Lydia Howe's Blog, page 42
April 15, 2015
M is for Magma
Y'all, I get more story ideas than I'll ever be able to use. For this A to Z Challenge I'm sharing some of these crazy and random balloons with you just for the fun of it. The posts will be set up like a backcover blurb. Sit back and enjoy!
For hundreds of years no one knew there was a a secret hidden right below their feet. Everything changed when the volcano who's shadow their town was built under erupted. After the initial chaos was over and the townspeople trudged back home from a hasty evacuation, the sight that met their eyes changed their lives forever.
The lava had flowed down in deep, previously undiscovered trenches and formed the word Flander. Determined to find out the meaning of the word a small band of adventurers strike out on an unforgettable journey.
From the Magma is a novel filled with adventure, peril and a journey to something better.
A Sparrow in Terezin: Book Review
A Sparrow in Terezin By Kristy Cambron
Find it on: Amazon Goodreads
Third Person Two points of view Fiction353 pages
About the book:
Two women, one in the present day and one in 1942, each hope for a brighter future. But they'll both have to battle through their darkest days to reach it.Today. With the grand opening of her new gallery and a fairytale wedding months away, Sera James appears to have a charmed life. But in an instant, the prospect of a devastating legal battle surrounding her fiancé threatens to tear her dreams apart. Sera and William rush to marry and are thrust into a world of doubt and fear as they defend charges that could separate them for life.June 1942. After surviving the Blitz bombings that left many Londoners with shattered lives, Kája Makovsky prayed for the war to end so she could return home to Prague. But despite the horrors of war, the gifted journalist never expected to see a headline screaming the extermination of Jews in work camps. Half-Jewish with her family in danger, Kája has no choice but to risk everything to get her family out of Prague. But with the clutches of evil all around, her escape plan crumbles into deportation, and Kája finds herself in a new reality as the art teacher to the children of Terezin.Bound by a story of hope and the survival of one little girl, both Sera and Kája will fight to protect all they hold dear.Why I choose this book: Very simple: World War 2. I'm not exactly sure why this era means so much to me, but I can barely pass up reading a book about it. Plus the cover. And the name. Beautiful. What I thought:I was sucked in. The book goes back and forth between WW2 and modern day and half the time I wanted to skip ahead and read what was happening in the present day and half of the time I was wanting to skip ahead and see what was happening next in the WW2 part. The descriptions were beautiful. The characters were relatable. The story-line was riveting. Less than year ago I was in Europe and this book transported me back to the old streets and dropped me right into the setting. I wanted to hug the book. I wanted to fly back and spend another month in Europe. I wanted to keep reading. Conclusion: This was a book that took place during a war so of course there were elements of bombs, the horrors of war camps, death and all that sadness. There was also a little bit of romance (including a few brief kisses) but I really didn't feel like any of it was overdone and it didn't make me uncomfortable which was really nice. The book was a bit confusing for me at times and they kept talking about a couple of characters who they never ended up explaining. I couldn't quite tell if the author was just dropping us in and keeping us guessing or if it was the second book in the series. I finally realized near the end that it was indeed the second book in the series. I haven't read the first book in the series, The Butterfly and the Violin yet, but I want to some day. Rating: I'm not being dramatic here, but I'd really given up on ever finding a fiction book that I would rate five stars. Non-fiction? Sure, those have hit five stars for me, but the highest rating I've given fiction is four stars. When I was about half way through this book it suddenly hit me that this was a five star book. Then about seventy percent through the book I gasped with wonder as I realized it was possibly a six star book (even though that isn't possible). The ending was more of four stars, but even it out, and we have a five star book. Way to go author Kristy Cambron! I am impressed. I'm giving A Sparrow in Terezin Five Stars
About the AuthorKristy Cambron has been fascinated with WWII since hearing her grandfather's stories. She holds an Art History degree from Indiana University and has 15 years industry experience as a corporate learning facilitator and communications consultant. Kristy writes WWII and Regency fiction. She makes her home in Indiana with her husband and three football-loving sons. Website: www.kristycambron.com Twitter: @KCambronAuthor Facebook: Kristy-L-Cambron-Author
* * *
I received this book free from Book Look in exchange for an honest review.
