and family touched with autism brings into our lives.

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You can still donate to the cause! Click this link HERE to donate

All About the Donuts: Donuts in an Empty Field (For the Love of Donuts Book 1) Publication Day June 3rd!

by in Author Thursdays, For the Love of Donuts, Local Events, Rachel Barnard and tagged

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What about the characters! Donuts in an Empty Field takes place in Sarasota, FL in 2008. How many of these songs do you remember from 2008?

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Nichole’s Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhdAjUG-eFywQgRW4ufzUCnl_w7k4y-E4

Clocks by Coldplay

Sweet Child of Mine by Guns N’ Roses

How You Remind Me by Nickelback

Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana

Here It Goes Again by Ok Go

Money by Pink Floyd

Iron Man by Black Sabbath

Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes

Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol

Photograph by Nickelback

Call Me When You’re Sober by Evanescence

Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz

Lose Yourself by Eminem

Umbrella by Rihanna

The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani

Rockstar by Nickelback

Paralyzer by Finger Eleven

Raspberry Beret by Prince

…

Vanessa’s Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhdAjUG-eFyz-ftKjgsFSArn2x6VU5Al6

Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol

Clocks by Coldplay

Eye of the Tiger by Survivor

Explosive by Bond

Come on Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners

Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder

Here It Goes Again by Ok Go

One Night in Bangkok by Murray Head

Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode

Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve

Kashmir by Led Zeppelin

Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles

Don’t Bring me Down by Electric Light Orchestra

Baba O’Riley by The Who

Crazy by Gnarls Barkley

The Luckiest by Ben Folds

Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day

Mad World by Tears for Fears

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Letting go of anger is life’s greatest challenge.

Vanessa Smith hasn’t been the same since her father’s death. A hero until the end, he died saving a restaurant owner’s wife and son from a burning building. Nessa has always blamed the boy, Ben, for her loss, and her thoughts are consumed with ways to make him as miserable as she is.

Nichole Adams knows Nessa can never heal until she learns to let go of her hatred, but bringing back her best friend is proving more difficult than she could’ve imagined. In a last ditch effort to break Nessa’s obsession, Nichole hopes signing up for the local food challenge is just the thing to bust her out of her shell.

A single choice defines the road ahead for Nessa. Doing the right thing isn’t easy, but living with the consequences of doing nothing might be worse.

NORWESCON aftermath – pitching/panels/costumes/exhaustion

by in Free Valley Publishing, Local Authors, Local Events, Rachel Barnard and tagged , , ,

Norwescon is one of my favorite events of the year! I bought my full membership early for the early bird discount (which I highly recommend) and FreeValley Publishing had planned to have a presence like they have for the past couple of years (2015, 2014). I also sent in two of my short stories for critique from Fairwood Writers. Thursday they offered us a special “pitching” class with Jennifer Brozek, which was fun, interactive, and useful. Jennifer liked my Donuts pitch, my Donuts cover, and my Donuts title (whew).

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A young adult novel about two best friends, the local food challenge, and a mysterious bucket list. The more main character Vanessa fails the food challenge, the more she takes it out on the boy she blames for her father’s death because letting go of anger is life’s greatest challenge.

I also wrote a lovely Star Wars themed anthology pitch:

R2-D2 unit took the name Radar when he won his freedom. Successful pod race owner, he trades parts weekly at the local machine shop and falls in love with the snarky, young attendant Zendaya. But there are two problems. She’s working off a seven-year indentured apprenticeship and she doesn’t seem to like droids. The twist is that Radar owns the machine shop and she’s been selling parts under the table.

Brozek’s comment: Don’t use R2-D2

I snuck into one panel on Thursday on fat shaming and enjoyed it quite a bit. Shout out to Jami and learning about fat acceptance and the fat experience in advance of reading her upcoming novel about a fat protagonist.

