Jacqui Murray's Blog, page 175
January 22, 2013
How To Describe Dogs in Your Novel
If you’re a writer, you know what I mean. You can’t just say, The dog laid down at my feet and fell asleep. That’s boring. It tells the reader nothing about how cute the dog is, how innocent his sleep was, how you reacted to this most loyal of activities.
I’ve spent years collecting snippets on how to describe characters, create settings, describe actions that I am now going to share with you over a period of, oh, a lot of weeks. I have a big Excel spreadsheet with cells for things like:
dogs
horses
animals
nature
how eyes move
how mouths move
how faces look
…it goes on and on. They are all written by other authors, so don’t use them. Treat them as imagination starters. They force you to think about what it was in your character’s face that gave away his lie. Why the horse in the corral looked so agitated. Those types of descriptions that, being in a book, can only be conveyed with words.
I’ll start with dogs (if you read my blog on Michael Vick, you won’t be surprised this is where I’d start):
The dog snorted happily and bounded forward
The dog curled into a wet lump and lay shivering on the ground
Dog was doing impression of a corpse
He stretched, shook himself and circled several times before dropping to the ground
With pricked ears, he watched for a moment and then yawned
Roaming the backyard, engaged in dog intrigue
Dog’s eyes wide, ears flat, a vibrating growl deep in his chest
Exulting in whatever it is that dogs exult in
dogs wandered off to rest their noses in their paws
roughed them up the way Labs expect to be treated
paws up, aerial
The dog was sprawled across her lap, his sides rising and falling, his nose mashed against the ground in a most uncomfortable-looking manner. Dogs were funny. They could sleep in peculiar positions.
Dogs, after voiding their excrement, often make with all four feet a few scratches backwards, even on a bare stone pavement, Wolves and jackals behave in the same manner, yet, as I am assured by the keepers, neither wolves, jackals, nor foxes, when they have the means of doing so, ever cover up their excrement, any more than do dogs. All these animals, however, bury superfluous food.
Dogs and jackals take much pleasure in rolling and rubbing their necks and backs on carrion. The odor seems delightful to them. wolves don’t roll in the odor
Dogs scratch themselves with one of their hind-feet; and when their backs are rubbed, they rapidly scratch the air or the ground in a useless and ludicrous manner. by licking the air as if it were a hand.
As he prepares to spring with a savage growl, canine teeth are uncovered, and the ears pressed close backwards on the head
flopped onto the floor in a full doggy snit
happy woofing sounds of a dog discovering hidden treasures
wag its tale and watch with hopeful eyes
dog watched him, ears up, head slightly cocked
dogs, when intently watching and slowly approaching prey, keep one of their fore-legs doubled up for a long time, ready for the next cautious step. they behave in exactly the same manner whenever their attention is aroused. I have seen a dog at the foot of a high wall, listening attentively to a sound on the opposite side, with one leg doubled up
the one which first sees the other, lowers its bead, crouches a little, or even lies down; takes the proper attitude for concealing himself
When a dog approaches a strange dog or man in a savage or hostile frame of mind he walks upright and stiffly; his head slightly raised; tail held erect and rigid; the hairs bristle, especially along the neck and back; the pricked ears are directed forwards, and the eyes have a fixed stare
trotting gravely with high steps, head much raised, moderately erected ears, and tail carried aloft but not stiffly
young dogs in play growling and biting each other’s faces and legs
The dog got worried, crawled up on the bed, raced around chasing a ball, finally chased it out of the room. From her roommates room, she heard her barking, growling at the dog, slapping and playing, tossing the ball and the dog returned. She wondered who thought who was whose pack.
Who could not love a dog?
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog,Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-weekly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, s he is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: descriptors, setting, writers, writers resources Tagged: characterizations, descriptions, dogs, writers
January 21, 2013
Tech Tips for Writers #92: Rollback Windows Updates
Tech Tips for Writers is an (almost) weekly post on overcoming Tech Dread. I’ll cover issues that friends, both real-time and virtual, have shared. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future Tip.
Q: Windows installed automatic updates and now my Outlook keeps freezing. What do I do?
