P.G. Shriver's Blog, page 19

Liebster Blog Award! Yippy! I Love it!

Sweet! I have been awarded the Liebster Blog Award by Sherri! Thank you, Sherri! I hope I'm doing this right. I should be grading essays...



The Liebster Blog Award is given to upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers and Liebster is a German word which means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome.Awww....that's so adorable.

Here are the rules:

1. Each person must post 10 facts about themselves
2. Answer 10 questions the tagger has given you and give 10 questions for the people you've tagged.
3. Choose 10 people and link them in your post.
4. Tell them you've tagged them.
5. Remember, no tag backs.



10 facts about me:
1. My house is always cluttered.
2. Writing and taking pictures are two of my favorite activities.
3. Four horses, two dogs and five cats own me.:D
4. Teaching English at a local college is what pays for their food.
5. I began writing poetry at the age of seven.
6. My daughter really got into reading when I read her the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. She went right from that to Harry Potter...
7. I'm lucky to have been married twenty wonderful years to a very supportive man.
8. My dream has always been to become a full time author!
9. I procrastinate. :P
10. I LOVE my morning walks with my two dogs, and water aerobics! :D


10 people I have tagged to receive the Liebster Blog Award:


1. A Book Crazy, Jane Austen Lovin' Gal


2. A Page at a Time


3. Amy's World of Writing


4. Mmm...No1...Cookbook


5. Broad-Minded Books


6. Dawn and Winnie Book Reviews


7. Rhonda's Doings !


8. Beloved Books


9. Velvet Red


10. Author Zackary Richards


The questions Sherri asked me:1. How long have you been blogging?Just about a month

2. What genre do you blog about?
My blog is a writing blog, so mostly children's and YA books.

3. Where are you from?
Texas
4. Do you have any ARC's right now, if so what?
Not at the moment

5. What are you currently reading?
Student essays... :-P
6. Who is your favorite author of all time?
Can I have three? Dean Koontz, Nicholas Sparks and Jerry Spinelli

7. Do you usually read mainstream or indie authors?
Mostly mainstream, but I have begun reading indie authors lately

8. Do you give your read books away, run contests with them, or keep them?
I give away my books in contests but have an entire library of faves

9. How many books are in your TBR pile?
Uhm... too many to count, but it's a mental pile

10. What is your favorite food?
Wow! Of all the questions, that's the toughest because I have many favorites... seafood, but alligator is the best!!! Yum!


Questions for the ones I've tagged


1.   What's the shortest amount of time it took for you to read a novel?
2.   If you had to go up against a fictional monster, which one would you choose?
3.   If you could live the life of any fictional character, who would it be?
4.   If you could relive one event from your life, which would it be?
5.   What do you do for a living?
6.   What is your favorite animal?
7.   What is the closest estimate of how many books you've read in your lifetime?
8.   Who is the coolest person you've met in your life?
9.   Do you prefer classic books or contemporary?
10. Where is your favorite place in the world? 




Thanks for participating! Have fun! Here goes...

Lost

As I near my milestone birthday, I remember all of those I've lost over the past 9 years. Memories of my 30th birthday flow through the stresses of the day that life left behind in my thoughts, and I smile. My mother, always looking for a way to make the family celebrations joyous, decided we should share this event at the lake. My late niece, who was also my first niece, shared the same birthday, which gave grandma more ideas. This particular birthday, my sweet, and much missed mother, iced two water balloons for our dual cake cutting. Shaped cakes were just coming into style, so we were not the wiser. I just thought it was odd that our cakes were shaped like balloons. I wondered where she found the pan.

As my darling niece and I cut into our birthday cakes, they exploded on us, water and icing running over our swimsuits, the table, and the bench. We laughed at each other as everyone sang the birthday song. Four of the women at that special day are gone now, my niece, sister, mom and grandma. There will never be a birthday such as that one, again! I don't recall the gifts I received, nor the gifts I gave my niece, but I will never forget those balloons and the joy it brought to a family who would, ten years later, begin to suffer so much.

Life deals blows, and we go on. We do what we must to keep going, no matter how many times we think about stopping. We cope, we live, we love, we laugh a little, and we write. These are the events that make us who we are and give us the emotions we need in order to create our work, whether it's illustrations or words. If I were to stop now, not only would I disappoint myself, but I would also disappoint the four who left me behind.

New Review, Reader Surprise!

Today I received my first reader review of The Lonely Chair and The Lonely Chair The Story. I was thrilled with the wonderful comments, because they came straight from my audience--children! And, I am the spotlight author here http://lollipopsandbooks.blogspot.com/ for a week! All I can say is, "Thank you, Gloppy!"

As for that big surprise: To celebrate my BIG birthday coming up, I have lowered the price of ALL of my Kindle books to $2.99 until my birthday, July 6th. And that's not all of the surprise, but you'll just have to wait to find out the rest! Fifteen days of $1-$3 off any of my Ebooks. Happy shopping and happy reading! Now on to writing that 1,000 words! Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Birthday Surprise!

I have a BIG birthday coming up (July 6th) and I am planning to celebrate in a BIG way! Keep your eyes peeled for a special "gift" from me!

Vacation

I am so swamped right now that I find myself repeating, two more weeks... two more weeks... and as I age I don't want to rush time anymore like in my foolish youth, but here I am wishing for vacation to get here. I hope I find the time I need to finish up some writing projects and begin new ones that I have been thinking about.

