The First Snowfall

There is something about waking up to a light sprinkling of snow that seems to lift the spirit. Though you're toes are cold, your heart is warm to witness the delights that fresh, unmarred snow brings.

Large flakes of snow fall gently from the sky, refracting the thin light of an overcast morning like so many diamonds. Slowly they drift down and settle, like tiny features of crystal birds. Every so often, if you're lucky, a perfectly formed snowflake will land ever so lightly on your jacket, and you can see every perfect arc of ice before it vanishes, melting to water against the warmth of your coat.

And you are reminded then as never before, all things in life, especially the perfect and the beautiful, are ephemeral, and you should consider yourself lucky for having witnessed it at all.

I love the first fall of snow.

Book Review: King by Right of Blood and Might by Anna L. Walls

King by Right of Blood and Might by Anna Walls


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was given this book by the author, who has published it independently, and more power to her!

I might start off by explaining my rating system:

No (0) stars - It's utter crap, don't buy it, what a waste of paper.
One (1) star - It's utter crap, with one or two redeeming qualities.
Two (2) stars - It's crap, but has a fair amount of potential.
Three (3) stars - It's good, though not my preferred reading fare, you should still read it.
Four (4) stars - It's great, and you should probably read it.
Five (5) stars - Blew my frikkin' mind! Buy it! Now. You'll thank me.

King by Right of Blood and Might earned three stars because it is genuinely good, though not typically something I would read. The story is good and imaginative and quite engrossing in places, though the simplistic style of writing suggests that it would be more suitable for a young reader (aged around 7-12, I should think). Please note, this is NOT a bad thing at all! This book tackles gritty and gruesome happenstance in a manner that is easily digested and not at all traumatising.

There were a couple of awkward sentences here and there (name a book that doesn't have one or two and I'll call you a liar), and one instance of inappropriate language for the style that, honestly, shocked me.

That said, this is a definite must-read for any young readers you know.


View all my reviews >>

False Alarm

Yesterday it was officially three months since I sent my book proposal to Tor Fantasy. Ever since the two month mark hit, I've been nervously checking the post, looking for that letter addressed to me from Tor. Nothing. Nothing at all. Day after day after day of nothing. Le sigh.

Now silence could mean one of several things.

1. The best case scenario - they are actually seriously considering my proposal.

2. Next best - they actually haven't gotten to it yet.

3. They've rejected it, but haven't yet sent me the letter.

4. They've rejected it, and won't send me the letter because I got the reply postage all wrong (to be fair, Tor, that's exactly how Canada Post told me to do it).

In any case, I've been hoping that I'd hear from them one way or another soon. So, my heart was in my throat when the phone rang yesterday afternoon and a stranger said, "May I please speak with Sonia Carrière." I replied, a little nervously, "Speaking."

As it turned out, it was just my Student Loan provider updating their contact information.

Damn it!

I should have guessed when they asked for Sonia Carrière rather than S.M. Carrière (since I've submitted under S.M. Carrière)... but I was all hopeful and stuff. Yes, stuff is the technical term.

Oh well, life goes on I suppose. I hope you're all well!

It Came!

Yay! I was extremely please to arrive home from Kung Fu training to find a lovely parcel wrapped in brown paper waiting for me in my mailbox. It has arrived - the book I won in a competition run by C.C. Chronicles: A King by Right of Blood and Might by Anna L. Walls. She even signed it for me!

Thanks Anna! I heart you!

So, I am reading it right now and should be finished shortly. I'll have my review of it up within the week via goodreads. It's always nice to be able to read and review something that was privately published! Now if only the author whose book I won in the goodreads contest would sent it along. I can't review it if you haven't sent it to me... hint, hint!

Well, that's all the news I have. Hope you are all well.

Book Review: "The Book of Negroes" by Lawrence Hill

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Book of Negroes is not my normal fare, but it was a good read all the same. It was simply written and easy to understand. Describing the experiences of an African stolen from her home and forced into slavery from a first person point of view, one would expect more emotionality to be involved and in many cases, the book fails a little in that regard. It seems as if it was almost hazy in the depictions of life as a black slave in the 18th century. That might well be deliberate, as it was written as if the protagonist was looking back on her life.

Despite this, I could not help but feel horrified, or tear up after some episodes.

