Stahlfeld Announces Cool Word of the Week Contest; Winner Gets free Darkwoods eBook

June 20, 2011 - PRLog -- Seventeen-year old author Marta Stahlfeld announced the launch of her weekly Cool Word Of the Week (CWOWC) contest today.  Each Sunday, a new CWOWC will be posted, and entries accepted through noon (PDT) of the following Saturday.  Whoever sends in a sentence with the most creative use of the word wins a free eBook copy of Darkwoods, the first book in a new fantasy series for middle-school and young adult readers.

Why the CWOWC?  "When I began writing my stories, I would look for new words to help describe my characters, the scenes, etc.  I also began getting the Dictionary.com Word of the Day,"  said Stahlfeld.  "There are a lot of great words out there!"

"The CWOWC is a way of sharing some of the cool words I found with other kids and also letting them have some fun with those words.  And, who knows, maybe a sentence they do for CWOWC will get them started writing a story, too."

For the week of June 19-25, 2011, the CWOWC word is "sapid."    To find the definition and a sample sentence using the word, go to http://www.facebook.com/DarkwoodsBooks.  To enter, send your sentence to DarkwoodsBooks at AOL.com, and put CWOWC in the subject line.  Entries will be accepted until noon (PDT) on Saturday, June 25, 2011.

Each week's winner will be able to download a free eBook of Darkwoods from www.Smashwords.com, the leading distributor of eBooks for authors.  Facebook users can easily receive notices of the CWOWC each week by "liking" the Darkwoods fan page, where the CWOWC will be posted.

Darkwoods begins with the death of the foxes' ruling oracle, Scythe, freeing the foxes to leave their home in Darkwoods determined to conquer the world.  Standing in their way is Princess Zuryzel of the Wraith Mice, with the ability to fade undetected into the shadows, and her allies among the Squirrel Tribes, Ranger Mice, and River Otters.  Like any good epic tale, Darkwoods includes battles, romance, and treachery, as well as the individual heroism necessary to defeat evil.

Stahlfeld crafted her tale without resort to graphic details or langauge inappropriate for her intended audience.  "The books I enjoyed the most when I was in middle-school do not include a lot of gory details of battles, and they do not have a lot of swearing or bad language.  Those things aren't necessary to tell a great story."

Interested readers can sample the first five chapters of Darkwoods at http://DarkwoodsBooks.com/.  Print copies of Darkwoods are available at Barnes & Noble locations and local bookstores, as well as online at BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon.com.

Stahlfeld, who is 17 years old, began writing Darkwoods when she was twelve and has already finished writing the follow-up novel, Pasadagavra.  She plans a total of six books in this epic series written primarily for middle-school readers.

Stahlfeld just finished her junior year in high school and plans on majoring in English Literature or History when she starts college in 18 months.  She is a voracious reader and has long been fascinated with WWII history.  In fact, the Ranger Mice characters of Darkwoods were inspired by the U.S. Army Rangers who scaled Pointe du Hoc on D-Day, which she visited on the 4th of July.  It was shortly after that when she began writing Darkwoods.

Stahlfeld can be contacted at DarkwoodsBooks at AOL.com or on Facebook at the DarkwoodsBooks fan page (http://www.facebook.com/DarkwoodsBooks).  She is also on Twitter (@DarkwoodsBooks).


Book details:

Perfect Bound • $16.95 cover price
275 pages • 6 x 9
ISBN10 1-935359-77-0
ISBN13 978-1-935359-77-7