Victoria Zigler's Blog: Zigler News, page 144

2016 first quarter reading challenge: clear your clutter

One of the groups I'm a member of over on Goodreads made their reading challenge for the first quarter of 2016 a clear your clutter type challenge where the goal was to read as many books as you could from your to read list during the three months the challenge ran for. The only rule being that the book had to have been on your Goodreads to read shelf for a minimum of three months at the start of the challenge.

You pick your own challenge level, and since it was winter when it started, it was a winter theme for the challenge levels, which - given the weather most of us have had since the start of the year - were very appropriate; I know of someone who reached blustery blizard while in the middle of one, for example. Anyway, the challenge levels were as follows:

1-3 books Sparkling Snowflake
4-6 books Shiny Icicle
7-9 books Snappy Snowman
10-12 books Blustery Blizzard
13+ books Stately Snow Mountain

At the start of the challenge, while naming the level I was aiming for, I said I wanted to aim for Blustery Blizard, but was hoping to actually reach Stately Snow Mountain, since I wanted to make sure to be reading a lot of books I'd been meaning to read for some time. As it turned out, I actually reached Stately Snow Mountain before the challenge was half over.

So, here are the books I read, along with both the dates they were added to my to read shelf, and the dates I finnished reading them:

1. Ever After (The Hollows, #11) by Kim Harrison ~ marked as to read on December 30th 2012; read on January 10th 2016.
2. Winter (The Lunar Chronicles, #4) by Marissa Meyer ~ marked as to read on January 5th 2013; read on January 12th 2016.
3. The Undead Pool (The Hollows, #12) by Kim Harrison ~ marked as to read on March 5th 2013; read on January 16th 2016.
4. The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #1) by Rick Riordan ~ marked as to read on September 23rd 2015; read on January 17th 2016.
5. Angels Club by Courtney Vail & Sandra J. Howell ~ marked as to read on July 30th 2014; read on January 19th 2016.
6. The Bungalow Mystery (Nancy Drew, #3) by Carolyn Keene ~ marked as to read on March 18th 2015; read on January 20th 2016.
7. Revenge of the Living Dummy (Goosebumps HorrorLand, #1) by R.L. Stine ~ marked as to read on January 15th 2013; read on January 23rd 2016.
8. Creep from the Deep (Goosebumps HorrorLand, #2) by R.L. Stine ~ marked as to read on January 15th 2013; read on January 24th 2016.
9. The Magic City by E. Nesbit ~ marked as to read on December 31st 2012; read on January 24th 2016.
10. Monster Blood For Breakfast! (Goosebumps HorrorLand, #3) by R.L. Stine ~ marked as to read on January 15th 2013; read on January 25th 2016.
11. Scat the Scaredy Cat by Sheryl Tidlund ~ marked as to read on March 27th 2015; read on January 25th 2016.
12. The Scream of the Haunted Mask (Goosebumps HorrorLand, #4) by R.L. Stine ~ marked as to read on January 15th 2013; read on January 26th 2016.
13. Dr. Maniac vs. Robby Schwartz (Goosebumps HorrorLand #5) by R.L. Stine ~ marked as to read on January 15th 2013; read on January 27th 2016.
14. A Bitter Draught (Ravenwood Detective Agency Mystery #2) by Sabrina Flynn ~ marked as to read on September 1st 2015; read on January 27th 2016.

Getting books I've had waiting to be read for ages actually read is one of my reading goals for the year, which means I planned to do this anyway, so I'm continuing to focus my reading time on reading books that I've had on my to-read shelf for three months or longer, and have read several more books that would have counted for this challenge since the end of January. But I stopped checking in to add the titles and dates to my list on the challenge thread once I'd reached the highest level for the challenge, since there didn't seem much point in continuing to do so.

Furkid Friday: call Skye - or maybe Sky?

Hi there humans, rats, and any other types of rodents - or any other kind of creature for that matter - who happens to be reading this.

This is Star the rat.