Find it on: Amazon Goodreads
Third Person Two points of view Fiction353 pages
About the book:
Two women, one in the present day and one in 1942, each hope for a brighter future. But they'll both have to battle through their darkest days to reach it.Today. With the grand opening of her new gallery and a fairytale wedding months away, Sera James appears to have a charmed life. But in an instant, the prospect of a devastating legal battle surrounding her fiancé threatens to tear her dreams apart. Sera and William rush to marry and are thrust into a world of doubt and fear as they defend charges that could separate them for life.June 1942. After surviving the Blitz bombings that left many Londoners with shattered lives, Kája Makovsky prayed for the war to end so she could return home to Prague. But despite the horrors of war, the gifted journalist never expected to see a headline screaming the extermination of Jews in work camps. Half-Jewish with her family in danger, Kája has no choice but to risk everything to get her family out of Prague. But with the clutches of evil all around, her escape plan crumbles into deportation, and Kája finds herself in a new reality as the art teacher to the children of Terezin.Bound by a story of hope and the survival of one little girl, both Sera and Kája will fight to protect all they hold dear.Why I choose this book: Very simple: World War 2. I'm not exactly sure why this era means so much to me, but I can barely pass up reading a book about it. Plus the cover. And the name. Beautiful. What I thought:I was sucked in. The book goes back and forth between WW2 and modern day and half the time I wanted to skip ahead and read what was happening in the present day and half of the time I was wanting to skip ahead and see what was happening next in the WW2 part. The descriptions were beautiful. The characters were relatable. The story-line was riveting. Less than year ago I was in Europe and this book transported me back to the old streets and dropped me right into the setting. I wanted to hug the book. I wanted to fly back and spend another month in Europe. I wanted to keep reading. Conclusion: This was a book that took place during a war so of course there were elements of bombs, the horrors of war camps, death and all that sadness. There was also a little bit of romance (including a few brief kisses) but I really didn't feel like any of it was overdone and it didn't make me uncomfortable which was really nice. The book was a bit confusing for me at times and they kept talking about a couple of characters who they never ended up explaining. I couldn't quite tell if the author was just dropping us in and keeping us guessing or if it was the second book in the series. I finally realized near the end that it was indeed the second book in the series. I haven't read the first book in the series, The Butterfly and the Violin yet, but I want to some day. Rating: I'm not being dramatic here, but I'd really given up on ever finding a fiction book that I would rate five stars. Non-fiction? Sure, those have hit five stars for me, but the highest rating I've given fiction is four stars. When I was about half way through this book it suddenly hit me that this was a five star book. Then about seventy percent through the book I gasped with wonder as I realized it was possibly a six star book (even though that isn't possible). The ending was more of four stars, but even it out, and we have a five star book. Way to go author Kristy Cambron! I am impressed. I'm giving A Sparrow in Terezin Five Stars
About the AuthorKristy Cambron has been fascinated with WWII since hearing her grandfather's stories. She holds an Art History degree from Indiana University and has 15 years industry experience as a corporate learning facilitator and communications consultant. Kristy writes WWII and Regency fiction. She makes her home in Indiana with her husband and three football-loving sons. Website: www.kristycambron.com Twitter: @KCambronAuthor Facebook: Kristy-L-Cambron-Author
* * *
I received this book free from Book Look in exchange for an honest review.
April 14, 2015
L is for Lyme disease
Y'all, I get more story ideas than I'll ever be able to use. For this A to Z Challenge I'm sharing some of these crazy and random balloons with you just for the fun of it. The posts will be set up like a backcover blurb. Sit back and enjoy! (Note: This is one of those stories I actually am writing!)
Madalyn Emerson had the perfect life: A wonderful family, a huge mansion, amazing friends and the ticket to her dream music school. When a mysterious illness robs her of her strength, her personality and threatens to take her life as well, Madalyn has to choose. Will she fight with hope and strength or will she give in to defeat and drown in a ocean of pain and self-pity?
When Life Hands You Lymes is the story of continuing when hope seems to have vanished and believing even when your world has disappeared.
Madalyn Emerson had the perfect life: A wonderful family, a huge mansion, amazing friends and the ticket to her dream music school. When a mysterious illness robs her of her strength, her personality and threatens to take her life as well, Madalyn has to choose. Will she fight with hope and strength or will she give in to defeat and drown in a ocean of pain and self-pity?
When Life Hands You Lymes is the story of continuing when hope seems to have vanished and believing even when your world has disappeared.
What Has Been Happening in My Life With *When Life Hands You Lymes*
I started writing the first draft of When Life Hands You Lymes on January 1st, 2014. I plodded along from there, writing at least 100 words a day and posting a segment of at least 500 words each Friday on my blog.
There were times when I would sprint ahead and get extra writing done so I could schedule the posts on my blog. Examples: Before I went to Europe and before I went to Africa. For the most part though, I would only write one to three thousand words a week.
I would go through phases of enjoying the book and being totally stressed out by it. It was so hard to know what to write and what to leave out and how to balance serious with fun and happy with sad. There were times when I just wanted to hug WHLYL and smile at how the words slipped onto the pages. There were other times when I wanted to scream at the mere thought of the book.
At the beginning of February I went to a conference in Georgia and had the opportunity to talk with a very successful author who I've had the blessing of forming a casual acquaintance with over the last four years. I asked him for some tips to help me get more serious about my writing and goodness, he gave me some fantastic advice!
I left the conference and went to visit some friends where I curled up in their basement and went to work writing. When we got home about a week later, I continued my head-long charge into my writing. I set my goal at spending seven hours each day on my writing and although I missed the goal quite often, I also hit it a lot and every hour adds up and I could feel things taking off.
It was exhilarating but difficult. I was getting so much done, but at the same time I was feeling distanced from the rest of the world. Working through the Lyme disease issues with Madalyn made my emotions overflow. There were plenty of times I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. Ok, there were plenty of times that I did do that. Writing about the difficulties of Lyme disease was like cutting through scar tissue and that hurts. Like, a lot.
Finally one day I talked to Mom about it and she was incredibly understanding and helpful. She told me I needed to quit being so hard on myself and to actually give myself some grace. In other words, of course writing the book was going to be hard and that's ok. I could cry. I could be upset. In someways it was like mourning. I was once again missing the healthy years that I never experienced.
