Busy Making Other Plans

Yep.... life has been happening to me in a big way.  However, I've been reading in spits and spurts, don't worry.  
Over the weekend, I arrived home from house sitting to find one of my fish had died... and within 24 hours, the other fish also died.  So, I have an empty fish tank and no cute little fishies to feed and look at.  A sad time for me as these fish have been a part of my house for about 2 1/2 years.

But I've been reading a fair bit.  I loaned Mum my copy of 'Nosebleed' by Ged Maybury and she loved it!  She said it was hilariously funny and she loved the feel of the book.  I'm so happy she enjoyed it as much as I did.  
I've been reading 'The Imaginings' by Paul D. Dail and am up to page 200 in that book.  It's a cool book and I'm waiting with baited breath of what's going to happen next!  Right now, he's got me in a mountain cabin, in a massive storm and there's people who have just arrived to stay at the cabin.

I'm also reading 'Graveyard Shift' by Lynda Parker ... and for those who don't know it, that's my book.  I wrote and published it on Bibliotastic at Christmas 2011 and have been meaning to get myself a download of it - seeing it's free - and now I can read it at my leisure.  I've spotted a few typos in it but I can live with them... knowing I can do better next time.

Otherwise, I'm not reading anything else really.  I'm working on some art for my new bedroom suite and working on cleaning up my house for the next couple of weeks; as it's not the tidiest it's been.  So, what have you been up to?  Have you guys been reading anything interesting worth sharing?  Are you studying where you have to read certain material?  If so, let us know what kinds of books you have to read.  Until my next post, happy reading!

Ged Maybury's Book Launch

Yesterday, and over the weekend, was the Logan Arts Festival at the Kingston Butter Factory.  However, I only arrived there for the afternoon yesterday to do a speech for Ged Maybury and it finished up for this year.  

I wish I could have spent more time this year than I did.  But I had a family get-together for the first year that marked the passing of my Uncle Allan from Prostate Cancer last year.  We all had brunch at The Coffee Club at Stones Corner and Mum, Dad and I made it to the Kingston Butter Factory by around 1:30pm.  We managed to have a good look around, grab a coffee and enjoy some great live music while we were there.
And I also touched base with The Logan Writers Group to let them know I had arrived for Ged Maybury's book launch - as I was to launch him and his book with a speech.  However, he hadn't arrived as yet, so this gave me time to sit and relax to take in a talk from the organisers of the whole event.  I enjoyed knowing exactly who was working so hard to have us artists heard.

However, soon enough, it was time for Ged and I to take the stage.  Beforehand, I called Mum and Dad to let them know it was about to happen and they showed up and I introduced them to Ged and Anna (Ged's wife) and soon, he and I were preparing the stage to do the book launch.  I nervously took the microphone from the spokeperson of our group and I found myself full of nerves and fumbling my way through my very organised speech... don't you just hate that!  Yeah, me too.
Well, I made it through and everyone laughed in the right places - especially when I said I was nervous - and finally, Ged had a giggle over my nerves too; as he was almost as nervous as me!  So, I guess they're catching.  Anyway, here's the photo album to the day.  I enjoyed myself... as did Ged, Anna and my folks. Until my next post, happy reading.

Logan Arts Festival 2013     

Illustrated Thrillers for Kids.

Now, I love to find new books for any age group of any genre.  However, when I received a phone call from my Mum on Saturday, she told me there were a collection at the Springwood Community Centre not far from her home called the 'Illustrated Classic Editions Thrillers'.   I asked what they looked liked.  Well, she said she'd get them and bring them to me.

That night, she brought them over to my house and showed them to me and I found they were large print and for kids.  I had the impression they were graphic novels.  However, they weren't.  There are six in all and all of them are written by the most classic writers around from the twentieth century and adapted for children between the ages of 9 and 12.  There are 'Tales of Mystery and Terror' by Edgar Allan Poe, 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson, 'The Invisible Man' by H.G. Wells, 'The Time Machine' by H.G. Wells and 'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley.  All these books are in my shelves however these particular ones are adapted from the adult versions and put in to larger print for young minds to grasp quickly and have great illustrations.  Well worth looking for. 

