Six-Sentence Saturday

Hello! It's that time of week again, so here you go:


1. I'm having a minor obsession with the TV show Monk right now.

2. I cannot walk past a penny on the road without picking it up.

3. I can't WAIT to go on vacation!

4. I'm in the middle of a three-way Letter Game with my older brother and younger sister, and the story has suddenly turned dark. LOL

5. I don't much care for ear buds.

6. What does a Glede-crafter look like?


I guess the last sentence is kind of a cheating one, but that's truly the thing on my mind right now.

God bless and good night. Hope your Lent is going well.

Cat

Blog Tag!

Tag, I'm it!

I was tagged by Kelly Hashway in a game of Blog Tag! It's quite fun. The rules are:

1. You must post the rules in a new blog post.

2. Answer the questions and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.

3. Tag eleven people and link to them.

4. Let them know you’ve tagged them.

Kelly's Questions:

If you could live in a fictional world, where would that be?
Middle-earth, either in Rivendell or Hobbiton.

Do you read in noisy or quiet places?
I'm from a big family, so noisy or quiet doesn't matter. Just as long as the book is good, I'M good!

What was the first book you ever read?
Um... the first one that actually springs to mind is Ramona the Pest.

If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Gosh! Just ONE?!?! Probably The Lives of Christopher Chant.

Favourite author?
These questions are HARD! However, if I can only choose one, then it would be Diana Wynne Jones.

Do reviews influence your choice of reads?
Depends on how much I trust the reviewer. Generally, it doesn't influence me much.

Fiction or Non fiction?
Fiction for sure!

Have you ever met your favourite author?
I met ONE of my favourite authors... Brian Jacques actually came to Tahoe, and he signed my copy of Pearls of Lutra.

Audio books or Paperbacks?
Paperback... well, preferably hardback, but definitely paperback over audio.

Classic or Modern Novels?
Sorry, both!

Book Groups or Solitary Reading?
I like to read all by myself. :)

11 people to tag?

Shriek! How about...

1. Treskie over at Occasional Randomness

2. Bree over at Haystack Style

3. Amanda over at Old-Fashioned Girl

4. Kate over at Kate Constable's Blog

5. Amanda over at Born Bookish

6. Bethany over at Perched in a Tree

7. Tracey over at Words on Paper

8. Kit over at Kit Grady's Creations

9. Catherine over at Catherine Stine's Idea City

10. Elisabeth over at The Second Sentence

11. Angelia over at One Writer, Two Names

Here are my questions for youse all:

1. If you could be a book character, who would it be?

2. Superpower?

3. Do you prefer illustrated or non-illustrated novels?

4. Fantasy or Science-fiction?

5. Can you write in a noisy environment, or does it have to be quiet?

6. How many books can you read in a day?

7. Favourite author?

8. Favourite illustrator?

9. Middle-Grade or Young Adult novels?

10. One person in the world you wish you could meet?

11. One place in the world you wish you could go?

Tag eleven more people.

Tag! You're all it! Have fun. :)

Word of the Day

Today's word is a great word for writers. As writers we tend to get wordy. There are so many great words to choose from, why not use them all? We've learned, time and again, to use only one solid, concrete word instead of hundreds of "it was like" words. It's awfully hard, but it definitely makes a manuscript flow better.

So, today's word:

ad rem ad REM \ adverb, adjective;
1. Without digressing; in a straightforward manner. (adjective)
2. Relevant; pertinent.

Ad rem is a useful Latin phrase that literally means "at thing" from the roots ad and rēs.

"Jacki found it hard to write ad rem when there were so many words to choose from."

Just for fun, take the Word Dynamo quiz... how many words do you REALLY know?

Six-Sentence Saturday

We're actually dispensing with Six-Sentence Saturday because I received The Kreativ Blogger Award from The Muse over at The Writer Shade of Pale. Thank you so much!

According to the rules, I must thank the giver (thank you!) and link to his/her blog (done!) Next, I get to list 10 things about myself, and pass the award along to six other deserving bloggers. I know you all love discovering new things about me (I hope you do, anyway), so here you go:

1.) I have a borderline-adoration for Google Translate.