After that, things were a lot easier. Instead of feeling guilty because of my pain I was able to accept it and use it in the book. Then like a switch flipping, I found myself distanced from WLHYL. Yes, I still wrote and words came flowing out in torrents, but it wasn't the personally painful experience I used to. That was wonderful, but also opened my eyes to the hugely gigantic flaws in my book. Like the fact that Madalyn had absolutely nothing to recommend her to a readers feelings except her battle with a mysterious illness. Madalyn was a fussy, pain-filled character who made me want to gag.
I got to the point where I just wanted to finish the first draft of the book and be able to set it aside for six weeks. I gave myself the goal of having the first draft done by April 17th, which is the day we're hopefully leaving for Aruba.
"I just need to spend a couple days away because I need to focus!" I told Mom. She agreed. Our schedule was busy and packed and all that normalness, but we narrowed down dates that could possibly work and then set about making them a reality. (For all y'all who don't know, I work with our family business which makes Mom one of my bosses.) It wasn't until the second of this month that we were finally able to peg down the fifth through part of the eighth as days that would work for me to go away.
When I got to my hotel I had almost 113,000 words in my manuscript. Seeing how my longest pervious book was under 50,000, I was in a little bit of awe at the huge number of words building up on the pages in front of me.
After adding a couple more thousand words to WLHYL, I decided I needed to read through the book and leave notes for myself where I had stuff that needed to be added. (Which worked like this: !!! ADD MORE ABOUT JULIA AND MADALYN AT THE COFFEE SHOP. The "!!!" were added so I could search and find it, which made my life a lot easier.)
The fact that it took me over eight hours of reading, with some skimming thrown in there for good measure, to read through the book opened my eyes more than anything else to the fact that this was going to be a long book. Add in the fact that the story wasn't nearly done and I had to make the decision to split When Life Hands You Lymes into two different books, something I had really not wanted to do. A 600 page book isn't easy to digest though and some people find it rather frightening, so I made my choice.
After reading WLHYL I worked on my timeline which I knew would be very helpful when I was ready to begin on my second draft of the book.
When I was done making the timeline I went back to writing and another several thousand words appeared on the computer. I went through the document searching for the "!!!" and adding in more information. During those hours Madalyn became a much nicer person; more like the girl I had envisioned in my head than the one-dimensional crybaby on the page. It was also a lot of fun writing those scenes where Lyme disease had little say in what was going on.
As my time away progressed I was overwhelmed with how tired I was (I went from a huge week at work to the hotel) and mildly disappointed that I wasn't getting more done. I decided to chill and just be happy with what I was accomplishing and to rest when I needed to. After that I took some time off, then hit the writing hard again.
On Tuesday I walked to a little coffee shop and bought the most expensive coffee of my life ($3.80! It's no wonder I don't buy coffee...), and settled in to write. Despite my dreams I've fostered over the years of one day being able to sit in a coffee shop for as long as my little heart desires and type away, I soon found out that I'm not a 'writing in the coffee shop' type of author. I make too many weird faces, read out loud, mumble my characters dialog, try out their hand gestures and body language myself and randomly make loud and scary noises. Plus it seems like I have to have something in my mouth when I'm writing. I generally limit it to pens, pencils, my earbud cord, ice, water and other small objects, but still. Not exactly the kind of stuff that's appropriate to do in a public setting. The coffee was fantastic (a white chocolate, sugar free, decaf latte or some such thing), but I was glad when I finally allowed myself to go back to the hotel.
My mom was going to pick me up at the hotel on Wednesday around noon because our family was going to hear John Maxwell speak (more about this in another post). Thursday night I finished up with having written around 18,000 or 20,000 words in the last two and a half days, plus of course reading the book and working on the timeline and plot. I was happy with what I'd accomplished, but not thrilled.
Wednesday I woke up rearing to go and get some words down before leaving the hotel. I had been working for a while when I added up my word counts (I was working on about five different documents because of adding words here and there throughout the story), and I suddenly realized that I only had 16,000 more words to write.
Thus began my mad scramble to maybe possibly finish my book before going home. I knew it was a long shot, but hey, every word I typed got me closer to the end. When Mom realized she was going to be later picking me up than planned on, she was apologetic, I was ecstatic. I got a later check out time and then continued my mad typing race. At 1:00 I headed down to the lobby to wait and continued typing, typing, typing. It was exhilarating to be so close to the finish time.
When Mom pulled up I only had 7,500 words left to complete the story. That might not seem like a huge deal to you, but to get around 10,500 words written in one morning is pretty unusual for me. (I'm not sure of the exact amount of words I did before I started keeping track that morning.) That also bumped my word count up to 30,000 for my 72 hour hotel stay. Again, that may not seem like a lot, but for me it's pretty good. By the time I climbed into the car I was exhausted and my wrist was hurting, but I was very happy with my book.
We didn't get home from the mini-conference until almost 1:30 Thursday morning and I spent all that day feeling like someone had numbed my brain, my body and somehow zapped my energy. Friday morning I woke up feeling the same way, but after a nap in the afternoon I sat down with my computer determined to knock out my remaining 7,500 words. I had quite the serious urge to just get it done.
My sister had asked me if I thought it would be cool to go out to eat with her and some of our younger siblings plus a couple of friends. That gave me a deadline and it was approaching rapidly. I was only 500 words away from my elusive 150,000 and also to where I felt like the last scenes would fall neatly into place when I got a text telling me it was time to go. I begged for a few more minutes and then squeezed the words in.
