Sarah Jamila Stevenson's Blog: Blog - Sarah Jamila Stevenson, page 34

The Writing and Revision Cycle

The life cycle of a novel-in-progress is an interesting thing. Obviously, everybody's process is different, which is intriguing in itself--I find myself endlessly fascinated by the different ways of working that I observe in my writing group. Some write forward in linear fashion, then return for another linear pass during rewriting. Others are not linear at all, writing scenes as they are inspired to do so and putting them in place later as part of the revision process.

What interests me today is an observation about the ways in which a project contains the seeds of its own later development. We hear a bit about that in the writing-forward direction: as a writer roughs out the story initially, the way we begin the story gives us hints as to how to proceed; the more you write, the more your path narrows and your options collapse, until there seems to be a certain inevitability about how the plot unfolds.

I find there's also something similar that happens in revision--but in a mirror-image kind of way. Let's say you've completed a first (or later) draft. You're probably starting your revision with at least a few specific goals in mind: flesh out character X. Fix plot development in chapter 5. And so forth. In that sense, you're still working forward. You're zeroing in even more narrowly on Your Unique Story, and in certain ways, with each pass, the changes get more and more nit-picky, less drastic. And yet, when you get to that inevitable point of the revision where you're trying to make key, pivotal scenes work, sometimes you still find yourself making changes that reverberate. They don't just affect what happens next; you also have to fix what happens before. Obviously, you can't do that in an entirely forward-moving direction. You don't know what you need to fix in the before until you figure out what the scene itself needs. So, in that way, there's a looking-backward element to revision as well.

Forward movement: You plant a particular seed, which must inevitably unfold into a particular plant. Prune as needed.
Backward movement: You've got this gorgeous plant. Did you remember to cultivate the seed? If not, go back and put it in there.

Put another way: The beginning tells you where the end is going, if you know where to look and if you planned it right.
The end tells you what you need from your beginning and middle.

I find that I need to move in both directions to successfully craft a story. Not necessarily by jumping around in my draft--I tend to do separate rounds of forward revision on the whole novel, going back on subsequent passes to fill in earlier sections rather than jumping back to them right away and then forward again. Sometimes I'll linger on a section for multiple passes to get it right, if something is pivotal enough for me to need to perfect it before moving along.

Having said that, please note that any and all advice is entirely subjective. Your experience may vary. I also didn't mention the vast amount of fumbling that takes place. So...yeah.

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Congrats to Our Friend Ashley Hope Perez, Walden Award Finalist!

"The Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award, presented annually by ALAN, is an award in the United States for a book that exemplifies literary excellence, widespread appeal, and a positive approach to life in young adult literature."

ALAN, for those who don't know, is the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE. More acronyms: National Council of Teachers of English. This year's award goes to:

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
(reviewed on Guys Lit Wire)
 AND!!! The worthy field of finalists included our dear friend and fellow YA author, Ashley Hope Perez, for her recent novel Out of Darkness. YAAAY and CONGRATS!! We reviewed the book a while back, and interviewed her about it, so we wanted to round up those links right here for you along with links to our past reviews of her work. So, here you go:


Out of Darkness Review
Interview (Part 1) with Ashley Hope Perez, Author of OUT OF DARKNESS
Interview (Part 2) With Ashley Hope Pérez, Author of OUT OF DARKNESSInterview (Part 3) With Ashley Hope Pérez, Author of OUT OF DARKNESS

Guest Post: The Edge in Fiction, or: Why Safe Books Are Dead Books
Monday Review: THE KNIFE AND THE BUTTERFLY by Ashley Hope Pérez
Ashley Hope Pérez: Big Ideas, Small Venues
Debut Drumroll: Ashley Hope Pérez's WHAT CAN'T WAIT

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

TOON THURSDAY: Writer Nightmares

Hey! It's a new toon, in a new series of toons I should be able to exploit for quite some time. What writer doesn't have nightmares (usually waking nightmares) about all manner of career mishaps and embarrassments? Well, probably not if you're Neil Gaiman, but the rest of us mere mortals have this problem. This particular installment was inspired by an article I read on Lithub entitled "Remembering the Worst Book Signing Ever"--and if you haven't read it yet, GO. You will laugh and cry. Anyway, here's your toon.