I didn’t go Friday because work and I had budgeted Thursday and Saturday to go. I brought my books for the Clockwork Dragon/FreeValley Publishing table on Thursday and checked out the dealer room. I even got sized for a corset (which brought up some mild claustrophobia, even though it was beautiful).

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I was nervous about parking and didn’t get there soon enough on Thursday to park at the DoubleTree itself so went across the street to the large undercover WallyPark, which turned out to be a whopping $21 for just under 5 hours. I was not happy with that bill and resolved to find a better solution for Saturday, the busiest day of the con. I ended up going to the non-covered WallyPark on the other side of the street for valet parking, which was only $14 plus tip and the two guys there were very polite and helpful. Next year, if I don’t find an even better parking area, I’ll use them.

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I wore my ghillie suit Saturday for most of the day and switched to my leopard print dancer’s outfit after dinner to round out the evening. Everyone loves my ghillie suit. I was very busy with my Fairwood writer’s workshops Saturday and only went to one panel: the Art of Critique, but it was so stuffy and hot that I had to leave halfway through for cooler rooms. I wandered everywhere! I even got locked out of the hotel and had to go around the entire building to get back inside (note that you need a keycard, obviously). Hospitality is always super cool and handy and I even made use of the coat check for my ghillie suit! Thanks coat check people. You made my life so much easier.

The masquerade was not as exciting as I thought it would be. I couldn’t see above hats and hair and it dragged on too long for me, though I absolutely loved seeing the costumes. I went to the Fairwood writer’s social and the Cascade writer’s social and rounded out my evening checking out the Star Wars dance (the music was so low and only kids were dancing). I imagine if I stayed late into the night, the party’s would pick up, but as it was I was too tired to stay any longer and went home around 9:00PM. Until next year, Norwescon!

 

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I grabbed two print books and a slew of flyers to check out.

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Money Spent: $160

Parking: $37
Food: $23
Books/Souvenirs: $20
Membership: $50
Dealer Room Partial Table Fee: $20
Gas: 120 miles = $10

All About the Donuts: Donuts in an Empty Field (For the Love of Donuts Book 1) Publication Day June 3rd!

by in author platform, Author Thursdays, For the Love of Donuts, Local Events, Rachel Barnard and tagged ,

abtd

Can’t get enough about donuts? Check out these blogs and let me know about any other cool donut centered blogs

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Dunkin Donuts Behind the Beans Blog

Keep Your Eye Upon the Donut

Donut Blog

Dave’s Donut Blog

 

Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter to receive important updates and promotions, if you haven’t already. Signup HERE

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Letting go of anger is life’s greatest challenge.

Vanessa Smith hasn’t been the same since her father’s death. A hero until the end, he died saving a restaurant owner’s wife and son from a burning building. Nessa has always blamed the boy, Ben, for her loss, and her thoughts are consumed with ways to make him as miserable as she is.

Nichole Adams knows Nessa can never heal until she learns to let go of her hatred, but bringing back her best friend is proving more difficult than she could’ve imagined. In a last ditch effort to break Nessa’s obsession, Nichole hopes signing up for the local food challenge is just the thing to bust her out of her shell.

A single choice defines the road ahead for Nessa. Doing the right thing isn’t easy, but living with the consequences of doing nothing might be worse.

Portland Event! FLYA Zero at the Doubletree Hilton in Portland TODAY 03/19/16

by in Local Authors, Local Events, Rachel Barnard and tagged , ,

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FLYA Zero is the inception event for the Festival of Literature for Young Adults! Come on down to the Doubletree on Saturday, March 19th, 2016 and celebrate YA Lit writers and readers with us – and get the conversation going for the 2017 event!

Purchase your tickets here for just $10!
https://squareup.com/store/steampunk-filmfest/item/flya

Facebook event info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1047694628587066/# 

Where: Doubletree By Hilton Hotel Portland Oregon
1000 NE Multnomah St, Portland, Oregon 97232

When: 11AM – 7PM