A couple of weeks ago, the humans were watching TV, and I was watching it with them. Then, all of a sudden, the Mummy human turned to me and said something about the Daddy human needing to remind her to call Skye, and wanting me to remind him to remind her.

Well, I wasn't sure what this was all about, but I heard my sister's name mentioned, so I went to where she was taking a nap in the hammock, smacked her across the head to wake her up, and made her come with me to the side of the cage closest to where the human caretakers were.

For some reason, which we rats didn't understand at the time, this made the human caretakers laugh.

When they stopped laughing, the Mummy human explained that she'd meant Sky TV and not Skye the rat.

Well, she should have said that then, shouldn't she?

Humans can be confusing sometimes!

Squeak soon,
Star

***~~~***

Human's note: I swear this really happened. A couple of weeks ago, we were watching TV, and something we needed help with to do with the Sky TV box came up during one of our commercial break discussions, but it was a weekend, so we decided we'd call them on Monday. We'd been meaning to call about it for a while and kept forgetting (I'd ask Kelly to remind me, and we'd both forget). I jokingly said I'd have to get one of the rodent gang to remind Kelly to remind me, and - since I knew Star was hanging on the side of the cage beside where I was sat, watching TV with us - turned towards the rat cage and said, "Star, remind Daddy to tell me to call Sky on Monday," and Star promptly jumped down and went to fetch Skye and make her come see what we wanted. I'm thinking the only words she recognized were her own name, the word "Daddy" and what she thought was the name "Skye" - all three being words she is familiar with, and responds to - and thought I was saying her Daddy wanted to know where her sister was, or something like that. ~Tori

#Writing Wednesday - April 6th 2016 (LBE)

A long post this week, with several links... Make yourself comfortable!

Ready? OK...

It's April, which means it's National Poetry Month, or National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) if you're a writer of poetry, as well as a reader of it. Whichever you want to call it... It's celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

So... Will you be taking part in the celebration of poetry in some way this month? Perhaps by writing some of your own? Perhaps by reading the poetry of others? If so, I'd love to hear about it.

There are some other writing challenges happening this month too. Including Camp NaNoWriMo, and one I heard about where your goal is to write a novel in 8 days.

I'm not officially participating in any challenges myself. But, as I said, I'd be interested to hear if you are. If you are, which ones? Or, if you're doing your own personal challenge, what are you doing? Also, if you are doing a challenge of some sort, how's it going so far? Like I said, I'd love to hear about it.

I'd originally planned to be publishing a new poetry collection this month. But it isn't ready. I've got enough poems that I could do one, but haven't had a chance to do anything towards sorting the cover beyond having an idea for what I'd like to have appear on it. So I guess it will have to wait. In the meantime, I'll work on adding a couple more poems to it. After all, I'm sure nobody will object to it having more poems in it than originally planned. My goal is to have at least one poem written each week during April; more if possible.

Did you know: There are several personal benifits of writing poetry. So, if it's not something you already do, but you've been considering it, maybe reading those benifits will be enough to encourage you to try? Go on... You know you want to!

Also, if you're interested in knowing facts about the history of poetry, check out this post on rhyming traditions from early China to modern day rap.

If you found the previous article interesting, you may find this one on how upper and lower case letters changed the world interesting too.

***

Want to write, but don't think you're good enough? Stop that! The only thing stopping you from writing is yourself. So, here are 5 steps to fighting off writer's insecurity. OK, so... Are you ready to tackle that writing project now? You are? Great!

First of all, here's a helpful metaphor for writers (and other creative professionals). I'm not so good with number four. I'd like to be, but I always find myself focussing more on the other three legs of the table. As the writer friend whose blog I spotted the post linked on said... Maybe I should buy a hat!

OK... Now it's time to start working on that book. We'll start by creating your world, and fleshing out the details for it. This also applies if you're writing things set in modern times, but is especially important if you're writing a historical or futuristic story. So, take a look at this worldbuilding checklist to make sure you've covered everything. Yes, I am aware that it's the same one linked to in the first of the two posts in this paragraph; I thought I'd put the link in my post too, to make it easier to go straight to it in the future.