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Monday Review: MIRROR IN THE SKY by Aditi Khorana

Synopsis : This surprisingly literary speculative fiction / friendship / family story is another welcome addition to the growing shelf of books about A) people of color, B) South Asians, and C) teens of mixed heritage. Tara Krishnan, the narrator, is about to start her junior year of high school in a small Connecticut town where she is essentially a lone person of color in a sea of white faces. Her father is Indian, a former physics grad student who is now running the town's Indian restaurant; her mother is white and a bit of a hippie lost soul. Things have been in a bit of a holding pattern for everyone—until everything changes.

First, Tara realizes she will be alone this year: her best friend Meg is going to Argentina on a student exchange program. And then there's the story plastered all over the news: a message from space, from one of the "Goldilocks" planets that might be deemed hospitable to human life. The peculiar thing about the message? It's just like one that Earth beamed out into space in the past, but with a few minor, critical differences. Could this planet somehow be a reflection, an alternate version of Earth? And what would that mean for everyone?

As the school year begins, Tara finds herself, somehow, embraced by the popular crowd, even as she is increasingly distant from her former best friend. The boy she's had a crush on for years seems like he might actually like her. And the rest of the world, too, seems to be turning upside down, as her mother becomes increasingly obsessed with the new planet and her father seems more and more lost. The earth spins, and meanwhile, there is another version of the earth, up there, spinning on its own axis…

Observations : Mirror in the Sky reminded me a bit of crossover YA titles that are written for an adult audience but with teen characters—like The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker—not only because of the very literary, even at times erudite writing (I can't tell you how infrequently I usually look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary—but I did with this one) but also because of the way the speculative fiction elements function in the story. Unlike books such as Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, the focus is not on the sci-fi premise, on action or even really on the actual alternate universe; instead, the alternate universe's existence serves as an echo of the real-life action, a source of additional depth and commentary on Tara's feelings about the way she navigates her school and her world. This is something to keep in mind if you set out to read this book hoping for a sci-fi adventure—it really is more of a story about friendship, family and identity.

Speaking of identity, I appreciate that this is a story where ethnicity has a role, but it isn't necessarily the main thrust of the book. It is visibly THERE, and it certainly affects the narrator's sense of herself, but it is interwoven with everything else: the story of how Tara changes as her friendships morph and her family's stability teeters, and the almost indefinable sense of confused yearning that is created in everyone, knowing that there is another version of the world way, way out there and that anything could change at any time in our lives.

Conclusion : This is a debut novel, and a very impressive one. There were a few minor questions here from my standpoint--mostly having to do with voice and register, as well as the character's identity vis-à-vis the town (if she is the only Asian student at her high school, how does the town support an Asian grocery store? are there black students? etc.). But I was extremely glad to see another book featuring a person of mixed race and a South Asian protagonist—especially a spec fic novel—and I enjoyed reading it.

I received my copy of this book courtesy of my library's ebook collection. You can find MIRROR IN THE SKY by Adiat an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW! Sarah Beth Durst on THE GIRL WHO COULD NOT DREAM

A little while ago I had the privilege of reading Sarah Beth Durst's latest fantasy novel for middle grade readers, The Girl Who Could Not Dream--the tale of a girl whose parents distill, bottle, and sell dreams out of a secret room in their secondhand bookstore. In my review, I wrote:

Durst's books always charm me with their imaginativeness, and this one is no exception. How wonderful, to bring all sorts of dream monsters and fears and mythical beasts to life, from frighteningly surreal Dali-esque creatures to good old flying unicorns. But, hands down, Monster is the best monster. I'll leave it to you to read the book and find out why.

