Authors and Publishers, I am happy to receive ARCs and published children's, middle grade, and YA books for review. When I finish it, I will review it. If you need the review posted in a certain time period, please let me know and I will move it to the top of the stack. Please note: my reviews are honest, but they are my opinion. If you don't want that, please don't ask. Email Me for reviews.
"Bug" is our 3rd grandchild, our youngest daughter's middle child. I can't believe she's going to be 5!
Happy Birthday Bug!
Snapshot Saturday is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books. To participate, just post a picture that you, family, or a friend have taken. The amount of captioning is up to you. Pictures must be clean and appropriate for all eyes.
So, I haven't had a picture of my nephew on the blog lately and I couldn't resist posting this one! I debated even posting it because of what he's doing, but most of you, my readers, have or have had little ones and you know that they can put themselves in some strange places.
My sister-in-law was taking clothes out of the dryer the night before our big winter storm. She was standing there folding them and she and my brother were discussing whether or not he would get up and drive to work in all the ice. Well, you can guess how my nephew ended up sitting in the dryer! He threw his ball in there and when he couldn't get it out, he just climbed in to retrieve it and had a seat! I laughed so hard when my brother texted this picture to me along with a note, "we can't take our eyes off him even for a minute." All my mom could tell him was, "After all you put me through, I just have to laugh." My brother didn't think any of it was very funny!
For those of you who are worried, no, he can't open the dryer door by himself as it locks and is hard even for adults to open. Yes, my sister-in-law and brother watch him like a hawk, but even hawks have their moments!
You can join Saturday Snapshot by posting a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at Alyce's blog, At Home With Books. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see.
This picture was taken by a very good friend of mine. She lives down near the Texas coast and this past week, woke up to this gorgeous sunrise on a cold winter's day. She shared it on Facebook, and I thought it was so beautiful. Even on a dreary winter day, there is still beauty to be found!
You can participate in Snapshot Saturday by linking your photo to At Home With Books. Your photo can be anything that you like, as long as it's one that you, a friend, or family member has taken. Thanks to Alyce for hosting this meme every week.
Last weekend, my brother and sister-in-law took my nephew to see my grandfather for the first time. My grandfather lives in Arkansas, and will be 97 in November. He was afraid that our last name wouldn't live on if my brother and sister-in-law hadn't had a boy, so the day he was born was a great day in our family. It was also very important to my father, to have a 4 generation picture taken of all of them. That's my snapshot this week, thanks to my step-mom, who sent me the picture.
In the back is my brother. On the left, my grandfather, then my father on the right, holding my nephew.
Many of you may have noticed that my blog posting has been sporadic for the last two weeks. Well, I started my new job and have been super busy. I am finally coming out from under all the work, and will be scheduling a bunch of posts so I'll have them ready to go. I've also been away from Twitter like I used to be. When I get home at night, I'm exhausted. I usually get dinner made, clean up the kitchen, and crash. So, I haven't gone away, I just can't devote hours to Twitter, like I could during the summer.
I thought that you might like to see the school where I'm working. So, this edition of Snapshot Saturday is devoted to that. Enjoy!
Later today, I will be posting my review for Everything Sucks, so look for that!
This week's snapshot is a request. If you are a frequent reader or Twitter follower, you know that I have horses. You also know that we spent the month of March anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new addition to our herd. That addition, Kiddie, who was named with the help of one of my readers, came into the world on March 30th. She was born at our vet's in Angleton (their stallion is the daddy), and she stayed there until the 4th of July when we brought her and momma home. The homecoming was met with some trepidation from the other horses in the pasture as well as the momma. The others wanted to "check out" the baby, and the momma wanted them to stay away. It was not a pretty scene at first, but horses are herd animals and they just had to get their "pecking" order. Now, they are fine. Well, I said all that to say, it's about time you got some new pictures of Kiddie, because she has really grown! Also, because I have one Twitter friend who keeps bugging me for pictures. So, here she is!
This picture was taken on 4/23, almost 1 mo. old. I show you this so that you can see her growth.
These next pictures were taken last night (7/17) so she is 3 1/2 months old. I got her next to momma for perspective.
Here she is walking toward me. It was hard to take pictures because she follows me around. I'd get far enough away from her to get the picture and she would come towards me.
She is following my nephew. And with that, I leave you...until next Saturday.
What snapshot will you share this week? Leave me a link in the comments.