After that, you'll need to decide on the viewpoint you'll be writing from. If you're choice is to write in first person, these tips will help you to produce amazing results. But, regardless of the viewpoint you choose, this post will help you with mapping your character. It's always great when your characters talk to you; helps you get to know them, and turn them in to "real" people.

Next, here's how to describe an object, and why it matters in your story.

When you're done writing your story, you can use Grammar Check to help you check your grammar (just in case the name of the site wasn't a big enough clue as to what you'd use it for).

Of course, you're going to need a title at some point too. So, here's a post that will give you some tools to create titles that will hook your readers.

After that, you need to decide how you're going to publish. The Guardian published an article recently that prompted a fellow author to write a post giving his thoughts on the claim that real writers don't self-publish. Want to know my thoughts? Well, I'll tell you anyway. Here's the thing: different forms of publishing are best for different people. For some, traditional publishing is the route to go down. For others, self-publishing is the best option. But, regardless of which you choose, there are no guarantees of success, nor of failure. Both options have equal chances of making you a successful author, or of making you one of those people who only manages to sell a couple of books (and those to family and friends). The thing is though that both options are just as valid as one another. In other words: it doesn't matter which you choose at the end of the day. Just pick the option you feel is the right one for you, be proud you even managed to finnish your book, and good luck to you with whichever path to publication you choose to follow. If, however, your choice is to self-publish, here are 8 questions to answer before you self-publish.

Published - traditionally or otherwise - but struggling to get book sales? Here are some tips on finding new readers. The chances of them resulting in you having enough readers to become the next J K Rowling are slim, if I'm honest. But the post is good advice to give you a chance at increasing your readership, I think. Apparently, these tips on lessons from the silver screen, which can be used for books too, will ensure your book's success. But, as I already said, nothing is guaranteed. Oh, and here's a message about common sense book marketing, which you might want to read too.

***

I recently read this post about how continuing to use paper increases productivity, which I found quite interesting. I actually agree with most of the points raised in it, and think the article is well worth the read.

Unfortunately, for reasons that should be obvious, I have no choice but to go paper-free, since the only methods for taking quick notes that are available to me are by using digital devices. In the past, I've tried various versions of taking notes in braille. However, the brailler is bulky (not to mention, noisy like the old typewriters, so not something you'd want to be using to take notes in the early hours of the morning) and the braille writing frames are awkward to use (not to mention, it takes so long to do each letter with them that you've forgotten your idea by the time you've finnished the first word). It took me getting my iPhone and trying out its "notes" function before I found anything that I could use to take notes reasonably quickly without being sat in front of my computer.

If, however, you have nothing stopping you from making doing something similar to what's suggested in the article possible, I would advise that you do so. If nothing else, it will help you to avoid the distractions of social media.

***

Before I end this post, I want to say a quick "thank you" to fellow author, Amber Fox, who runs the Everywhere Indies site, and who did a post about the release of "Rhubarb The Red-Nosed Rabbit" for me last week. So... Thanks, Amber!

The Kitchen Imps and Other Dark Tales by Alexandra Butcher

The Fire-Side Tales Collection

The Kitchen Imps and Other Dark Tales – six short tales of mayhem and mischief.

Naughty imps, missing socks, cunning thieves and baffled gods feature in this collection of short fantasy fiction.

Grab your Kindle friendly copy today from Amazon.Com, or from Amazon UK. Alternatively, you can grab a copy of the eBook in some other format via Smashwords. It should be appearing on those other eBook retailers Smashwords distributes to shortly.

Also... There's an audio version coming soon!

Alexandra Butcher - author of The Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles and other fantasy stories - can be found at www.libraryoferana.wordpress.com.

Reading Addicts October to December 2015 Challenges

I'm quite late posting this, because I was waiting for the awards, which were delayed by the person in charge of them having some really bad health issues, and nobody else being in a position to pick up the slack for her. I can understand complications and delays caused by health issues like that, so I'm making no complaints about it. I'm simply telling you so you know why I'm so behind on posting about these challenges.