It's got such a fun premise, set in a world very like our own, and I was thrilled to get to ask the author some of my burning questions about the book. She always comes up with such quirky, unique, highly individual fantasy stories, whether writing for MG, YA, or even adult fiction, and here at Finding Wonderland we've been lucky to host multiple interviews to find out more about the story behind the story.

With no further ado, here it is! Thank you to Sarah Beth Durst for agreeing to stop by again and share this with us.

FW: The Girl Who Could Not Dream is so imaginative, set in a world where dreams can be distilled, bottled and sold. Where did the idea for this story start? With a character, a phrase, an idea?

It started with a wish, actually. "I wish I could remember my dreams."

Sometimes I have these dreams filled with dragons and aliens and telepathic dolphins, and in them I'm heroic and wise and witty and a lot more athletic... then I wake, and the dream slips away like a cloud dispersing in the wind. I often wish I could bottle up my best dreams and save them for later, to replace all the boring missed-the-train dreams.

So that's where this book started: with the wish to bottle dreams. That led to the idea of the dream shop -- a secret store where you can buy, bottle, and sell dreams. And to Sophie, whose parents own the shop and whose best friend is a cupcake-loving monster who came out of one of those bottled dreams.

FW: What were some of the challenges to writing this story? Was it difficult to strike a balance between fun/charming and scary? Did you worry at all about making it too scary or not scary enough?

One of the things I like best about writing for kids is that you can be silly and serious in the same story, even in the same moment. You can have a moment that makes you cry, and you can have a unicorn that poops rainbows.

Balancing those moments was very important to me, and it was something that I paid a lot of attention to as I was writing this book -- I wanted this book to have both, because I think life can often be funny and scary and silly and sad, all at the same time.

FW: With so many books out there that focus on dysfunctional families, it was refreshing to read a story with strong, loving family bonds, in which Sophie and her parents are a team. Was this a conscious choice?

Yes, it was. You see a lot of stories out there about characters who are strong because of pain in their past -- and I do think that's a very valid and powerful narrative structure -- but in The Girl Who Could Not Dream, I wanted to play with a character who came from a safe place... and see what would happen when she took her first step outside that familiar safe haven. I wanted to see what she'd do if everything she valued was threatened.

FW: Sophie and her friends (dream-world and real-world) seem to have a lot of potential for further adventures. Are you planning to write any other books set in this world, or with the same characters?

I don't have any immediate plans for sequels, but I have to admit that I miss Sophie and Monster and the others, so who knows what the future will bring...

Monster in particular was so much fun to write. Usually, for me, characters develop during the course of writing the story -- it takes me numerous pages to discover their voice and learn more about them -- but Monster appeared fully formed from chapter one. It felt like he plopped down on my desk and said, "Tell my story! And give me a cupcake."

FW: What are you working on right now—what's coming up next?

Right now, I'm working on an epic fantasy series for adults (and teens) entitled THE QUEENS OF RENTHIA, about bloodthirsty nature spirits and the women who can control them. They will be published by Harper Voyager, starting with THE QUEEN OF BLOOD on September 20th. I'm very, very excited about them!

Thanks so much for interviewing me!

You can read more about Sarah Beth Durst and her work on her website--including a sneak peek at The Queen of Blood !

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Thursday Review: SPARKERS by Eleanor Glewwe

Synopsis : With cover blurbs from the likes of Rachel Hartman, Margaret Peterson Haddix, Anne Ursu, and Ingrid Law, the MG fantasy Sparkers by Eleanor Glewwe should have caught my eye earlier. I met Eleanor at a conference this summer and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that it was the first time her book landed on my radar—in part because she lives in my home state but also because this book came out in 2014 and somehow didn't register. Better late than never! Not only do I get to plug a fellow diverse author, but I also get to spread the word about a promising, intriguing new fantasy series that will appeal to fans of books like The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas and—yep, I'll say it—fans of Harry Potter.

