I really hate when books show up too late for book tours, but that’s the case this week for the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance tour for Once in a Blue Moon. I’d requested this novel because I’d enjoyed a previous book by author Leanna Ellis and fully expect to like this one, too.
What is Once in a Blue Moon about? You may read the first chapter HERE, and here’s the official blurb:
Bryn Seymour was nine years old when her mother died under mysterious circumstances on the same day Apollo 11 made its historic lunar landing. Forty years later—divorced, working as an obituary writer, and duly cynical—she meets Howard, a conspiracy theorist who knew her mom and believes a small Texas town may hold clues to what really fueled her demise. Seeking closure, Bryn goes along for this men-in-black ride. But upon meeting Howard’s son Sam, an outspoken Christian, she can’t decide whose beliefs are more pie-in-the-sky.
The gravity of life has pulled Bryn down for decades. But a perfect love could be her first step to soaring. It only happens once in a blue moon.
How much does a book’s title (not in conjunction with its cover) influence you to buy or read it? At the library, at the bookstore, what makes you look at a book’s spine and go, hmmm, that looks interesting, and pull it out for a second look?
Agent Rachelle Gardner blogged about titling a book Wednesday on her blog. Her post focused on the author’s process of finding a catchy title to use while querying and trying to sell the book, and it’s an excellent post with practical suggestions.
In glancing through the comments, however, someone mentioned Lulu Titlescorer and I got lost over there for awhile. Even the good folks who wrote the program know that the results aren’t foolproof–The DaVinci Code scores low as a title, but high on the NYT lists, for example.
Immediately I plugged in my variousnovel titles (some of these stories are in no danger of ever coming out, don’t worry!) for evaluation. The score is what percent chance this title has of becoming a bestseller. Joy Comes in the Morning: 22.9% Of Mice and Men: 10.2% (Ouch! I might need an intervention here!) Whiter Than Ivories: 26.3% Majai’s Fury: 51.4% Tempest: 45.6% Off Beat: 83.1% (maybe I should get back to this one!) Quest to Be Queen: 35.9% Connect the Dot: 44.2% False Perceptions: 69.0% (okay, that’s funny, as it seem really weak to me!) Heaven Can Wait: 26.3%
What do you think? Do you think Titlescorer did right by my titles? How about yours? Share your results!
I’ve been watching all the discussion about e-readers for awhile now. A Kindle? A Sony Reader? The Nook? Something else? I wasn’t all that convinced that I’d like reading digitally, but I found it amusing to listen to the debate, wondering what one I’d prefer should I ever decide to jump into the fray.
Last summer we went camping with our son and daughter-in-law for a few days. Whenever there was a bit of downtime, Joel would pull out his Blackberry or Jen her iTouch and immerse themselves in their current ebook. I could see the appeal, but such a small screen! And I don’t have the best eyes in the world.
However, when Jim and I rewrote our cell phone contract a few weeks ago, we decided to get a pair of iPhones. And as you may know, there’s an app for nearly everything you can imagine, many of which are free or very inexpensive. Including several ebook apps. Well, of course I had to check them out!
I currently have the Kindle app to check out a book I’d heard was on for free this week. I have Stanza, which has a really nice set-up. And I have the E-Reader from Fictionwise/Barnes & Noble.
The Kindle app hooks you up to Safari online to download books, and that really is impossible to read on the small screen. I downloaded the sample chapters with a lot of scrolling back and forth on the magnified screen, and the book is quite readable.
So far I’ve read the most on the E-Reader, because I purchased two novels by Cheryl Wyatt through their site.
I’m actually (surprisingly!) quite loving reading digitally. There are lots of books that I won’t be likely to read more than once or twice, so this works well for that. I can still buy paper if the story demands it. Right now I wish that the book blog tours I’m part of would offer ebooks as an option for reviewing novels. That would be way cool and save the publishers the cost of shipping, as well.
I had lots of time last Sunday to pace the corridor at the hospital and read one of Cheryl’s ebooks while waiting (patiently!) for my daughter to give birth! I am now the proud gramma of a beautiful baby girl, who is going to be known on my blog as SweetPea, at least for now.
Welcome, SweetPea! And Gramma sees there are all kinds of apps for kids’ books, too. We’ll find things to do and books to read. Not to worry. We’re good to go.
Water is arguably the planet’s most valuable resource. We can’t live without it. But what’s all the rage about bottled water? I couldn’t believe it a few years ago when I first saw it hitting shelves. Who would pay that kind of money for something not that different than what comes out of our taps?
Seriously, folks! Studies have shown that at least 40% of bottled water is untreated tap water. The industry is unregulated. Odds are very good that your town/city’s water is tested much more often than the bottling facility’s source.