A: I used to turn off the automatic updates, but then I missed some critical ones. Now, if I have a problem (like the above), I go into the updates list and uninstall the ones that have to do with whatever I’m having problems with.
Here’s how you do it:
Go to start button, all program, Windows Updates
Select ‘view updates’ in the center of the screen
The next screen prompts you, To remove an update, see installed updates (which is a link–click this link)
Select the updates that have to do with your problem. In this case, it would be any that updated Outlook
Select them one at a time and select ‘uninstall‘ (this choice doesn’t appear next to ‘organize‘ until you select an update to uninstall)
That’s it. Now cross your fingers and hope everything goes back to working. If not, you’ll have to restore your computer to an earlier date that worked.
To sign up for Tech Tips delivered to your email, click here.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog,Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-weekly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, s he is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: problem-solving, tech tips for writers, writers tips, writing Tagged: tech tips for writers, undelete, writers tips
January 20, 2013
Writer’s Tip #35: Avoid Prologues
When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer’s tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.
Today’s tip: Avoid Prologues.
I found this one on the Guardian. The author builds a good case, but I don’t agree with it. What do you think?
Avoid prologues: They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a forward. But these are ordinarily found in non-fiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want. There is a prologue in John Steinbeck’s Sweet Thursday, but it’s OK because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: “I like a lot of talk in a book and I don’t like to have nobody tell me what the guy that’s talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks.”
–Click to have Writer’s Tips delivered to your email box
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog,Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-weekly contributor to Write Anything. In her free time, she is editor of a K-6 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, creator of two technology training books for middle school and six ebooks on technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: writers resources, writers tips, writing Tagged: Prologue, writers, writers resources, writers tips
January 17, 2013
Book Review: The Bubblegum Thief
The Bubble Gum Thief
by Jeff Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Reviewed for Amazon under the Amazon Vine Voice Program
With The Bubble Gum Thief (Thomas & Mercer December 2012), Jeff Miller has surely launched what will be a brilliant writing career. In an era where taking on new unproven authors can be risky, where publishers only want the Blockbusters and Run Away Best Sellers, Miller’s debut novel will surely prove to be the best decision Thomas & Mercer has made in, oh I don’t know–months. Or years. Usually, new novelists take a few books to work out the plotting kinks, figure out how to develop characters as readers like to discover them. Not Miller. Bubble Gum Thief includes an intriguing plot, richly woven multilayered characters, and enough setting details to make the reader feel like they are smack in the middle of every chase, every kidnapping, every romantic date.
The story starts as the typical FBI thriller–young agent (in this case, Dagney Gray) runs askance of her FBI bosses and is sent to a dead end class. There, she catches the eye of an eccentric over-the-hill agent sidelined far from the FBI action as the teacher of a class-of-last-resort. He recruits her to help with what turns out to be a serial killer at the beginning of his murderous career.
Nothing else is typical about the story. Dagney has a clever brain that connects the dots in ways we the reader don’t expect. And she has anorexia, a disease she struggles to control, sometimes just survive. This subplot runs through the main plot so fluidly I found myself losing my appetite, challenging myself to be better, and wanting to take up running–all characteristics of anorexics.
Miller’s writer voice is friendly, easy to follow, like the great storytellers that populate the libraries of his characters–Michael Collins and Jeffrey Deaver. His knowledge of FBI investigation techniques is fascinating and fresh, many new to me despite that I read boatloads of crime novels. For example:
…the unsub…had created an elaborate and impressive website for his fake security company (The site was now gone, but Dagny and Victor found a cache of it at archive.org).
For more, see pages 245 and 364.
One request: The cover needs help. I had to look at it way to long to figure out what was going on.
Overall Miller is a bright new thriller writer who can people my imagination anytime. I look forward to his next book.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Today’s Author and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and monthly contributor to Today’s Author. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, creator of technology training books for middle school and ebooks on technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: book review
January 16, 2013
We’re Back!
And just in time. Write Anything has barely shut its doors and already I’m off-balance, like getting over the tips of my skis or being stuck in a kindergarten classroom all day. You can only say WTF so many times a day before you decide to start drinking. But I don’t drink.