Feeling the amazing and fantastic sense of achievement I quickly emailed myself the book (back up, you know) and then screenshot that beautiful 150,004 counter at the bottom of the page and emailed it to myself as well.
There y'all have it. Since Friday my days have been a little bit of a confusing clump. I've been staying busy, but my brain is still recovering. It's not used to spitting words on to paper so rapidly, especially not for a story I'd been working on for so long. After 465 days in a row of writing at least 100 words on WLHYL every. single. day. it felt so weird on Saturday to write 100 words on something else.
That is also the reason for my non-existant blogging schedule. My brain just needs to have a little break before I ask it to go running on full steam again. I'm ok with that though. My first draft of When Life Hands You Lymes is finished, and that's pretty exciting to me.
* * * I would really, really be delighted to hear your thoughts. I feel like this book has been a group project with all y'all who have been reading it on my blog. I'm glad I get to share this milestone with you. Thank you for all your support.
There were times when I would sprint ahead and get extra writing done so I could schedule the posts on my blog. Examples: Before I went to Europe and before I went to Africa. For the most part though, I would only write one to three thousand words a week.
I would go through phases of enjoying the book and being totally stressed out by it. It was so hard to know what to write and what to leave out and how to balance serious with fun and happy with sad. There were times when I just wanted to hug WHLYL and smile at how the words slipped onto the pages. There were other times when I wanted to scream at the mere thought of the book.
At the beginning of February I went to a conference in Georgia and had the opportunity to talk with a very successful author who I've had the blessing of forming a casual acquaintance with over the last four years. I asked him for some tips to help me get more serious about my writing and goodness, he gave me some fantastic advice!
I left the conference and went to visit some friends where I curled up in their basement and went to work writing. When we got home about a week later, I continued my head-long charge into my writing. I set my goal at spending seven hours each day on my writing and although I missed the goal quite often, I also hit it a lot and every hour adds up and I could feel things taking off.
It was exhilarating but difficult. I was getting so much done, but at the same time I was feeling distanced from the rest of the world. Working through the Lyme disease issues with Madalyn made my emotions overflow. There were plenty of times I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. Ok, there were plenty of times that I did do that. Writing about the difficulties of Lyme disease was like cutting through scar tissue and that hurts. Like, a lot.
Finally one day I talked to Mom about it and she was incredibly understanding and helpful. She told me I needed to quit being so hard on myself and to actually give myself some grace. In other words, of course writing the book was going to be hard and that's ok. I could cry. I could be upset. In someways it was like mourning. I was once again missing the healthy years that I never experienced.
After that, things were a lot easier. Instead of feeling guilty because of my pain I was able to accept it and use it in the book. Then like a switch flipping, I found myself distanced from WLHYL. Yes, I still wrote and words came flowing out in torrents, but it wasn't the personally painful experience I used to. That was wonderful, but also opened my eyes to the hugely gigantic flaws in my book. Like the fact that Madalyn had absolutely nothing to recommend her to a readers feelings except her battle with a mysterious illness. Madalyn was a fussy, pain-filled character who made me want to gag.
I got to the point where I just wanted to finish the first draft of the book and be able to set it aside for six weeks. I gave myself the goal of having the first draft done by April 17th, which is the day we're hopefully leaving for Aruba.
"I just need to spend a couple days away because I need to focus!" I told Mom. She agreed. Our schedule was busy and packed and all that normalness, but we narrowed down dates that could possibly work and then set about making them a reality. (For all y'all who don't know, I work with our family business which makes Mom one of my bosses.) It wasn't until the second of this month that we were finally able to peg down the fifth through part of the eighth as days that would work for me to go away.
When I got to my hotel I had almost 113,000 words in my manuscript. Seeing how my longest pervious book was under 50,000, I was in a little bit of awe at the huge number of words building up on the pages in front of me.
After adding a couple more thousand words to WLHYL, I decided I needed to read through the book and leave notes for myself where I had stuff that needed to be added. (Which worked like this: !!! ADD MORE ABOUT JULIA AND MADALYN AT THE COFFEE SHOP. The "!!!" were added so I could search and find it, which made my life a lot easier.)
The fact that it took me over eight hours of reading, with some skimming thrown in there for good measure, to read through the book opened my eyes more than anything else to the fact that this was going to be a long book. Add in the fact that the story wasn't nearly done and I had to make the decision to split When Life Hands You Lymes into two different books, something I had really not wanted to do. A 600 page book isn't easy to digest though and some people find it rather frightening, so I made my choice.
After reading WLHYL I worked on my timeline which I knew would be very helpful when I was ready to begin on my second draft of the book.
When I was done making the timeline I went back to writing and another several thousand words appeared on the computer. I went through the document searching for the "!!!" and adding in more information. During those hours Madalyn became a much nicer person; more like the girl I had envisioned in my head than the one-dimensional crybaby on the page. It was also a lot of fun writing those scenes where Lyme disease had little say in what was going on.
As my time away progressed I was overwhelmed with how tired I was (I went from a huge week at work to the hotel) and mildly disappointed that I wasn't getting more done. I decided to chill and just be happy with what I was accomplishing and to rest when I needed to. After that I took some time off, then hit the writing hard again.
