Boggle Blog
Rachel Roberts Earth Day Blog 2011 (04-22-11) |
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| Happy Earth Day, everybody! | ||
| It’s a big world and you gotta start somewhere. So let’s clean it up! Me—I’m going to the beach. To get in the spirit, this weekend, I participated in a beach cleanup in Santa Monica, California. A charity called Heal The Bay organizes cleanups year round, and they’ve got it down to a science. There were hundreds of volunteers – totally awesome! – who worked in groups of five or six people. Each group got one big trash bag, and a checklist to record each and every piece of trash we picked up. Heal the Bay keeps extensive records, so each hunk of broken plastic, aluminum can, piece of glass, wad of gum, and picnic leftover was marked in its own category. This data shows if beaches are getting cleaner or dirtier each year, and identifies potential hazards to humans who visit the beach and the animals who live there.  |
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| Want to help? Don’t litter! Tell your friends and family that trash on the streets goes straight to oceans, rivers, and creeks when it rains. |
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| You don’t have to read the Avalon books to know how connected we all are – that a single ripple spreads out to make circles in the stream. This Earth Day, and every day, commit to making your actions have a positive influence on the environment. Encourage your friends and family to do the same. With a little bit of effort, we can make the world cleaner and safer for ourselves and our animal friends. Go Team Avalon! Rachel |
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Cat Magic (3-4-11) |
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| My passion for helping animals is a huge part of what inspired me to start writing the Avalon series. Recently, I had an experience that really opened my eyes to a big problem: homeless pets. | ||
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| He was dirty, skinny, and obviously asking for our help. After giving him water and a small amount of food, we took him to the vet to see if he had a microchip (a small computer chip implant that would have his owner’s phone number.) He did have a chip, but the phone number was a dead end. We asked everyone in the neighborhood, but nobody had lost a cat. So, here he was, a beautiful, healthy stray in need of a home. Unfortunately, none of our friends were able to adopt him, and every cat rescue organization told us the same thing: there are more homeless cats than ever before, and it’s extremely difficult to find people who are able to adopt them. Tragically, thousands of homeless pets are killed every year simply because there are not enough people who want them. Not willing to take him to a shelter, my friend committed to fostering the kitty until we could find a permanent home. After two weeks of phone calls, texting, tweeting, and emailing, we got some great news: A nice family wanted to adopt him! Off he went to his new home, where he’s loving his new digs. His people have named him Sebastian, and he’s gaining weight and as happy as can be!  |
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| Even though Sebastian’s story has a happy ending, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the other pets who aren’t so lucky. How could I do something to help them? I called my friend Heidi at the Humane Society, and we agreed to work together to get the message out. Here are great tips to prevent pet homelessness: http://www.kindnews.org/Mission_Humane/help_homeless_pets.asp If we all put in a little time and effort, we can help homeless pets find the loving permanent homes they deserve. Please give your own loud and enthusiastic voice to this important cause. I can’t begin to tell you how much love and joy Sebastian has brought us and his new humans. My Circle of Friends know what I’m talking about :) Your fellow animal lover, Rachel |
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Rachel Roberts Halloween Blog - Trick or Treats! (10-22-10) |
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| Hoot hoot, everyone! It’s almost Halloween, a holiday filled with creativity, imagination, and magic. Since a lot of you Avalon readers love Halloween as much as I do, I thought this would be a good time to say hello and catch you up on what’s been happening. | ||
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| Over the summer I visited two incredible National Parks, Glacier in Montana and Yosemite in California. Both parks feature soaring snow-capped mountains and incredibly lush valleys with lakes and rivers. Hiking is one of my favorite things to do, and I saw lots of furry, fuzzy creatures while on the trail. One of my favorites was a yellow-bellied marmot in Yosemite. He was in too much of a hurry to pose for the camera, but seeing a marmot in person was awesome! | ||
 This handsome guy sure didn’t mind posing. He’s a Columbian ground squirrel from Glacier National Park.