Yesterday I tweeted about a package I received in the mail. I have received many book packages, but never anything as beautifully packaged as this! I subscribe to the Shelf Awareness Newsletter, and one day at the end of April, I saw a children's book, All the World, in the newsletter. The cover was very attractive, and the blurb about it sounded interesting, so I took a chance and emailed the publisher. Sometimes when I email publishers, I don't get a reply, so when I didn't hear back, I wasn't real concerned. I had made a note of the book and would get it when it came out. Imagine my surprise when I received an email last week saying that they would love to send me a review copy. Well, that copy came yesterday! I just had to take pictures to show you how beautifully it was put together. As they say, presentation is everything, and this publisher knows how to present a product.
This is what I saw when I opened the box. The review copy is a galley, meaning it is not bound together, but looks just like it would if it were. Beautiful cover, huh? Want to know what the picture on the top side of the box says?
That's actually a picture from the book, but the words, which aren't the ones from the book, read like a clue to something. It talks about a shell, which had me curious. When I picked up the galley, imagine my surprise, as this is what was underneath.
The shredding made it look like the beach, with the shell and sea glass set in there just so. Don't you just love it? Along with the galley, in the box was a Beach Lane Books catalog, a note from the VP and a little note on how to enter to win an original piece of art from the book by Marla Frazee.
I still haven't taken everything out of the box, because I just can't bear to throw it away. I'm still just in awe at the great pains Simon & Schuster went to to show off their new children's imprint, Beach Lane Books! Thank you Allyn Johnston (VP of Beach Lane Books)!
Thought I'd share the catch from last weekend. Our favorite thing to do is go out with our friends on the boat, offshore fishing. They took a "boy's" trip last Saturday, and when we met them at the dock, this is what they had hauled in - quite a catch huh? They had mahi-mahi (dolphin fish), red snapper, ling, blac-fin tuna, and spanish mackarel. That's our vet's grandson standing next to the fish. He is spending the summer with his dad, so this was his send-off fishing trip!
This time last year, I spent alot of time in my yard planting flowers, just as I've been doing this year. Most of the time, I'm on my own to choose, plant, and care for everything I put in the ground around here. Well, last year, my granddaughter was finally at the age where she cared about helping me with every bit of it. So, we bought kid sized garden gloves, tools, and lots of flowers. We came home ready to beautify the yard, but she had other ideas. She did help me, a little, but she took lots of breaks too! As always, I ended up doing most of the work, and that's okay. She had fun in her own way and looked cute doing it!
I caught her playing in the dirt and apparently so did the dog!
Today I want to share some pictures of the progress we're making around the ranch. We had a front fence, but hubby didn't really like it, so he wanted to change the way it looked. Before, the fence was about 6 feet high with 2 slats about a foot and a half apart. It was just a plain wood fence.
Now, we have changed it to have 4 boards across, 6 inches apart and about 5 foot tall. We also decided to paint it green.
There are 3 sections just like this on the right side of the driveway and there will be 3 on the other side. This side is almost finished. You can see in the picture that some parts are not painted. Hubby finished the painting today. We still have a top board to add to the other 2 sections on this side. Then, we will fix the other side.
I'll admit that this week's picture is not the best, but I had to use it. It was taken with my phone during the Melissa Marr signing at Barnes & Noble this week. She was sitting in front of a bunch of windows and it was so light outside that the picture is really dark. But, I knew I couldn't post this without a picture, so I snapped one! Next author signing I promise to remember my camera when I leave the house in the morning! Trust me, there will be more! I have some stuff in the works and you are going to love it!
I was very excited when I got the Harper Collins newsletter and it said that Melissa Marr, author of Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange and her latest, Fragile Eternity, was coming to Barnes & Noble in The Woodlands! I just had to be there. So, I left school right at 3:30 and got there a little after 4. I bought my books and sat in line; I was first! There were some other ladies who came and sat down beside me. We all started talking about books, authors, and the fact that we were all adults waiting to see a YA author. There has been alot of talk lately about adults reading YA, see Vania's post about it here.
Anyway, I digress. Melissa arrived about 5:45 and told the lady in charge that she wanted to do a Q&A session, not just sign books; that wasn't her style. So, they moved us over to a larger area and we got started.
Melissa is not formal at all. In fact, she sat on the table and just chatted with us. She started out by telling us about the "swag" that she had brought to hand out. The "swag" turned out to be court bracelets, like the "livestrong" Lance Armstrong ones. She had them in a bag and we just reached in and pulled one out, surprise! I ended up w/Solitary, which is probably what I would have chosen had I been given a choice. In the bag were also special USB bracelets that had "extras" from the books that aren't available online. Oh, I wanted one, but she gave them away randomly and I wasn't one of the lucky ones; that's okay!