2.) I have a hard time moving forward with my stories unless I have a drawing - even just a quick sketch - of what they look like.

3.) I am obsessed with world-building. I have notes and notes and notes of my worlds that I've created that the reader will probably never see, but that helps me get grounded in the rules and appearance of my world.

4.) I tend to prefer British or Australian looks over American.

5.) I love accents. :-)

6.) I really enjoy sitting down with TV shows rather than full movies. Done in 45 minutes!

7.) I'm the technician over at an optometrist's office. I talk more there than I do during the weekends.

8.) I do believe in Unicorns. Sorry, but I realio trulio do.

9.) I wish I lived right next to my married sisters and brother, 'cause I'd love to see my ten nieces and nephews more frequently.

10.) Next to writing (and singing, and drawing) I think my favourite past-time is reading. I like to do "alone" things. :)


I'd like to pass the Kreativ Blogger Award along to:

Amanda at Old-Fashioned Girl

Angelia at One Writer, Two Names

Anne at Jester Harley's Manuscript Page

Gueh Yanting, Claudine at Carry Us Off Books

Marie at Poetic Bloomings

Rick at RJStarkey

Thank you again for the award!

Sorcery and Cecilia: by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

Dear Reader,

Things have been quite exciting in England for Kate and Cecy.

First off, Kate is reluctantly whisked away to London for the Season with her sister Georgina, while cousin Cecelia is left to brood alone in the country.

Then Kate stumbles into an enchanted garden during Sir Hilary's induction ceremony at Royal College of Wizards and nearly gets done to death by Miranda, a sinister woman with a chocolate pot filled with not-so-nice hot chocolate.

At the same time Cecy meets the enchanting Dorothea, the daughter of the aforementioned Miranda. Despite her mama's dragon-like manner, Dorothea is a sweet girl with a quiet demeanor who unaccountably becomes an irresistible attraction to all men.

Then Kate stumbles into an acquaintance with Thomas, the "odious" Marquis of Schofield.

And Cecy confronts James Tarleton, a young man who keeps trying (and miserably failing) to sneak about in the shrubbery and spy on Dorothea.

Next, Kate learns that there is a sinister plot involving the demise of Thomas.

Cecy realises that a chocolate pot has something to do with it all.

Miranda is involved.

So is Sir Hilary.

Thank goodness this is just an epistolary Fantasy Regency Romance, or we might be terrified!

Love,

Cat


AMAZON BOOK DESCRIPTION:

A great deal is happening in London and the country this season.

For starters, there's the witch who tried to poison Kate at the Royal College of Wizards. There's also the man who seems to be spying on Cecelia. (Though he's not doing a very good job of it--so just what are his intentions?) And then there's Oliver. Ever since he was turned into a tree, he hasn't bothered to tell anyone where he is.

Clearly, magic is a deadly and dangerous business. And the girls might be in fear for their lives . . . if only they weren't having so much fun!

My Rating: *****

Six-Sentence Saturday

Hullo, everyone!

(I love the way that word looks. I read it in Winnie-the-Pooh, and it looks so much cozier than Hello.)

Here are my six sentences, in no particular order.

1.) There was a book sale at the library today... I left with about seven books. Hurray!

2.) I really really love my Samsung Galaxy 5.0 mp3 player! It is one awesome little gadget.

3.) I've been in a brain fog... no new stories have been transpiring.

4.) I think the new Bourne Legacy looks good... it's just, yanno, that the main character is not BOURNE.

5.) I'm going on vacation in a couple weeks. Wheeeeeeee!

6.) I wish Saturdays were magically twice as long as normal days. I love my Saturdays.

That's all for now. Ta ta!

God bless.

Cat

Word of the Day

Today's word for all you wordy writers is PIACULAR.

Isn't that a beautiful word?

