5 Awesome Blog Features

I love finding references to other blogs and Blog features. I know I’m in this one (and truly grateful to be there!) but there are others who are amazing blogs (like Sourcerer!) and certainly deserve a look. Why not check them out? I’m off to do just that! 🙂

Sourcerer

We are in a lull with our Monday content this week, and I had a crazy weekend of chattering on threads so I don’t have anything substantial loaded. But I don’t want to publish just a photo on a Monday, so here are five regular features at other blogs that I just love. And by the way, regular features are very helpful for keeping a blog rolling and developing a regular audience.

Taylor Grace’s “Posts I Loved this Week” is great for finding new blogs to read. It always features excellent blogs, and sometimes my own posts make the list.

Therefore I Geek’s “Around the Web” always includes a collection of geeky and interesting stories from (you guessed it!) around the web.

“The Comic-Verse: Awesome Art and & The Top 15 Featured Links” at the Speech Bubble combines a roundup of comics links with high-quality…

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#WeekendCoffeeShare: In which I whine. A lot.

If we were having coffee, I’d share that we’re still selling our house and then roll my eyes. We’ve been trying to sell our home since June of last year and it feels even longer than that. Worse, if possible, a prolific family of mice have moved into our attic and, after chewing through some insulation, have decided to multiply.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you that I’m sick. I have some version of the cold that makes me sound like a duck. I’d also tell you that my hubby is also sick and was up all night with the stomach flu. Since he’s not exactly diminutive, every time he came back to bed, I bounced like a cork at sea. So neither of us slept a wink last night. The ones who did sleep are our fluff-balls of dogs who’ve woken up, healthy as horses and with more energy than usual. They’re not sick. Neither are the mice. They’re incredibly healthy.

I’d probably ask for another cup of coffee, since they can’t pump the stuff directly into my vein through an IV and that’s what I need this morning.

And I’d ask you how you were doing. Tell me you’re not sick? Or join the germ-infested.

 

Loads and Loads of News!

All kinds of excellent news in all sorts of interesting blogs! What a great post!

Just Gene'O

Registration is open. If the page displays “Coming Soon” when you visit it, use this linky link.

Registration for the Blogging A to Z April Challenge goes live sometime today.Here’s the registration page in case you want to sit and refresh it until the list appears. I plan to register this a.m., add the art to the at Sourcerer after work tonight, and do the announcement on Thursday.

The 1,000 Voices Speaking for Compassion Facebook group passed 1,000 members sometime late Friday night or early Saturday morning. There’s also a WordPress blog for it now, and I have confirmed that there will be a linkup for it on Feb. 20. Not bad at all for two weeks’ worth of bloggers chattering about this on the social media.

My friend Gretchen of Drifting Through My Open Mind published an awesome guest post at Hasty Words last week. She’s also joined

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Pay It Forward Friday: Crystal Goodwin

Pay It Forward Fridays came from this post by Emily Guido. The idea is to feature a blogger or author on Fridays and give them a little shoutout. Anyone goes as long as they’re interested.

I’ve received an incredible amount of support from bloggers, authors and people I’ve met on line who didn’t know me and were just very kind, supportive souls. And, when I read that post by Emily Guido, I thought: time to give back.

I loved this quote from Emily’s mother:

“I cast a couple of pieces of bread on the water and the waves bring me back a ham sandwich.”

Karma is a beautiful thing.

Today I’m focusing on Crystin Goodwin.

 

Crystin says of herself: “First and foremost, I’m an author. *blushes* I’ve always wanted to say that. But seriously, my first book was released March 2, 2014. UnBlessed can be found in a number of places, mostly online. Amazon and Barnes and Noble both have links, or you could visit my personal estore if you want to be super supportive!  https://www.createspace.com/4695914

I have a lot of favorite authors, books, and series – which I’ll include below – but I wanted to mention my inspiration, idol, and hero first: Anne McCaffrey. Her diversity blew me away when I was in high school. After reading her Pern series and then diving into the totally different yet just as wonderful Tower and the Hive series, I remember thinking, “Wow. One person thought up these two rich, complex worlds. I want to be able to do that with just one.” Many years later, Myrillia was born.

As for some of my other favorites, they include: the Hollows series by Kim Harrison, the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire, the Anita Blake series by Laurel K. Hamilton, R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt series, the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, and Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance series. Yes, I’m a Harry Potter fan, and I’m not ashamed to say I like Twilight. Well. Maybe a little ashamed.