All throughout the book, there seems to be a bright undercurrent, something profound to say about the human spirit and all it can endure and why.

For those who enjoy historical fiction, this is a must read. For those who do not, I'd read it anyway. It might be good for you!

View all my reviews >>

Crystalbrook Retreat

Hi All!

I've blogged about her before, and it seems she keeps giving me reasons to do so. I am, of course, talking about my dear friend Leonie Allan. Her family has decided to parcel out some of their farmland for sale in Proserpine, Queensland, Australia. The idea is that you can create your own piece of paradise there. They are planning to also include a retreat centre where all sorts of workshops will be held.

This is a piece of paradise, and if I had the money, I would certainly buy up some land to create my own retreat there (come on lucky break!). In Leonie's own words:

Our land is in a special area surrounded by farmland, a river, national parks and a large lake.

I've been out to Leonie's place before I left Australia, and it truly is a beautiful spot. I really really really want to buy some land out there. Without the funds, it's going to be a bit difficult. Still, that doesn't mean I can deny you that special piece of paradise.

Again in Leonie's own words, here is how it works:

1.) You could possibly buy as a collective with family and friends. Blocks start at 4 acres, and it can be as cheap as $3 000 per 500 square metre block (the usual suburban house block size).

2.) Only 10% deposit is required now, with the rest in mid 2010.

3.) There is no need to build within a time frame, so you can take your time to grow into it and build your sanctuary in your own time.

If this sounds like something that might interest you, click here to check it out. Perhaps I will get that lucky break, and I'll see some of you there!

That's it from me. Hope you are all well.

Is it Working?

Dare I say it? Could my LinkedIn profile be working? Just on a whim, I decided to check out who had viewed my profile. This is something you have to do yourself, you don't get notification emailed to you like you do with ziggs.com. Turns out, people in my (gasp) industry have looked at my profile:

Your profile has been viewed by 4 people in the last 15 days, including:

• Someone in the Writing/journalism function in the Writing and Editing industry from Portland, Oregon Area
• Someone in the Entrepreneur function in the Publishing industry from Greater New York City Area
• Someone in the Writing/journalism function in the Newspapers industry from Greater Chicago Area
• Someone in the Writing/journalism function in the Newspapers industry from Greater Boston Area

I sure hope this leads to something! Even if it doesn't, it's nice to pretend that it might!

While I'm at it, another ziggs.com search hit my profile Tuesday afteroon. This time from New Delhi, India! That's exciting!

Search Engine: Ziggs
Search Terms: Viewed from Ziggs Groups
Referrer: http://www.ziggs.com/apps/groups/GroupSearchResults.aspx?catid=8
Visitor Location: New Delhi, India
Date: November 17, 2009
Time: 4:03 PM EST

That's all from the peanut gallery. Hope you're all well.

Book Review: A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow. This follow-up to the promise offered by book 1 was just as spectacular as I hoped it would be.

I was so enthralled that I missed my bus stop on the way to work yesterday morning.

There is nothing to say about Martin that hasn't been said already. He crafts the story well, weaving intrigue superbly with empathetic characters.

Some of the characters are a little less one dimensional than they were in the first book (a blessed relief!). Not to present any spoilers, but The Hound is quickly becoming one of my favourites. I hope there is more of him in future books, as in this one there wasn't nearly enough.

If you are looking for a good read and you like fantasy, I'd pick this series up. I highly recommend it.

View all my reviews >>

Q & A Time

I received some questions in the comments from yesterday's post, and I thought that I should use it for my post today, as I still don't have any real news. Hey, if Neil Gaiman can do it, so can I... never mind that he's crazy talented and published and I'm....

Oh, here's a fun fact - we're both Scorpios, both November babies (yay Mr. Gaiman!). Finally, a celebrity worth sharing a sign with.

In any case, Gerard asked me some questions and I intend to answer them here:

S.M! A few questions from your new friend in the desert!

Q. Did you/are you looking for a literary agent too or just going right for a publisher?

In truth I went straight to the publisher. Tor Fantasy is one of the very, very few publishing houses that still accept unsolicited manuscripts. That is a rarity indeed! I really would like to be published by Tor. They have published some of my heroes (Steven Erikson, Terry Goodkind and Sara Douglas), so I would consider myself to be in good company if published by Tor. Of course, with such a big publishing house, my chances of getting an offer are next to nil, but I thought I'd give it a try anyway.

