Contest Winner!

Thank you all for your kind wishes on my fabulous anniversary! I'll cut right to the chase!

Random Number generator says..... Number 20! Which, after creating a spreadsheet of all comment entries, and then followers means that Miss Sarah is my winner! Yay! Sarah, I've emailed you, so please let me know which gift card you'd like!

As for everyone else, thanks for entering! I hope that maybe I can have another contest sometime soon. That was fun! And I apologize for the stupid format of the number generator picture... my computer is not currently cooperating. :(

The Tail of Emily Windsnap- Liz Kessler

The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler

      I'll preface this review by saying that I don't often read middle-grade fiction, so I'm not sure that I can be an entirely fair judge of this novel. I picked the book up for some ideas on the "daughter of two worlds" plot line for my own novel. Sadly, I found myself comparing this book to the plethora of YA books that I read on a much more regular basis, and upon comparison, I was rather disappointed.

Kessler's book opens with a girl, Emily, who lives with her mother on a houseboat. Emily is worried because she doesn't know how to swim (her mother has never allowed her to take lessons) and their is an impending swimming unit in gym at school. As an aside, I could totally relate to this fear. The intermediate school that I went to as a kid (grades 3-8) was also the recreation center in town and we had a large swimming pool. Every year in gym we had to do a swimming unit. I hated it. Not because I don't know how to swim, but because I totally hate water in my face. There you go... random fact about me of the day. :)

At any rate, Emily ventures into the pool only to find that her legs begin to fuse together. She plays it off as a cramp, but refuses to swim at school again. As the story plods along, Emily meets a real-life mermaid and finds out that she is part mermaid herself. She only develops a fin when she's in water, and it fades when she's on land. Her new mer-friend takes her to mermaid school and Emily learns that her mother was in love with a merman who is now in mer-jail.

Bored yet? Yeah, so was I. Honestly, I might have found this book cute if I were about eight, but I'm not and it really didn't translate well to an older audience. I thought the plot was trite and irritating. I really hated all the stupid mermaid slang, and it was all around cheesy. In theory, the concept behind the novel could have worked well, but it just never gelled. There are about a bazillion sequels and the book got good reviews on Amazon, so apparently someone likes it, but just not me. Maybe I'm too far removed from my tween days, though, I do love reading Teen and Young Adult books, so I can't be that much of an old fogey yet.

I wouldn't recommend the book for the general audience of my blog, but if you have a young female reader, you might pick her up a used copy. :)

ALSO! Today is the last day to enter my blogiversary contest! Go enter now! 

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Book purchased from Amazon.com


Check out all of my other reviews HERE.

Blogiversary!!!

Well, I've managed to sporadically post for the last three years. THREE YEARS! Craziness. I decided to celebrate my belated (Feb 23rd officially) blogiversary with a give away. :) Since I don't have tons of sponsors (or any)... and I'm a teacher, the prize will be modest. :) If you win, you'll have a choice of $25 gift card to either Amazon.com (my favorite place for books- only because I have a Kindle, not because I'm anti-indie or anything) or knitpicks.com (my favorite place for yarn and needles- even though this isn't really a knitting blog anymore) or to barberryandlace.com (just because I lurve Leigh's jewelry).

You have a wide variety of ways to enter-

1 entry for commenting on this post
1 entry for being a follower- hopefully public as I don't know how to see people who don't follow publicly
1 entry for blogging about my little giveaway, and leaving a comment with a link
1 entry for following me on Twitter and leaving a comment with your Twitter handle
1 entry for Tweeting about my giveaway (I think the "proper" term is Twittering, but I think that sounds dumb) and leaving a comment.

So... there you are. :) Since I don't have terribly many followers, you have a pretty good chance of winning!

I'll close entries... well, when I close entries. I'm not entirely sure. I'll be out of commission Monday and Tuesday and you all have seen my track record for blogging on the weekends... so Wednesday? Sure... I'll close entries Wednesday March 2nd at midnight MST. I'll try to announce a winner on Thursday... but again, don't hold your breath. :) Entries are closed! Thanks for participating!

Have a great weekend ya'll!