Every Girl's Life Guide by Miriam Stoppard

I remember receiving this book when I was around sixteen years of age.  It was of great help to me as my parents are Baby-Boomers and were brought up to not talk about anything to do with going through puberty or growing up with their kids; as their parents hadn't really done it with them.  It had been a taboo subject in their time.  And seeing I was borrowing this book from our local library constantly, they thought the next best thing for me (and the library) was if I had my own copy.  

I found this book a fountain of knowledge.  If I couldn't ask or talk to my parents about a certain thing, I could look it up in this book.  However, if I couldn't find it in here, there was always the library I could go to find and read up on anything I needed to know.  

The one small problem with this book is that it is out of print now; and I have searched everywhere for it.  You can find it on Amazon and e-bay, however not many bookstores will carry it unless you're in the UK.  Also, if you can lay your hands on a copy, it won't be this particular one as this one is a first edition and it was only reprinted maybe twice more and then stopped.  I'm not sure why; but it would be interesting to find out.
Miriam Stoppard now concentrates her publications on pregnancy and caring for your new baby.  But she is still working as a very famous and well-known doctor and author in her field.  I've put the link to her official site on the side bar.  And seeing I can't really find anything about her life, I can't really write anything about her here.

The Witch Book edited by Rand McNally & Company

What a wonderful book to read at any age. This gorgeous hard cover beauty is big and bold with lovely stories of all kinds about witches and their lives inside it by various authors. The pictures are lovely and well drawn; and the quality I don't see around anymore. And the stories are different from each as each are told in the great story-telling style that has vanished from the shelves of today. Even though there's only eight stories, there will be one that stay with you well after you close the covers of this rather heavy book. Mine? Well, it's 'Wanted: One Witch!'...

I'm not sure why I've kept this book; however I read this book when I was young and haven't let it go; and don't intend to let it off my shelves. It's absolutely beautiful. I haven't found it on bookfound.com; however that doesn't mean it's not around. It just means it's hard to find and could possibly be out of print.

Unfortunately, I've been unable to find anything about the publishing company online. However, I'll be looking into the authors who wrote the stories in this book for you soon and adding to this post. So, keep an eye on the side bar for their official websites as well as here for more information about them; you never know, they may have written other popular fiction for children and we didn't know about this one.

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

Forks isn't the same without the Cullens - especially without Edward around. Bella is having nightmares from the time she closes her eyes to the moment the poor excuse for daylight filters through her window to wake her. And even then, life feels like a living nightmare. She tends to drift from home to school to her part-time job at a camping store in town and back again; and it's driving her father, Charlie, nuts. He threatens to send her to Florida where her mother is with her new husband and Bella snaps, screaming at him that this is her home and it's where she's going to stay. It's around this time she begins to hang around Jacob Black; her old childhood friend.
After a few weeks, she finds that life isn't so bad and she can laugh and smiled again. But there's a new threat on the horizon... in fact there's a few. After learning about vampires in Forks, is Bella ready to enter the world of a different kind? The world of werewolves? Then, comes the news that Edward is in Italy. He's ready to kill himself because he's heard she is dead; all because of a high risk stunt Bella pulled. Will she choose to stay with Jacob and his kind? Or will she risk her life in Italy amongst a city run by vampires?

Once I read 'Twilight', I thought that it wasn't really much. But then, I looked at how thick the second book was and thought it might be okay to read; it may tighten up (as many sagas I've read do). And 'New Moon' has been a total change from the light, popcorn-type of read. In fact, I found it a complete opposite to it. It was full of more tension and suspence, humour and violence than the first one. If you can put up with the first book, which is really a fast and light read, I do recommend this book to you. However, it's still very light-on with the vampire lore that I know of.

There is a Stephenie Meyers link on the sidebar to her official website. And seeing I've already done a review of 'Twilight', I won't run the risk of repeating myself about her education and life again here. Just click on it and you'll be taken straight there.

