It's Never Too Late + a Giveaway!!

This evening I am pleased to bring you Suzi Katz, YA author.  Before she tells you why it's never too late, let me introduce her to you:

As a working mother, volunteer and passionate youth advocate, Suzi Katz focuses her energy on teens and helping them build positive futures. Her commitment to young people drives her personal and professional lives, and her latest venture as an author is no exception.

With the release of her debut novel A Life Revealed, Suzi Katz launches Suzi Katz Books, a publishing house dedicated to exploring the lives of young adults and the complicated choices they face each day. Following her support of children’s causes, a portion of the proceeds from the sales of A Life Revealed will be donated to the International Child Art Foundation (www.icaf.org), a non-profit organization that integrates arts with science, sport and technology for the development of children’s creativity and empathy.

More than just a literary passion, Katz’s focus on students, peers and the power of authority has occupied her career efforts for more than a decade. As Director of the Southeast Region for the National Consortium for Academics and Sports at the University of Central Florida, Katz created life skills programs for eight years for student athletes to help them become well-rounded individuals and achieve success later in life.

Katz has worked with and created programs for the Salvation Army Women and Children’s Living Center, Special Spectators, and The Miracle League. She has visited patients at Florida Children’s Hospitals, participated in Red Ribbon Week, supported Orange County Public Schools, volunteered for Second Harvest Food Pantry and Habitat for Humanity, and following Hurricane Katrina, began working with Hope for Stanley to rebuild New Orleans.  Since 1997, her community outreach and programs have reached over 40,000 individuals in communities across the nation.

Katz’s tireless efforts have been recognized with awards and accolades from organizations  including the University of Central Florida’s Student Development and Enrollment Services, the Institute for International Sport, Fitchburg State College, Orlando Magazine and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Katz earned a Masters of Science in Sports Management from Northeastern University
in 1995 and a Bachelor of Science in Communications/Media from Fitchburg State College in 1992. Originally from Boston, Katz resides in Orlando, Florida with her husband Jay Slowinski and their daughter Maia.

You can find Suzi online at her website, A Life Revealed, or her blog, Suzi Katz.  Stop by and say hi!

---

When I was around 10 years old, My uncle sent me a birthday gift I’ve never forgotten. It was a gift box of books written by Judy Blume. At the time, I’d never heard of her. But now, there is no way I’ll ever forget her. She opened the door of reading and writing for me.

The first book I read was, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret? This book was amazing, and it was at that particular time in my life that I realized, I would always read and write as much as possible. I started out by writing short stories, but the first ‘official’ book I did was put in my school’s library. It was my autobiography. I remember being so proud.

I watched my mother read all the time as a kid. She used to sit on her bed with her pillow propped up and always looked so involved in whatever book she was reading. I loved that and I do that now. I read a lot in front of my daughter who is 7. Now that she is learning to read, she is enjoying it more and more. She also enjoys when my husband and I read to her. She is really into the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. We started to read these to her every night. In the beginning she wasn’t as open to reading on her own as she is now.

I struggled inside with how I would get her to love books. I tried to explain books in simple terms and relay it to real life things we did. She always asks me to tell her stories of how my husband and I met and funny things she did when she was a baby. I told her that was a book. A story from beginning to end and that it is so exciting to see what happens along the way and especially at the end. Now she has a new attitude and loves to hear us read as well as read on her own. When she got in the car the other day with one of her books, I was so proud of her.

It took a long time for me to sit down and write a book, but I did it. It’s never too late to do something you love and have fun with. It is also never too late to pick up a book and learn to love reading. Find the genre you love and you’ll feel like you’ve stepped into another world when you open the pages.

---

Thank you so much for stopping by, Suzi.  I can't wait to get my hands on A Life Revealed as well as the sequel, Hiding in the Open, which will be released this summer!

I am so excited to let my readers know that Suzi's publicist has graciously offered up 5 copies of Suzi's debut YA novel, A Life Revealed, to giveaway this week.  How awesome is that?  All you have to do, is comment on this post with your thoughts or a question for Suzi.   Extra entries will be given for sharing this giveaway on Twitter and/or Facebook.  How many entries can we get?  You have until Saturday, May 15th, at midnight to enter.  Winners will be posted on Sunday, May 16th.