Sarah Butland's Blog, page 28

*I won this audio book through a giveaway the author host...

*I won this audio book through a giveaway the author hosted without any obligation to write a positive review.

New to audio books I hesitated listening to The Art of Murder but am glad I finally did take the plunge. With such limited time available to read, listening to a book in entirety over just a few hours is refreshing and makes it easy to stay connected.

The Art of Murder, One Act Play (Shortn’Small series of One Act Plays) is very plot driven but I still grew fond of Monty and the victim who dies an unfortunate death very early in the story. Chapter One and the introduction of many characters caught me interest and had me listening closely, trying to solve the “whodunit” mystery. Through twists and turns, awkward moments that felt real and clues left hidden in plain view, Sugarek’s audio book intrigued me.

What I also enjoyed was the narrator who changed his inflection and clear vocals as he took me on a journey.

I will definitely put this author on my to-read list as I feel I might have a different appreciation for the writing with taking it slow and reading the story.

Thanks for reading and sometimes listening,

Sarah Butland

author of Sending You Sammy, Brain Tales – Volume One and Arm Farm

Do Something that Scares You

Always do what scares you the most, like the guy in this video. When it scares you, when you’re most nervous about doing something, it simply means you care and are passionate about it.

Think, just for a moment, of the worst possible outcome and realize it’s nothing compared to what you can accomplish. And know that if you don’t take the chance, if you rip up that envelope and never stand in front of the crowd, you won’t go viral and your passion will always stay hidden.

Enjoy:

What will you do today?

Thanks for reading and watching,

Sarah Butland

author of Sending You Sammy, Brain Tales – Volume One and Arm Farm

Blood Day – The Movie?

How to Raise a Husband by Tonilyn Hornung

Tagline: A whole bunch of ways to build a strong and happy marriage – 100% Nag Free

A book I had high hopes for. Wanting to learn from experienced spouses lessons of wisdom and practical plans to work with. And I did certainly learn a lot, I have the comfort of not being alone in some of the nuances of a marriage by reading well written short stories of the experiences of some couples.

I was disappointed, however, as within these words weren’t structured guidelines of how to actually raise a husband or how to lose just enough of yourself to be ok with things like clothing left on the floor. A change in perception, absolutely, but that’s nothing new.

Experiencing this book was something I appreciate and I know it will comfort many other readers into understanding their situation, the annoying troublesome experience of the day, is not unique. These stories also help the reader to understand successful marriages have gone through these rough patches and thrived.

My advice – get this book and enjoy it then pass it to your husband and learn something about each other you’ve been suffering through trying to understand for years.

Thanks for reading and learning enough about your marriage to stay a bit more sane,

Sarah Butland

author of Sending You Sammy, Brain Tales – Volume One and Arm Farm

The Book Thief is an Impeccable Story

This book should be a prerequisite for any history course. The Book Thief taught me more about Hitler and his reign as well as what is happening today than any of my history courses were able to.

Although a fictional novel there’s really no proof that the situations described with such heart breaking wisdom didn’t happen. Liesel, the main character, was a young girl I could easily relate to and sympathize with, even if I didn’t live in her era.

The first paragraph captured me as I have not before read a book from the view point of death or the grim reaper. Zusak’s authority of words and insight in ensuring his readers would cry and cringe with him is brilliant. Mastering the art of foreshadowing, even though this book is huge, I needed to read it as quickly and with such focus it took me a while.

“In years to come, he would be a giver of bread, not a stealer – proof again of the contradictory human being. So much good, so much evil. Just add water.”

Quotes such as this one above had me take my time and read it again. Others had me shutting the book and pondering our own existence – to me, that makes a book like this amazing. And, even when finished, I am left thinking about all the families who dealt with finding themselves in the time of Hitler. And how it all relates to the lives we’re living now.

Be aware, be yourself and think / speak freely. Be the person that takes and gives bread, depending on where you are.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Butland

author of Sending You Sammy, Brain Tales – Volume One and Arm Farm

Winning a Board Game

My son recently asked my husband and I to play a game of Monopoly. Not a strange request and yet such obvious proof of the law of attraction at work.

I embraced the opportunity to bond with and teach my 4 year old and play a game with my husband. My husband, on the other hand, cringed and delayed playing the game already thinking he hated Monopoly. I could tell these were his thoughts based on his blase way of setting things up.

Game On

We played, and played, and played – as Monopoly goes it was actually a quick game. My son was doing pretty well but him and my husband kept ending up in jail while I went around the board with ease, buying up properties as quickly as I could.

With every Chance or Community Chest card I retrieved I was grateful and planned for a promising card, receiving millions for sales of maple syrup (it’s the Canadian version) and get out of jail free cards. My husband, on  the other hand, picked each one up wondering aloud what he’d be jinxed with next. He, in turn, would need to pay fines and for maintenance to his properties but was happier because he bought the two most expensive properties – only we never seemed to land on them.

In the End

I always tell my son that every player wins because we got to play together and truly believe this. This game was no different but also greatly proved that perception and positive thinking paved the way for good things.

At the end, my son was out first and joined my team and as I continued loving the process my husband continued to think of it negatively. The final results were that even when I made him an unrealistic deal (buying a property for $10 Million) I came back to conquer and was declared the winner. He, making excuses saying that it was luck of the draw I got what I did in the Chance and Community Chest cards and I declaring it was all in my thinking.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Butland

author of Sending You Sammy, Brain Tales – Volume One and Arm Farm

 

Win Some Dragonflies

To celebrate the sun, warmth and summer that is soon upon us, I’ve joined with Art By Amanda Wood to give away a fabulous original Dragonflies painting.