However, the person is still having health issues, and the awards are still not created, so I'm just going to go ahead and post this. I'll post the awards when she gets to them. I can just link back to this post in the post they go in.

Anyway...

The October reading challenge on one of the groups I'm a member of over on Goodreads, was to complete at least one of the following:

1. Read 2000 pages.
2. Read a book that has Halloween in the title, and or a story that has Halloween in it.
3. Read a book that made you laugh, or cry.
4. Read a book that has an unexpected twist.
5. Read a story that ends on a cliffhanger.

For number five, I read "Pathfinder Legends — Mummy's Mask #1 The Half-Dead City" by Paizo Inc. (the first in a new series of audio dramas, which Paizo are releasing, based on the adventures in their Pathfinder roleplaying system). Trust me, if it was a TV series, the words "to be continued" would have so been on the screen at the end! I actually sort of hate cliffhangers. I mean, I understand why they're used... And know they work... But they still frustrate me. Yes, even though I know any roleplaying adventure would have them as you complete each part of it.

I read "RENOVO" by Geoffrey Wakeling for number five; you never know what will happen next in Geoffrey Wakeling's books!

I also read "When the Lights Go Out - Ink Slingers' Halloween Anthology" by Joleene Naylor, DM Yates, Maegan Provan, Tricia Drammeh, Anne Franklin, L.C. Cooper, Rami Ungar, Barbara G. Tarn, Russ Towne, Yawatta Hosby, C.G. Coppola, Adan Ramie, Bonnie Mutchler, Carolyn Cason, Christopher Mitchell, Jason Gilbert, Nikki Hess, Roger Lawrence, Sean Morain, and Terry Compton. It's an anthology of creepy Halloween stories, so counts for number two both because of the mention of Halloween in the stories, and because it has Halloween in the title.

Plus, I read "The Shepherd's Crown" (Discworld, #41; Tiffany Aching, #5) by Terry Pratchett for number three; it both made me laugh and cry. I laughed because it was full of the entertaining and amusing scenes all the Discworld novels contain, and I cried because it's the last book, as well as because of a certain scene not too far from the start, which anyone who has gotten to know and love the Discworld characters would cry about. I'm not saying what it is though, because I don't do spoilers; anyone who's read the book will understand, I'm sure.

I'm also as positive as I can be without sitting down and counting pages, which I don't want to do, that I read the 2000 pages mentioned in number one. How do I know this if I didn't sit down and add up the pages? Well, I know several of the books I read during October were 400 pages or longer, from seeing the page counts while doing the ratings on Goodreads, and since I can be 100% certain that this is the case for at least five of the books I read, plus I read several other books of lengths I'm not as sure of afterwards, I'm positive I reached the 2000 page mark. Besides, you all know I read a lot, so it's not difficult to imagine how likely it is for me to read 2000 pages, is it?

So... Yeah... I think I had the October reading challenge covered.

The November reading challenge on the same group was to complete at least one of the following:

1. Read 1500 pages
2. Read a book with an animal on the cover
3. Read a new released book (One that has been released in November)
4. Read two books with the main character having the same name. (So if the main character is Luke in one book than read another book that has the main character called Luke)
5. Read a book that you rate 5 stars.

So, which ones did I do?

I read "Pathfinder Legends - Mummy's Mask, chapter 2 Empty Graves" by Cavan Scott, which I rated five stars, so that counts for number five.

I also read both "The Vampire Prince" and "Hunters of the Dusk" (Cirque Du Freak, #6 and #7) by Darren Shan, which obviously both have a character named Darren in them, since they're part of the same series following the character of Darren Shan. So, they count for number four.

That was enough for me to say I completed the challenge, since the rules say "at least one" item from the list, and I completed two of them. So, at that point I called it done, and didn't bother doing any more for the November challenge.