Contracts

Last month I dissolved the contract with my publisher of my first children's book, No More Stinkbugs! I've sold more copies of the book on Kindle than they have since they published it in 2008. I'm working on the water color pictures to replace the low resolution digital images that I made the first round, so it follows the same format as its sequel, Runt and Arnold Slay Monster Hognose. I have three pictures left, then it's scanning and placing them on the correct pages. First, I must conquer the 1,000 word goal I set for myself, so on to my adult suspense thriller. Have a wonderful weekend!

My New Writing Goal

Wrote over my goal of 1,000 words today! It feels good to reach the goal. I just hope on the mornings when I have to work, I can still write 1,000 words on my novel. If I can keep up at this pace, then in about three months I can have a first draft complete. That's about four novels a year. I can do that, right? It only takes me about 45 minutes to write 1,000 words, if the ideas are flowing. When I am going to have a problem is when I have a bit of writer's block. Well, that's what revision is for and I will have to take advantage of that phase of writing. But, just thinking about having a full time job, family, and somewhat of a social life, and still being able to knock off four novels a year is a pretty awesome task! I'm going to keep it up, every day, and see what happens. Goodness knows I have enough books already started that I could go on through retirement doing that. I'm excited about this new goal! I hope I can continue it.

From My Upcoming YA Fiction Book: Snow Globe Girl

The tiny snow globe balanced in the palm of my left hand while I dreamed, wished, and ached for what it represented. The shiny crystal-like pieces fell around the tiny white, two-story house with blue trim; the miniscule children built a miniscule snowman in the snow covered front yard.  The similarities between the globe house and the one I now stood in were phenomenal, minus a few details, like the tiny people and the snowman.  Due to the warming March weather, no snow blanketed the earth, and no people played outside at this time of night.  The house I stood in lay in darkness, where candlelight glowed in each window of the globe house.  The dream in my mind, in the small round crystal ball floating daintily in my hand, didn’t exist either.  It was someone else’s dream, someone else’s life, a life I assisted in destroying today.              I shook my conscience away, like the snow falling off the heads of the people in the globe, and began to replace the dream object to its previous location, but on second thought, stuck it in my pocket.  I would be sixteen tomorrow, and I would be the only one to remember.  Call it an early birthday present, I told myself while patting my pocket with a cat-like smile.            “Are you done in there?” a harsh whisper filtered in from the hallway.  “We gotta get outta here, fast!”            “Yeah, almost,” I whispered back, flinging drawers open, searching for objects of value, grabbing any items easy to pawn. Then I came upon a wooden box, not much bigger than an envelope.              Jackpot! I gave myself a mental high five and dropped the box into the canvas bag, smiling at the back of the stocking capped silhouette who previously peered into the dark bedroom.  This would make him happy, I bet.  Maybe he would be so happy he would take me for a birthday pizza!  If he remembered.              Almost elated, I quickly searched the rest of the room, without success, and scooted down the stairs silently in search of the only family I had left, my father.            “It’s about time!” he hissed into my ear from behind me, “Let’s get outta here!” I hurried along behind him through the shadowy house, into the dimly lit alley and beyond, anticipating the joy he would express in me when I showed him the jewelry inside the box once buried in the winter clothes drawer, a typical place.  This time I wouldn’t be a failure in his eyes.  This time I had done something to make him proud.  He would finally accept me, the way he did before…             Screeeech!            Standing in the middle of the road, facing the bright headlights of a small car, both frozen in time, the girl behind the wheel clutched at her chest in relief, stared wide-eyed at me, and gulped breaths.  The pull on my lightweight jacket thawed the chill in me, “Would you stop daydreaming and watch where you’re going!  You’re gonna get us caught, yet, stupid!” a mean whisper close to my face, a severe tug on my upper arm and I was on my way again.              We never ran away from a house.              We walked, our canvas duffle bags slung over our shoulders, our tattered clothes hanging loosely, giving the appearance of homeless people, which were plentiful in most cities, a perfect disguise.  You’re gonna get us caught, yet, stupid; the words filtered through my brain, into my heart, ripping it into shreds, as always.  The back of Dad's head wavered through the tears stinging my eyes. The box popped into my mind, the box that would redeem me my grand mistake.  The box that would make him love me again after the horrible events I caused earlier that year, when my mom and older brother disappeared from our lives.  You’re gonna get us caught, yet, stupid, the box I immediately thought to withhold from him because he hated me so much.  That’s what I should do, too, keep it hidden from him, and just give him the other junk I collected.  Maybe that box would be my ticket away from him, from his cruelty, his hatred.  The only way I would ever get the money to hop a bus and get away from him was going to come through hiding sale worthy items and hawking them myself. I wasn't eighteen.I decided to hang on to that box in case I needed what was inside, not knowing what it was, or how much it would change my life.  

Correction to Comments

Sorry blogger buddies, my settings for comments were changed. I guess, being inexperienced as I am at this, I inadvertently changed them. The settings are now fixed and you are free to comment. Thanks for following my blog. I'm getting the hang of it. : D

Happy blogging!

Review Copies

All of my review copies have been mailed and should be at their destinations by the first of next week! All of my contest books have been sent, too! Now, on to grading assignments for work... not as much fun, but it pays the bills.