"Finish each day and
be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no
doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you
shall begin it well and serenely..." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson~Some Gifts for My Writer Friends:
Carol Baldwin wrote an excellent post you can see
HERE about applying the beats from Save the Cat in your novel.
When I last posted here, I offered a copy of Turn Left at the Cow to one of my readers who left a comment. It was nice to see some new readers here and one of the new readers won. Congratulations to Rebecca Petruck!! (WooHoo!) Now here is an interesting coincidence: Rebecca is an author whose debut novel, Steering Toward Normal, will release in May and just happens to be set in Minnesota and has a cow in it. How about that? I can't wait to get my hands on Rebecca's book. It looks like every bit as much fun as Turn Left at the Cow. You can learn more about Rebecca by checking out her web site by clicking HERE.
I know I took last week off, but I had family things and some writing of my own to work on. I've got some projects I'm working on that are pretty important to me, so I might take a week off now and again, but I will be here pretty regularly with book reviews and giveaways, so please keep on coming by and tell your friends who like to read this is a good place to get free books. I have another one for you today and it's a good one. I am pasting in the review I wrote for the San Francisco/Sacramento Book Review below. I think you will enjoy it. Read on to see how you can have a chance to win a nice hardcover copy of it.
The Ghost in the Glass House
 |
| Carey Wallace |
By Carey WallaceClarion Books, $16.99, 240 pages
Clare has not been home in three years, not since shortly after her father died. Her mother took Clare and began to travel the world, to be anywhere but where Clare’s father wasn’t. They find themselves in another rented home near the seaside. Everyone else from their group has seaside summer homes, but not Clare and her mother. But they have some things no one else has: a glass house and a resident ghost. The glass house is locked and Tilda, the housekeeper, claims the key has been lost. Clare’s mother finds the key, but Tilda hides it away. Clare keeps watch and discovers where the key is and makes a wax duplicate. When she enters the glass house, a disembodied voice speaks to her. Over days, the ghost, Jack, comes to depend on Clare and even to love her. When Clare tries to have time with her own friends, a complicated group, jealousy rears its ugly head.
“A faint weight covered her entire hand now, as if a leaf had fallen onto it from a tree above. It had none of the heat of Bram’s hand, but warmth spread through her from it, as if a tide had turned in her blood, drawing it all toward that place with stronger and stronger waves.”This charming ghost story, set in the roaring twenties, won’t scare anyone, but shines a light on the complications of the human condition within a lovely and mysterious book.
If you would like to have my gently-read copy of The Ghost in the Glass House, please be a follower (in the column to the right where it says "Followers" just click to Join This Site. Easy and free.), then leave a comment about the post today. Your name will go into the proverbial hat one time for that. If you want more chances, Tweet the link or post it on Facebook or some other social media sharing and tell me about it. I will put your name in the hat once more for each time you do that. This drawing is for U.S. addresses only. If you would like to hear about more marvelous middle-grade books, please hop on over to the lovely Shannon Messenger's blog by clicking HERE and checking out the list she posts for Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday.
