Anna Tan's Blog, page 84

#review: Here in the Waiting

It has been a difficult week.

If you know me well enough, you know that I don't do well with dealing with people. Especially young people. What led me to volunteer at a youth arts camp for teens aged between 13 - 17 is one thing. I, at least, was somewhat prepared for it. The drama that teens create that do not relate to the Christmas drama (totally not related to camp) was another thing altogether. Add to that hormones. And overall levels of frustration. "Stress" is too mild a word. I ha...

#bookreview: Juma's Rain by Katharina Gerlach

Jumatoa Botango is the only female left in her family and she is intent on claiming the role her late mother gave up when she followed her husband out to the Endless Wells: Chieftess of the tribe. But claiming the role as the chieftess' apprentice is a near impossible task. Her cousin Kandra, daughter of the current Chieftess, is her direct competitor. The tribe is facing the worst drought in history, and no matter what they do, the witch has been unable to wake Vanamate, Mother of the Tribes...

#guestpost: @michelle4laughs talks about diversity in Grudging

Diversity is a hot button issue. People feel very emotional about it. And rightly so. But that makes it a difficult subject to talk about. And also difficult for writers with their books. Leave out diverse characters in your book and you can be called out on it. Include diverse characters and you can be called out in the opposite way for not being sensitive or genuine enough--for getting it wrong.

As a white writer do we avoid diversity or do we go for it? Either way seems full of the possibil...

#musicmonday: Steady Heart | Steffany Gretzinger

Steady heart that keeps on going
Steady love that keeps on holding
Lead me on
Steady grace that keeps forgiving
Steady faith that keeps believing
Lead me on

A #nanowrimo excerpt: Of Elephants and Potatoes

And here it is, an excerpt from the story I started for Nanowrimo, which is probably going to die an ignominious death very soon. Enjoy, or rather, just stab me to death right now.

---

The thing with being In a State was that it often tired Cherise out so that she didn’t have any bad dreams. This time though, because she had fallen asleep after less than half an hour of crying, her subconscious was still overly active, resulting in the strangest dream about elephants that she had ever had. Not...

#Tea review series: Traditional teas from @roleaftea

And I'm back with my final instalment of the tea review!
The first one I started with was Rooibos the Robust, which hails from South Africa. 
Anna's review: I've had Rooibos before and find that there are varying strengths to this. I once had a whole pack of rather light sachets that I finished off quickly in college, and I've also had some really thick rooibos from when a friend visited South Africa, so I was thinking "Robust" must be really thick. Surprisingly not.
As the product des...

#bookreview: Meritorium by Joel Ohman

Meritorium by Joel Ohman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Meritropolis is no more, but the System still exists.

Still intent on taking down the System, Charley, Sandy, Sven and the survivors of the fall of Meritropolis head towards Meritorium, where Charley hopes he can come face to face with his true nemesis, Commander Orson's father.

But the dangers of this journey are more than the new animal hybrids they face on the way. They have to face the depravity of humanity in the Coliseum, as well as the tru...

#musicmonday: True Love | Phil Wickham

Remember about 3 weeks back when I said I wasn't very impressed by the "new" Phil Wickham CD I got from Logos Hope?

Listening to an album on loop and letting the words sink into your heart changes that.

This is probably going to be *the* Easter song for next year. Haha.

---

Come close, listen to the story
About a love more faithful than the morning
The Father gave His only Son just to save us

The earth was shaking in the dark
All creation felt the Father's broken heart
Tears were filling heaven's eyes...

Kindle for PC: Finding your notes file

I'm blogging this mainly because I spent hours trying to export my highlights/notes from an ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy) of Juma's Rain. The only thing you can find online is how to export notes from a Kindle reader (and usually a store-bought book) to a PC but not from a PC to... well, PC.

So basically I had two problems:
1. I was reading an ARC, therefore it was not an Amazon book (at least not yet - it releases next week), and therefore did not appear in my online highlights f...

#bookreview: Raining Embers by Jessica Dall

Raining Embers by Jessica Dall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To be honest, I started reading Raining Embers without expecting anything much from it. Jessica Dall had emailed me and offered me a copy of the book for review, so I browsed the site, skimmed the sample pages casually and figured that it would probably be a generic 3-star read. Sure, I'd review it, I said.

Raining Embers starts off painfully slow. Dall shifts between Palmer Tash's life as a poor Ward of the Church and Brier Chastain-Bochar...