That sounds so cool. I wish it was me but it's my current read. I haven't posted anything lately of what I'm reading mainly because I haven't been reading. I can give a million excuses but the truth is with the overload of classes I took last semester (mostly biology courses) I was come completely burnt out of the written word. I know! I didn't think it was possible. I'm back though. I found a delightful ebook on Kindle for my favorite price of FREE. (Don't you love the freebies?) I picked this book because it speaks to me. As corny as that sounds, I'm fascinated with the whole homesteading way of life. I love to learn how to do things the old way. Don't get me wrong. I love my hot water showers and my internet but it's also pretty nifty to learn how to make bread, put up corn, and dip a candle or two. Just one of those hobbies I like to put myself and my poor children through. These things have actually come in handy a time or two. 


Anywho, back to my point. (I'm so good at getting sidetrack these days) My current read is called Letters of a Woman Homesteader . Here's a brief description thanks to an Amazon.com poster:

 "The writer of the following letters is a young woman who lost her husband in a railroad accident and went to Denver to seek support for herself and her two-year-old daughter, Jerrine. Turning her hand to the nearest work, she went out by the day to work as a housecleaner and laundress. Later, seeking to better herself, she accepted employment as a housekeeper for a well-to-do Scottish cattleman, Mr. Stewart, who had taken up a quarter-section in Wyoming. The letters, written through several years to a former employer in Denver, tell of her new life in the new country. They are genuine letters, and are printed as written, except for occasional omissions and alterations of names." 

The letters begin in 1909, apparently right after a homestead act made it possible for the author, Elinore Pruitt Stewart, to claim a homestead of 160 acres in Wyoming. Ms. Stewart is a very resourceful woman as well as a wonderful story-teller. She explains that she never received formal education but she refers to current literature so I am guessing that she has learned to write from her interest in reading. Apparently she was a prolific author in her time and one of her descendants has published a book about her. (There are pictures of her on the web and more information if you want to know more about her.) 

Elinore has a cheerful and pragmatic approach to life making her well-written letters a lot of fun to read. She mostly writes about events, usually involving meeting some of the other inhabitants of the area, ranging from mountain men to Mormons. She loves to go camping and several times recounts setting out on her horse with her baby and camping in the wilderness. She brings very little supplies, catching trout and snaring rabbits for food. She also does some description of her everyday life which apparently was very busy and full of hard work but she always describes it as fulfilling. "

So that's my new reading in a nutshell. It is quite addictive and I've felt like she's pulled me back in time with her words. Sometimes I swear I can hear the wind or the wolves. I love books like this. Happy New Year and happy reading everyone. 

The Blood-Red Pencil: Busted!—Stephenie Meyer caught doing something right


Before anyone starts rolling their eyes, read this article. Great take on why sometimes NOT following the rules can create great work. I write what comes to me. It does not always follow the rules as far as form and structure. If the story comes to me and demands a fragment, then by golly that's what it'll have.


I've noticed that no matter what is out there to read, there is someone to praise AND criticize the work. Books are like everything else in our lives...subjective. We all come from different places in our lives. We live in different areas, sure, but I'm referring to our emotional places. We've all experienced different things in life. We are experiencing different things this very moment. Most importantly we all read for very different reasons. Some of us for pure entertainment. Some of us for escape from a harsh real world. Some of us for educational purposes. Some of us to develop our own writing style. Some of us for intellectual stimulation. No matter what reason we chose, it is different for all of us. Yet we all have the desire of each of these at some point in our lives.


Then why is that we criticize someone like Stephenie Meyer when she breaks the rules and doesn't fall in line with the others? After all, do we read things that our English teachers would have considered proper? I can't speak for everyone but I certainly do not. My reading list is so varied that I can't put myself into a category. I would venture to say that's true for most of us, if not all of us. In my reading, the writers have such variety of styles both in grammar and style that I can not pick a favorite because each style is as individual as each of us. For me, books are like my friends. Each has its own personality and style.