She had just found out that she was named to the NY Times as well as the Wall Street Journal's best seller lists. Because of how well her book is doing, they have upped the date of publication for book 4. So, Wicked Lovely fans, you won't have to wait as long for the next installment. By the way, she let us know that there are 5 books in the series. Wicked and Ink could be read as stand alones, but there are some things in Fragile that have to happen in order to complete the series. So, Fragile is the middle book, with 2 more to come. Harper Collins bought 6 books, but the 6th one won't be from the series, it will be different.
When asked which character she is most passionate about, she replied Irial, even though she probably needs therapy for answering that way. The character that she loves the most is Donia. She spoke alot about the characters in her books and how even though it's fiction, she wants them to be real to the reader and have real characteristics and qualities. She also admitted that she writes death scenes for her characters just to prove that she can kill them. It happens alot when they do something that annoys her. Sometimes she leaves them in the manuscript just to irritate her editor. The character that she has written the most death scenes for is Ash. So, she said, if you're annoyed, frustrated, irritated with a character, write a death scene for them; it helps.
She left us with thoughts on being a writer. It's not about who you know in the writing or publishing business. Her advice, just write it, send it to agents, wait, send to others if they don't like it, and just keep trying. Wicked Lovely was originally a short story sent to Adult Magazine, who said it was for children, send it to them, and they said it was more adult like. So, she turned it into a novel and the rest is history!
Let me just tell you...she is so personable! She just sat and chatted with us like we were old friends. It wasn't like, I'm an author and you are beneath me. I was so impressed! She even knew who I was from Twitter. I thought that was cool. I am still just in awe that I chat with authors online. Yes, I know they are just people like me, but I think it's awesome that they choose to talk to people like me.
So, I have a surprise for you!! For those of you who are like me and can't or won't read Fragile Eternity until you have read the other 2 books in the series, you're in luck. I am going to get you started! I bought an extra copy of Wicked Lovely and had it autographed for one of you! Melissa was also kind enough to give me an extra court bracelet for the winner. So, should you win, you will receive an autographed copy of Wicked Lovely and either a High Court or Summer Court bracelet. To enter, please leave a comment telling me why you NEED to read this book. Then, earn extra entries by being a follower (+1), tweeting about it (+2) or blogging about it (+3). You can enter from now until next Sat, May 9th. I will randomly choose, email, and post the winner on May 10th. So, who will it be? Who wants it?
Two weeks ago, I posted about our new colt. She is almost a month old now, and we've finally named her! Well, she doesn't have her registered name because we have to send that in to the American Paint Horse Association for approval. That takes awhile. But, in the meantime, we have to call her something and we have decided on ...
KIDDY!!!
I actually got it from one of the comments y'all left. Thank you to Pissenlit for her random thoughts. Here is the comment she left.
Oh, she's fantastic!:D
Okay, pardon my thought patterns but I haven't had any tea yet.
Hello Kiddie - Influenced by the names Cat and Golden Child
or
Diamonds - being one of the string figures in the game Cat's Cradle...and Gold...Diamonds...eh? eh?(oh gosh, I so need caffeine)...also, you know that saying about Diamonds being a girl's best friend...heh heh...(point me in the direction of caffeine...and sugar...now...)
We didn't use the exact suggestion, but it's close, and I wouldn't have thought of it with out the comment, so Pissenlit, congratulations! I will be sending you a $10 Amazon GC!!
So, for this week's edition of Snapshot Saturday, I'm sharing 2 recent pictures of Kiddy. The first one was taken 2 weeks ago and the last, on Wednesday. She is really growing!!
For this week's Snapshot Saturday, I thought I'd share our good news of the week. Those of you who follow know that we have been waiting on our mare to foal for a month now. A horse's gestation period is 11 months, but it is not usually to the day, which means they usually go 11 months & 11 days, or more. Ours was the "or more." Well, early Monday morning, we got the phone call, "You have a baby!" It was the news we'd been waiting to hear.
Cat, our mare, has been in Angleton, at the vet's, since right before the rodeo. we knew we weren't going to be home much, and the girls would be there to watch her if she foaled. We made it through rodeo with nothing, and then last weekend, while we were there, she bagged up really big, so we thought she was close. We were right!
Here is our new little girl...
No, she doesn't have a name yet. Our mama is Doc's Top Cat (Cat), a sorrel and white paint horse, and her daddy, our vet's stallion, is One Cool Customer (Golden Child), a sorrel paint horse. The names in parentheses are their barn names. When we get ready to register the baby, we have to turn in 5-7 registerd names that we like. They don't care about the barn name, that's just for us, like a nickname. So far, I think we've decided on the registered name, but can't seem to come up with a barn name, so for now, we're just calling her "little girl."