Unlike in the Harry Potter world, though, in this one, it's the magicians who are in charge. Of EVERYONE. Sparkers—the colloquial term for halani, or people without magic—are the oppressed lower class in the city-state of Ashara. Kasiri—those with magic—run the government, have the best jobs, go to the best schools, and have all the advantages. That is, until a mysterious disease called the dark eyes begins striking halani and kasiri alike.

Marah, the narrator, is a bright student, a talented musician, a budding linguist…and a halani, in a society that's been structured to keep her in her place. Then, a random encounter with a little kasiri girl in the marketplace leads to a new friendship with the girl's older brother, Azariah, who is Marah's age—fourteen. He, too, is interested in books and languages, even long-dead ones, and he has more books than Marah could ever imagine having. One evening, poring over one of those books, they find something amazing: something that might help them figure out how to combat the dark eyes. As the people they love begin to fall ill and die—including Marah's deaf brother Caleb and Azariah's little sister—Marah and Azariah pursue their secret cure and end up discovering shocking secrets about their magical society…

Observations : This book has such an intriguing setting. Even if I hadn't known from the jacket bio that the author herself is a linguistics student, I might have guessed from the loving attention given to the language and culture aspects of world building. Linguists and those familiar with the cultures of the Middle East will recognize Hebrew and Arabic names, and sense the echoes of the uneasy coexistence of Arabs and Jews in places like Jerusalem. There are also echoes of the long history of religious texts and music and rituals and mysticism that seem to imbue the spiritual life of the Old World.

At the same time, it didn't seem that the kasiri and halani were meant to represent specific ethnic or religious groups, which to me was a positive. The dynamics in the book didn't, in other words, seem like stand-ins for real-life sectarian conflicts. For me, rather, this type of recognition subconsciously informed my mental image of the setting and characters. And it also helped create a very rich and well-developed world with a clear identity and history.

The intellectual bent of the characters was very appealing here, too—music and language are an important part of character as well as plot in this book. This makes it doubly interesting that Marah's younger brother Caleb is deaf. Music is such a huge part of Marah's life, and so is language, but his deafness is not an impediment to her sharing those things with him. They communicate through signs, and together with their mother, they are a close and loving family.

Conclusion : This was a unique story set in a complex and vivid world, with intriguing magic and recognizable, thought-provoking themes of class conflict and social change. Glewwe's next book, Wildings, comes out in November and I will definitely be looking for it.

I purchased my copy of this book at the Mixed Remixed Fest. You can find SPARKERS by Eleanor Glewwe at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Monday Review: NEVER MISSING NEVER FOUND by Amanda Panitch

Synopsis : Suspense stories that deal with kidnapping and imprisonment (consider that your trigger warning) don't always put an equally weighty focus on the aftermath of the trauma. This particular thriller suspensefully covers both the dramatic events and what comes after in alternating parallel storylines. And, of course, "what comes after" includes even more suspense and drama.

In Never Missing Never Found, we are introduced to narrator Scarlett, who was kidnapped and spent four years imprisoned in a basement with another girl before she was found wandering the side of the road. Her family moved to another city, far away, and tried to recover. Now a teenager, she is working at a local amusement park and finally feeling like her life is more or less on track. All except for her younger sister Melody, who just never managed to warm up to Scarlett after her return.

And then…a co-worker from the amusement park goes missing, a girl named Monica. Another co-worker seems to know too much about Scarlett, things she's never told anyone here. The alternating past and present viewpoints add tension to an already gripping story without giving away too much at once, and the reader can only watch as Scarlett's past, inevitably, catches up with her.

Observations : The author uses an interesting structural device to reinforce one of the story's major themes: that we are the sum of the choices we make in life, that the results of those choices end up defining us in some fundamental way. Scarlett relates her story in terms of five critical choices she made along the way, from the day she was taken, on forward to the story being told in the "present." It's a device that could seem artificial, possibly, but it isn't overused here. Instead, these carefully chosen critical moments are fleshed out and developed so that we understand the narrator more and more along the way. Ultimately it all seems to unfold mostly organically. I did have a couple of moments where I was surprised by Scarlett's actions, and became skeptical, but all was explained in a rather nifty twist at the end.