Be sure to enter many times for your chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Are You Willing by R Louis Hill

When I saw the book Are You Willing?: change is the price of progress I knew it was a must have and immediate must read for me.

With so much changing in my life recently and much more to come, I’ve been listening to a lot of positive affirmation audio books and learning a lot from each but reading this summed it all up nicely. Getting tidbits from such greats as Napolean Hill, Jack Canfield and more, R Louis Hill was an ebook I quickly downloaded and read for great impact.

Well written about something we can all relate to, this is the story of how R Louis Hill overcame excuses we all know too well. Though there were a few minor editing errors, the valuable content contained in these pages far outweighed them.

A summary of a 20+ year journey, Are You Willing?: change is the price of progress made me react with both sympathy and familiarity from thoughts of suicide to accomplishment and recognition and, I promise, will have you quickly appreciating how simple it is to change your mind about your past, present and future outcome.

A must read for anyone who has experienced change.

Thank you for reading, and changing,

Sarah Butland

author of Sending You Sammy, Brain Tales – Volume One and Arm Farm

 

365 Days of Giveaways

You Can Give, Too

Ellen has  12 days of  spectacular giveaways, Oprah gives her audience amazing things with her giveaways, and I’m sure many more television personalities give so much to their fans. Most of us even give extra around Christmas time, donating money to Salvation Army or a church, giving a turkey or clothes to those in need.

Yet the rest of the year it seems most of us are just a little bit more selfish. Focusing on pinching pennies and getting from one pay day to the next, and worrying about not being able to afford going out or to another birthday party based on the cost of giving.

But Giving Doesn’t Have to Be Costly

There’s so much we can all give for free and make the world a much happier and better place. A smile is a gift even McDonald’s gives without hurting their bottom line. Imagine if we all gave at least one person a smile every day, it’s contagious and would just keep giving and not cost a cent.

When you visit a friend, take something. A hug, a bookmark, a recommendation or tip and you don’t even need to get out your debit or credit card.

Imagine Being Able to Give Something to Everyone You Know

You can do it and do this well. Social media helps you virtually give something to someone every day in a big way. Invite your friends to a growing page, share a blog post or like one, comment on their blog or retweet with the click of your mouse and you’re giving someone the support they love to receive and you just feel better for it.

The aspect of this giving is limitless and should be practiced daily. Focus on the great feeling of giving, not on what you may receive in return based on karma, but the enjoyment of showing someone a little bit extra support in that moment and the pay it forward phenomenon prosper.

So this year I am focusing, starting today, on ensure I give something to at least one person everyday. It can be as awesome for me as a free ebook download of a new author or awesome for you in that you may be able to win a gift card or brand new book! And if you want to be gifted, be a bit selfish and let me know how I can pay it forward to you!

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Butland

author of Sending You Sammy, Brain Tales – Volume One and Arm Farm

Blog Hop

1. You’ve created a range of fascinating characters. Tell us about some of them, and how they came to be. 

BananaBoy, the superhero in my children’s book, Sending You Sammy, is definitely my most interesting character with respect to how he was born.

While working at a contact centre I was colouring a picture of Spiderman when I ran out of red colouring pencil. Pausing only for a moment, I picked up the two colours I had the most of and it happened to be yellow and green. Looking beside me to a headline from the local newspaper declaring the devastating rates of childhood obesity, my new character was named BananaBoy.

Then I simply wrote him into an adventure that encouraged readers to eat healthier, enjoy the escape of reading to improve literacy rates and be something boys were eager to read.

My adult characters for Arm Farm and in my short stories of Brain Tales seemed to develop as I wrote their story and lastly, Veronica in Blood Day was created out of the pressure of a deadline and not having an idea as to what to write about.

Taking a lyric I loved from a song I heard and making it my own, Veronica began her discovery process into why she wasn’t born with blood.

2. You’re active on social media and have created collaborative projects among local authors. Do you enjoy the marketing side of authorship? What are some of your favourite activities?

Marketing is an element of writing I don’t think many authors appreciate but do find necessary. When it succeeds I love the process and when it flops I work at unveiling why.

Social media isn’t the only way of marketing but it seems to be where a lot of authors, emerging and best-selling, are resorting to. A cost-effective method of getting your name known, social media allows for more connections and creation of new ideas but it’s still a matter of foot traffic in your local area.

Writing is typically such a lonely career choice, meeting others and setting up joint partnerships and events forms bonds and relationships that blossom into fantastic new ideas. Multi-author events are definitely my favourite as it puts a unique spin on socializing and takes networking to a personal level.

3. Balancing work and family is always tricky, especially for writers working from a very busy household. How do you manage it?

Not very well! With a messy house and an active son, I do much more free writing than I’d like to simply to keep my creative juices flowing and in hopes of creating buzz about what I love to do.

Pressuring myself to write at least one blog post a week, write an article a week for a book site (thenewsinbooks.com), a quarterly cereal review for Canadian Child Magazine (http://canadianchildmagazine.wordpres...), I do thrive and fall miserably under the stress of the projects I sign up for.

Realizing balance is key and that my time and talent are worth a lot, I try to limit what I write for free but I do also find it motivates me and forces me to find time to write. Now to switch this demand for time into what I want to write most and succeed with is what I find I struggle with.

4. What writing projects are in the works for you now?

After the successful launch of award winning fantasy short story Blood Day about Veronica, my focus is shifting to complete the novel of the same name. Alongside this I am also working on a non-fiction book focused on gratitude.

Besides my website content writing, these are the two projects I plan to complete this year.