Maybe your water doesn’t taste so great. There are filters for that. Sure the filters are made of plastic, too, but just consider how many plastic water bottles are hitting the landfills! It’s absolutely crazy. Whether or not you think plastic recycling works at all, only 1 out of 10 plastic water bottles are recycled. The rest wind up in the trash. They don’t even stand a chance of being recycled.
What’s better than recycled plastic? Using no plastic. The water bottle set-up is a no-brainer. Use tap water and a stainless steel water bottle like this one from the FlyLady shop. I bought a bunch of these for stocking stuffers (they took up a lot of room, lol) Christmas ‘08 and we all love them.
This particular bottle has a couple of special characteristics. One, it’s double-walled, so it doesn’t sweat. The double-wall also helps keep the water at temperature much longer. Two, it has two screw tops. The whole top comes off so you can fit ice cubes into it, but when drinking, you unscrew the upper part which gives a nice size opening for sipping. Three, each bottle comes with all those colored cords. Why does that matter? Well, if your household has half a dozen of these bottles, it’s nice that everyone can choose their own color for the band so you don’t get them mixed up.
Changing to a refillable stainless steel bottle is one of the easiest things you can do for the planet. Go for it!
These days I’m spending a lot of time BICHOK–Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard as I seek to get through the middle section of my current novel.
This book’s current working title is simply Green Acres 1 and is projected to be the first in a four book romance series, so there’s more set up than needed for a single book. As such, I spent quite a bit of time researching and preparing before writing any words at all.
I got started the first week of January. Always a bit slow in the first few chapters with the set up, but I started picking up speed toward the end of the month. Now my goal is 10,000 words a week.
And today I cleared 50% of the projected complete wordcount: 42,528/85,000. Aiming for completion by the end of March. Will it be possible? Stay tuned!
Olivia Wallace is approaching her fiftieth birthday. Now probably this isn’t the kind of major milestone we look forward to–at least it wasn’t for me!–but we’re all going to get there sooner or later if we live long enough. But Olivia has a special dread for it, because she has a ‘birthday curse.’ Something has gone wrong around the time of many of her major birthday celebrations. Not little things, either. The death of her husband a few years back and, for her 48th, a diagnosis of cancer were only two of her birthday gifts.
Her next-door neighbor sends Olivia to Florida to house-sit the neighbor’s mom’s house, a great escape from both an Ohio winter and the birthday curse, or so Liv hopes. Whatever trauma Liv has gone through on previous birthdays, this one will be different. And it is, hilariously so.
From an elderly neighbor who swims in her pool every morning at the crack of dawn to the dog with the lampshade collar, Liv is not having quite the vacation she expected. Because there is also the man-next-door–and his flirtatious twenty-something son. And don’t forget the alligator.
Sandra Bricker has been billed as the Laugh-Out-Loud Inspirational Romance Author, and The Big 5-Oh! does not disappoint. This is the third novel I’ve read by Sandie, and I think it’s the strongest one so far.
For Sandra’s guest post on writing with her muse, click here.
This post is not mine, but was originally published on The Well Blog on June 30, 2008, and appeared on The New York Times’s list of most-viewed stories for 2008.
Nutritionist and author Jonny Bowden has created several lists of healthful foods people should be eating but aren’t. But some of his favorites, like purslane, guava and goji berries, aren’t always available at regular grocery stores. I asked Dr. Bowden, author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth,” to update his list with some favorite foods that are easy to find but don’t always find their way into our shopping carts. Here’s his advice.
1. Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters. How to eat: Fresh, raw and grated to make a salad. Heating decreases the antioxidant power.
2. Cabbage: Loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to boost cancer-fighting enzymes. How to eat: Asian-style slaw or as a crunchy topping on burgers and sandwiches.
3. Swiss chard: A leafy green vegetable packed with carotenoids that protect aging eyes. How to eat: Chop and saute in olive oil.
4. Cinnamon: May help control blood sugar and cholesterol. How to eat: Sprinkle on coffee or oatmeal.
5. Pomegranate juice: Appears to lower blood pressure and loaded with antioxidants. How to eat: Just drink it.
6. Dried plums: Okay, so they are really prunes, but they are packed with antioxidants. How to eat: Wrapped in prosciutto and baked.
7. Pumpkin seeds: The most nutritious part of the pumpkin and packed with magnesium; high levels of the mineral are associated with lower risk for early death. How to eat: Roasted as a snack, or sprinkled on salad.
8. Sardines: Dr. Bowden calls them “health food in a can.” They are high in omega-3’s, contain virtually no mercury and are loaded with calcium. They also contain iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese as well as a full complement of B vitamins. How to eat: Choose sardines packed in olive or sardine oil. Eat plain, mixed with salad, on toast, or mashed with dijon mustard and onions as a spread.
9. Turmeric: The “superstar of spices,” it may have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. How to eat: Mix with scrambled eggs or in any vegetable dish.