I could get used to it–not writing fiction–but why would I want to?
Don’t get me wrong–I’m still writing, in fact, over eight hours a day. When I’m not doing my day job–teaching–I’m writing columns and reviews and articles and blogs and lesson plans, but what I get little chance to do is
write creatively.
My novel–a techno thriller–is with an agent and I’m afraid to start the sequel because if–WHEN–a publisher arrives, they will make changes and I don’t want my head into a different plot. So I am writing everything BUT creatively.
Thanks to the Universe, I now have Today’s Writer.
A little more about me since we’re going to spend some time together. I’m a techie geek (if you have computer questions, drop by my blog, Ask a Tech Teacher. Last year, I had almost a million visitors and still answered every question sent my way). I write columns and blogs and reviews for Cisco, Amazon. TeachHub, and a few others and my published tech books are doing quite nicely. I am a (proud) geek. It provides order, rigor, expectations. I like those.
But I like variety, too, so on Today’s Author, I’ll be contrary, argumentative, sometimes disorganized, maybe analytic and likely opinionated. Writing is my escape. I can lose hours–literally–sitting at the computer. I start with tons of time and end up rushing to finish the last bits before I have to shut down for the night. Does that happen to you? Does a character drag you away, monopolize your consciousness until their world seems more real than yours? Yes, I see it in your eyes. You have the bug, too. It is a firewall against boredom in the world. As you research to understand your character, her/his motivations, needs, goals, do you find yourself always wanting more? And when that topic pops up in the real world, you are an expert on it. Right?
That’s because you are a writer. And that explains it all.
Welcome to my world. I look forward to seeing yours.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com , Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog,Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-weekly contributor to Write Anything. In her free time, she is editor of a K-6 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, creator of two technology training books for middle school and six ebooks on technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: writers Tagged: me, writers
January 15, 2013
2013, I Resolve…
New Years–a time for rest, rejuvenation and repair. A time to assess life. Do we settle into our routine, enjoy where it’s headed, or is it time to grab our purse, our iPhone, our car keys, and get out of there?
Here are my resolutions this year. Lots of them! But I see change in my future. I want to be ready:
Fiction
Finish my current techno-thriller, Twenty-Four Days . It’s with an agent, looking for a publisher. Anyone interested?
Market Twenty-Four Days when I find a publisher. I know that will fall to me so I want to be ready.
I’ve drafted the prequel–To Hunt a Sub--and want to finish it. Let’s say the goal is progress on that.
I have a historic fiction novel call Lucy, Daughter of Man . It’s Part I of a series that deals with man’s ability to solve problems. The setting is paleo times, the birth of human critical thinking skills. It’s a niche market so not surprisingly, no one has expressed any interest, thus I’m thinking of jumping into the ebook market.
Work on the second in my paleo-historic fiction series. It’s drafted, but there’s lots of work before it’s ready. A novel takes me at least two years to write. I’m about 6 months into this one, so reasonably, ‘progress’ is all I’ll manage.
Non-fiction
Write several more tech ed books to go along with the selection I offer on Amazon, Teachers Pay Teachers, and other outlets.
Come up with one ebook mini each month to share as a Subscriber Special on my blog. These are all timely bundles that address topics of particular interest to tech teachers.
Work on themed bundles that address specific topics, like Valentine Day, Veteran’s Day–those types of topics. Teachers like to tie into them with technology, but to date, I have few options. I want to fix that. Plus, this seems to be a popular trend on Teachers Pay Teachers. The top sellers all offer themed products.
Finish editing the 7th and 8th grade tech ed curriculum.
Pay more attention to other tech ed writing gigs.
Again–as every year–figure out how to sell books on Google ebooks. It should be a vast market, but my sales are abysmal–5% of overall sales. I’ll research how other authors are making that venue work.
Blogs
Continue publishing 3-4 articles a week on my core blogs Ask a Tech Teacher, Ask a Tech Teacher–Homeschool Edition, and WordDreams (this blog). I want to increase the number of posts on the art of writing. I love reading these on other writer’s blogs and get a lot of ideas from them. I want to return that favor to other writers looking for inspiration, innovation and the introduction of new ideas.