And then there was the December reading challenge for the same group, which was to complete at least one of the following:

1. Read a book with snow in the story, or on the cover
2. Read a book that has Christmas in it
3. Read a book with a book cover that has the colors Red and white on it.
4. read 1500 pages
5. Read a book that has new year celebration in it

For this one I read "The Entirely Strange and Miraculously True Christmas Tails of MIA and Eve" by Rob Duder, and "Merry Christmas, Mister Wolf" by Steph Bennion, which I counted for numbers one and two respectively. They technically both worked for either one, since they're both Christmas stories featuring snow, but the snow is real in Rob Duder's book, so I think that one should be the one used for the snow book (the snow in Steph Bennion's book is artificial).

As with the November challenge, I called it done after doing those two, since they were enough to say I completed the December challenge.

As I said, this is from the group where we usually get badges. So, I'll post the badges whenever they end up being created, and link back to this post when I do. I have absolutely no idea when that will be though.

Furkid Friday - April 1st 2016

Um... Hello everyone.

This is Skye the rat.

I'm here to share a couple of recent photos of me and my sister, Star.



Star is the one you see on the side of the cage in both photos, where as I'm just hanging out near the bottom of the cage in one of them, and only climb up on the side of the cage for the other photo.

That's all for today.

Squeak soon,
Skye

#Writing Wednesday - March 30th 2016

In case you missed my post about it on Saturday...

The eBook version of "Rhubarb The Red-Nosed Rabbit" is now available!

Easter may be over, but that's no reason not to be able to enjoy an Easter themed rabbit story!

Click on the book's title above to go to the Smashwords page for it, where you can buy it in multiple eBook formats, such as mobi (for Kindle) ePub (for Nook and some other eReaders) and html (for reading using an internet browser). Other formats are also available.

Or, you can look for it on the websites of eBook retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, and Kobo, among others.

The paperback version isn't available just yet,but it will be as soon as it can be arranged.

If you grab a copy... I hope you enjoy it!

***NOTE***
Reviews are always welcomed and appreciated. Remember: reviews not only help other customers decide whether something is right for them, but they also help authors. So, if you'd like to leave reviews for any of my books - old or new - I'd be very grateful. You can do so on any of the retailers they're available from (though some of the retailers will only allow it if you've brought the book from the retailer in question) as well as on Goodreads. If you do leave reviews - or have done so in the past - then huge thanks go out to you from me.

Finally, huge thanks go out to Chris The Story Reading Ape for continuing to be his amazing self, and helping to spread the word about my book's release. My thanks also go out to fellow authors, Alex Butcher and Kevin Morris, who also helped me by posting about this release. Not forgetting, of course, the various friends, fans, and followers - both my own, and those of the people linked to in this post - who also helped me spread the word... Your help is very much appreciated!

TV talk and movie mutterings - March 2016

Time for this month's post of new to me movies and TV shows, which contains a couple from the end of February as well as those from March.

As with the similar posts from the past couple of months, I've not written very detailed reviews, but instead just given my opinion of the movie or TV show in question, so I've included links to where you can find out more about the movie or TV show, if you want to... Just click on the title of it, and you'll go right there.

So...

Van Helsing (movie):
This movie was an OK movie, and had some funny parts, but I wasn't overly fussed with it. I watched it with my brother, Carl, and our Dad, while I was in Wales, because it fit the steampunk theme of the weekend, but the only one of the three of us to really enjoy it was my Dad. It's possible this was at least partially due to the lack of audio description in a very visual movie... Which, fair play to him, my Dad did try to make up for by describing things to us during the movie... But I think, personally, that I wouldn't have been too fussed on it even if I had a complete description of every single event in the movie. Like I said though, it did have some quite amusing scenes, and was an OK movie. It just wasn't really my thing, I think.