Superfudge by Judy Blume

Peter's getting a little Fudge... a little brother or sister. He's already got Fudge, and the last thing he wanted was another one like his little brother. His parents are absolutely thrilled about how good it would be to have a new member of the family added on, however, Peter has other thoughts about it. When everyone finds that the Hatcher family come home with a little baby girl, Peter feels resentful. So, when the baby comes home, he tries everything to get rid of her, including taping $1.00 notes all over her and saying that she's for sale for a dollar. But will things turn out better as time goes along?

I haven't really read that many Judy Blume books in my time; as when I was going through high school, most of the ones I wanted to read were always checked out of the library or on reserve. So, I kind of missed out. However, now I'm reading some here and there, I'm finding they're absolutely charming and hiarious and a great light read.

I've found Judy's Blume's site very informative and has everything you'd need to know about her and her life. So, instead of me going through it and picking at it, I'll post the link on the sidebar and you can wander around her site at your leisure.

Even Pretty Girls Cry at Night (Crosswinds) by Merrill Joan Gerber

Faye and her father have been through a lot to end up in Florida running an apartment building full of old people. All she does all day during school holidays is clean up the place; even though she doesn't get paid or asked to. However, she has one rule: Never talk to the oldies. Faye hasn't had it all that easy. With her mother gone and a twisted back that she's really self-conscious about, she goes around wearing a feather-down vest; thus the elderly residents of the apartment building have nicknamed her 'Crow'. Another girl uses the pool she cleans up around to train named Marcia and whenever Faye sees her, she's envious of her beauty. But there's change in the wind when a hot young guy comes to stay over the Summer from New York. Is it good change or bad? Faye finds that she even changes as she get to know who her real friends turn out to be and that change can be good for her after all... or can it?

Merrill Joan Gerber began writing stories and essays when she was seven years old, and her first published piece of work, a poem, appeared in The Writer when she was eighteen. She began selling stories to magazines such as the New Yorker and Redbook. Over the course of her career, Gerber published more short stories in Redbook than any other contributor to that magazine. However, her publication record has not always won her recognition.

The Wave by Moreton Rhue/Todd Strasser

The Wave is based on an incident that took place in a high school classroom in Palo Alto, California, in 1969. Ben Ross and his history class took part in an experiment when they were studying World War II when his class couldn't understand how the German people followed Hitler and the Nazis. Ben created an experimental movement called The Wave; and what starts out as a harmless game within his history class turns into a fast-moving cult-like following which gets out of control very quickly. But can Ben Ross and a few others of his students who have seen its affects and on-coming problems stop it before it takes over the entire community - let alone the school?

I first read this book in high school and loved it... even though I didn't finish it. So, years later, I read it again and loved it. And even now, in my thirty's I love still; even though it's a teen book. It's ideal for set reading in schools; even now as kids learn about how things can happen and peer group preasure through this kind of book.

Todd Stasser was born in New York and educated on Long Island, however he had always struggled with grammar and spelling during school. He travelled overseas to Europe and lived in a commune after dropping out of college; while there, he became a street musician and wrote poetry, songs and lots of letter home to friends back home. After returning, he studied literature and writing at Beloit College.
After college, Todd had a couple of jobs; one was at the Middleton Times Herald-Record Newspaper and later worked at Compton Advertising - both jobs were in New York City. In 1978, he sold his first novel Angel Dust Blues and used the money to start the Dr Wing Tip Shoo Fortune Cookie Company. Over the next 12 years, Todd sold more fortune cookies than books.
He is the author of more than 120 books that are aimed at teens and also children; with several of his books adapted into a television series and his novel 'How I Created My Perfect Prom Date' became a feature release 'Drive Me Crazy'.
Todd now divides his time between writing books and speaking at schools and conferences. When he's at home, he likes to play with his children, fish, play tennis, and ski. But his favourite new sport is surfing.

(bibliography: http://www.toddstrasser.com/html/ToddsLife.html)