On Tuesday I walked to a little coffee shop and bought the most expensive coffee of my life ($3.80! It's no wonder I don't buy coffee...), and settled in to write. Despite my dreams I've fostered over the years of one day being able to sit in a coffee shop for as long as my little heart desires and type away, I soon found out that I'm not a 'writing in the coffee shop' type of author. I make too many weird faces, read out loud, mumble my characters dialog, try out their hand gestures and body language myself and randomly make loud and scary noises. Plus it seems like I have to have something in my mouth when I'm writing. I generally limit it to pens, pencils, my earbud cord, ice, water and other small objects, but still. Not exactly the kind of stuff that's appropriate to do in a public setting. The coffee was fantastic (a white chocolate, sugar free, decaf latte or some such thing), but I was glad when I finally allowed myself to go back to the hotel.
My mom was going to pick me up at the hotel on Wednesday around noon because our family was going to hear John Maxwell speak (more about this in another post). Thursday night I finished up with having written around 18,000 or 20,000 words in the last two and a half days, plus of course reading the book and working on the timeline and plot. I was happy with what I'd accomplished, but not thrilled.
Wednesday I woke up rearing to go and get some words down before leaving the hotel. I had been working for a while when I added up my word counts (I was working on about five different documents because of adding words here and there throughout the story), and I suddenly realized that I only had 16,000 more words to write.
Thus began my mad scramble to maybe possibly finish my book before going home. I knew it was a long shot, but hey, every word I typed got me closer to the end. When Mom realized she was going to be later picking me up than planned on, she was apologetic, I was ecstatic. I got a later check out time and then continued my mad typing race. At 1:00 I headed down to the lobby to wait and continued typing, typing, typing. It was exhilarating to be so close to the finish time.
When Mom pulled up I only had 7,500 words left to complete the story. That might not seem like a huge deal to you, but to get around 10,500 words written in one morning is pretty unusual for me. (I'm not sure of the exact amount of words I did before I started keeping track that morning.) That also bumped my word count up to 30,000 for my 72 hour hotel stay. Again, that may not seem like a lot, but for me it's pretty good. By the time I climbed into the car I was exhausted and my wrist was hurting, but I was very happy with my book.
We didn't get home from the mini-conference until almost 1:30 Thursday morning and I spent all that day feeling like someone had numbed my brain, my body and somehow zapped my energy. Friday morning I woke up feeling the same way, but after a nap in the afternoon I sat down with my computer determined to knock out my remaining 7,500 words. I had quite the serious urge to just get it done.
My sister had asked me if I thought it would be cool to go out to eat with her and some of our younger siblings plus a couple of friends. That gave me a deadline and it was approaching rapidly. I was only 500 words away from my elusive 150,000 and also to where I felt like the last scenes would fall neatly into place when I got a text telling me it was time to go. I begged for a few more minutes and then squeezed the words in.
Feeling the amazing and fantastic sense of achievement I quickly emailed myself the book (back up, you know) and then screenshot that beautiful 150,004 counter at the bottom of the page and emailed it to myself as well.
There y'all have it. Since Friday my days have been a little bit of a confusing clump. I've been staying busy, but my brain is still recovering. It's not used to spitting words on to paper so rapidly, especially not for a story I'd been working on for so long. After 465 days in a row of writing at least 100 words on WLHYL every. single. day. it felt so weird on Saturday to write 100 words on something else.
That is also the reason for my non-existant blogging schedule. My brain just needs to have a little break before I ask it to go running on full steam again. I'm ok with that though. My first draft of When Life Hands You Lymes is finished, and that's pretty exciting to me.
* * * I would really, really be delighted to hear your thoughts. I feel like this book has been a group project with all y'all who have been reading it on my blog. I'm glad I get to share this milestone with you. Thank you for all your support.
April 13, 2015
K is for Kazoo
Y'all, I get more story ideas than I'll ever be able to use. For this A to Z Challenge I'm sharing some of these crazy and random balloons with you just for the fun of it. The posts will be set up like a backcover blurb. Sit back and enjoy!
Some people don't seem to think a kazoo is a real instrument, but I beg to differ. Our family has been proudly manufacturing kazoos since 1919. With a decline of kazoo-playing Americans though, we knew we had to get some publicity or one of the best instruments in the history of the world will die away.
That's why I decided to write to a national TV company and see if they were interested in making a documentary about our life and business. They went one step further: They gave us our own reality TV show.
We Can Kazoo It! Is a quirky Middle Grade read written from the perspective of nine-year-old Carol.
And because I'm in a quirky mood...
Some people don't seem to think a kazoo is a real instrument, but I beg to differ. Our family has been proudly manufacturing kazoos since 1919. With a decline of kazoo-playing Americans though, we knew we had to get some publicity or one of the best instruments in the history of the world will die away.
That's why I decided to write to a national TV company and see if they were interested in making a documentary about our life and business. They went one step further: They gave us our own reality TV show.
We Can Kazoo It! Is a quirky Middle Grade read written from the perspective of nine-year-old Carol.
And because I'm in a quirky mood...
