Saturday, October 20, 2012

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LENNY LEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That super cool, bodacious, friend to this writer and all folks who have ever known him turns all teenagery today. Please join me as I tell you the ten words that say what I like about Lenny and as I reminisce with ten things about what he has taught me about living. *ahem*


10. Thoughtful!
  9.  Kind!
  8. Generous!
   7. He's a writer!!!!! (Well that's three in one sentence. But. Need I say more??)
   6. Concerned!
   5. Gentle!
  4. Peaceful!
  3. Creative!
  2. Wordsmith!
  1. Best pal! He's always there to listen to me through my emails. No matter what. He listens.

10. Lenny has taught me that coolness comes in all shapes and sizes. (Cause he's waay cool!)
 9.  Super Lenny (A story I wrote for him) has shown me that it's very awesome to be there for your writing pals whenever they might need you for critique or anything else for that matter. (He's always lending a super Lenny hand.) 
 8.  He's taught me that the Falcons are a SUPER DE DUPER team to pull for and is very sorry for me when my Dolphins lose. (And that's been quite a lot in the last couple years.) My point being that he truly feels bad when a friend is down. Then he does his best to cheer the friend up. And he's a BRAVES fan, so he HAS to be cool. (Dadgum Braves lost.) Sorry 'bout that Lenny! (I feel it was because I gave Mayhew a hard time when the Braves beat her team, the Cardinals.) *payback* They beat the Braves when it counted. *sigh* (She did not give me a hard time back.) *humbled*
 7. He's taught me it's ALWAYS better to wear a smile. I can feel his smile through his posts, etc. (He has a smiley face on his blog.) How cool is that??
 6. Lenny taught me to enjoy all the moments of life. The big and the little ones. 
 5. He has shown me that friendship is give and take. And he is SUCH A GIVER! 
 4. He showed me just how cool words are recently in a blog post. Did y'all read that awesome post? If not. You need to. Here's the linkage: Lenny's World.
 3. Lenny taught me that we all need to laugh at ourselves once in a while. 
 2. He showed me there is always something to encourage someone about. I guess, because he's been so encouraging to me.
 1. Lenny taught me it's always waay better to LOVE ONE ANOTHER! Love and friendship walk together. Hand in hand. He's a true blue friend.

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TRUE BLUE FRIEND!!!!!!!!!!!! HAVE A BODACIOUS DAY AND I HOPE YOU ARE CHUFFED ALL THE YEAR LONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, October 15, 2012

THE MERMAN AND THE MOON FORGOTTEN

Shall we get to my review? Psst. YOU GOTTA GET THIS BOOK, PEEPS!

Written by Kevin McGill, this book which is book one in the series, stands above most fantasy reads that I see nowadays.

Y'all trust me right? This book is so much fun to read, you will be sad when your time with these well thought out characters is over. You want engaging?? You got it! You want fast paced?? You got it! Want great characters and humor on top of that?? You got it! The MERMAN AND THE MOON FORGOTTEN, with its wonderful illustrations by Carlyle McCullough flows easily from one scene to the next, which makes for easy reading. The first two to three chapters are a little confusing, but then the story gets supercalafragalistical, peeps! Kevin is a magical user of onomatopoeia which I loved. Grung, grung, grung, grung, grung, grung. He's a master at this. From the sound of grinding chains to PHFIT! Bodacious! With merpeople and characters you actually pull for. Especially 14 year-old Nick who wants to return to the moon. Kevin plops you right into his world of hovercars and lizardskin. There'sadeadbodyheadonmylap! There'sadeadbodyheadonmylap! Excellent! I was thoroughly tickled to visit Kevin's fantasy world. His writing style is awesome too. I felt as though I would see a creature standing next to me any moment. He pulled me in and never let me go until I sadly finished the story. I really didn't mind waiting on the next installment, because I know I get to be in Kevin's vivid, imaginative, world once again.

Episode two is out and I cannot wait to get my hands on it. Yippee!!!!!!!!! Want to go and visit? Here's some linkage to get you on your way.Thanks for the ride Kevin!

The place to be for all your Nikolas and Co needs

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Amazon. Go buy it!

Guys Can Read

Thursday, October 11, 2012

And Heere She is, Folks. Deborah Heal! (Drum roll or music)

 I'm today's stop on the bloggy train for Deborah Heal's YA book, Unclaimed Legacy. There is a guest post from the lovely author herself following my review. 

"I call it time-surfing," Abby said. "It's like being there,
 except no one can see or hear us."

"Whatever you call it," John said, "that was crazy--what we just did.
 Beyond realistic. I mean, I was in that guy's head
and knew everything he was thinking."

Abby's weird computer program is working again. And it comes in handy when they agree to help the Old Dears next door with their family tree. Except Abby and John learn more about one of the ladies' ancestors than they ever wanted to know. Convicted in 1871 of murder and arson, Reuben Buchanan is a blight on the family's reputation. But was he really guilty? Abby and John get inside the mind of a murderer to find out.

But while they're rummaging around in the Old Dears' family history, they discover the truth of God's promise to bless a thousand generations... and a legacy waiting to be reclaimed.

My review: 

Merrideth (Merri) and Abby have come across a remarkable computer program that was installed on Merrideth's computer. So now they can make a simulated trip back into time to see how life was for the people who lived there. The story centers around the fact that they can't get the program to work in the Miles Station home. Could there be a virus? 
This book is beautifully written and extraordinarily fun and exciting to read. Deborah plops us right into the story with her vivid descriptions and strong characterizations. I fell in love with all of the characters and felt as though I knew Merrideth and Abby personally. John is utterly awesome and I wholeheartedly recommend you read both of these super fantastic stories. 