The problem is the waiting. They did say that it would take between 2 and 6 months before I got word from them. As of the 25th of this month, it will officially be 3 months. Now, I did tell Tor that I would wait until I heard from them, or until the 6 month deadline is passed before I try and sell my work elsewhere. I intend to stick to that. Of course, once that's over with (or I get a rejection before hand), I intend to solicit any publishing house that still accepts unsolicited manuscripts and I will query every agent I can find.

After I've started reading George R.R. Martin's stuff, though, I would like to be published by Bantam books also (Never mind that they've also picked up Erikson). He's an excellent writer, and also brilliant company to be involved with.

I flatter myself.

Strange, this urge to get published....

Q. Did you publish your first series? (you probably answered this on your blog, but I'm asking anyway 9-)

I haven't published my first series. The Great Man was the first series I have ever written and as an unknown, it's going to be ridiculously difficult to get it published. Yet I am determined. I hope I have thick enough skin for the rejections....

Q. How do you find time to write 3K words/day? I can barely average out to 1,000 (life always gets in the way).

Well, Gerard, I'm about to make you very envious. I write at work... during work. You see, I work as a receptionist and it isn't the most demanding, or even interesting, work in the world. In fact, when I was hired, I was told that I was welcome to bring a book to read. I thought: 'Brilliant! I'll bring a book to write!' So I did. I hadn't finished The Great Man series at that point (and I had no idea I had written four books either). I finished it at work, started my blog, and then a brand new story, which is flying along at a fantastic pace, as you know.

It takes me roughly three hours (give or take - including phone call interruptions and so forth) to write 3 000 or so words, so I'm usually done my goals by midday (that's 12 noon for the North American folk). There are some days when I just can't seem to work up the necessaries to write. With all the kittens finally being given away, I'm hoping that won't happen any more. Writer's block may eventually happen, but so far hasn't and as of yesterday morning, I'm a little passed half-way done.

I'm also very fortunate in that I don't have any children to look after, or a husband, or even a boyfriend for that matter. Most people wouldn't view that as a bonus, and most days I don't either. The one silver lining that it does have is that without all those distractions, I have plenty of time to write and dream.

Given the same life demands as others out there in the writing world, I'm sure I would not be able to manage 1 000 words a day, at all!

Best,
g

Thanks Gerard! I hope I answered all your questions to your satisfaction.

If anyone else has questions for me, please feel free to post them in the comments, and I'll answer them as soon as I can.

That's it from me. Hope you are all well.

Nothing

There is absolutely nothing today. No news. No searches.... and no word from the publisher.

Le Sigh.

Well, at least you don't have to read through paragraphs of nothingness.

That's it from me. Hope you're all much more excited than I am!

Updates

Well, there isn't much to report today. Writing is going very well. In two odd days, I think I'll have reached the 50 000 word mark. If I was doing NaNoWriMo, I'd be pretty much done, I think.

I am ashamed to say that before this year, I had no idea about NaNoWriMo, and at that, I found out much to late to participate. It seems I truly do live in my own little bubble. I will definitely be doing that next year though!

Since there really isn't much to report, here's another ziggs.com search:

Search Engine: www.google.co.ma
Search Terms: No specific terms used
Referrer:
Visitor Location: Morocco
Date: November 14, 2009
Time: 10:11 PM EST

I don't know why I bother to post these, but I do. To finish tying up loose ends and making good on promises, here are some more recent pictures of Herne, courtesy of his new owner (staff) via facebook:
Isn't he just the sweetest?

All of our kittens are doing well. Smeagol has made friends with one of the cats at his new place. The other cat doesn't much care for him, but whenever that one gets hissy and growly, Smeagol's friend comes and sits in between them and stares at the angry cat until he goes away. Smeagol and his friend, we are told, play together quite happily and even take naps together. That warms me up.

Calli-Rose does not have any other kittens to play with, so she's vexing her new owner nicely. He declared to my flatmate (as they work together) that she is the spawn of Satan. He was aptly warned before taking her in, so he has no one to blame but himself. He also notes that she's incredibly adorable and he's very much in love with her. I've met Matt, and he's lovely, so I have no worries about Calli.