April 11, 2015
Samantha Sanderson: Off the Record - Book Review
Samantha Sanderson: Off the RecordRobin Caroll
Find it on: Amazon Goodreads
Third Person One point of view Fiction228 pages
About the book:The third book in an exciting series about a girl with dreams to become an investigative journalist, each book promises to touch on a crime straight from the headlines, while also tackling tough issues faced by middle-schoolers everywhere.In this third book of the Samantha Sanderson series, the school's grades have been tampered with, and Sam must enlist Makayla's help in hacking the computer system to discover the virus that was used and who committed the crime. But when the lead suspect is her newfound friend, Felicia, Sam must choose between sticking by her friends at all cost or reporting the story as she sees it.The Samantha Sanderson series is about an ordinary girl with extraordinary dreams. Each book touches on a crime straight from the headlines, from bomb threats to bullying, while following Samantha and her friends as they navigate middle-school and questions about faith.Why I choose this book: As I've said before I write MG fiction so any time I see a good looking MG book I feel the need to gobble it up. Besides, a journalist in middle school? Fun.
What I thought: The book was interesting. I wasn't glued to the story but I did want to keep reading and find out what would happen next. It was fun being thrown into Samantha's world and I thought the characters were realistic, relatable and really made the story. I especially liked Samantha's dad. I look forward to reading more of Robin Caroll's books in the future.
Conclusion: For the most part the book was good. There was some snark and sneaking around and such because sadly that's a part of our world, but it was clearly not condoned. I would be fine giving my little siblings this book to read.
Rating:
I'm giving Samantha Sanderson: Off the Record Three and a half Stars
I received this book free from Book Look in exchange for an honest review.
Find it on: Amazon Goodreads
Third Person One point of view Fiction228 pages
About the book:The third book in an exciting series about a girl with dreams to become an investigative journalist, each book promises to touch on a crime straight from the headlines, while also tackling tough issues faced by middle-schoolers everywhere.In this third book of the Samantha Sanderson series, the school's grades have been tampered with, and Sam must enlist Makayla's help in hacking the computer system to discover the virus that was used and who committed the crime. But when the lead suspect is her newfound friend, Felicia, Sam must choose between sticking by her friends at all cost or reporting the story as she sees it.The Samantha Sanderson series is about an ordinary girl with extraordinary dreams. Each book touches on a crime straight from the headlines, from bomb threats to bullying, while following Samantha and her friends as they navigate middle-school and questions about faith.Why I choose this book: As I've said before I write MG fiction so any time I see a good looking MG book I feel the need to gobble it up. Besides, a journalist in middle school? Fun.
What I thought: The book was interesting. I wasn't glued to the story but I did want to keep reading and find out what would happen next. It was fun being thrown into Samantha's world and I thought the characters were realistic, relatable and really made the story. I especially liked Samantha's dad. I look forward to reading more of Robin Caroll's books in the future.
Conclusion: For the most part the book was good. There was some snark and sneaking around and such because sadly that's a part of our world, but it was clearly not condoned. I would be fine giving my little siblings this book to read.
Rating:
I'm giving Samantha Sanderson: Off the Record Three and a half Stars
I received this book free from Book Look in exchange for an honest review.
J is for Jellybeans
Y'all, I get more story ideas than I'll ever be able to use. For this A to Z Challenge I'm sharing some of these crazy and random balloons with you just for the fun of it. The posts will be set up like a backcover blurb. Sit back and enjoy!
Jellybeans have the deceptive appearance of being harmless. And they probably used to at one time. But that was a long time ago, back before the government started making spying devices that mimic the chewy little candies perfectly. Now you never know what you're inviting into your house when you buy a bag of the sweets at the grocery store.
As a candy connoisseur, Justin Wells can't bear the thought of giving up his favorite snack so he does the next best thing: He launches an all out attack to stop the making of the bogus jellybeans by creating his own jellybeans that are designed to find the electronic devices and destroy them.
Only, when Justin puts his plan into action he discovers he's unleashed a plan more powerful than he knew existed and he's powerless to stop it.
The Unstoppable Jellybean is a thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat from the third page.
April 10, 2015
I is for Igloo
Y'all, I get more story ideas than I'll ever be able to use. For this A to Z Challenge I'm sharing some of these crazy and random balloons with you just for the fun of it. The posts will be set up like a backcover blurb. Sit back and enjoy!
My name is Pagie. My sisters are Inka and Pen, but we call her Penny to keep at least a scrap of dignity. If you haven't figured it out, my parents are authors. Which doesn't sound so bad until you find out that they feel compelled to live out each adventure they put in their books.
That means in my fourteen years I've lived in a tipi, a windmill, a castle (that was amazing!) and now this year we're moving to an igloo. An igloo. What kid in the twenty-first century spends their Freshman year freezing to death encased in ice so her parents can get a realistic taste of the imaginative world they're creating for their adoring fans?
Inka actually thinks it's cool (Oh, and I love puns). She's planning on starting a whole Save the Walrus campaign. I don't even know if they're endangered, but that doesn't stop her. Penny's so wrapped up in her own fictional world that she rarely sees anything beyond the book at the end of her nose. And me? I'm proud of my parents, but I sometimes wish they'd be a little bit more... Normal.
Igloos, Imaginations and Plain, Ol' Me will be released in January of 2031.
My name is Pagie. My sisters are Inka and Pen, but we call her Penny to keep at least a scrap of dignity. If you haven't figured it out, my parents are authors. Which doesn't sound so bad until you find out that they feel compelled to live out each adventure they put in their books.
That means in my fourteen years I've lived in a tipi, a windmill, a castle (that was amazing!) and now this year we're moving to an igloo. An igloo. What kid in the twenty-first century spends their Freshman year freezing to death encased in ice so her parents can get a realistic taste of the imaginative world they're creating for their adoring fans?