Now for the guest post:           


I’m grateful for the crew of volunteers who worked so hard to preserve a bit of local history with the careful restoration of Sand Bank School in Columbia, Illinois. Built during the 1850s, it stands on the site of an even earlier school, a log cabin built in 1801 to serve the original seventeen families pioneering in the area. Perched on a hill overlooking the Mississippi Valley, the one-room schoolhouse looks like the sort of place (to me anyway) that might be a portal for time travel. Every time I visit a historical site, I start imagining the people who lived and died there, wishing I could go back to just see what it was like. (Maybe if I went back to the school when the sun was down and all the visitors were gone…?)
I’ve always loved thinking about the “olden days.” I thought about them a lot, growing up in the tiny once-upon-a-time village of Woodburn, Illinois. How could I not, living in a house with the date 1874 carved into its soft red brick?



My siblings and I acted as amateur historians when we collected arrow  heads Native Americans had left behind for our chickens to scratch up centuries later. We explored the old, nearly forgotten roads. On one, we found a barn where an old stagecoach was being kept out of the rain. (Sorry for trespassing, Mr. Stevens. We couldn’t help it.) And we listened to the stories about how the Woodburn had once bustled back in the day with its stagecoach inn, blacksmith shop, stores, mill, and brick factory.

We heard how the stages used to pass through on their way from Springfield down to Alton and how Abraham Lincoln sometimes stayed at the inn. I heard the stories and read the scant entries in the Macoupin County History Book and I wished that I, like our chickens, could scratch up more clues to the past. I wished men and women had written more about their lives. I wished I could see for myself. I wished Mr. Peabody would loan me his WABAC Machine.
I never found the way back. But the beauty of fiction is that my characters can. In Time and Again, I allow Abby and Merrideth to see it all exactly the way it really was when a girl named Charlotte lived in their old house as part of a bustling village. And while Abraham Lincoln didn’t spend the night there, he did sit down to a nice meal Charlotte cooked. I always thought it would be cool to go back to see if I resembled my great, great, great grandparents. Alas, I don’t know the way. But, in Unclaimed Legacy, I let Abby and John go back to uncover heroes in their friends’ family tree.
I’m not sure where I’ll let them go next. But I’ll have fun thinking it up. I can’t go back myself, but that’s all right, for now.

Thank you Deborah. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed meeting you and reading these wonderful stories. 



Bio

Deborah Heal is the author of the young adult novel Time and Again. She lives in Waterloo, Illinois, where she enjoys reading, gardening, and learning about southern Illinois history. She is married and has three grown children, three grandchildren, and a canine buddy named Scout (a.k.a. Dr. Bob). Currently, she is working on book three in the Time and Again trilogy.
You may learn more about the author by visiting her website: www.deborahheal.com, her  Facebook Fan Page, and Goodreads. Her books may be purchased on Amazon.com.




CLICK TO LEARN MORE:




About the Author
            Her house: http://www.deborahheal.com
            Deb's facebook: http://facebook.com/DeborahHeal



Where to buy the books     
            Amazon
            Barnes & Noble










(Psst. There's a giveaway, peeps!) 



Win a copy of Time and Again, the first book in the trilogy. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Leave a comment telling me why you want to win a copy of this exceptional story. For additional chances to win, see Deborah Heal’s official website and LIKE her Facebook Fan Page.
Excerpt (from Time and Again)
“No…There’s no way that would work. I mean no one could invent a software program that could do that. No way.”
“What are you talking about?” Merrideth said, staring at her.
Abby didn’t answer, but taking the mouse from Merrideth, she placed the cursor on the View icon on the menu bar and clicked. “This is so similar to my brother’s architecture program,” she began, “that maybe we’ll be able to …”
When she clicked on Flip, both girls simultaneously gasped. “…do this,” Abby said with satisfaction.
The screen view had rotated on its vertical axis and now they were seeing the back side of Colonel Miles’ house. White sheets on a clothesline snapped in the wind. A young woman in a long blue dress and bonnet was stooping to pull a wet sheet from the wicker basket at her feet. A gray cat came out of the barn and, stepping delicately through the wet grass, cautiously bypassed the flapping sheets to lay in the sun on the back step.
After a moment of stunned silence, Merrideth said, “It’s her! It’s Charlotte.”
Excerpt (from Unclaimed Legacy)
Merri leaned forward and studied the monitor and then, laughing, said, “It’s them.”
Frowning, John looked closely at the monitor. “That’s crazy. This is just a computer program. It can’t be them.”
“See the resemblance? Just project forward fifty to sixty years,” Abby said. “That’s definitely Beulah and Eulah.”
“Boo and Yoo,” Merri said. “Get it?”+
“That’s insane! No one could make a program that could—”
“We don’t know what this is or where it came from. All I know is that it’s awesome,” Abby said. “And we really are seeing Beulah and Eulah back in the forties—you got the bit about food rationing, didn’t you? And if you think that’s wild, just wait until you see what happens when we lock onto one of them and go virtual mode.” 
 “Virtual mode? Show me.”
Abby smiled smugly and turned back to the controls. “Okay, John. Hold onto to your hat.”
First, there was a confusing blur of color and whirring sounds and then…

Here's the rest of the tour y'all: (Forgive the formatting)

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