BOOK WINNER!!

So, the big day is here!  The winner of another great book is about to be announced.

But first, I want to say thank you to my new follower!  I hope I keep you entertained, enlightened, and seeing life from the greener side of the grass ;-)

On to the giveaway for a copy of 'The Promises She Keeps', by Erin Healy.  My assistants are in la escuela so I had no one to video a more formal drawing.  Which left me doing it myself (boring, I know).  So, I collected the entries on slips of paper, folded them up real small, mixed them around, and closed my eyes and drew a slip.

I'm in hurry so I'm not taking the time to post a little picture of the slip but the winner is MELISSA!!!

Thank you to everyone who participated and who helped share this giveaway and our love of books -- especially free books!  I have a new book in my possession.  A big book of which I have read the first chapter and I find there is something magical about it.  If that is a hint as to what it might be about.  And, it is set in a time I usually don't read about unless it involves princesses and fairy tales. :-)

I'll be posting that review when I finish this big, bad boy AND will be offering a giveaway copy thanks to the nice people at Phenix & Phenix!

So, check back soon!

BOOK WINNER!!

M(i) new iWrite iWork iPlay

Got a new toy.  Actually, it is more for a working purpose.  It is totally awesome!  Or should I say (i)Some.

Yes, I have an iPad.  And, now (i)'m rockin!

I purchased the 'Pages' app and it totally serves my needs as a word processing program.  Only 'Pages' is, well, pages above Word.  Totally.  It does everything.  And, I can sync back and forth wirelessly or through iTunes with my documents.  Yes!  iTunes syncs my word docs, PDF docs, etc. back and forth to my iPad.

I haven't played around with the wireless sync/sharing.  I need to learn that because then I could sync via the internet.  Meaning I could create a document in Arkansas while visiting Daddy and send it to my LT in Farmville, Texas to back it up.  Isn't that incredible?  And, don't forget wireless printing.  Create a document while on the road or waiting in the doctor's office, get home and hit print.  TA-DA.

While practicing and playing around with my new Pad last night and a little this morning in between chores, I wrote over 1,000 words in my WIP.  I haven't written a syllable there since last fall.  But, having it with me all the time allows me to jot down those notes, ideas, thoughts and scenes that my mind creates while I'm driving, and otherwise multi-task from anywhere.  Even in the school parking lot while waiting to pick up the kids.  (i)LOVE (i)T.

Not to mention that I have all of my info synced everywhere.  The LT, the iPhone, the kids iPods, and now my baby iPad all sync together.  I can share apps in between all of them and my calendar is always up to date so wherever I am, or whatever I am doing, alerts will 'alert' me to appointments and 'to dos'.  If I do it on my iPhone, my LT or my iPad - it'll all sync up.  (i) Luuuuuuuuvvv-it! [singing melodically]

The fun part? [What, there is more fun than all of that?  Holey Yes Ma'am!]

The iPad is like a mini-LT allowing me to do anything else in the entire cyber world I want.  Don't forget movies and catching up with television shows while on the road.  The iPod app for all my music makes it a portable stereo.  It's also an e-reader (though I love the screen of my kindle so it always travels with me as well). And, so much more I can't even begin to share.

So, I have a computer, the internet, a stereo, a gamer (think x-box), a television, two cameras, and books all in my lil'ol purse.  Sweeeeet?  TOTALLY.

Truly, apple is genius. iHeart apple.

My baby is the iPad 2.  Meaning 2 times the speed.  2 (not none, not one, but two) cameras which adds the Photo booth and FaceTime apps to the version 2 unit, in addition to being able to take photos of anything.  And, it is a third less the thickness of the original iPad.  As a comparison, my iPad 2 is the same thickness as my kindle.  No way?  WAY.

I have the new cover which attaches magnetically and puts the Pad to sleep.  Extremely thin and portable.  Thinner than a note pad in my purse.  Complete tote-ability.  The cover folds up to work as a stand for the iPad as well.  Either a typing board stand or upright for viewing movies, videos, etc.

AND, the iPad 2 comes in the original color scheme (black border) and now a white bordered color scheme.  [Know which one I got?  You know me.] ;-D

FW is all about the white.  White SUV, white kindle, white mac (well, now I'm on the MacBook Pro but silver is my second favorite color), white doors, white baseboards, white molding, white, white, white.  (i) *heart* white.