Inka actually thinks it's cool (Oh, and I love puns). She's planning on starting a whole Save the Walrus campaign. I don't even know if they're endangered, but that doesn't stop her. Penny's so wrapped up in her own fictional world that she rarely sees anything beyond the book at the end of her nose. And me? I'm proud of my parents, but I sometimes wish they'd be a little bit more... Normal.
Igloos, Imaginations and Plain, Ol' Me will be released in January of 2031.
When Life Hands You Lymes #66 & BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
I may or may not be extremely late with this post for a very special reason. You see, on Sunday I went and stayed in a hotel for three days where I read through the first 113,000 words of When Life Hands You Lymes (which took over eight hours) and typed fast and furiously which added another 30,000 words and wrote out a time line and pretty much immersed myself in the story. (Which is why I was so exhausted Wednesday night and posted the wrong post for the A to Z Challenge which I later deleted.)
I wasn't able to finish When Life Hands You Lymes during my three days away which was ok, my self-imposed deadline was April 17th. I'll be posting more about my time next week, but I just wanted to give you that background before I announce that today I...
FINISHED MY BOOK!
I'm so very thrilled to tell that to y'all. I've been working on this book every single day for the last 465 days and I was so ready to be done with the first draft. I'm going to take a six week break from the story before going back and working on the second draft and it feels like there's such a huge world of possibilities staring me in the face regarding what writing project to tackle next. I've spent the last two months working mega hours on this book and WOOH! I'm so thrilled with what I've been able to do.
And, in case y'all were wondering, the book is really long. 150,004 words to be exact. From what I can tell from Google, it's probably about 600 pages. Which is something else we'll be talking about in another post in the near future.
Now, about the When Life Hands You Lymes story I've been posting on my blog each Friday. I've been praying and scrambling around inside my brain for the last month trying to figure out what to do because my book changed so drastically from what I had been planning that it doesn't work to continue posting segments from what I've already written.
That was upsetting to me because I have really had an amazing time sharing it with y'all and your encouragement really helped me keep going when times got hard. Therefore I've decided to keep sharing the story with you. Only, I'll continue writing for the blog, keeping the original storyline. I guess we'll see how that turns out. :)
Today though, I'm going to be sharing a segment from the When Life Hands You Lymes edition that I just finished writing. I would be very, very delighted to hear y'alls thoughts on the matter because I'm really, really hoping this is an arrangement that will work well for all of us.
And now, for the 66th segment of my fictional story, When Life Hands You Lymes :
“There’s something fundamentally wrong when it’s no longer unusual to sleep the whole day away.” I stopped my rant to suck in some deep breaths since I was suddenly gasping for air. “I don’t even feel like a human any more. The world is flying past while I float away on a dream world that I can’t control.”
“At least we know it’s just temporary, a corridor on our way to better things.” Dad stood next to my bed, his smile gentle. “Think of how long we begged for answers and now we have them.” “I never in my wildest dreams, and they can get pretty wild, imagined that the process of getting over Lyme disease would be so horrific.” I’m calming down now and rationale is taking over. “It’s difficult for us to see you feeling so miserable, too.” Dad rubbed the back of his neck. “But when I think of what this medicine is doing for you, it makes it all worth it.” “Dad?” “Yes, Madds?” “What do people who have Lyme disease and don’t have wonderful parents like you do?” I gave Dad a silly smile. “Does that mean you’re thankful for us?” “Hum, let’s think about that.” I scratch my head. “Number One: You pay for all of my medicine and doctor appointments. Number Two: You keep encouraging me and pulling me out of my pit of despair. Number Three: You love me even when I look like this.” I wave my hand to include my greasy hair, rumpled pajamas and thrashed bed. “Number Four: You take time out of your busy day to come up and check on me to see how I’m doing. Number Five: You keep giving me uplifting books, DVD’s and audio to fill my mind with.” I let out a deep sigh. “Yeah, I think I must be pretty thankful for you.” By the time Dad heads to get ready for bed a few minutes later I feel like I’ve made a definite improvement on my outlook on life. Sure it’s a pain sleeping the day away and having zero energy, but like Dad said, I am on the road to recovery. This is just a corridor, a long, pitch black, creepy and suffocating corridor, but it won’t last forever. Dr. Shay’s advice echoed in my mind. I needed to keep my mind on positive things. It was a battle I’d been fighting each day. Some times with success, other times with so much failure I wanted to scream. “Alright. Madalyn, you are going to rejoice.” I glanced at the clock. Other than trips to the bathroom I’d been in bed for twenty-four hours straight. Most of them had been spent sleeping. “One thing you’re thankful for for each hour I’ve been in bed.” Somehow talking out loud made the night seem more friendly. Julia was visiting her parents for a week in Florida and Darrick was gone on a business trip. By this time both my parents were probably sleeping.
I wasn't able to finish When Life Hands You Lymes during my three days away which was ok, my self-imposed deadline was April 17th. I'll be posting more about my time next week, but I just wanted to give you that background before I announce that today I...
FINISHED MY BOOK!
I'm so very thrilled to tell that to y'all. I've been working on this book every single day for the last 465 days and I was so ready to be done with the first draft. I'm going to take a six week break from the story before going back and working on the second draft and it feels like there's such a huge world of possibilities staring me in the face regarding what writing project to tackle next. I've spent the last two months working mega hours on this book and WOOH! I'm so thrilled with what I've been able to do.