Herne, pictured above in his new home, has made friends with the other cat that lives there. Apparently, he made friends with it by standing up to it, and now they're best mates. Boys. I'll never understand....

That's it from the peanut gallery. I hope you are all doing well.

Flowers

Flowers are awesome. They just brighten up any space... and any day. So I'd like to take this moment to thank my lovely sister Genevieve and her equally lovely husband Dave for the lovely bouquet of birthday flowers that arrived at my door yesterday. How many 'lovely's can I fit into a sentence?

It made me feel so happy!

Before any or all of you flip out, it wasn't my birthday yesterday. It's not my birthday today either, but the flowers arrived near enough to the day that it makes no real difference.

Also, I'd like to give a birthday shout-out for Sunday to my good friend and Kung Fu brother Kevin. Happy Birthday, Kevin! Thanks for the conversations over tea, wine and cheese! Big hugs!

In other, much less interesting news, a few more search alerts arrived in my inbox from ziggs.com. They are as follows:

Search Engine: houston.lawyer.ziggs.com
Search Terms: No specific terms used
Referrer:
Visitor Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Date: November 06, 2009
Time: 1:21 PM EST

Houston lawyer? How did they come across me from a search for "Houston Lawyer?" And why would some in Eindhoven, Netherlands be looking for a Houston lawyer? It's a mystery.....

Search Engine: Google France
Search Terms: sonia carriere
Referrer: http://www.google.fr/search?hl=fr&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla%3Afr%3Aofficial&q=sonia+carriere&btnG=Rechercher&meta=&aq=f&oq=
Visitor Location: Lyon, France
Date: November 08, 2009
Time: 7:06 AM EST

France is a popular location for these searches. I seriously think that they are looking for someone else!

Search Engine: atlanta.accountants.ziggs.com
Search Terms: No specific terms used
Referrer:
Visitor Location: N/A
Date: November 10, 2009
Time: 10:00 PM EST

Atlanta Accountants? People stumble across my page from all sorts of weird places! Not that I mind all that much, I suppose. Any exposure at all is good, right?

Search Engine: Google France
Search Terms: sonia carriere
Referrer: http://www.google.fr/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=8&oq=sonia+c&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADBS_frFR282FR282&q=sonia+carriere
Visitor Location: Dinan, France
Date: November 11, 2009
Time: 2:17 PM EST

Yet another from France.

Boy, there were a lot of searches this week. I've never gotten more than two in a week before and even that was really rare.

Anywho, since that is all I have, I won't bore you too much and leave it here. Hope you are all well.

Goodbye Herne

Herne as a week old kitten, pleading for milk. I'll try and get a more recent photo of him.

The last of the kittens we were to give away have been given away.... and I'm miserable. I loved Herne (well, I loved them all), and he and I were pretty close. For a while Herne purred for none but me... though recently he finally purred for my flatmate.

I think Herne looks a lot like a Scottish Wild Cat kitten. Don't you?

Scottish Wild Cat kitten. For those of who who've seen Herne in person, even the patterning is the same.

Herne is going to a great home, though I am worried that being by himself will be difficult for him. He was always playing with his siblings... or curled up with them.

Well, now I'm thoroughly depressed. I know we couldn't have kept them all, but I fell in love with them. Le sigh.

On a happier note, we're keeping Galahad, so we won't be entirely devoid of kittens in the house. Persephone and Galahad get along really well also, so I know there won't be too many fights. Though, Persephone's plaintive cries as she searches for her missing kittens is breaking my heart.

So at last our kittens have been given away and now we can stop continually mourning the losses and get on with life.

That's it from me. Hope you are all well.

Seraphimé

Those of you who are actually following my blog may have noticed a small addition to the gadgets on the far right hand side of the screen. The very top one. That one there. Yes, that one. That's new. It's a counter for my new project, the title of which I haven't decided on. Chances are I'm just going to end up calling it Seraphimé. That's its working title anyway.

I've put this counter up to let you know where I'm at with this particular one and also to motivate me to keep writing. I work best under pressure I find and so if I trick myself into believing that other people are anxious to read my new book(s?) and counting on me to get it done, then I'll get through it faster.