It also kicks all the other 'pads' pies:

Don't let those other guys or sales clerks fool you.  If you want a Pad, you want THE Pad, the iPad.

If you order from the apple website they offer free engraving.  I had mine personalized for Lil'ol me:

Befitting me, isn't it? ;-P

HAPPY FWFD of the weeeeeeeeek!  [Insert Super sound-barrier breaking squeeeeeeee!]

M(i) new iWrite iWork iPlay

Brandi's Tickle Spot

A short video the boys took of me and Brandi.  Most pups seem to have a tummy tickle spot but her's is almost under her arm pit.  Too funny.

When she wants attention she'll paw at you.  If you are petting her and you stop, she'll push her paw at you.  If you are just resting a foot on her and you move it, yep, you get the paw.  Hard to tell from the video but I must say it's a pretty strong pawin' she does.

Anyhow, just made us all giggle with Brandi's tickle-tickle spot!

Brandi's Tickle Spot

WINNER! Across The Hall e-book giveaway!

OK, so we did the drawing today for the winner of the Across The Hall, personalized e-book giveaway.  We had eight or nine entries for this drawing.  I was sure to include those who tweeted or otherwise for additional entries as allowed.  Who won?  FW takes you to the video.

Congrats to Laura1967!  I will be emailing you to confirm your email delivery address and what format you need this e-book in.  This is a personalized copy by the author.  In the unfortunate event that you are unable to accept an e-book, please let me know a.s.a.p. so that I can choose another winner.  CONGRATS again!  I hope you loved this enjoyable romance read as much as I did!

Thanks to all who read my review and/or entered the giveaway!  Don't miss out on my current, paperback giveaway, The Promises She Keeps.

Happy Tuesday!  [Awesome Spring Break here at FW's house with the kids!]

WINNER! Across The Hall e-book giveaway!

CWCG #1: March 12th, 2011

Howdy everyone!  The day has come to start our Creative Writing Challenge Game.   I pulled out the dictionary and fanned the pages to find five words.  I also added a theme.  The one thing I realized about fanning the dictionary is that I have an idea of where I am in the dictionary and I had to try hard to 'not' think about the order of the alphabet as I fanned and peeked for each word.

Considering this, I googled and found this Creative Random Word Generator online.  I'm thinking I might start using this for the next challenge.  Though, those words weren't as random as the words I stumbled upon. [The five words the word generator came up with: system, donkey, bet, cup, froth.]

What do you think?

In the meantime, the words I came up with are listed below:


germicide - any antiseptic used to destroy germs
mischance - bad luck
extoll (or extol) - to praise highly
pinkie (or pinky) - the smallest finger
gander - a male goose; to look: chiefly in

Theme:  school

We'll make the deadline for this game April 1st, 2011.  When you post your story, please come back and comment here so we can go find you at your place and read what you've creatively written.  As you are writing please be sure to make note of any ideas that come to mind that might make this a more entertaining and interesting game.  You can share those here as well in the comment section.

Remember, there is no length or restriction on this.  You may write a paragraph or a page, however your story plays out.  One might even write a poem.  The only requirement is to use all the words and somehow associate them within the theme.

Good luck and go work those imaginative brain cells!

CWCG #1: March 12th, 2011

Behind, Ahead, On Track: Family Life

Yesterday I woke up feeling all kinds of behind.  My whole day ran that way, from school, to home to print coupons which took 'for-evah' and never printed before I had to take off for the store.  Came home, groceries away, lunch time and laundry still on the cart and growing in clean mountains on the couch.

Clutter living and sprouting across the island, the bar, next to Mac (he gets the largest part of it), pick up kids, dinner, 4-H meeting (letters done, approved and turned in) and back home for baths, reading spelling -- wait, what?  9:pm already? Yes dear tired children, you may indeed be tucked in.

Today?  Rockin' it.  On top of it.  Morning shower (including a wet head of hair soon dried and styled), hot breakfast for kids (an almost always), to school with time to spare. Clothes (multiple loads, and still running and circulating while I worked) hung, folded, sorted, distributed.  Towels folded.  Bed rooms tidied.  Kitchen, bar, island and all space cleared of all clutter.  [This was a task because it was mostly school stuff, Science Fair stuff, books reminders, etc.]

Appliances shined, floors cleaned and ready to be steamed to purity. Unfortunately, that part was a downer because the Shark decided it would still vacuum but no longer steam  = FW has no floor steamer = FW has nasty floors (at the down and dirty level) = FW will be purchasing a new floor steamer while waiting to drive for the field trip tomorrow.