I couldn't really explain my addictive reading of the Twilight series to start with. After this article, I get it now. It wasn't the vampire aspect at all. It was that Meyer provided such tension, such desire, such creativeness that I wanted more. There was no quick resolution to anything. I like that. I miss that. Many of the books I've read since, at least the romantically inclined that is, have their characters in bed before chapter 3 and then drag out the conflict afterwards. I like that Meyer makes the sexual tension part of the conflict. Call me old fashion but I love the playing hard to get part especially since it is the hero's decision in this case and not the uptight heroine. I don't know why that is so appealing to me but it is.

Anywho, read the article over at The Blood-Red Pencil. Just remember, sometimes a slow walk through the park is more enjoyable than a sprint. :)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Jim glanced over at Mr. Matchmaker. Adrian Vogel was the reason he’d ended up here, and the Iron Mask was definitely the guy’s scene: Ad was dressed in black from head to toe and had piercings in places most people didn’t want needles anywhere around.~By JR Ward

I haven't started this one yet but I'm eager to start. I'm trying to work my way to it.


Now it's your turn! PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your 2 ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: 

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers

So I watched them move smoothly forward noticing other things about them. How they stayed in a perfect diamond formation that never was the slightest bit out of line no matter how the terrain changed under their feet." ~the short second life of bree tanner an eclipse novella

I just had to see for myself. (Not real impressed at this moment but I just started.

So what's yours?

Just some advice from a great author (yes, that may be a matter of opinion but hey I think so)




"I can do better than this, and this got published!"

It's Memorial Day weekend! The official start of summer. With the grand opening of summer, several sites are listing their summer reading lists, recommendations, and even a few challenges. I've never participated in a reading challenge of any kind. I didn't want to break into the wonderful world of reading challenges with no experience at all. So what is there for a novice to do? Start her own. Well, start my own for myself. I decided that I would create my own challenge to practice with.

First step: What kind of challenge do I want to give myself?
There's as many different kinds of challenges as there are genres and books. Do I simply want to set a certain number of books to read? That sounds kind of boring or plain or just down right too simple. Do I want to pick a genre? or multiple genres? That sounds good.

Second step: What's my personal time frame?
Summer Reading Challenge should consist of, well, summer. Since this is the weekend that officially starts summer I'll pick Monday, May 31st to start with. To finish it off with the same "theme" I'll finish it out with the closing of summer which is officially Labor Day Weekend. That's Monday, September 6th. Now I got a time frame: of almost a hundred days. WOW! 99 days...

Third step: What's my plan?
This is where I'm lost. I got my days set. I know I want to read different genres but how many books can I read and enjoy in that time frame AND still enjoy the family and they enjoy me?

Here's my choices...

Plan A: Read 10 books from 10 different authors
Plan B: Read 10 books from 10 different genres
Plan C: Read as many books as I can in by one author in a HUGE series
Plan D: Read 10 books, 10 genres, and 10 different authors
Plan E: Read 10 + books from the plethora of books in my TBR list.

That's the one...Plan E! As I've said before, I have a huge addiction to buying  books and now that Amazon has free Kindle downloads it's even worse than before. I'll just have to go through and pick out my top 10 I want to finish this summer and then go from there.( Usually 10 books in a summer is a piece of cake but I'm also taking 2 classes this summer so I need to be realistic.)

So what's your summer reading plans? Are you joining a challenge? Have you created a list to get through this summer? Or if you have any suggestions, please comment and let me know what your ideas are. I could really use some help.  

Happy Memorial Day! Stay safe, have fun, and happy reading!