Also, kudos to the author for having Latina main characters but having it not be a "thing." It's a part of their identity, but the story isn't about that. 

Conclusion : This is a good fast page turner for fans of suspense. I'll admit I wasn't sure about the plausibility aspects of some parts of the story, but I was able to suspend my disbelief and just enjoy the action and the psychological twists. It reminded me of the Joan Lowery Nixon/Lois Duncan brand of thriller—which I devoured as a teen. I'm sure I would have enjoyed this one as a young adult reader.

I received my copy of this book courtesy of my library's ebook collection. You can find NEVER MISSING NEVER FOUND by Amanda Panitch at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

A. Fortis and TS Davis in Revisionland

To be honest, one or both of us is always ALWAYS in Revisionland in some form or another. And when we're lost in Revisionland I tend to go back and re-run old installments of Toon Thursday to cheer myself up. So, I have one of those for you, but lo and behold, as I scoured our archives I also found some useful advice which I posted and should probably follow.

I also need to give myself a little encouragement to keep going and keep the energy flowing. Anyone out there have useful tips for when you know you need to tackle the rewrite but your own mean brain is trying to sabotage you? Writers, what are some of the ways you're nice to yourself when the job gets frustrating? What are some of the carrots you turn to when the stick's not working? Food bribery? Affirmations? Distractions?

Chime in in the comments below, and please to enjoy this oldie but goodie pie chart.

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Guest Post: Elizabeth May On Writing Faeries and Creating Monsters

Today we are excited to host a guest post by the author of The Falconer Trilogy, Elizabeth May. We're concluding an action-packed blog tour schedule that includes the following:

Tuesday, 6/21/2016: The Reader's Antidote
Wednesday, 6/22/2016: Tales of the Ravenous Reader
Thursday, 6/23/2016: Once Upon a Twilight
Friday, 6/24/2016: Mundie Moms
Saturday, 6/25/2016: Fiction Fare
Sunday, 6/26/2016: Cracking the Cover
Monday, 6/27/2016: Stuck in YA Books

Without any further ado, here is Elizabeth's guest post shedding insight onto her inspiration and writing process when it comes to writing faeries and monsters...


All images are provided courtesy of
the publisher and author.The fae are an incredible example of how beauty does not necessarily mean goodness. They’re romanticized due to their otherworldly good looks, and their sexual allure is, literally, written into their legends. But more than that, faeries are interesting to write about because their moral ambiguity is a feature of their mythology. They are quick to offend, and very, very quick to resort to punishment and murder.

In Katharine Briggs’s book The Vanishing People: Fairy Lore and Legends, which I used a great deal for researching my series, The Falconer Trilogy, she has an entire chapter devoted to the morality of fae. She concludes her analyses with a statement I kept turning over in my head as I wrote my books: “We are dealing with a pendulous people . . . whose mirth is often hollow and whose beauty is precarious and glamorous. From such no great compassion can be expected” (p. 161).

Briggs draws a comparison between faeries and humans being equally morally ambiguous, and this is an idea I kept coming back to: what would a human be like if they never aged, couldn’t die, and watched as other creatures lived and died and lived and died through the centuries? What kind of monster would that create?

A big part of The Falconer Trilogy is an exploration of what creates the conditions for monstrosity, and in what conditions they’re reversible. In The Falconer, Aileana slaughters faeries because she feels justified at first (one killed her mother; they also murder people), but realizes that in doing so, she’s become something of a monster herself. Her love interest, Kiaran, is a faery with a very awful past (revealed in The Vanishing Throne), who finds himself becoming more like a human as he begins to feel for her.