Happy Note:  No way to steam clean floors means I get 45 - 60 minutes of my life back depending on how many square feet I was planning to clean.  Thus giving me back some time to tend to a few other things.

1) Finish paperwork and load in truck to review with FIL to try and save $$ on property taxes for Mom's place.
2) Layout for Science Fair project ready for FJ to do his plants in particular soil venues.
3) Polished the granite.
4) Find the watch my Daddy wanted me to look into like the other one but different.
5) Tread the mill - only 40 minutes...
6) Get book review and giveaway posted (these take time; reason why short treadmill walk time)
7) Order Daddy's watch to be delivered via USPS, Priority Mail - and ordered from within the USA.  No more Singapore and outside of our nation expenditures/cr@p-diddle.
6) Dinner ahead of time rather than behind, kids played outside (low homework night), homework, baths, spelling review done, TV time with their Daddy and I'm fiddling on the LT thinking 'what am I missing'.

Awesome!

The miss?  The PTL mtg.  Kids upset.  Though, I couldn't have made it there without the Hubby anyhow because I can't make that long drive back at night, in the dark, with my eyes.  I text Wondermom so she could tell the teacher why we are not there.  Guess what?  Wondermom forgot too.

[Me happy to not be the loaner.]  Text the teacher (they had a mini-performance to get parents to attend) as to why we aren't there.  All is well.  Oh and Yes, we can text the teacher.  Is this just an us thing or can y'all too?  Correspondence IRT (in real time).  Technology rocks.

So overall?  From behind to ahead and now right on track!  Running the family life this way makes FW feel in control and empowered and good at her job. ;-)  Now if I could just fit those two hours a day for my writing to work towards a career somehow one day with regular pay....  Ah, tomorrow.  Time for wine.  I've earned it.

Behind, Ahead, On Track: Family Life

The Promises She Keeps

So, I finished another book.  :-)

THE PROMISES SHE KEEPS, Erin Healy

This book is different from the typical books I read: romance books, paranormal books, and erotica to name a few.

This book is completely smut-free.  This book tells a different type of story.  It demonstrates the power of the distribution of love.  Doing so with mild secretion allowing the reader to read the story without interruption from the message.  Don't let my interpretation bore you.  It is a very interesting story swaying here and there along the way.  I just can't put it into words.  Ever read a good story like that?

The characters are so individually diversified.

The MC, Promise, has cystic fibrosis.  The two main supporting characters both have hinderances of their own, Zack being dark in mind and haunted by his mother's eccentric practices and Chase who is Autistic.  Though some would consider them ailments, these hinderances lend a uniqueness to this beautiful story.  There is an air of love wafting through  -- though not in that typical romance novel, physical kind of way.  It is a story about friendship, about appreciation of life, and about leaving behind a part of oneself.

I have to say I was surprised to find that out of the three main characters and the others who fit in here and there along the way, Chase is indeed by far my favorite.  The story is primarily centered around Promise and the connection between Zack and Chase -- but I found myself reading anxiously for Chase through each scene.  I fell in love with him in an endearing sort of way.  "I love you."  To quote his simplistic statement for a complicated emotion.

For me, the story started a little slow, reading about five to ten percent here and there.  This isn't odd for me, though.  I'd say 30% of the books I read take awhile to grab me.  The writing, particularly in the beginning, was almost poetic. At least to me, it being apart from some of the matter-o-fact of other books I typically read.  For example:

Tarnished clouds advanced low over the Oregonian coastline, bringing rain to challenge the late-morning sun.

She pleaded with whatever unseen force governed the world that this would be true, because her days were winding down with every turn of the earth.

Somewhere around page 97, I fell into the rhythm of the writing as the characters and the concepts wove themselves into the fibers of my brain.  I found I couldn't put it down, finishing the remaining 232 pages by the next day.

I know I haven't given much about the storyline but this book is so hard to explain.  A person has to sit down and read it for him/herself. And so with that, I am offering an opportunity to win a copy of this book so that you may indeed read it for yourself. I'm secretly wondering which character you will be drawn to and why.

HOW TO WIN:

1 entry)  Comment that you want to be entered (required).

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES: 

1 entry)  Post this review on your FB page (I'll be nagging it along the way too). :-)
1 entry) Tweet this message to your twitter pals (we all love free books, well most of us anyhow).