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Here I am (lower left, that’s me!) stopping for snacks, of course, and admiring the amazing view at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. Ozzie packed a whole host of power bars, cookies, veggie sticks, cookies, juice, and cookies. There is nothing like the feeling you get being in these magnificent, truly magical places. I always feel inspired to dream big. As I sat there, I imagined myself flying on the back of a glorious pegasus, soaring over the mountains, zooming in and around the tall trees. It was then I got an idea for a whole new book series. Once I got home, I put my ideas to paper and created Sky Rider. And now, in addition to Avalon: Shadow Warrior, the Sky Rider series is set for a 2011 release. There will be a lot more on both book series coming soon. :) |
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Earth Day '10 (04-22-10) |
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Hey, everybody! I hope you're all out there enjoying the beautiful springy weather. Twigs are budding, flowers are blooming, and fer-elfs are making pies from freshly picked bubbleberries - ahhhh, the perfect way to enjoy a spring evening J As a lot of you know, April is Earth Month, and April 22nd is Earth Day. I think it's fantastic that people all over the world are focusing on what they can do to help the environment. I wanted to get involved and do something hands-on, so I volunteered for a group called Heal the Bay. They're a nonprofit organization in Southern California whose mission is to protect the water quality of the streams that flow into the Pacific Ocean so we can keep the water clean for all our aquatic friends. I participated in their Stream Team program - cool name! The Stream Team helps maintain habitats in Malibu Creek State Park. It's a huge park, so there's a lot of work to do. My assignment was to remove invasive non-native plants that had overtaken a slope near the creek. Before the land was preserved as a state park, it was used for raising cattle. The hay that fed the cattle brought a lot of seeds that were not native to the area. When the seeds sprouted into fields of grass, it became a big problem. Not only does it choke out the plants that are supposed to be there - like mugwort, stinging nettle, and blackberries - it makes it very difficult for the native oak trees to repopulate. That's because their acorns need to fall on bare ground in order to take root. All the native vegetation grows in clumps, leaving plenty of space for the acorns to fall on dirt and sprout into baby oaks. But if the acorns land in a thick carpet of invasive grass, they can't take root, and the population of oak trees starts to dwindle. And when native plants die out, animals no longer have the food and homes they need to survive. I was amazed that even one plant can endanger an entire ecosystem. It just proves that our environment is a delicate, interconnected system that needs every plant and animal to thrive. Maintaining habitats is a never-ending job, requiring constant work and vigilance. It took several hours, but with a few dozen volunteers, we got the job done. |
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 This Earth Day, everyone can make a difference. You might find an opportunity to volunteer, but there are plenty of important things you can do on your own:
Once you start practicing these good habits, you'll be preserving the environment and inspiring your friends and family to follow your example. Wild places and wild animals need our help every day of the year, and when we all work together and do our part, that's real magic! Happy Earth Day! |
Rachel's Boggle Blog (04-01-10) |
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| What's up Team Magic! | ||
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| The final volume of The Warlock Diaries is here, yay! | ||
 There's something extra special in the new manga: a clue in the back of the book will guide you to a secret page on the Avalon site with an exclusive download of the new Be*Tween song! Check out Ozzie's blog for all the info. :) Creating the Avalon manga adventure was all about teamwork. I was lucky to collaborate with a talented team who brought Avalon to life in a way no one had ever seen it before. My favorite part of the process was looking at the pages right after Shiei drew them. Even though I knew what was going to happen, it was always a surprise to see how Shiei divided the script into panels and designed all the pages. Take a look at how this short section of script I wrote was turned into an amazing spread by Shiei! The mages and mistwolves sing the wolfsong to summon the Spirit Pack. ADRIANE The sky opens up and an arcing pathway of stars appears: the Spirit Trail. To the sides of the path are billowing clouds of mist. The Spirit Pack arrives and greets the mages. SPIRIT PACK ADRIANE SPIRIT PACK |
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| As you can see, Shiei did an amazing job translating the script into illustrations. A lot of times she'd pick up on aspects of the story I hadn't even thought of. And it just got better and better as the letterer placed the dialogue and the shading artists refined the illustrations. (Check out the manga section of the Avalon site for more info on how the manga is created! avalonmagic.com/manga05.php) It's awesome to have so many people adding their creativity and enhancing the story every step of the way.
But Team Magic didn't stop there. When it came time to add something musical to the magical mix, music mage Debra Davis wrote an awesome new Be*Tween song called "Golden." The song perfectly captures the team spirit of Avalon, rocking out with friends to make magic happen. Now it's your turn to join the team! Feeling "Golden" inspired me to write, Shiei to draw, and Debra to create music. Good things happen when you're doing something you love and are full of inspiration. What will you do when you're golden? Your friend, |
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Coming Full Circle (01-28-10) |
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Hello, mages! I hope 2010 is off to a wig-jigging start for everyone! My year has been exciting already-I just finished writing Full Circle! I am so pleased with the way the final Web of Magic story has turned out. Many of you have been waiting anxiously for Book 12, and have a lot of questions about how the story is going to end. My writer-mage promise: enough surprises and secrets revealed to keep all mages and bondeds happy :) Avalon readers have been so excited and supportive throughout the series, so I wanted to share something special. Since this is the Full Circle blog, I thought I would turn the circle back to the beginning and post a wonderful gallery of images: the covers for the original editions. They were created by Jim Carroll, and it's a different take on the world of Avalon that a lot of you have never seen before |
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Now let's turn the circle forward! Work has begun on the new trilogy called Avalon: Shadow Warrior. This series will focus on Adriane and the mistwolves and will delve deep into mistwolf lore and legends. We're going to introduce new mages, discover new bondeds, journey to new places, and become immersed in many new mysteries. And since Adriane takes the lead in this one, Zach and Drake will be prominently featured. Thank you for all the good magic you send my way-I wouldn't want to begin a new adventure without my Circle of Friends. Your friend, |