10. Frozen blueberries: Even though freezing can degrade some of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables, frozen blueberries are available year-round and don’t spoil; associated with better memory in animal studies. How to eat: Blended with yogurt or chocolate soy milk and sprinkled with crushed almonds.
11. Canned pumpkin: A low-calorie vegetable that is high in fiber and immune-stimulating vitamin A; fills you up on very few calories. How to eat: Mix with a little butter, cinnamon and nutmeg.
You can find more details and recipes on the Men’s Health Web site, which published the original version of the list last year.
In my own house, I only have two of these items — pumpkin seeds, which I often roast and put on salads, and frozen blueberries, which I mix with milk, yogurt and other fruits for morning smoothies. How about you? Have any of these foods found their way into your shopping cart?
Valerie here: We do a lot better than that at our house! Most years we grow beets, swiss chard, and pumpkins. I’ve sometimes roasted the pumpkin seeds, and I buy them when I don’t have our own. (I love pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and nuts on a tossed salad!) We have plum trees and so dry our own prunes. And we often pick huckleberries in the summer, a close relative of blueberries. Of the others, cabbage and cinnamon also often find their way into our food, thought not usually together!
Does anyone else obsess over finding just the right layout for their characters’ homes? My current folks are living in an old mobile home while building their house. Of course I had to find just the right layout. They don’t make that many basic 14-foot wides with only one bathroom anymore.
Here is a model that’s pretty close:
Now the house they’re building is straw-bale, and I haven’t been able to find anything that looks close to what I’m imagining.
The hero lives in an old farmhouse, and they really don’t make floorplans for those anymore. Now they come with 3000 square feet, 4.5 baths and vaulted open spaces. Ever seen an old farmhouse? Not like that! So I’ve drawn my own, but I’m too lazy to fire up the old scanner to show you. Along with the maps of the property and the town and the region.
How about you? Do you need these props, or do you just wing it? And am I the only one procrastinating over here? LOL.
Christmas Peril is a collection of two inspirational romantic suspense novellas by two wonderful women I met at the ACFW conference last September. I received this book as a gift from Debby Giusti with no requirement to post a review, but I enjoyed it enough that I wanted to do so. The novella titles themselves are creative and intriguing: Yule Die and Merry Mayhem. I keep saying I don’t read a lot of suspense to the point where none of you probably believe me anymore.
During the conference I took in Margaret Daley’s continuing education class and enjoyed her teaching style, learning a few tidbits about the craft of writing. She’s the author of the first novella, entitled Merry Mayhem. This story is about Annie, a woman who’s on the run from the men who killed her ex-boyfriend, her daughter’s father, whose last words to her were “Don’t trust the police.” But when she gets to safety at her aunt’s house many miles away in Christmas, Oklahoma, she meets the small town’s police chief, Caleb. He not only seems trustworthy, but like someone she could fall in love with. But trust doesn’t come easily to Annie, and with good reason. Caleb suspects she’s hiding something. How can he trust her if she won’t confide in him?
The second novella is called Yule Die, and it’s by Debby Giusti, with whom I had a lovely visit in the Denver airport while we were both waiting for our flights. This novella is about Callie, a lab tech who gets sent to run tests on the survivor of a shootout on Christmas Eve, a guy who’s being hidden in a nursing home to keep him safe. She walks in the room and realizes the man is her estranged brother. Joe, a cop, comes in to explain about security measures just before several masked men break into the nursing home taking Joe, Callie, and her unconscious brother captive. This novella speaks of protection: Joe’s desire to protect Callie, and Callie’s need to protect her brother as they seek a way to get out of the situation alive.
Both novellas are well-written. If you enjoy a little suspense with your romance with a bit of Christmas cheer (or fear) mixed in, check out this two-for-one book!
If you care about the earth we live on, start by ditching plastic bags. Why? They don’t actually biodegrade. Sure, they disintegrate into smaller and smaller bits, but they are still there and they are still plastic. Check this out:
Buying reusable fabric bags to bring home your groceries is a relatively simple first step.
Do grocery cashiers ask this question anymore: “Paper or Plastic?” Not very often! But your best response would be a smile and “Neither!” while you set your collection of fabric bags on the conveyor belt.
Is this a step you’ve made? What other very simple steps could you take?
I really hate when books show up too late for book tours, but that’s the case this week for the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance tour for Once in a Blue Moon. I’d requested this novel because I’d enjoyed a previous book by author Leanna Ellis and fully expect to like this one, too.
Maybe your water doesn’t taste so great. There are filters for that. Sure the filters are made of plastic, too, but just consider how many plastic water bottles are hitting the landfills! It’s absolutely crazy. Whether or not you think plastic recycling works at all, only 1 out of 10 plastic water bottles are recycled. The rest wind up in the trash. They don’t even stand a chance of being recycled.
