Update - Winner Announced! Kick Off Hurricane Season with Nancy Stone PLUS a Book Giveaway!

8/30: Congrats to Melanie Dulaney! You are the winner of this exciting giveaway from Nancy Stone. We'll be in touch soon with more details.

A special thanks to everyone who joined us to Kick Off Hurricane Seasons!

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Hey there, readers, writers, and storm chasers too! 🌪️📚 Did you know peak hurricane season in the South begins this week? Eek! There's no better way to kick off the season than by celebrating with an unforgettable middle-grade adventure about a hurricane!

We're thrilled to welcome debut author Nancy Stone and her magical realism novel, Glow.

Filled with friendship, mystery, destiny, and a little bit of magic, Glow follows Cordelia and Frano, two unlikely friends who discover three baby white storks with a mysterious glow that no one else can see. But with a massive hurricane barreling toward Florida, the birds' survival depends on this unlikely pair putting their differences aside and working together to save them.

Want to know more about Nancy and Glow, PLUS want a chance to win a copy of your own? Read on…

Q: Hi Nancy — welcome to SeasonsOfKidLit.com! We’re thrilled to have you with us and hear all about you and your book! Please share the inspiration behind your book and a little about your path to publication?

A. Thanks so much for featuring GLOW! I’m excited to be here among so many gifted kid lit creators. I’ve been lucky enough to write for kids for over a decade now and am still in awe of this generous, talented community. The inspiration for GLOW sprang from a different sort of community, my daughter’s high school. I picked her up most afternoons an hour early to beat traffic. I’d park my car, pull out my laptop, and dream. Greenwood School is tucked away amongst trees and has a marshland directly behind it, where the kids would sometimes do science projects—and from my car, I’d spot egrets and other large birds soaring across the sky. 

I’d already created two distinctive characters, opposites in every way, but they needed a goal, an adventure. So I wondered what would happen if one of them discovered a rare species in the marsh behind their school, an animal so unusual that only they could see it—and save it. On one hot, sunny day, a huge white bird flew past, its wings catching and casting off sunlight, and I wondered: what if a bird was bioluminescent like a firefly, but at a frequency of light undetectable except by the few? And GLOW was born. 

I’d like to say its path to publication was as smooth, but no. When the manuscript first went on submission, one editor asked for an R&R but ultimately declined. I revised again, and my intrepid agent took it back out on submission. It made the rounds while I wrote another novel, and around the two-year mark, the offer came from Marble Press. 

Q: What surprised you most about your book’s path to publication?

A: Honestly, the biggest surprise was that it found a home at all. Even considering that publishing slowed to a crawl during Covid, the manuscript had been out so long that I’d moved on to new work. I’d had books die on sub before, so I was prepared for that outcome. But it was after the book was acquired that I got the best surprise: Marble Press will be releasing GLOW as an audiobook! As a huge fan of audiobooks and the mom of a daughter with low vision, I’m thrilled that GLOW will be accessible to everyone. 

What a fascinating story about perseverance. Thanks for sharing!

"A fast-paced story that balances a dash of magic with serious science." (Fabulism. 8-12)

―Kirkus Reviews

Q: What will readers enjoy most about your book? Why is your book a perfect fit for every season?

A: GLOW may be a fast-paced adventure, but the two main characters and their evolving friendship are the core of the story. The kids in this book cope with personal and real-world dilemmas, as does every kid. I hope readers not only have fun getting to know these characters but, as they do, feel less alone with their own flaws, struggles, and screw-ups. 

GLOW is set during Florida’s hurricane season, but animal/magic/adventure-loving kids can dig in anytime. Its themes of resilience, hope, and acceptance are so common yet so central to every season of life, especially seasons of hardship or change. Kids know they’re facing an uncertain world; books can help them cultivate the qualities needed to navigate it, all while offering a safe, engrossing escape.

Q: What’s the most rewarding part about being a kidlit creator? How about the most challenging part?

A: I’ve always loved working with kids, so talking with them about books, including my own, is by far the most rewarding part of being a kid lit creator. Kids have such flexible and agile minds; I learn more from them than they do from me, I’m sure. 

The most challenging part? Navigating the ever-changing publishing and marketing worlds while protecting my writing time. I always aim to prioritize my works-in-progress, but facts are facts: now more than ever, writers need to cultivate an authentic connection to readers online. This means writing more original content for socials, which can monopolize my creative energy if I’m not careful. I try to be careful. 

Q: What tip would you like to share with readers who are stuck in the query trenches?

A: Make peace with the process; so much in publishing is beyond our control as creators, and most rejections along the way result from impersonal factors that have nothing to do with the quality of our work, but rather with countless other variables dictated by the marketplace. Embracing this truth helps to free you from the inevitable cycle of discouragement and self-doubt that arises when your writing doesn’t find a home. More “nos” than “yeses” will always come your way if you’re brave enough to share your work. This is why the art itself, the constant and faithful return to your core creative spirit, has to come first: so it can sustain you. 

This is SUCH a wonderful tip — thanks so much for sharing!

Q: Would you like to leave a tip or a treat for our readers?

A: A TREAT! I'd love to offer a signed copy of GLOW to one lucky reader.

WOW. Thanks so much for such a sweet treat! And thanks again for joining us - it was wonderful getting to know you and your work more.

Giveaway Details: Readers, to enter to win Nancy's giveaway, 1) share this post on social media and 2) leave a comment below to thank her for stopping by. Stork or hurricane GIFs are welcomed and encouraged, too!

Giveaway winners will be drawn and announced on or about 08/25.

Books will be shipped in the US only.

About Nancy Stone:

Nancy Stone dreams up stories where the real and the magical collide. A former university and public librarian with an M.L.S. from Simmons College—where she concentrated in children's literature —she is a lifelong advocate for libraries and literacy. Her debut middle grade novel, GLOW (Marble Press, 2026), unfolds on the Northeast Florida coast, where two seventh graders discover three baby wood storks lit by a mysterious glow that only the two of them can see, just as a Category 5 hurricane takes aim at their town. Kirkus calls it “a fast-paced story that balances a dash of magic with serious science.”

Nancy lives in Atlantic Beach, Florida, where she walks the marshes that inspired GLOW and shares a home with two cats, a bird, and some humans, too. When she isn't writing for young readers, she writes for adults: that work, including news of a psychological thriller in progress, can be found at ndstonewrites.substack.com.

For more about Nancy, check out the below links:

IG: @nancyldstone

FB: @nldstone

To purchase a copy of her book on Amazon, click here: Glow: Stone, Nancy: 9781958325537: Amazon.com: Books

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