That's where you come in. Will you help us name the baby? Just leave your name suggestions in the comments. If we use yours, I will send you a $10 Amazon or Powell's gift card, your choice. If we don't choose one of your suggestions, I'll put all the names in a hat and draw a winner for the gift card, just for helping us. Sound like a deal? Let me know what you think. I will be sure to post her name, along with a new picture, once we have one.
This week I'm back with my Saturday Snapshot feature. For my new followers, this is a weekly feature here on Write For a Reader where I share pictures that I have taken. You are welcome to join in the fun by sharing a picture on your blog and then linking to it in the comments.
For my picture this week, I wanted to share something "springy" because spring is definitely in the air. Although, here in Conroe we are having 35 degree weather again, but it's beautiful, nonetheless! This is a picture that I took at my father-in-law's house last summer when I was staying with him because he was sick. I love flowers and he always had such beautiful ones. He could grow anything! I try, and hope to one day have flowers as beautiful as his were.
For this week's edition of Snapshot Saturday, I thought I'd share a picture of where I wish I was this weekend. If you're a follower, you know that my husband and I are dear friends with our vet and his wife, who live in Angleton. They are our fishing buddies and this picture was taken last summer on one of our fishing trips. This weekend, the weather is just crummy, raining and cold. We haven't been back out on the boat since this trip because of Hurricane Ike and the seas just not being right when we've had a free weekend. We are all longing for those days when the sun is out and the seas are calm.
What's your snapshot for the week? Please share the link in the comments.
As many of you know, my nephew was born this week. I would not be the proud aunt if I did not share him with you for this week's edition of Snapshot Saturday. I am madly in love with this new man in my life!
Brayden James, born Tuesday March 3 @ 2 PM. 7 lbs, 12 oz, 19 3/4" long. Welcome to the world little man!
It's time for the weekly snapshot! This week I'm sharing a picture from my wedding day. My husband and I were lucky enough to get married in the Bahamas, 2 1/2 years ago. We won the whole entire package from a radio program here in town. It was amazing, to say the least! Considering that we could never have done any of it on our own, we were very thankful. We spent 7 days in Nassau and fell in love all over again! This picture is from our reception. The beautiful lady standing with us is country music singer, Danielle Peck. Part of the package was that she sang at our wedding.
What's your snapshot this week? Share the link in the comments so others can stop by and comment.
If you follow my blog, you know that my husband and I spend time in Angleton with our best friends, the vet and his wife. Well, they have a boat and most of the time when we visit, we make a trip to the coast and go offshore fishing. Well, we haven't been since October because off the weather. It's either been rainy or too darn windy on our available weekends. So, I thought I would share a picture from those fun times because we are really missing it and hoping to get back in the water soon. Sorry I don't have one of all of us. This one is my husband, who finds such relaxation on the boat, whether he's fishing or not!
If you would like to join in Snapshot Saturday, just leave your link in the comments. I will stop by and see what you have to share this week, and hopefully others will too.
I love Snapshot Saturday because I love taking pictures and sharing them. This week's picture was taken last weekend as a way to document a pregnancy. Yes, that's our horse and yes, she's pregnant. Her name is Doc's Top Cat (we call her Cat) and she's due next month. We bred her last April to our vet's stud horse, so I took this picture to send to our vet's wife so she could see how big the mare has gotten. 2 weeks ago you could tell she was pregnant, but nothing like this. She seems to have ballooned over night. You can tell she's miserable too, because she just ambles across the pasture. Don't get me wrong, she'll run to a feed bucket, but that's about it. Don't worry, I'll post pictures when the baby gets here!
Please join me in Snapshot Saturday by posting a snapshot on your blog and then putting your link in the comments. I can't wait to see your snapshot!
I have debated as to which picture to share with you this week. You've met, via snapshot, 2 of my grandchildren, but there are 2 more and I want to be fair, but I don't want to do 4 weeks of grandkids either. So, today, I thought I'd share with you, the LOVE of my life!
This is my husband, and yes, he is a real cowboy, not just posing for this pic. He didn't even know we were taking it. Our vet, his wife, my husband and I had taken a trip to Smithville, TX to pull Coggins and give immunizations to a friends' horses. We had just finished catching up the last of the horses for the vet and hubby was taking a much needed break. My vet's wife captured this on her cell phone and sent it to me. It is one of my favorite pictures!