Expand the reach of my blogs. I’ve read most of the articles that start “How to Write Blogs That Everyone Reads…” and they don’t work the way the author promises. Time to get creative. I’m at about a thousand readers a day on my core blogs. Where will I be at the end of 2012?
Find guest bloggers for my blogs. I’ve reached out a bit, but not enough. My readers would benefit from other opinions.
Decide what to do with Sizzle in Science. I started this blog out of my love for science, but when I run out of time (which is often), this one suffers. I should make a decision on its future rather than let it languish. That’s my bias for action. I hate inactivity.
Clean up my blogs. Fix those little problems like broken links that I keep putting off. Maybe Spring Cleaning will hit the blogosphere.
Find a writing community to participate in online. I have one, but I need more.
What are your resolutions? I want to learn from you.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Today’s Author and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and monthly contributor to Today’s Author. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, creator of technology training books for middle school and ebooks on technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: blogs, writers, writing Tagged: 2012, E-book, newyear resolutions
January 14, 2013
10 Hits and Misses for 2012
Hits and Misses
Since I started this blog forty-two months ago, I’ve had over 545,000 visitors, 3300 on my busiest day, visiting the 745 articles I’ve written on
every facet of writing. As with most bloggers, I write what’s on my mind 3-4 times a week. It may be about the craft of writing, trends in the industry, or how my writing business is doing. I have regular features, like Tech Tips for Writers and Writing Tips. It’s a fast changing writing world. I’m just trying to hang on and share the ride.
It always surprises me what readers find to be the most provocative–as intriguing as what holds no interest for anyone but me! It’s usually a post I put heart and soul into, sure I was sharing Very Important Information, and I get three readers who slog their way through it. Talk about humility. Here they are–my top 10 and bottom 10:
Top Ten Hits
How to Describe Dogs–almost double last year’s top post which included a creepy picture of a spider bite. Yuck!
178 Ways to Describe Women’s Clothing–describing the varieties in women’s clothing is challenging. This post helps you understand it and share it in your novel.
How to Describe a Person’s Clothing–same as above. I can see by how many writers stopped by these two posts that good descriptions is on the author’s mind.
51 Great Similes to Spark Imagination–similes must be fresh, original, and evoke a picture much larger than mere words. See if these do that for you.
Characteristics That Make Your Character Memorable–memoriable characters are unusual, with quirky habits or appearances, or unique approaches to living life. Here are a few for you to ponder.
One-Word Characteristics to Spice Up Your Writing–I am pleased this one’s so popular. It has a few gems
Plotting a Story–with a Spreadsheet–this is my approach to organizing a story. Writers all have different approaches.
Book Review: Killing Lincoln–though I write about a book review a week, this is the only one that made the top ten
How to Do Social Media Right–while the top six articles dealt with the craft of writing, this is the first in the top ten to deal with marketing what you’ve written. Is that surprising? Not sure.
Three Reasons Why I love Research–most writers do a lot of research, especially in genres like historic and thrillers. That, to me, is one of the best parts of writing
Overall, the craft of writing was more popular than the business end of the job.
Top Ten Misses
Book Review: So You Want an Online Book Tour
Tech Tip for Writers #32: My Taskbar Got Moved to the Side
Tech Tip for Writers #19: How to Activate a Link in Word
Tech Tip For Writers #10: How to Undelete
Love is Just a Word
How’s My Story Going?
Do You Make These Writing Blunders?
Tech Tips for Writers #1: Create a Blog
The Questionable Future of Agents and Publishers
Writers Tips #79: Proofing Your MSS
Make Your Settings Memorable With These Details
If you’re a writer, what were your most popular posts about?
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Today’s Author and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and monthly contributor to Today’s Author. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, creator of technology training books for middle school and ebooks on technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: authors, blogs, writers, writers resources, writing Tagged: 2012, top ten, writers resources, writing
January 13, 2013
Writer’s Tip #34: Tell What Is, Not What Isn’t
When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer’s tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.
Today’s tip: Write in the positive, not the negative
For example, don’t say
There was no light in the room
Say
The room was dark.
