Thought for the Day:
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane
takes off against the wind, not with it.”
~ Henry Ford ~
Gifts for My Writer Friends:
This is such an important post on point of view. Janice Hardy at Fiction University discusses the significance of prior knowledge HERE as it relates to point of view. Don’t miss this one.
Need to cut words? I know I do. The post HERE on Adventures in YA Publishing will help you get there.
The Editor’s Blog has a great post HERE called Piling On - Frustrate Your Characters. This is a good one.
Things have been difficult this week. My husband, who came home from the hospital last Saturday, went back into the hospital on Friday for an even more serious problem, an obstructed colon, which will require at least one surgery. The good news is I have great confidence that a terrific team of doctors and nurses has been put together to deal with this issue, and Dave will come out of this much healthier. Feel free to send healing thoughts. I will take all the help we can get. This week's quote is really for me, but I hope you all find something in it for you as well.
Last week I offered an ARC of The Terrible Two Get Worse to one of you. This week's winner is Jenni Enzor, an Oregon writer of YA historical fantasy, middle grade mysteries, and historical non-fiction. If you aren't familiar with her, hop on over to her blog HERE and check it out. You will find some great reviews there. Congratulations, Jenni! I will get your book out to you as soon as I can.
I don't have a giveaway this week. Most of my books are packed away for the move (will that ever happen????), but I do have a review of a very fun book for you. I love folk tales and fairy tales and I LOVE the British Isles, so when I ran across The Adventures of Hamish and Mirren: Magical Scottish Stories for Children as a choice for the Manhattan Book Review, I jumped on it. Here is my review for them.
Hamish lives with his old mother on a farm by a silvery loch, near the small village of Camusbuie, on the west coast of Scotland. Mother tells Hamish a lot of stories, but he doesn’t believe all that nonsense. One day, a big wind comes and steals his hay stacks. Hamish goes after the wind to get them back. Not only does he bring back the hay, but he brings back a wife as well. Mirren and Hamish are often warned by Mother about the Wee Folk, as well as the fairies, witches, and all kinds of personified creatures and natural objects. But they don’t always listen to the good advice of Mother, and find themselves in strange difficulties, sparring with weird and wondrous beings. Fortunately, Mother knows a lot about how to overcome these dour happenings.
“Before Mirren could stop them, the Wee Folk had eaten and drunk everything they could lay their hands on. Even the porridge that Mirren had put to simmer for breakfast by the side of the fire had gone.”
Moira Miller has written a delightful collection of Scottish tales for youngsters,
and anyone else who is a fan of folktales and myths. They are magical, funny, and absolutely charming. The writing is superb. Illustrator Mairi Hedderwick augments the fun with simple, but enchanting, drawings throughout, to add life to an already lively book.
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| Moira Miller |
Don't forget to check Shannon Messenger's wonderful blog HERE for more Marvelous Middle Grade Monday reviews. Always worth your while.