This is the definition, as provided by the lovely dictionary.com:

piacular \pahy-AK-yuh-ler\ , adjective:
1. Expiatory; atoning; reparatory.
2. Requiring expiation; sinful or wicked.

The word Piacular is derived from two Latin roots: pia, which is related to the word pious, and a variation of the suffix -cule which denotes a diminutive noun, like particle.

So now your goal is to use this word in a sentence. How about this?

Alicia knew her action merited a piacular action if Lanthian was ever to forgive her.

Now, just to make things interesting use that sentence in a book you are writing.

Fun? I KNOW!

God bless.

Cat

Ebenezer's Locker: Character Interview with Rhonda Zymler

Hey everybody, I'd like you to meet Rhonda Zymler, the main character of Anne Johnson's novel EBENEZER'S LOCKER.

Hello, Rhonda! Thanks for being here today.

Hi there. My mom told me to remember to say thank you for having me. So, thank you for having me.

How old are you, Rhonda?

I'm twelve. I'm in sixth grade. What grade are you in? You look like you're in high school or something.

How would you describe yourself?

I don't know. Not that good at school, I guess. But I have really cool best friends, Mica and Ashley. So that makes going to school bearable, even though I get yelled at like fifty times a day. I think I make my teachers and the principal pretty nervous.

So what can you tell us about Corbin Elementary School?

Well, it's in Marklebury, my town. I guess the building's been there basically forever, like over a hundred years. It used to be a school for psychics, though, before they turned it into a school for just, well, normal kids. I used to think it was a really boring place, but then there was this ghost who showed up. Two ghosts, actually.

When did you meet the spirits that haunt the school?

I was at my locker one morning, late for first period as usual, and I get this sort of chilly, windy feeling. And then I started seeing these notes written on my stuff, telling me to find locker 176. Which was dumb, since I have the last locker, and it's number 175. The notes were signed "Ebenezer," which is a pretty weird name unless you're watching "A Christmas Carol." So I knew something was up.

What is it about these spirits that draws you?

Oh, they don't draw me. More like I draw them. They're practically obsessed with me, it seems like. Won't leave me alone when I'm in the school building. Maybe they'll finally be happy if I can find that stupid locker that doesn't exist.

What does it feel like to travel back in time?

That's a secret. You have to read my story to find out! I was really scared to do it, but it was the only way to find the locker. My friend Mica's neighbor, Tallulah Radley, is a medium, and she decided this would help me communicate with the spirits and solve this mystery.

So Anne Johnson wrote your story, did she? Tell me, do you think she did a good job?

She's awesome. But I think she got frustrated sometimes because I kept doing things that surprised her. She's totally organized, unlike me, so it made her jumpy that I wouldn't behave. But she should have known that behaving is not one of my specialties.

As a bonus question, what's a secret about yourself that you didn't tell Anne?

I bet she doesn't know I have a banana sticker collection. You know, the oval-shaped stickers they put on bananas? I make my mom buy every single brand of bananas she can find, so I get all different stickers. My dad got me some really cool ones when he went to a law enforcement seminar in Hawaii once. As of today I have sixteen different types of banana sticker. Sixteen! I bet you don't know anybody with more than that.

When will your story be available for purchase, Rhonda?

You can buy Ebenezer's Locker as an e-book starting June 1. I'm counting every hour of every day. Because by then school will be out for the summer, too!

Thank you so much for coming over and visiting, Rhonda! I really had fun talking to you. Hey! Do you think Anne would like it if I posted links where readers can visit her?

Yeah, she definitely likes links.

Anne can be found at her website, her blog, and on Facebook and Twitter.

Anne E. Johnson's novels:Middle-grade paranormal mystery, EBENEZER'S LOCKER, MuseItUp Publishing (June, 2012)
Spacepulp sci fi, GREEN LIGHT DELIVERY, Candlemark & Gleam (June, 2012)Middle-grade historical, TROUBLE AT THE SCRIPTORIUM, Royal Fireworks Press (July, 2012)
Website: http://anneejohnson.com/
Writer's Blog: http://anneejohnson.blogspot.com/