This hint made a big difference in the tone of my writing. My scenes went from sounding depressing and negative to uplifting and positive. If you’re a mom, your familiar with this concept because you use it disciplining your children:
Don’t say: Don’t jump in the bed
Do say: Jump on the rug.
It’s the same idea. Without the negatives, what you communicate to your reader is more proactive than reactive. The reader feels like they’re moving forward with positives. They feel like they’re being held back with negatives. When I’ve finished a rough draft, I do a search for all not or n’t words, to see if I can replace them. That’s how serious I am about changing the tone of my writing.
–Click to have Writer’s Tips delivered to your email box
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog,Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-weekly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, she is editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, creator of technology training books for middle school and ebooks on technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: communication, editing, writers resources, writers tips, writing Tagged: tone, writers resources, writers tips, writing
January 10, 2013
Book Review: Performance Anomalies
Performance Anomalies
by Victor Robert Lee
My Rating: 5 stars
I read a lot–four-eight books a week, primarily thrillers (because that’s what I write). After a while, they start sounding alike:
powerful but flawed hero stands against evil
a crisis storms in that only s/he can solve and s/he is pulled out of retirement/another job/a satisfying domestic life to assist his/her country/a friend/a stranger
despite herculean efforts, it threatens to destroy him/her
at the last minute (sometimes, literally), s/he prevails, a better person because of this trial by fire
I’m always on the look out for a writer who can break out of that template and still provide the fast-moving, gut-wrenching action that makes thrillers the favorite of millions of readers.
I’ve found him.
Enter Victor Robert Lee and his debut novel, Performance Anomalies (Perimeter Six 2013) where Mr. Lee sets the stage for what could be one of the most riveting series in recent years. I’m not a fan of opening a novel with a dream sequence, but in this case, it worked.
The story is about an unusual man-without-a-country named Cono NLN. Cono has the gift of a hyper-fast neurological system (a genetic mutation), which he uses for good and evil, ambivalent to the purpose. As the book opens, he finds himself haplessly helping a criminal mastermind whom he calls ‘friend’ to destroy the world. It’s not faceless death that forces a second look from this unexpected crime fighter, but that it would destroy what few friends he has, and thus, Cono finds himself re-evaluating his life path. There is lots of back story, but it is so instructive in understanding this man who considers himself a freak, it doesn’t detract from the momentum of the plot.
This is a character-driven story, the plot interwoven with the hero’s essence. Don’t misunderstand: This isn’t an introspective account of a man’s moral evolution. Yes, that does happen, but what keeps the reader turning pages is the action, the adventure, the power of Lee’s voice. The author–through Cono’s eyes–treats everyone who populates this fictitious world as though he knows them, with a sense of place and a respect for their culture and attitudes. His writing is crisp, tight, with lots of sensory details to put readers right in the middle of Kazakhstan, a torture session, a sensuous walk along exotic streets. The words are magnetic, making readers want to get to know this man who can slow time like a stop-motion camera, despite his questionable morals and bias for violence. Quickly, readers feel connected to this world, one which most of us will never experience.
A side note: I was curious about Mr. Lee so Googled him and found a wonderful website sharing insight into his world, aka Cono’s world. It includes pictures (see below) and sources he uses for his writing–real world performance anomalies, the works of Dr. Oliver Sachs (a personal favorite), brain research. If you are the reader who wants to learn from what you consume rather than escape reality, you will love this.
It is clear from the construction of this story, this is no stand-alone novel. Cono has metamorphosed and we will see the future Him as a protector of good, enemy of evil. I can’t wait.
Click to view slideshow.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, Technology in Education featured blogger, and IMS tech expert. She is the editor of a K-6 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-6 Digital Citizenship curriculum, creator of technology training books for middle school and ebooks on technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: book reviews, performance anomalies
January 9, 2013
2012 in review
WP did a great job summarizing my stats for this year. Allow me to share them with you:
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!
Click here to see the complete report.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, Technology in Education featured blogger, and IMS tech expert. She is the editor of a K-6 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-6 Digital Citizenship curriculum, creator of technology training books for middle school and ebooks on technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: blogs, research, writers Tagged: 2012, annual report, blogging, wordpress