Fairytale: Story Of The Seven Dwarves (movie):
Yes, I'm aware that the link takes you to a movie called "The 7th Dwarf" - it's the same movie. It's one of those with different titles depending on the country. I hate when they do that... It can get confusing. Anyway, I stumbled upon this one about to start accidentally, and thought I'd give it a watch... Since it was a fairy tale re-telling of sorts, and I generally enjoy those. I'm glad I did stop to watch it, because it turned out to be quite entertaining, with a large number of amusing scenes. In other words, it's a great one if you enjoy fairy tale re-tellings like I do, and want something that will make you laugh.

Journey To Dinosaur Island (movie):
Another of those with slightly different titles, depending on what country you're in. I originally only wanted to watch this one because it mentioned dinosaurs, but I ended up very glad I watched it, because it was an excellent movie; especially for those who have any interest in palaeontology and geology.

Far From The Madding Crowd (movie):
I' read the book for this one some time ago, and thought it was "OK" - not great, but not too bad. But I figured I'd check out the movie anyway. I felt the same way about the movie as the book... It's "OK" but nothing special.

The Shannara Chronicles (TV show):
I've read the books this series is based on, and been eager to watch the series since I heard it was being created, so I was hoping that the anticipation hadn't caused me to raise my hopes too much, and - more to the point - that I wouldn't be disappointed when the show was finally showing over here. Luckily, in this case I was not disappointed. The series is a little different to the books... As is usually the case when a movie or TV series is created based on a book... And isn't quite as good, in my opinion. But it's still an entertaining and enjoyable series. Yes, even without audio description.

Sanctuary (TV show):
This is one I'm only now seeing, despite it being an old one (old by today's TV standards anyway). I'm not sure what to say about it. The thing is, it seems like a great show, and yet I can't enjoy it. Why? Because it's too visual, and doesn't have audio description available for it. So, as good as the show seems to be, missing out on most of what's going on just leaves me confused and disappointed, with the result that I quickly gave up on watching it.

The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (TV documentary):
This was a very interesting show, and I wouldn't mind watching an expansion on any of the things discussed in it. Not because where I was born and raised in Wales is on part of the Brecon Beacons, but because the mountains are so vast that I know the episodes of this show were only able to cover the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, and my interest in both history and the natural world make me curious about the rest. I watched this with Carl as well, and he seemed to really enjoy it too.

We also watched an interview with , which was both interesting and entertaining, and which all of us really enjoyed (all of us being Carl, Nan, Dad, and myself, of course).

Rhubarb The Red-Nosed Rabbit

Rhubarb The Red-Nosed Rabbit

Genres: Holidays/Animal Stories - Rabbits.

Description: "I’m sure you’ve heard all about the red-nosed reindeer that saved Christmas. But, have you ever heard the story of the red-nosed rabbit that saved Easter?

Everybunny has always teased Rhubarb because of his bright red nose, even though it’s not his fault he was born different. But when a misty night threatens to stop the Easter Bunny from making his yearly delivery of Easter eggs to the children of the world, Rhubarb’s red nose may be the only thing that can save Easter."

Published: March 26th 2016.

ISBN: 9781311651471

Buy it from Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

Available elsewhere soon!

Rhubarb The Red-Nosed Rabbit - officially released today!

"I’m sure you’ve heard all about the red-nosed reindeer that saved Christmas. But, have you ever heard the story of the red-nosed rabbit that saved Easter?

Everybunny has always teased Rhubarb because of his bright red nose, even though it’s not his fault he was born different. But when a misty night threatens to stop the Easter Bunny from making his yearly delivery of Easter eggs to the children of the world, Rhubarb’s red nose may be the only thing that can save Easter."

That's the synopsis for "Rhubarb The Red-Nosed Rabbit" - my latest book, which I've officially released today, since it's an Easter themed story, and tomorrow is Easter Sunday... As you probably already knew.

You can already buy the eBook from Smashwords in all formats they offer, as well as from the retailers they distribute to, such as Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, and Kobo, among others. So, regardless of your eReader of choice, you can get it in a format that works for you. In fact, Smashwords makes it available in formats such as html and plain text, so if you can read this post, you can read the book.

The paperback will become available as soon as it can be arranged.