U, U, U…

Dear reader,

Sometimes in this craziness that we call life, we need to stop and enjoy whatever moment we are currently in.  You’ve been on this month long journey with me for 25 days now, and I would like to thank you for joining – and continuing – with me.  So, as a way to celebrate, I’ve decided to join Mr. Lewis Carroll and the Mad Hatter and wish you a “VERY, MERRY UNBIRTHDAY”!!

First, let’s have some tea…

Then some delicious cake…

…now, kick back, relax, and take a moment to

just enjoy the day!

Happy Unbirthday!  🙂

For treasure and thieves…

Good morning dear readers!  How are you?  I’m tired…stayed up too late last night reading.  🙂

Anywhooo….I wish today’s book review involved my finding a map to the Lost Dutchman Mine (I live in Arizona, not far from the Superstition Mountains).  Unfortunately for me, this review does NOT include the map!  😦

T is for thieves today, not treasure.  To be specific,  “The Thieves of Faith” by Richard Doetsch.  This  novel is a thriller, involving the lead character named Michael St. Pierre and the country of Russia.  It’s 527 pages of a race that will take the reader from the Italian Alps to Scotland to Russia to Corsica – all in the hopes of stopping a madman, and preserving faith.  Sounds interesting, doesn’t it?

It’s a pretty decently written novel, and the story keeps a nice pace.  Unfortunately, it’s not a story that stood out for me, nor did it make me think about the story and/or characters long after I’d finished reading it. But it is mildly interesting, and runs along the same vein as Brown’s “Da Vinci Code”.  Give it a try, dear reader, if you have some time to kill and like thrillers combined with religion.  You may really like it!

Happy reading!  🙂

Book review for S day

The letter S review for today is the book called “Sanctus” by Simon Toyne. The copy I have was published in 2011, but I bought it from a used bookstore called “Bookmans”. The book tops out at 594 pages – not an afternoon quick read! I read and finished this book over a five days (had to work, after all LOL), and enjoyed it.

The book centers on a religious group located in Turkey called the Sancti, who are the guardians of what’s supposed to be the oldest relic of Christendom. Now, no one outside of a select group of Sancti even know what the relic is. So, one would naturally assume that this book is running along the lines of Brown’s “Da Vinci Code”, right? Wrong! There are actually three different things going on in the book. Yes, you have this group of religious monks, but you also have a group of people who are following a prophesy and trying to get the relic, and there’s also a Turkish police officer and woman (who turns out to be the sister of one of the select monks) who are trying to figure out why one of the monks climbed to the top of a mountain above the Citadel and then jumped to his death. Mr. Toyne does an EXCELLENT job of marrying these three together, and the story will keep you moving along and staying engaged with it. I’m a person who likes to see if I can guess the ending before I actually get there – I was SO. FAR. OFF. as to what the relic actually is that it wasn’t even funny! Brilliant falling action & resolution! I DID. NOT. see it coming!

Get the book. Don’t let the number of pages scare you off from it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Here’s to wondeRing…

Hello dear readers! Long time no showing up! Yes, today is letter R day, and I am wondeRing what to do with WordPress. ~sigh~

You see, I created posts for the letters O, Q, and P on my laptop. Scheduled them to be posted on the appropriate days, and went about my business. Imagine my surprise when I discovered NONE OF THEM POSTED, which made me think that my laptop was beginning to show its age.

So today’s post is being created on my desktop computer. I’ve already noticed on my other blog that WordPress was acting up. Hopefully this means it’s a WordPress issue and not a personal laptop issue (fingers are crossed).

The letter R also stands for reading…and I did some of that over the weekend! Not nearly as much as I would have liked, but beggars can’t be choosers and as long as I read, that’s the important thing. Do you have any favorite books you think I should read? If so, I would love to hear from you! Until tomorrow…

Happy Reading! 😀

A No Day

Have you ever had a No kind of day? I did yesterday. It seemed like every time I turned around I was either saying that word, or being told that word EVERY WHERE I WENT.

