Sheila Deeth's Blog, page 28

What Have Birds And Puppies To Do With Childrens Books?

Sometimes a children's book offers just the change of pace that an adult (this adult anyway) needs. Typically (but not always) shorter, it's great for those brief moments between unwelcome tasks (like throwing away memorabilia destroyed in a basement flood). Usually upbeat, at least by the end of the story, a children's book can be great for lifting the spirit. And the questions raised, while frequently fascinating, might be just far enough away from everyday life to provide an open window wh...

Which comes first, the mystery or the murder?

Our family mystery is how did so much water get into the family room, bedrooms, storage room and furnace room of our house. It's an ongoing issue, so no story arc yet--no sense of completion. But at least I've got my computer up and running again, except I have to put it away to feed people since it's sitting on the kitchen table.

In between disposing of soggy boxes bursting with ruined memorabilia, watching sons cut up and drag away soaked carpet and underlay, moving furniture, panicking abou...

Who Will You Meet in 2017?

The snow has turned to freezing rain, or at least to the threat of freezing rain. We're trapped in the house again. My mother, over here from England, can't get out to see the wonderful place she's visiting. But welcome visitors spent their morning here, drank coffee and chatted with her. So now Mum's world has expanded just a little again, despite the contractions of ice. And now her nose is back in a book as she meets imaginary characters in their imagined worlds. Should I bring her back to...

What strange worlds are coming soon, or are they already here?

The future had its bleak turns during my childhood. I wrote stories about the end of the world, where an anonymous someone in Russia, China or the USA pushed a button and blew us all up. I wanted to stand on a tall tower watching the bombs, because I was sure the tower would fall and I wouldn't need to survive the aftermath, and also because I wanted my eyes wide open. But it didn't happen.

One of my sons suffers from similarly bleak views today. Meanwhile my mum, who lived through the Second...

What Might The Future Bring?

As the world around us changes, it's intriguing to read about changed worlds, and to wonder what will be. For me it's particularly intriguing since the books I wrote as a teen all involved drastically changed worlds - perhaps I was writing dystopias before I knew the word. But I was writing as a teen and it's probably just as well those strange tomes never saw light of day, though some of the short stories weren't bad.

Anyway, here are some book reviews of tales set in "different" worlds where...

What did you read in 2016 ?

Sheila
2016LikeShared
TOTALS
207books37,900pages
SHORTEST BOOK6 pagesKrim Du Shawby Talia HavenLONGEST BOOK626 pagesEmbrace the Fireby Stephen England
AVERAGE LENGTH217 pages
MOST POPULAR1,083,261people also readThe Girl on the Trainby Paula Hawkins LEAST POPULAR1person also readThe Crows and the Jewelsby Peter Joseph SwansonMY AVERAGE RATING FOR 2016
4.4 HIGHEST RATED ON GOODREADSEclectic Shortsby Walt Sochait was amazing
5.00 averageMY 2016 BOOKS
it wa...

Have You Ever Met a Super-Speed Christmas Dog?

They tell me Christmas is coming and they must be right as my Mum always brings it with her from England and she's just arrived. However, most people seem to feel Santa's the one bringing Christmas, so I'm delighted to welcome author Monty J McClaine to my blog with his Christmas Book, Santa's Rescue Dog. It's book 5 of a rather cool series (of course it's cool - there's a dog in it!)




Ebook, paperback and Audio book available from:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CO0OOL4


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Can books be delayed by snow?

Can books be delayed by snow? Can book reviews? Snow wasn't the only delay of course - there was an internet provider who unexpectedly closed our account for us, another one that found their cable had been cut, snow that meant no one could dig to lay a new cable, Christmas that meant no one could be assigned to laying a new cable, more snow, new cable, new internet, then power outages so the new internet went out, then...

Somewhere in there I meant to post this, but it landed in drafts. Enjoy....

What makes fiction literary?

When Shelfari closed and Goodreads absorbed its reviews, I found myself landed with tons of new shelves on my Goodreads page. Every tag was now a permanent link between (some of the) books I'd read. And the books I'd so carefully shelved before were now scattered among the morass.

One tag I'd used on Shelfari but not Goodreads was "literary," which got me wondering, what did I mean when labeled a book that way. Is all writing literature? Do the books I labeled literary somehow have more litera...

Can you really help yourself?

I want to catch up on book reviews. I want to catch up on reading, writing, editing, and just being me. I want to catch up! But can I really help myself--can you or anyone else really help yourself--just say "I want, I need" and somehow do it? Doesn't time keep slipping through your hands, just like mine, as the urgent takes over from the necessary, and the committed slips and slides to another date. I'll have to edit the deadlines on that review list again...

Of course, it's snowing and icy o...