I have a major book collecting addiction. I have books everywhere and they aren't just limited to the physical forms that encase the place I call my room. With the addition of the Kindle app on my iPhone, I now have a plethera of books at my disposal at all times. Especailly since Amazon.com offers free books weekly. So at this moment I have more books than I can possibly read this year with a list of books to be released this year that I really want to read. Add to that the fact that I am taking classes and have tons of required reading, I'll never get through it all. So how do I stop myself? I need a 12 step program for book buying/getting addiction. Unfortunately, I know of no such thing and with my luck they'd have books to go along with the program and I'd be right back at square one. I'll continue my semi-fight to literary freedom (well, truthfully no I'll continue to aquire more than I can handle)...Meanwhile, here's a list of the ones I've picked up of late:




























































There's a bunch more but I won't bore you with the long list. In any case, I'm either going to have to drop off the planet and read for the next year, quite all together, or find some kind of middle ground to live my life, read, and stay on top of my want to read list. Life is such a burden. ha! ha! Happy Reading!

There's quite a bit of material out there for aspiring writers. It can be confusing to wade through it all and sometimes, more often than not, its repetitive mumbo jumbo we've heard before. I found a website that has a little of everything in it regarding all things writing. While this blog is mostly for my own amusing muse moments I thought I'd share

100 free and useful web apps for writers

100 Time-Saving Search Engines for Serious Scholars

How to Improve your English Writing Through Free Lectures

75 Books Every Writer Should Read

There. It's not groundbreaking material nor is it anything really new but it is a great all in one place resource for finding ideas, research help and much more. I'm mostly saving this for me...a place for me to remember where it is but if you stumble upon it and get use out of it...well, great. And if you stumble across it and think, "Well I know a better place to look!" please let me know.

I use an online bookshelf to keep track of things I read (that's it over there on the right--->>). I stumbled acrossed it last year and fell in love with it. aNobii.com A quick rundown: You enter the books you've read, you are reading, you want to read, and even review books. You can check out other peoples shelves, read their reviews, and even see your compatability. My favorite feature is the Groups. Groups are  based on your interests. Its fun. One I belong to is a 50 Book Challenge. Some people do more. Some do less. Either way its a fun way to keep yourself accountable.

One of the members has added a twist to their challenge. They're going to blog each of their books. I thought this was a wonderful idea. I'll give it a go here. It'll help me come up with content for this blog. Plus it'll combine my two great loves: reading and writing. I always look for excuses to combine the two.

Looking back at 2009, (at least since I joined the site sometime in late spring, early summer), I've read 34 books (not counting text books) equalling 13,525 pages. Probably not alot for most but I impressed myself. Especially in the short time I recorded my reading list not to mention the countless pages of text material I covered last year.

Looking ahead to this year, I set my goal for the 50 books. I hope to pass ithat. No. I know I will pass that. More importantly, I have set a goal to read more variety. This past year I allowed myself to get caught up in the Paranormal Romance genre (aka vampire love stories). I'm not big on romance. I suppose when they threw in a few gory fight scenes they hooked me. So for 2010, I'll branch out.

At the moment, I'm reading On Writing by Stephen King (love this one) and The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr (this one I'll reread forever). I'm attempting my first audiobook with Dan Brown's The Symbol. I've never made it through one because the narrator's irk me. I'm going to look past that or at least attempt to. I spend a good half hour in the car one way Monday through Friday. I should put that time to good use.

That's my plan. At least my reading plan. I've been writing as much as reading. A writer friend and professor here where I work gave me some great advice last year. Just do it. Don't think. Just write. So far this year, its working. But that's a story for the other blog.

Happy New Year and Happy Reading!

As with this time every year, I find myself not only reflecting on the year that is passing but also focusing on the up coming year. This year was my reading revival year. Loving to read is one thing but dedicating and finding time to read hasn't always been a priority. This year I made time to read, even if only for a few minutes (which usually turned into a few hours) at bedtime. With the coming year I want to continue to find the time or rather make the time to read for pleasure and personal growth. With one year left on my degree I'll be focusing quite a bit on required reading in the fun and fascinating fields of Science and Math (never put of your least favorite subjects til the end...it will come back and bite you). However, I plan to squeeze in some leisure reading (as well as writing). With that in mind here's a small list of what I've planned for the very first month of 2010.