You'll note that I've put down 100 000 words as the target. That's just a guess, since most manuscripts are between 70 000 and 100 000 words. I leant towards the longer manuscript because, let's face it, I'm a bit of a linguiphile, and I'll write and write and write. After all, my last project was roughly 410 000 words. Of course, I ended up splitting it into four books. Chances are, this new one will also be quite long... possibly more than one book, and in typical S.M. Carrière nonsensical style, I've started right in the middle.

To be fair, I started roughly in the middle when I started writing The Great Man series. No doubt, I'll go back to the beginning when this part stalls. So far it hasn't stalled at all. Not really sure how it begins, actually, but how it ends is getting clearer and clearer as I write. So far it's nowhere near the Shakespearian level tragedy that The Great Man is.

My goal is roughly 3 000 words a day five days a week, so 15 000 words a week. So far it's kinda sorta working out. There were some days, most notably when we gave the kittens away that I was simply too depressed about the kittens to write. To tell the truth, I'm a bit behind schedule, but that's alright. I'll survive. It's not like there's a publisher giving me a deadline or anything.... I'm not entirely sure whether I'm happy or sad about that.

In any case, I'll be updating the word count weekly, and whether or not the target word count is accurate or not and whether or not I'll have to split the project up into several books will also be indicated there, so check back to see how I'm going!

That's all from me. Hope you're all well.

Book Review: A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin

Game of Thrones by George Martin


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A ginormous thank-you to my friend for lending me this. It was a spectacular read, the style of writing easy to comprehend and not overly complicated.

I particularly liked the brief history given near the end of the Children of the Forest. It sounds awfully like the basic history of Europe as most people seem to think it (successive invasions of people from the stone age, into the bronze age and again during the iron age).

Very nicely written, well-crafted characters. Perhaps a little one dimensional when it comes to good and evil, but in stories such as these, it is expected.

An excellent read. A fantasy book well worth it's weight in words.

View all my reviews >>

Goodbye Calli-Rose

Another sad day yesterday. We said goodbye to Calli-Rose, another one of our beloved kittens. Calli is a very pretty looking kitten. I'm not saying cute, I'm saying pretty. She has a beautiful little face. She was supposed to go at the end of a dinner party we were to throw.

My flatmate had bought this lovely 7lb organic, free range chicken to roast. She prepared it all and went of to Lucia (Swedish festival of lights) practice. I left the house around about the same time to buy fruit for the chocolate fondu we were going to have for dessert. I arrived home to find my flatmate's mum there. It turned out that Jazz had caught some sort of stomach bug and had been sent promptly to bed, feeling nauseas.

I highly suspected that it was because she hadn't eaten anything in roughly 24 hours and went out drinking the night before... Poor Jazz! I made her some peach ginger tea. Ginger is great for upset stomachs. Then I forced her to eat some buttered toast, just so she could have something to eat.

With nothing else to do, I roasted the chicken, and remained in the kitchen to baste it every half hour or so. To pass the time away, I watched Neverming the Buzzcocks. Again. The chicken turned out fabulous, I might add, as did the summer savoury and sage gravy I made.... And it was all delicious. A great pity there was no one to share it with (although Jazz did manage half a plate).

Here's hoping that Jazz feels better today! Have a great day everyone.

Hallowe'en Fun

Well, I had to wait for my flatmate to return from her trip to upload the pictures from her camera... which is why I'm explaining all about Hallowe'en today instead of the first ever blog of the week!

In any case, I am a massive Hallowe'en fan. I love it. It's a great time and it always feels, well, magical to me. So, to honour the one evening that remains of the very ancient three day festival of Samhain, my flatmate and I decided to throw a dinner. Of the countless number of people who we invited... only three showed up. Oh well, better luck next year!

Jasmine rather foolishly decided to decorate while the kittens were loose in the house. Smeagol took a liking to the streamers.










This is my favourite picture of Smeagol, about to climb the pumpkin with his half guilty, half crazy expression. Isn't he a handsome boy?

I'm very fortunate to have a flatmate like Jasmine. She's very laid back and we get along really well. It so happens that she's (despite what she would tell you) quite well organised and she smartly decided to buy a pumpkin well before the pumpkin carving party. I, on the other hand, am not so well organised, and, having Saturday off, I decided to try and find a pumpkin then. Well, the gods wouldn't permit it... they were all sold out. Everywhere. So I went home all sad and dejected and Jasmine very kindly allowed me to carve one side of the pumpkin and she carved the other side. Thanks Jazz! I heart you.