Another fun fact? I’m a HUGE World of Warcraft fan, and an avid player. Note I said avid, not accomplished. No, I’m not a raider. No, I don’t PvP. I don’t top DPS charts (well, I do occasionally – I’m not a bad player). I tend to lean towards collecting … everything. I have one of each class over level 20 (and that’s without refer-a-friend bonuses), and over five max level characters (pre-Warlords of Draenor). If your a WoW player, too, feel free to look me up: you can usually find me on Kieve – Lightbringer, Jahline – Lightbringer, or Teruaki – Earthen Ring.

Oh, my final note? I’m amateur artist, mostly with animation style drawings. Especially anime style. (Yes, I like anime, too. You couldn’t guess that from the reading and gaming clues?)”

These are her favourite books:

The entire works of Anne McCaffrey
The October Daye series by Seanan McGuire
The Hollows series by Kim Harrison
The Legend of Drizzt by R.A. Salvatore
The Anita Blake series by Laurel K. Hamilton
Twilight by Stephanie Meyers
The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling

She’s written UnBlessed, the first book of the series Blessings of Myrillia. The second book, Fire Blessed is due out in late 2014.

I reviewed UnBlessed and found it outstanding. Click on the cover above to buy it from Amazon.com

She has her own blog at crystinlgoodwin.wordpress.com where she does everything from share reading list to reviewing books.

So, want to know an author before they become famous? Check out Crystin Goodwin, an up and coming author with a very promising future and tons of talent.

A little heads up

I’m a small author. I’ve written one book and am slowly working on my second. I’m a teeny, tiny fish in a very big ocean. So, when I read this post by Molly Greene about ebook piracy, I thought: no way that can happen to me. No one even knows I exist.

Well, no one may know I exist, but my book was in the general ebooks site. And you could get it for free. I didn’t know if to be flattered or offended.

Good news, Molly Greene’s article explains what to do and she even has the email that got her books removed from the site. I’ve sent them the email and hope that they’ll remove my book.

I’m really hoping that no one else finds their book on that site but, if you do remember, knowledge is power. Check out Molly Greene’s post and get your book back.

PS. If you know of other ways to get rid of books pirated, share them with me and I’ll pass them on as well!

PSS. I sent the email verbatim from Molly Greene’s site and the very next day, I got an email from general ebooks that said:

“Thanks for your report!

Links was removed.

Kindly yours.”

Success, even if it’s poorly written. 😀

Weekend Edition – At the Intersection of Words and Life plus Good Reads and Writing Tips

A fantastic blog, Live to Write – Write to Live has great weekly posts and the Saturday version includes some awesome links!

Live to Write - Write to Live

At the Intersection of Words and Life

A winter landscape that provided the perfect backdrop for my writerly reflection.

I’ve noticed a theme emerging in my last few weekend edition posts. For whatever reason – where I am in my own writing journey, the usual end-of-year reflections, the muted desperation that seems to pervade the news these days – I find myself wanting to better understand how this writing thing fits into my life. I want to explore the “why” as much as the “how” and the “what.”

I am not questioning whether or not I should write. No matter what happens, I will always write. It is too much a part of who I am and too deeply embedded in how I experience the world. I may as well lose my sense of sight or hearing as lose my ability to write. Putting words down is how I give…

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Pay It Forward Friday: Elsie Elmore

Pay It Forward Fridays came from this post by Emily Guido. The idea is to feature a blogger or author on Fridays and give them a little shoutout. Anyone goes as long as they’re interested.

I’ve received an incredible amount of support from bloggers, authors and people I’ve met on line who didn’t know me and were just very kind, supportive souls. And, when I read that post by Emily Guido, I thought: time to give back.

I loved this quote from Emily’s mother:

“I cast a couple of pieces of bread on the water and the waves bring me back a ham sandwich.”

Karma is a beautiful thing.

Today, I’m focusing on Elsie Elmore.

A bright young writer who’s just starting out but is full of promise, Elise is also an incredibly kind person. She, however, describes herself with the following ‘factoids’.

Favorite color? Red, all shades. Always has been, suppose it always will be.

Favorite adult book?   There are just too many to list. But here are a few of the titles and authors I enjoy: Middle Sex by Jeffrey Eugenides, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Dracula by Bram Stoker, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.  And of course, Stephen King. That’s just to name a few.

