Book Tour for CLOD MAKES A FRIEND by David J. Pedersen + Guest Post & Giveaway! [Ends 4/21/18]

Book Details:
Book Title: Clod Makes a Friend by David J. Pedersen
Category: Middle-Grade Fiction, 174 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Odysia Press  |  Release date: March 2018
Tour dates: March 26 to April 13, 2018
Content Rating: PG (There is no bad language, but there is one "boss fight" scene.)
Book Description:
Best Friend Ever?
Bullies love to hate Clod. Not just because he’s bigger, clumsier, and uglier than his classmates - he’s also the only student in his school without magic. In a world where all magic is possible and everyone else is born with great gifts to do amazing things, Clod is alone.
Living with his mum in a broken-down cottage on barely enough, the only thing Clod has to play with is the clay she occasionally brings him. Bleak is an understatement. More than anything, Clod wants a friend. The only way that’s going to happen, is to make one himself.
After an angry visit from the worst of the bullies, his teacher Learned Yugen, Clod’s clay sculpture of a little girl comes to life and introduces herself as Ada. For a clay girl barely the size of his hand, she has more confidence and courage than he knows what to do with. Every adventure she leads him on gets Clod into trouble. She may be the friend he wants, but is she the friend he needs?
After many years, and too many pranks, Yugen becomes convinced that Clod is tainted by the evil slowly infiltrating the Kingdom of Pag. Especially when Ada isn’t the only one Clod can bring to life.
Clod Makes A Friend is a bittersweet fairy tale for all ages from David J. Pedersen, author of the Angst series of fantasy novels.
To read reviews, please visit David J. Pedersen's page on iRead Book Tours.
Buy the Book:  Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Google Play ~ iTunes ~ Kobo
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MY REVIEW:( LAWonder10)
[First, I want to apologize to those at iReads and to you for this delay. I was away from home at a hotel where the Internet shut down and I was unable to even get on gmail to send to Angie who did this posting. I am the only one who did the Review.]

Clod is a story addressing bullying, and cruelty from not only peers but an adult, also. 

Clod lived in a place of magic. If one did not exhibit some form of acceptable magic, he/she was sent to places of hard, physical labor. However, if one showed signs of "black Magic" he/she was banned from the kingdom. 

The instructor at the school was professed to have special skills in detecting a gift for magic. He discovered none at all in Clod and eventually suggested he leave school to do hard labor, to which Clod's mother strongly objected. What would Clod's fate be?

Clod was very lonely and had no playthings. His mother worked in the mines so was able to bring him some of the clay. Clod created a tiny girl named Ada. Ada cane to life for a short period of time and they had much fun. Clod's mother made him keep Ada a secret, so he would not be accused of "Black Magic.

The story was very good,but the main points of the story content was unclear. 

The Book Cover and Title were well-chosen.
I offer a Three and a Half Stars rating for this novel.
*This was gifted me with no requirement for a positive review. This is my honest review.

GUEST POST:
How my passion for reading became a passion for writing

In grade school, it was the Xanth series and Infinity Adept by Piers Anthony. When I was 7, I read Ogre, Ogre in a day. After that, I devoured the Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. In high school, I read the Belgariad series by David Eddings no less than five times. I was voracious.

The one thing all of these books held in common for me were characters I loved. The heroes, and even the villains, were relatable. They drew me in, and were far more interesting than school. I realized that my favorite books had characters I missed when I was done. It was as if a friend had moved to another city!

Throughout grade school, and high school, I also wrote stories. Most of them heroic fantasy tales with some sci-fi sprinkled in. I had an English teacher my senior year of high school who wasn’t a fan of me, my writing, and even went so far as to call me immature. (An immature high school student, weird.) We had an assignment to write a story that would be graded by the class. Stories with top marks would be read by the teacher to all of the other classes. Challenge accepted. In short, my fantasy about all of the ways I would save a fair maiden at a local museum went over very well. Grudgingly, the teacher read it to all of her students. I realized how much I enjoyed writing to my audience.

I soon came to realize that, more than anything, I wanted to write stories that people enjoyed as much as the books I used to read. They didn’t have to be impossibly complex, just fun, engaging escapism with relatable characters. My first series of books, Angst, is about a man who is going through a midlife crisis and wants to be a knight in shining armor. A lot of people understand how it feels to believe they were meant for something else.

While I’m always excited when people read my books, but my thrill comes from the emails or reviews:
“I would meet these characters for drinks at a bar.”
“I’m a fifty-year-old woman, and I wanted to be a hero too.”
“I was so frustrated with the ending; I almost threw my Kindle across the room.”
When readers are drawn into my books, just like I have been, it makes all the effort worthwhile. I don’t get to read like I used to, but I’m so grateful for that time spent because those books gave me my passion for writing.

About the Author:

​David J. Pedersen is a native of Racine, WI who resides in his home town Kansas City, MO. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He has worked in sales, management, retail, video and film production, and IT. David has run 2 marathons, climbed several 14,000 foot mountains and marched in Thee University of Wisconsin Marching Band and written 4 fantasy novels. He is a geek and a fanboy that enjoys carousing, picking on his wife and kids, playing video games, and slowly muddling through his next novel.

Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ​

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Giveaway:​
Grand Prize: Clod & Ada Gift Package, which includes: 1) an Ada Amigurumi Doll (book character) 2) a hardcover copy of Clod Makes A Friend 3) a $20 Amazon Gift Card (open to USA and Canada / 1 winner)
2nd place prizes of a hardcover copy of Clod Makes A Friend with a $10 Amazon Gift Card (open to USA & Canada / 2 winners)
3rd place prizes: 5 winners will get a paperback copy of Clod Makes A Friend and 5 winners will get an ebook copy (Open to USA & Canada / 10 winners total)
(ends April 21)

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