On Wednesday night just past I was discussing this with my Kung Fu sister and she mentioned someone buying a watermelon to carve and I could have kicked myself! A watermelon! What a good idea! Well, I know what to do next year if the pumpkins are all sold out again!

It seemed our guests also had that "all the pumpkins are gone" problem... and they brought a capsicum to carve. In North America, you call it a green pepper. In any case, I laughed hysterically. As soon as we were all done with the nibblies and the wine, we sat down to carve. Jazz and I with our pumpkin and Kevin with his capsicum.

DEATH TO PUMPKIN!

Myself, in my rags, and Sharon get ready to start.

Yummy! Pumpkin guts. I look like a maniac!

I'm gutting the pumpkin, Jasmine is getting the seeds for roasting (yummy!) and you can just see Kevin carving away at his capsicum. Tee hee hee!




They talk, I carve. Mine was quite detailed, so it took a while to do. Poor Jasmine had to be all patient while I worked on my masterpiece!







Below: Kevin carves, look at the focus. I carve, look at the... uh... day-dreaming... again!

So this is what mine looked like without the candle. Weird looking, I know. I didn't think it would turn out so great. And then we all put a candle in our creations....

See! Looks much better with the candle in. The black across his cheek was because Jasmine carved out the other side with the crescent moon and bats... but I still think it looks awesome! Not bad for the first attempt at real pumpkin carving, eh? I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Noel of fantasypumpkins.com for the printable mock-up of this image (from the game Vampire Masquerade, I believe). You should check out the stuff he does. Sheer brilliance!

Then after the carving there was:

DESSERT!
(Kindly provided by Kevin, who made this awesome marble cheesecake... but forgot Jasmine was allergic to nuts....)

Having missed the carving, Jasmine's friend and soon-to-be owner (read here: staff) of Callie-Rose, Matt arrived dressed as Obama. He looked freakishly close (except for the ears. Matt has better ears). He then dressed up as Frank, complete with guarders, fishnet stockings lacy black undies, a leather corset and pleather jacket and, funniest of all, heels. I've never seen a man try to walk in heels before... and it was as funny as it looked painful. Poor Matt. However, he does have my eternal admiration for appearing in public, in late October in nothing but what I described. He is officially my hero!

The movie itself was bizarre, and seemed to me to be simply an excuse to behave as poorly as possible in a movie theatre. All the same, it was fun and I was grinned as I walked out of the Mayfair, covered in rice and water.

All in all, a wonderful Hallowe'en celebration... and a pleasant distraction from the torturous wait I am still enduring for my book proposal. I think I might make this a annual thing.

Goodbye Smeagol

Today is a miserable day. This morning before work, I said goodbye to the kittens in my usual fashion while they were all busy ignoring me and playing with each other. I hugged Smeagol especially close because, I was informed last night by my flatmate, today is his last day in our house. He's being picked up sometime today and taken away.

Alright, I'm being very melodramatic. Smeagol is going to a lovely home with two other cats just waiting to be friends with him. His owner is one of my flatmate's mates, and so we'll probably get to visit from time to time.

Even still, I won't have Smeagol's really ridiculously loud purring sending me to sleep at night as he curls up on my chest, against my throat or, his favourite place, in the crook of my arm. Smeagol is wonderfully affectionate. He'll meow, alright, he'll squeak and as soon as you bend down and put out your arms, he'll come running and happily purr as you pick him up for a cuddle. He'll happily purr when you walk passed him. He'll happily purr while he plays with the shower curtains as you're showering....

I'm going to miss him so much. Smeagol and I were close.

Le sigh.

In other, much happier news, I have another award. I've received this from the lovely Anna Walls (Author of A King by Right of Blood and Might). I'm not nearly as excited about it as I should be, as I'm still depressed about Smeagol, but I'm very appreciative!

Here's the award:

Here’s what I have to do:

1) Copy the Kreativ Blogger Badge onto my blog.
2) Thank the person who gave it to me and link to their blog.
3) Write 7 things about myself that my blog readers don’t know.
4) Choose 7 other bloggers to pass the award to.
5) Link to those 7 other bloggers.
6) Notify my 7 bloggers.