No, you may not jump in the cactus…

No, you may not use one word to answer your math word problem…

No, we do not have a copy of that book…

No, we’re out of expresso – our machine broke down…

When I sat down to work on my novel last night, I was reminded that…

Here’s hoping O Day will be better! LOL 😀

M is for Meandering…

Come and meander for a ways my dear.

Let us see what we can see.

And know that you will always be

forever a part of me.

J, Fabulous J…

How awesome is this?  I CAN POST IMAGES AGAIN!!!!!  Yes, I might be a little too happy right now, but you should have seen me yesterday!  LOL  Unfortunately for me, I’m trying to find reading a book for my book club that meets Saturday and I just don’t have a lot of time.  So, dear reader, I thought I would present some images for your viewing pleasure from the state of Arizona.  Who knows?  Maybe one of them will inspire your muse to create something!  🙂

Travel up to…

Look closely…can you see the petroglyphs?

What travels under the cover of water?

What might come from between the stones?

Create!  If you don’t like it, you can always change it.  As the picture says… 🙂

 

 

I is for irritating. I is for irascent. I is for Incredibly annoying!!!

Did you know that there is a website that you can go to and find all the words (I think) in the English language that begin with the letters of the alphabet?  I didn’t.  But since WordPress and I are NOT getting along right now (I can’t post pictures – any pictures! WHAT. THE. HECK!!!!!!!!), I googled “words that begin with the letter I to describe becoming angry”.  Voila!  New website found!   So, according to this website I am becoming irascent (enraged or angry) because WordPress is intenible (unable to hold or retain my images).

If you’re interested, here’s the website URL

http://phrontistery.info/i.html

This website will prove useful to me in my writing.  Looks like WordPress may have done me a favor today!  LOL

I hope you have a better Thursday than I’m having!  🙂

How did it get to be G already?????

Today is the letter G, and I am trying to figure out where the alphabet and month of April is going too!  Maybe it’s because two of my blogs are participating in the Blogging A to Z Challenge, but it seems like the month is flying by.  Goodness…

Today’s book is “Ghosts in the Snow” by Tamara Siler Jones.  I would recommend it if you like fantasy, ghosts or murder mysteries, because this book contains elements from the genres fantasy and mysteries, with troublesome ghosts and a serial killer thrown in.  The main character is a man who sees the ghosts of those who have been murdered, and must find the serial killer before he kills again.  There is quite a bit of violence in the book (as serial killers often create), and so if you prefer talking bunnies and sparkly vampires do not read this book.  If, however, you’re looking for a different type of fantasy novel that involves a serial killer – check out your local library for “Ghosts in the Snow”.

Happy reading!  🙂

E and F – a combo blog post

                           

E and F – sounds like some kind of musical combo, doesn’t it?  LOL  Well…I am embarrassed to say that I was so busy Saturday I completely forget to do the post for the letter E!  So…we have a combo!  🙂

E is for ebooks – do you like them?  I don’t – I’m a traditionalist, I guess you could say.  I love the weight of a book in my hand, the feel of the paper as I turn the pages, the smell of the paper and ink.  I can take a book with me anywhere, and don’t have to worry about rain, sand, having my book stolen, dropping it on the ground, or dropping it in the bathtub when I’m taking a bubble bath!  I’ve read ebooks, but reading them on my laptop is NOT the same as reading the real thing.  However, I do know that ebooks are very popular, and I am willing to concede that I might enjoy them more if I had a Kindle, Nook, tablet or IPad to read them on.  But teachers don’t make a lot of money, and having one of those is not a priority for me right now.

I spent my Sunday afternoon helping a dear friend of mine (F is for Friends!) host a political candidate meet and greet at his home.  Political meet and greets are not my idea of a fantastic way to spend a Sunday afternoon, but being with friends….well, that IS my idea of a wonderful Sunday afternoon.  I had several fascinating conversations with the other guests, and observed some interesting body language in the candidates.  Some of this afternoon’s experiences will definitely make their way into my writing!

Happy Monday!  🙂