3 entries) This is a big one.  Haven't done this one in awhile.  Write a post about this giveaway with a link on your blog so we can share with more people.

Don't forget you have to come back and let me know you did these and/or leave me a link or else I won't know to count the additional entries for you.

That makes up to a total of six entries.  Good luck!  This giveaway will close on Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 at midnight CST.  The winner will be contacted shortly after to obtain a mailing address for the publicist to direct ship a copy.

Thank you again to Phenix & Phenix for the opportunity and for providing a copy to giveaway!

The Promises She Keeps

Creative Writing Challenge Game

So, I have an idea.  Maggie at Maggie Stiefvatar has been playing this word of the day game on her FB wall.  She posts a word and we come up with a sentence using said word and the winner gets a signed bookmark or something fun.  FYI, Maggie is the author of Shiver and Linger (both of which I own in hard cover).

It reminded me of the PFC we used to do a couple years ago which was originally developed and administrated by Rambling MadMan (whom we all lost contact with and haven't heard from since).  Only with words, whereas he used random pictures and identified each as the MC, an important element, a location, etc.

So, I'm thinking why don't we all try and play this again?  Only a little bit different.  I'll choose five words randomly from the dictionary.  And we write a paragraph or short story using said words and then post on our blog at a designated date.  Comment back here if you played along and then everyone can visit each other's short stories, poems, or otherwise creative writing.  We could give like two weeks to work on a short story?  Or is that too 'short' of time?

What do you say?  Y'all wanna' play?  This would be a great little exercise to build our creativity.  Plus, I think it would be fun.  At this point I don't have bookmarks to sign as prizes and I'm not ready to put this to a contest.  That could maybe come later as something fun with some cool little prize for the winner -- though, I'd have to find a judge that wasn't playing and was unbiased.

Again, save that for later.  For now, I'm wondering "Do you want to play??"  Comment yes or no and share any thoughts you have!  I'm excited about this!

Creative Writing Challenge Game

It's safe, we can dance ;-)

Another 80s flashback back to get your day pumpin!  I don't understand this video but hey, that was the 80s right?

So, go ahead!  Get up, get moving and dance.  If you are stuck behind a desk, tap your feet, play the air guitar and drums!  Go ahead.  It's safe, we can dance!

Happy Thursday!

It's safe, we can dance ;-)

Never. Say. Never. Live it up!

I don't care how old you are or how big a boy are ya' or what genre of music you prefer.  You might be a hater of country, of heavy metal, of hip-hop, of the teenie-bop, of jazz, of pop.  It doesn't matter.  You can't be a hater of positivity.  Of belief in we can do it. In, getting knocked down and pickin' it up and getting back in the game.

Because if you are a hater of that concept?  Then, why you be livin'?  Just saying.  If we want from life we have to give and take and sometimes we get knocked down and we get up again (yes, there was that awesome song from the 90s that construed with this same theory).

So, don't judge.  Don't be a hater.  Just be a listener and join the club because 'I BELIEVE' in the ideals of 'NEVER. SAY NEVER.'  Dreams do come true, happiness finds it's way through if you want it to.  It doesn't matter if you are 16, 17, 21, 30, 60, 85 or approaching 39 like myself.  Life is always bright and new each and every day.  No regrets, just live.  Reach for that dream.  Never let time or life or the world or people pressure, or judgement hold you back.  Just say, I can do this, "I will never say never!"

As the old sayin' goes, out of the mouth of babes.  (I mean youngin's not hotties here.)

My one complaint is that there is no 'embed' feature on this which means you are less likely to click through.  But if you are looking for a power lift?  A lift of spirit a lift and reason to jump into the day, to life and get-in-the-game....  CLICK IT.  I dare ya'.

[Oh, and be sure to pick up on the part of the song that deals with bullies.  Bigger than me?  Stronger than me?  Older than me?  Whenever I get knocked down?  I will not stay on the  ground - pick it up...]

Never Say Never

Start your Wednesday out on a Superior Note. Go out there and win it at life! Never say never.

Happy Wednesday!! Rock'it y'all!

Never. Say. Never. Live it up!

Baby/Never Say Never/OMG (GRAMMYs on CBS)

I know I'm all country but I'm also a little bit rock and roll; and ahem, a tad sprinkle of hip hop. Anyhow, I loved this.... The Grammys.

Baby/Never Say Never/OMG (GRAMMYs on CBS)