The Great Eight by Scott Hamilton
This is a book about the love of finding something that moves your spirit and soul.
It is not a biography of one mans awesome skating career but of one man finding his true career and having that make him whole.
Scott Hamilton is one great man, not just due to the fact that he has won many medals, entertained and inspired generations to take the ice and then overcome personal battles of cancer. He now has taken the time to write this down and explain to us all how he managed to survive with grace.
I truly felt inspired by this book to do better in my own life.
I found the middle few chapters harder to read as they made me very emotional.
A good read for anyone that loves ice skating and over coming life’s challenges.
This book was given to me by the publisher Thomas Nelson for the sole purpose of being reviewed.
Review- The Moon Shines Down
The Moon Shines Down by Margaret Wise Brown.
This book is by the same author as the hugely popular picture book Goodnight Moon.
This is sure to be a classic and just as popular, the main character is cute and instantly loveable. You find yourself looking for him on every page just to see what he is up to.
This previously lost Manuscript will delight readers of all ages and based on the New England prayer “God Bless the Moon and God bless me”.
Follow along with the cutest Koala ever drawn as he travels the world spreading his love. He is showing that everyone is the same underneath and just as loved by God.
This easy to read book will inspire children all over the world to want to follow along and then read the book themselves.
The Illustrations by Linda Bleck are charming, capturing the spirit of the written word and expressing them in visual splendor. Each picture illustrates what country the koala is in without even needing to read the words, which makes this great for those children that can not yet read. The Illustrations are colorful and full of life. Readers everywhere will smile over seeing the little Joey Kangaroo holding his tail due to the brambles. With mother Kangaroo looking on with a comforting look. The Lizards, toucans, Lions and Elephants will have children asking to see the pictures again as they each have their own personality shine through.
Personally I found the story compelling and wanting me to continue on to find where the Koala would travel too next and which part of that country would be commented on.
This book was sent to me by the publisher Thomas Nelson for the purpose of a review.
House of Dark Shadows- review
House of Dark Shadows by Robert Liparulo is a twisting tale of adventure and terror when the King family move into a new house, a house with a terrifying secret.
Meet Xander, 15yo male who is a budding movie maker who suddenly gets uprooted from his home town and forced to move to Pinedale, a tiny town with no prospects of fun.
From first encounter with the house Xander gets a strange feeling of unease, things sound different and he thinks he sees a shadow figure. Against his hope for something different, his family move into this strange house that has seen better days and things start happening right away.
Foot prints on the dusty floor boards is the first sign they receive, telling them they might not be alone in the house.
Xander, his Dad and his younger brother David search the house for the owner of these foot prints and find nothing strange, yet.
It is David that finds the closet, a closet that when closed transports them to their new school, where they emerge from a locker, and find they can also return home the same way.
On their first night in the strange house, they once again see a shadow figure and follow it only to find out how different their home is.
This is an engrossing tale that keeps the reader constantly guessing until the last page.
Definately worth a read for anyone that loves a gripping tale that can be read in a weekend.
http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=1595544941
Book sent to me by the publisher Thomas Nelson for the purpose of reviewing it.
Winner!
Well, actually on Sunday I became a Winner once more in the annual NaNO challenge.
I managed to write 50,055 words in my Magicless Wizard plot, it is still not totally finished but I know what needs to be done. MY wizard story was really inspired by Criss Angel who makes people wonder if magic does exist. If wizards were real, could someone learn magic tricks well enough to fool them at their own game 
My Gnome plot got around 10,100 words and I hit a brick wall with my idea, found out that setting the murder scene inside a maze is hard when you do not have the maze drawn out
Oh well, I will keep on at it since the plot is something I have enjoyed working out. Both stories had references to llamas and the Travelling Shovel of Death did not make an apperance in either of them.
Writing Insanely
Well Nation Novel Writing Month is in full swing.
I took the plunge and am writing two novels.
First novel is fantasy titled Gnome, Ruddy Gnome, based on a garden gnome that has ben genetically changed so its living, he has to find the group that is murdering the United Nations Ambassadors. Along the way he gets pulled into a 250 year old murder case that might have some bearing on his current case.
Second novel- Magicless Wizard, about a guy who fools wizards into accepting him into a wizard college by using sleight of hand tricks, but suddenly his plans for the future change when he accidently insults a group of vampires. He is then placed in a difficult situation where he needs to work out who is on his side.
So far I have written around 6,000 words for each novel and plan to write around 3,000 words each day during the challenge. Hopefully I will be able to keep it up as well as doing the F2K writing course.
Computer works
The best way to kill a writers creative streak is to make sure her computer is not working. Even better then that is to make sure it is not working for months on end and then have it fixed only to have something else go wrong.
So after so many months I cannot remember how long, my home computer is once again working. Which is wonderful as I will be doing a 6 week creative writing course.
Less then 2 weeks before NaNO starts so I should have everything upated, installed and working before it starts.
I will be using ywriter 4 which is a great free writers software. Has all the details I need without extras that can be too distracting and fun to play with.
My trusty alphasmart 3000 will get fresh batteries, a swiffer cloth wipe down and a big kiss. It is a cheap, easy to use, take anywhere keyboard. It seriously saved me several times when my computer crashed and a copy was still on my alphasmart:)
Many have asked me if I find NaNO hard to do, well truthfully I do not find writing that much hard. 2,000 words a day seems to be my comfort zone, writing more takes alittle more effort and writing less leaves me feeling anxious to write more. Without distractions, I usually write around 8,000 in a weekend.
Where do I get my ideas? AH, such a cliche but my dreams have provided much flodder for my writing. As well experiences from childhood that stick in my mind. My fears which are usual and unusual have given me an edge on writing about being afraid. Whats my biggest fear? Strangely enough it is Lighthouses, no reason why these freak me out but they do. I have also gotten a few ideas from plot generators as well as my Dad who thinks I should use blye ringed octopus as a deadly weapon.
Another day of the conference
Things are still going smoothly, I am learning alot in the Dialog workshop.
Building your characters workshop is also proving to be worth the time spent doing it.
From everything I have learned over the last 4 days I finally have set in my mind what I will be writing for the National novel writing month.
I just need to do some research and everything will be set.
Press release
M E D I A R E L E A S E
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: P.G. Leja
E-mail: p.g.leja@gmail.com
Writers’ conference, Muse 2008 online writers conference, educates new novelists.
Online source–The multi award wining writers website Museitup Club has once again pulled off a star studded list of professionals to aide new and experienced writers with the Muse 2008 online writers conference.
First time attendee and unpublished write P G Leja is blogging her experience of the Book Marketing on the internet workshop.
This workshop is design to help writers of all standards reach more readers and gain a better networking platform to launch their books.
Read about P.G Leja’s experience at http://pgleja.wordpress.com
To learn about the Online conference:
http://www.themuseonlinewritersconference.com/index.htm
P.G Leja writes in the fantasy, horror and mystery genres. She has several manuscripts already written and are under going revision and editing. She is an active member of kiwiwriters.org
Learn more about at P.G Leja go to http://pgleja.wordpress.com or contact her web address: p.g.leja@gmail.com.