My trilogy is, at its heart, like any fairy story: monsters are neither inherently good nor bad; they’re created by circumstance.

The excerpt I’ve included here is from The Vanishing Throne, and it touches a bit on this. I hope you enjoy, and thank you for reading!

Xx Elizabeth May




Huge thanks to the author and her publisher, Chronicle Books, for putting together this blog tour! It was a privilege to catch a glimpse into another writer's process, and of course it's always fun to promote an enjoyable YA fantasy adventure series featuring a strong heroine.

Click on the respective links to read longer Scribd excerpts of The Falconer and The Vanishing Throne. 

Visit Elizabeth May online on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook.

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.

Monday Review: THE VANISHING THRONE by Elizabeth May

Synopsis : The first book in this trilogy, The Falconer (reviewed here), was one of those surprise reads for me—as a combination of historical fantasy, faeries, and a dash of steampunk and romance, I wasn't sure I would like it. I've read a lot of urban fantasy books over the years about faeries and I reached a saturation point a while back. But the unexpected setting of Victorian Scotland, surprising characters, and a healthy dose of action meant I enjoyed it much more than I expected to.

The Vanishing Throne is the sequel and Book 2 of the trilogy, and it continues where the first book left off. The malevolent fae named Lonnrach has narrator Aileana in his clutches, her Falconer fae-hunting powers neutralized and her body and soul under his control in the faerie realm. Rescued from this dark, harrowing, and gruesome torture, Aileana returns to her home of Edinburgh only to find that a horrible future has come to pass and everything she knows and remembers has been destroyed. She must ultimately team up with the few remaining humans and her fey allies in order to prevent Lonnrach from acquiring even more power and destroying what remains of her world.

Observations : As in Book 1, Aileana is an engaging, relatable, and empowering character. She makes a great heroine: she can wield a sword like a master, she creates nifty mechanical inventions, and, of course, she has a Dark Side. This is a very classically structured tale in that way. Aileana also comes with intriguing sidekicks: her training master Kiaran, a faery himself, with a vendetta against his own kind (and we find out exactly why in this book). And, of course, the pixie Derrick, who somehow manages to be both the angel and the devil on her shoulder at the same time, and wields a mean sewing needle. Derrick's wisecracks provide moments of levity in a story that is otherwise quite dark, and will probably appeal to fans of Melissa Marr and those who like tales of dark faerie doings.

However, where some books about malevolent faeries focus on the mental and psychological horror, this trilogy so far is more about action and adventure, and I've enjoyed that. Aileana is daring and swashbuckling, and the action in this book is pretty much nonstop, from her escape from the faery realm to cheating death to defending the human outpost. And don't forget the romance—through it all, Aileana's feelings about Kiaran inevitably continue to grow. The more they grow, and the more she learns about his dark past, the more complicated things get…

The only minor quibble I had with this book was the language. Admittedly I don't think this is something readers will take issue with or even think about, because contemporary-ish language in historical fantasy is something you see all over the place. Derrick's wisecracking sounds undeniably modern to my ears, and I found myself wanting a little more here and there to make the characters sound…more Scottish, I guess. More Victorian. But it wasn't anything that brought me out of the story for more than a moment here or there.

Conclusion : This reminds me of other urban fantasy reads where the faery realm is subject to its own political machinations and is using humans as its pawns, like Infinity Concerto by Greg Bear, or the many wonderful books by Charles de Lint. Fans of Victorian-era historical fantasy with a steampunk twist, like the Stoker and Holmes books, might also enjoy this one.

I received my copy of this book courtesy of the publisher, Chronicle Books. You can find THE VANISHING THRONE by Elizabeth May at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!

If you enjoyed this review, stay tuned for an upcoming guest post by the author!! Yay! 

This work is copyrighted material. All opinions are those of the writer, unless otherwise indicated. All book reviews are UNSOLICITED, and no money has exchanged hands, unless otherwise indicated. Please contact the weblog owner for further details.