Coming up with seven things people don't know is tough. I'm very open about pretty much everything, so I don't know how this will go... but I'll try all the same:

1. I was in Air Cadets briefly during High School. Wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be.
2. I dream of living in a castle somewhere by the ocean... with a private beach.... and a stable full of Friesians..... I'm a dork, I know.
3. Despite three years of Kick-boxing, I really don't like to hit people.
4. I am Australian and Canadian, but wasn't born in either country (I think it's in my bio, but I can't remember, so I'm putting it here anyway).
5. I don't like to be complimented. It makes me suspicious.
6. I have a growing collection of combat steel weapons and intend to continue to grow it.
7. I get intimidated by men quite easily.

These are seven Bloggers I think deserve this award. Alright, fine, these are the only seven bloggers I read. I don't have a tonne of blogs on my following list largely because I fear acquiring so many that I won't be able to devote the proper amount of time for each. So, there are the seven blogs I'm currently following, and they all get this award. I hope it doesn't cheapen the award!

P.S. - there's going to be a lot of cross over and Anna and I share a number of blogs we follow.

1. Leonie Allan of Goddess Guidebook - She's well and truly above awards at this stage, but she's awesome all the same. A huge hug to her for helping women all over the world realise their own person power through creative expression, and for proving that women can work together and support each other rather than claw each other's eyes out for the prettiest accessory (read here, hang on = boy). Thank-you Leonie for restoring my faith in my gender and in my species!

2. Marshall Buckley of Publishing Dreams - They have recently acquired the services of an agent for the first book of a series (The Long Second) that sounds simply incredible. Though they don't blog often, when they do it certainly is worth the read!

3. Genevieve Hopkins of Horse 'n Hound - My wonderful sister who is blogging about the animals in her life. We share a love of horses... well, of all animals actually.

4. Jenn of Don't Publish Me - While I find myself sometimes disagreeing, Jenn's voice is one that needs to be heard. She doesn't mince words and there is no double meaning to what she says. Forthrightness is something people seemed to have lost, and we find ourselves trying to navigate 400 different possible meanings for every word. Jenn's style is refreshing!

5. Paul Mitton of Dark and Secret Writes - already given this award by the lovely Anna, with a title that is such and enchanting play on words, how can he not be given this award?! His is a must read for authors who are still struggling to find their style of writing.

6. Carter Martina of C.C. Chronicles - this is well and truly deserved. Her Blog Opera is a fabulous idea and absolutely creative! Big hearts Carter!

7. Anna Walls of A Writing Obsession - not just because she is the seventh on my list, not just because she gave me the award, but because she well and truly deserves it... twice! Of the snippets she posts on her blog, I am thoroughly convinced that she's a fantastic writer and therefore, "Kreativ"!

Another Comment from Authonomy.com

THE THIRD PRINCE;

I must say, this is very well wriiten. I particularly liked chapter one, charting the creation etc. A very good narrator's voice, grandly old fashioned and with a nice slow unfolding. So many books of this type plunge straight into action and dialogue and I am pleased that this one shows a little more patience. You are obviosly a good story teller and I hope you'll soon be able to upload some more. Watchlisted for now, until we have space on shelf.

J&M Jensen
(Graemor)

Not bad at all. I'm very happy with all the positive comments I've been getting. By the by, in case you want to read the excerpts yourself and post a comment, here is the link. You may have to sign up to read it.... but it's free so I don't feel guilty about it!

That's all from me. Have a great day!

Book Review "Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging"

By Louise Rennison
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is awesome for a quick, light read, so filled with giggles and good times I was laughing out loud. Nice and refreshing - particularly if you've just finished a particularly heavy read as I have. Fun fluff, but don't expect much more.

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Book Review "Deadhouse Gates"

Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I'm not usually one to gush about things, but Oh My Frikkin' Gawd!

Absolutely the best author I've read since Tolkien, Erikson weaves a tale so fraught with horror, grief and mystery as to send one reeling into a warren of awe (Malazan Book of the Fallen pun there).

His expertly crafted story is so rich with history and alive with detail that every experience, every emotion recorded by this master of fantasy becomes so visceral as to take one's breath away.

His twisting epic has you changing your mind every second paragraph. The man you hate becomes the man you admire most. The dead are living and the living are not.

I couldn't put this down.

Do yourselves a favour - READ THIS SERIES.

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