Since this was the posting week for the WEP challenge, I shifted my update to Friday.
Before we get to the writer's update, how about some blog updates? Regular readers may have noticed that I'm not doing very many reviews anymore. (Actually, since I haven't all year, you may not remember I ever did). For some reason--travel, moving, writing novels, and too much social media--I haven't been reading as much this year. When I do, I often don't feel like writing reviews. So I don't, unless I've committed to do so (I have books from a number of you that I need to read and review, per my promises!).
For now, I'm happy to do occasional reviews, some photo posts, keep talking about writing, and maybe get back to writing flash fiction now and again.
Writer's Update: With NaNo over, the temptation to just kind of stop is great. We have to resist! I have pushed on another two or three thousand words (which also involved deleting a thousand or so) to get a more or less complete draft of Death By Donut. That is to say, it's still 12K short, and has a bunch of things I need to fill in to make the story really work, but it has a beginning, middle, and fairly satisfying end. I've taken a few days off from that MS, to write my WEP story and to do final edits, format, and publish The Christmas Question. Oh, and to write the newsletter to go with that!
While I'm doing all this, we will be traveling from our low-key stay in Santa Fe to a kayaking adventure in Tampa, which will lead to even less work on anything. Sometimes, you just have to accept it's a vacation. On the other hand, I recently heard about a challenge--to write at least 100 words for 100 days. If I count my journal, I can probably do that!
Cool display at the the Santa Fe Folkart Museum--another distraction!.
And... Let's celebrate the announcement of the winners of the 2019 IWSG Anthology Contest! (Including, ahem, yours truly).
Coming May 5, 2020 –
Voyagers: The Third Ghost
Middle grade historical/adventure Featuring these stories and authors:
Will the third ghost be found before fires take more lives? Can everyone be warned before Pompeii is buried again? What happens if a blizzard traps a family in East Germany? Will the Firebird help Soviet sisters outwit evil during WWII? And sneaking off to see the first aeroplane–what could go wrong?
Ten authors explore the past, sending their young protagonists on harrowing adventures. Featuring the talents of Yvonne Ventresca, Katharina Gerlach, Roland Clarke, Sherry Ellis, Rebecca M. Douglass, Bish Denham, Charles Kowalski, Louise M. Barbour, Beth Anderson Schuck, and L.T. Ward.
Hand-picked by a panel of agents, authors, and editors, these ten tales will take readers on a voyage of wonder into history. Get ready for an exciting ride!
I'm posting this morning with the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop. The hop is sponsored by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. I plucked a copy of Paint the Wind out of one of the dozen or so Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood, mostly because I have read other books by Ryan and liked them, and also because I was in the mood for a good horse story. Title: Paint the Wind Author: Pam Muñoz Ryan Publication Info : 2007, Scholastic. 328 pages (paperback). Source: Little Free Library Publisher's Blurb (from Goodreads) : This epic horse story, in the tradition of BLACK STALLION, marks exciting new territory for one of our most treasured and celebrated novelists. A puzzling photograph, a box filled with faded toy horses, and a single fractured memory are all that Maya has left of her mother. In Grandmother house, she lives like a captive, tethered by rules... until a shocking e...
Title: The Thing About Jellyfish Author: Ali Benjamin Publisher: Little, Brown & Co., 2015. 343 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Summary: After her best friend dies in a drowning accident, Suzy is convinced that the true cause of the tragedy must have been a rare jellyfish sting-things don't just happen for no reason. Retreating into a silent world of imagination, she crafts a plan to prove her theory--even if it means traveling the globe, alone. My Review: First, I want to add a couple of things to the summary: Suzy's grief is complicated by the fact that she and her friend hadn't just parted on bad terms; they had grown apart. And she is the kind of kid who knows lots and lots of little facts, and takes comfort in them. In fact, then, Suzy appears to be yet another middle-school-book character who is a bit on the Aspergers side of normal.* This does lend legitimacy to her difficulty relating to the other girls her age, including her (former) best friend ...
I'm posting this morning with the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop. The hop is sponsored by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews. After winning a copy of Kelly's The Blue Hearts in a giveaway, I have gone down the rabbit hole, reading my way through her opus. This one comes before the events in The Secret Language of Birds , and there is some character overlap. Title : Song for a Whale Author : Lynne Kelly Publication Info: Delacourt, 2019. 320 pages. Source : Library Publisher's Blurb: From fixing the class computer to repairing old radios, twelve-year-old Iris is a tech genius. But she’s the only deaf person in her school, so people often treat her like she’s not very smart. If you’ve ever felt like no one was listening to you, then you know how hard that can be. When she learns about Blue 55, a real whale who is unable to speak to other whales, Ir...
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