And, in case y'all were wondering, the book is really long. 150,004 words to be exact. From what I can tell from Google, it's probably about 600 pages. Which is something else we'll be talking about in another post in the near future.
Now, about the When Life Hands You Lymes story I've been posting on my blog each Friday. I've been praying and scrambling around inside my brain for the last month trying to figure out what to do because my book changed so drastically from what I had been planning that it doesn't work to continue posting segments from what I've already written.
That was upsetting to me because I have really had an amazing time sharing it with y'all and your encouragement really helped me keep going when times got hard. Therefore I've decided to keep sharing the story with you. Only, I'll continue writing for the blog, keeping the original storyline. I guess we'll see how that turns out. :)
Today though, I'm going to be sharing a segment from the When Life Hands You Lymes edition that I just finished writing. I would be very, very delighted to hear y'alls thoughts on the matter because I'm really, really hoping this is an arrangement that will work well for all of us.
And now, for the 66th segment of my fictional story, When Life Hands You Lymes :
“There’s something fundamentally wrong when it’s no longer unusual to sleep the whole day away.” I stopped my rant to suck in some deep breaths since I was suddenly gasping for air. “I don’t even feel like a human any more. The world is flying past while I float away on a dream world that I can’t control.” “At least we know it’s just temporary, a corridor on our way to better things.” Dad stood next to my bed, his smile gentle. “Think of how long we begged for answers and now we have them.” “I never in my wildest dreams, and they can get pretty wild, imagined that the process of getting over Lyme disease would be so horrific.” I’m calming down now and rationale is taking over. “It’s difficult for us to see you feeling so miserable, too.” Dad rubbed the back of his neck. “But when I think of what this medicine is doing for you, it makes it all worth it.” “Dad?” “Yes, Madds?” “What do people who have Lyme disease and don’t have wonderful parents like you do?” I gave Dad a silly smile. “Does that mean you’re thankful for us?” “Hum, let’s think about that.” I scratch my head. “Number One: You pay for all of my medicine and doctor appointments. Number Two: You keep encouraging me and pulling me out of my pit of despair. Number Three: You love me even when I look like this.” I wave my hand to include my greasy hair, rumpled pajamas and thrashed bed. “Number Four: You take time out of your busy day to come up and check on me to see how I’m doing. Number Five: You keep giving me uplifting books, DVD’s and audio to fill my mind with.” I let out a deep sigh. “Yeah, I think I must be pretty thankful for you.” By the time Dad heads to get ready for bed a few minutes later I feel like I’ve made a definite improvement on my outlook on life. Sure it’s a pain sleeping the day away and having zero energy, but like Dad said, I am on the road to recovery. This is just a corridor, a long, pitch black, creepy and suffocating corridor, but it won’t last forever. Dr. Shay’s advice echoed in my mind. I needed to keep my mind on positive things. It was a battle I’d been fighting each day. Some times with success, other times with so much failure I wanted to scream. “Alright. Madalyn, you are going to rejoice.” I glanced at the clock. Other than trips to the bathroom I’d been in bed for twenty-four hours straight. Most of them had been spent sleeping. “One thing you’re thankful for for each hour I’ve been in bed.” Somehow talking out loud made the night seem more friendly. Julia was visiting her parents for a week in Florida and Darrick was gone on a business trip. By this time both my parents were probably sleeping.
April 9, 2015
G is for GhostWriter & H is for Hamsters
Y'all, I get more story ideas than I'll ever be able to use. For this A to Z Challenge I'm sharing some of these crazy and random balloons with you just for the fun of it. The posts will be set up like a backcover blurb. Sit back and enjoy!
(Last night I was exhausted when I posted {more about this later} and I ended up posting for the wrong letter. Oops. So, today I'm posting with the correct letter from yesterday, and today's letter.)
G is for GhostWriterIf you met me at my school you'd think I was the average geek. Tall, thin, glasses and a personality that seemingly blends in with the walls. That's fine though. I like the anonymity. That way no one realizes that I'm really a ghostwriter. A ghostwriter for my father. Who just happens to be the president of the United States.
My mother says what they don't know won't hurt them, but I sometimes wonder what people would think if they knew that their country was actually being run by a junior in high school.
The Ghostwriter With The Presidential Seal is set to be released in November of 2042.
H is for Hamsters
Things in the Rollings Household have continued the same way for decades. Perfect children. Perfect grades. Perfect jobs. Boring. Mundane. Normal.
Then Joshua and Liberty Adams move in for the summer. The two kids have an impulse to turn everything into a money making venture and the Rollings perfect world explodes. Always the gracious hosts Mrs. Rollings is able to overlook it when her house is opened up from public tours (35cents admission), Mr. Rollings laughs it off when the lawn mower is disassembled and sold for spare parts (earning a whooping $204) and Kate even helps out with the bake-good-stand.
When Joshua Adams decides his dream is to open the world's largest indoor hamster petting zoo, the Rollings declare an all out war.
Enough Hamsters for Everyone will keep you laughing from the very first page. From the guest bedroom being turned into the hamster nursery to the office being turned into the nursery infirmary, it's amazing what happens when hamsters get the run of the house.
* * *Wow. Y'all, I can't believe I posted this so late today. I started it this morning and worked on it several times throughout the day, but didn't get around to finishing it until just now. I hope you enjoy. :)