"On Writing" by Stephen King

Technically I've already started this one. So far its great. Fascinating even. I love to learn how people get where they are. King lays it out there and doesn't bother to pretty it up. Which I respect and prefer in autobiographies/how to books.

Since the holidays are in full swing, I more than likely will not get this one finished before the New Year.


The Cape Refuge Series By Terri Blackstock

This is one of her earlier series but after reading the Restorations series, I can't wait to dive into this one. Terri Blackstock writes beautiful real life characters. Blackstock left the mainstream romance genre and dug her feet into the Christian fiction genre and thank God she did because her books leave you laughing, crying, and thinking. Her books aren't all about the sunshine and roses and I have yet to find an Amish settlement in her books. (Just a thing I have about Christian fiction, seems to have to involve an Amish settlement in someway). There's murder, theivery, deception, love, and a whole lot of the characters digging deep inside themselves in very realistic struggles. Terri Blackstock definately has a grasp on being a Christian in modern society.



Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot

Well actually I've already read the Queen of Babble but I indend on reading the second and third books: Queen of Babble in the City and Queen of Babble gets Hitched. These are some seriously light hearted reading. But I love them. I love Cabot's writing because its quick, light, and lets you get lost in a whole bunch of fun and zanniness that I think we as adults forget to have from time to time.

Cabot is best known for her Princess Diaries series.



There's a few others such as:

The Elements of Styl By Willaim Strunk Jr.
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
First Drop of Crimson by Jeaniene Frost
Hey Yeah Righ Get A Life by Helen Simpson
Vanish by Tom Pawlik
Already Dead: A Novel by Charlie Huston
Unbreakable by Sydney Somers
The Keeper by Sara Langan
The Mammoth Book of Irish Romance by Tricia Telep

There's at least a good start to the New Year. If it weren't for the whole having to eat, sleep, work, and interact with the real world I could get a pretty good dent in those books. Something I've learned this year after staying up half the night multiple times just dying to get to the end of a good book, is that some books are like a good wine or a warm soup on a very cold day, its better to take your time and savor the good stuff. With that in mind, I am not setting a numeric goal for 2010 but rather a quality goal. I want to read good things and those that are bad I want to finish and figure out what made them bad. Best of luck in the coming year and happy reading!

Hello there! I've had the summer off from classes for the first time in I don't know how long so I got bored and started reading one day. That was either a big mistake or the best step ever. I've not been able to put down a book since then. I've found myself drawn to and hopelessly addicted to Paranormal Romance. Not really sure how that happened since I never really liked Romance books to start with but it happened and I'm not going to fight it.

As a lot of us late bloomers to the Paranormal Romance arena, I stumbled on to it by breaking down while fighting insomnia and reading the Twilight Saga. I liked it and at the time it was the best I'd read ever. Then I attempted to make myself read The Host. I picked it up like 4 times before making myself push through the first 4 chapters and then I was hooked.

Then by some odd chance I was surfing through an ebook retailer that had a bundle of these books that looked somewhat interesting and since I had some credit I bought them. Let me just say that we never know that a simple choice make will alter our universe until its too late. Who? What? You ask? An extremely talented writer name Jeaniene Frost and a little series called The Night Huntress Series: Halfway to the Grave; One Foot in the Grave; & At Graves End. I'll go on about them more later. My point with those are simply, I had no idea that there was someone out there who got it. The humor, the action, the romance, and the human side of the paranormal. ha! ha! The series is addictive and I've been waiting to get the 4th one that comes out later this month. I've moved on while waiting to the Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Series featuring Sookie Stackhouse. While I'm not a fan of the TruBlood series I've grown to be in love with the world of Bon Temps and its creative inhabitants. (I'll review some of them at some point)

As for now, I'm just getting caught up in the world of paranormal romance. I'll keep you posted on my progress and please feel free to let me know your opinions or even give me some suggested reading material. I love getting lost in the world of make believe where the boogyman is prince charming!