No Mr. Linky this week, so just leave a link to your snapshot in the comments. My hope is for Snapshot Saturday to have many participants, so send your readers here to join us if they'd like. What's your snapshot this week?
Yesterday I tweeted about a package I received in the mail. I have received many book packages, but never anything as beautifully packaged as this! I subscribe to the Shelf Awareness Newsletter, and one day at the end of April, I saw a children's book, All the World, in the newsletter. The cover was very attractive, and the blurb about it sounded interesting, so I took a chance and emailed the publisher. Sometimes when I email publishers, I don't get a reply, so when I didn't hear back, I wasn't real concerned. I had made a note of the book and would get it when it came out. Imagine my surprise when I received an email last week saying that they would love to send me a review copy. Well, that copy came yesterday! I just had to take pictures to show you how beautifully it was put together. As they say, presentation is everything, and this publisher knows how to present a product.
Thought I'd share the catch from last weekend. Our favorite thing to do is go out with our friends on the boat, offshore fishing. They took a "boy's" trip last Saturday, and when we met them at the dock, this is what they had hauled in - quite a catch huh? They had mahi-mahi (dolphin fish), red snapper, ling, blac-fin tuna, and spanish mackarel. That's our vet's grandson standing next to the fish. He is spending the summer with his dad, so this was his send-off fishing trip!
I'll admit that this week's picture is not the best, but I had to use it. It was taken with my phone during the Melissa Marr signing at Barnes & Noble this week. She was sitting in front of a bunch of windows and it was so light outside that the picture is really dark. But, I knew I couldn't post this without a picture, so I snapped one! Next author signing I promise to remember my camera when I leave the house in the morning! Trust me, there will be more! I have some stuff in the works and you are going to love it!
For this week's Snapshot Saturday, I thought I'd share our good news of the week. Those of you who follow know that we have been waiting on our mare to foal for a month now. A horse's gestation period is 11 months, but it is not usually to the day, which means they usually go 11 months & 11 days, or more. Ours was the "or more." Well, early Monday morning, we got the phone call, "You have a baby!" It was the news we'd been waiting to hear. 
This week I'm back with my Saturday Snapshot feature. For my new followers, this is a weekly feature here on Write For a Reader where I share pictures that I have taken. You are welcome to join in the fun by sharing a picture on your blog and then linking to it in the comments.
For this week's edition of Snapshot Saturday, I thought I'd share a picture of where I wish I was this weekend. If you're a follower, you know that my husband and I are dear friends with our vet and his wife, who live in Angleton. They are our fishing buddies and this picture was taken last summer on one of our fishing trips. This weekend, the weather is just crummy, raining and cold. We haven't been back out on the boat since this trip because of Hurricane Ike and the seas just not being right when we've had a free weekend. We are all longing for those days when the sun is out and the seas are calm.
As many of you know, my nephew was born this week. I would not be the proud aunt if I did not share him with you for this week's edition of Snapshot Saturday. I am madly in love with this new man in my life!
It's time for the weekly snapshot! This week I'm sharing a picture from my wedding day. My husband and I were lucky enough to get married in the Bahamas, 2 1/2 years ago. We won the whole entire package from a radio program here in town. It was amazing, to say the least! Considering that we could never have done any of it on our own, we were very thankful. We spent 7 days in Nassau and fell in love all over again! This picture is from our reception. The beautiful lady standing with us is country music singer, Danielle Peck. Part of the package was that she sang at our wedding.
If you follow my blog, you know that my husband and I spend time in Angleton with our best friends, the vet and his wife. Well, they have a boat and most of the time when we visit, we make a trip to the coast and go offshore fishing. Well, we haven't been since October because off the weather. It's either been rainy or too darn windy on our available weekends. So, I thought I would share a picture from those fun times because we are really missing it and hoping to get back in the water soon. Sorry I don't have one of all of us. This one is my husband, who finds such relaxation on the boat, whether he's fishing or not!
I love Snapshot Saturday because I love taking pictures and sharing them. This week's picture was taken last weekend as a way to document a pregnancy. Yes, that's our horse and yes, she's pregnant. Her name is Doc's Top Cat (we call her Cat) and she's due next month. We bred her last April to our vet's stud horse, so I took this picture to send to our vet's wife so she could see how big the mare has gotten. 2 weeks ago you could tell she was pregnant, but nothing like this. She seems to have ballooned over night. You can tell she's miserable too, because she just ambles across the pasture. Don't get me wrong, she'll run to a feed bucket, but that's about it. Don't worry, I'll post pictures when the baby gets here!