Bernard Pivot Blogfest

Nicole Ducleroir is hosting a Bernard Pivot Blogfest today. Well, technically yesterday, but I'm always a day late and a dollar short aren't I?  If you are interested in participating, please visit her blog to sign up. There are over 100 people participating.



We're having fun with Pivot's ten questions, made famous in the United States by James Lipton of Inside the Actor's Studio. Blogfest participants have filled out the questionnaire and pasted it with their answers on their blogs today. We are then hopping from blog to blog to read everyone's answers and learn something interesting about our blog friends. Hopeully we'll meet some new people as well. Should be fun. I thought it would be an interesting departure from Wee Bit of Me. I've always fantasized about being on Inside the Actor's Studio... which is rather odd, since I've never wanted to be an actor. Maybe Lipton can host and On the Writer's Desk instead. :) At any rate... more than you've ever wanted to know about me below.
 
1.What is your favorite word? caddywhompus You can't help but smile when you say it. :)


2.What is your least favorite word? a tie between moist and girth Eww... they just feel gross in my head thinking them. Ew.

3.What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Oh man... kindness, potential, possibility, humor

4.What turns you off? People who are rude or mean.

5.What is your favorite curse word? Fuck

6.What sound or noise do you love? Andrea Bochelli singing

7.What sound or noise do you hate? metal underwater

8.What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? besides writer, which I'm already attempting? Wedding Planner

9.What profession would you not like to do? anything with the stock market

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Well done.
 
All right...it might be a good thing that I've no desire to be an actor. :)
 
At any rate, sorry I haven't been around, life has been the definition of insane. Welcome to my new followers! Yay! I will try my darndest to get something more posted next week, or maybe even this weekend. I'm heading to Crested Butte with my church's youth group and I plan on sitting my rumpus (another favorite word) by the fire and writing, reading and knitting... though hopefully not panicing. :)

Wings- Aprilynne Pike

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

I've been on a major YA kick. Mostly YA Fantasy, since that's what I'm currently writing, but lots of YA in general. Anyway, I know that someone recommended this book to me, but now I don't remember who. Again...person who recommends good books, thanks. This was a great one.

Wings opens with Lauren navigating her first day of high school after being homeschooled for years. We immediately get the sense that something is a little off about her, but can't quite place it. When she later discovers a growing bump on her back, we quickly find out what exactly is strange about her. After finding out who she really is, Lauren is forced into a conflict of the ages, trolls vs faeries, and must fight to protect her loves, both new and old. Sorry, I know that's sort of a lame, short summary, but I really don't want to give too much away because really, you should just go read it. :)

Overall, I liked this book. That sounds maybe more hesitant that I actually am about the novel. It was good. Good enough that I immediately purchased and read the second book the trilogy, Spells (review to come) and pre-ordered the third book. I liked the love triangle, which all YA fiction seems to have these days. I liked that while Lauren clearly liked her boys, she has a spine and is her own actor in the novel. She isn't constantly being saved (cough, Bella, cough) and really takes charge in a lot of situations. Her relationships are pretty healthy too... no strange pedophilia or necrophilia or anything. I really liked Pike's updated take on faeries. I've never been a huge faery person myself, but this was a cool version of their lore. It was different, but still felt familiar, something that I strive toward in my own writing. The writing was crisp and the plot moved along pretty well. I have to admit, it was a touch slow at the beginning, but I'm also glad that the mystery wasn't revealed immediately. Good stakes, characters you care about and a beautiful world, all make for a compelling novel. I would venture to say that just about anyone who likes Fantasy or YA, or YA Fantasy, would like this novel. I think it would also be good for the younger, middle grade, set because it's pretty darn tame, and little girls always love faeries.

So, check it out... and check out the rest of my reviews here for more reading suggestions. I'll be back later in the week with some writing thoughts and my Spells review.

Just When I'm on a Roll...

I always think that I'll be one of those awesome bloggers who writes cool, interesting, informative, useful things everyday. I have grand aspirations to be that person, but alas, I am not. I've been dealing with some sucky health stuff for the last couple of weeks, and blogging hasn't really be on the top of my to do list. I have, however, read a ton, so I have a lot of books to blogs about, and have a bunch of writing stuff to talk about too. So... next week, hopefully, I'll be back in the saddle. Have a great weekend ya'll. :)

My whole life has been like this recently.