Favorite young adult book? Michael Scott’s Alchemist series, The Heir series by Cinda Williams, Looking for Alaska by John Green were all wonderful reads. I also enjoy reading Stephanie Meyers, Suzanne Collins, Veronica Roth, Simone Elkeles, Sarah Dessen and Aprillynn Pike. And of course, J.K. Rowling.

Why do I write?  I love to breathe life into the stories drifting around my head. It’s an obsession, a passion, and an escape.

What am I working on now? THE UNDEAD, a paranormal romantic story of a 16 year-old’s encounter with the grim reaper, is complete and will be published by Curiosity Quills this fall (my official release date is September 3, 2014!!).  My Nanowrimo baby, a fairy tale retelling called RYDER AND WOLFE, is patiently waiting for me to finish edits for THE UNDEAD.  SEREN’S HEART, a magical realism story of a witch burdened with the rescue of her society, is in the rewriting stage.

Favorite season? Thanks to being raised in the south, I prefer fall. I love the crisp air and brilliant colors. But when the air becomes too crisp and snow falls, I hibernate.

Elsie has an awesome site: http://elsieelmore.com with everything from resources for writers to her books, to awesome quotes.

She has written the book titled: The Undead: Playing for Keeps

Here’s a little blurb:

When an undead woman with serious de-comp issues stalks sixteen-year-old Lyla Grimm, her hope of rescuing her rock-bottom reputation takes a back seat. Especially once Lyla’s new talent of resurrecting the dead draws the attention of Eric, a Grim Reaper with a guitar and a chip on his shoulder.
While Lyla navigates the gossip-ridden halls, Eric works to gain her trust and discover why Death’s clients aren’t staying down. If she passes on her gift, his death-messenger destiny might be altered. But the closer he gets to Lyla, the less sure he is of his plan. The dead are way easier to deal with than the living.

Gossip explodes, the Grimm family implodes, and desperation sets in. Death wants the gift and a soul. Lyla and Eric face hard choices with hidden consequences. Sometimes life’s choices aren’t really choices at all.

Click here to buy from Amazon.com and Amazon.uk or here to go to her site and check it out.

A bright new writer, full of talent. Why not check out her book?

Snow is coming…and I’m not happy.

A year ago, I clearly remember writing a post titled: Waiting for snow. I’m not waiting for snow this year. In fact, unrealistic as it may be, I’m hoping it passes us altogether. After the never-ending freezing nightmare that was last year’s Winter, I was hoping to have a short, brief, warm season (or as warm as you can get in Canada).

Notice the ‘was’? Yeap. The farmers are already predicting a long winter. And a cold one with tons of snow and freezing temperatures. That nasty Polar Vortex is supposed to be wrecking havoc all over us again.

Nuts.

This is not a Canada-only phenomenon. Check out this post by HalfEatenMind.

On the other hand, the akitas around here couldn’t be happier.

(credit: kimballstock.com)

 

The romance fairy tale

Call it Cinderella complex or not, but I’m a huge fan of the ordinary-girl-meets-dashing-prince love story. If you’re like me and love to dream through a book, check out these sites full of just those books.

Amy Alesso has this list of romances whose heroes are all princes.

http://romanceuniversity.org/2014/09/20/someday-my-prince-will-come-reader-roundup-by-amy-alessio/

All About Romance has this list of romances whose characters are royalty. Even better, they’re classified into time periods from ancient history to contemporary to alternate reality.

http://likesbooks.com/royalty.html

Go on, find a lovely romance and curl up with a book. And, if you find a great one, tell me about it so I can read it too! 🙂

Top 10 September Posts

These are the top 10 posts according to you!

10. I admitted something a little sneaky in this post.

9. My review for Prophecy of Stones was a huge hit and so is the book!

8. From a long time ago, the importance of tags for bloggers still captures reader interest.

7. This one is a TV-related post about Pride and Prejudice that created instant interest.

6. This one was a total surprise. I rambled on about my reading habits and for some reason, readers loved it!

5. Why some TV Shows rock was a definite hit with you.

4. This one is an oldie and by all rights shouldn’t be here…but this list is reader’s choice. So here it is, my take on change and why I don’t like it.

3. Posts I loved this week are always a hit. Here‘s one that everyone loved.

2. Pet lovers came out in droves for The top 10 signs you’re a dog person.

1. Finally, the top post for September wasn’t actually a surprise, 10 Things you should know before you get a dog was a huge hit with readers. Either that or they simply liked the puppy pictures. 😀

Thank you so much for reading and making September such a hit! You guys are awesome!