Thursday’s Tale: Instructions

by Carol2 Comments
Lately, I've been thinking about the rules you should follow if you ever find yourself in a fairy tale. I think a lot of them are pretty good rules for life in general. Neil Gaiman wrote a wonderful poem titled "Instructions" that talks about some of the rules. It starts like this: Touch the wooden gate in the wall you never saw before. Say "please" before you open the latch, go through, walk down the path. A red metal imp hangs from the green-painted front door, as a knocker, do not touch it; it will bite your fingers. Walk through the house. Take nothing. Eat nothing. However, if any creature tells you that it hungers, feed it. If it tells you that it is dirty, clean it. If it cries to you that it hurts, if you can, ease its pain. It goes on from there in a similar vein. Listen to him read it. Don't take things that don't belong to you. If someone, or something, needs help, help them. Keep gifts given to you safe. Do not be...
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Book Blast: The Secret on the Island by Dorcas Mladenka

by CarolNo Comments
About The Secret on the Island by Dorcas Mladenka As a research assistant for a Texas detective agency, Maggie Haslo has a knack for connecting the dots. She can see that the facts don’t add up in the suspicious death of her friend Mando. A history professor at the local university, Mando was killed in what the police are calling a drive-by shooting—but Maggie’s not buying it. Before his death, Mando had invited Maggie to the diving site of a sunken Spanish galleon off the Gulf coast; when her friend, Sister Clare, asks her to come investigate suspicious circumstances at her convent on nearby Mustang Island, Maggie decides to combine trips. A few days later, a nun is murdered, and Maggie makes a shocking discovery: the deaths of Mando and the nun are related. As she drives back and forth between the city and the island with her faithful German shepherd, Zoe, Maggie must put aside her sadness for the friends she has...
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Guest Post: Sunayna Prasad, author of Alyssa McCarthy’s Magical Missions: From Frights to Flaws

by Carol1 Comment
Today I'm happy to welcome Sunayna Prasad, author of Alyssa McCarthy’s Magical Missions: From Frights to Flaws. She's sharing some tips about writing. Don’t Write Overnight When writing a book, you want to take your time as much as you can. If you write to fast, you not only receive writer’s block more frequently, but also—your writing gets filled with grammar and spelling issues. Of course, if you’re writing a first draft, you want to get your ideas down, so grammar and spelling aren’t as important as if you’re polishing your final draft. But keep in mind that if you want to publish your book, you need it to be as error-free as possible. Not only do you need good spelling and grammar, but also content. I don’t think anyone can write quality book content in two weeks, or even two months, and consider him or herself finished. It’s just not possible. In fact, when I was in high school, I made that...
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Audiobook Review: Dilemma by Jon Cleary

by Carol3 Comments
Title: Dilemma (Scobie Malone #16) Author: Jon Cleary Reader: Christian Rodska Category: Mystery Audio published: September 30, 2013 by AudioGo (First published 1999) Rating: 3½ out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | Audible Australian detective Scobie Malone is asked to investigate what seems like an easy case: Norma Glaze has been strangled in her bedroom and her husband Ron has disappeared. What appears cut-and-dry on the surface is complicated by the fact that the night before involved a one-night stand and a killer with a twisted right hand. Four years later, Malone finds and arrests Ron Glaze in a bush town, but the man insists he is innocent even as the evidence makes his conviction in court a cinch. The young prosecutor, Tim Pierpont, is a well-respected community member, too, which makes for an easy sentence of Glaze's guilt. Meanwhile, the capital city of Sydney is dealing with the kidnapping of a child model, Lucybelle Vanheusen, and her hysterical family. Malone doesn't take the case seriously until a body...
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Thursday’s Tale: The Old Witch

by Carol2 Comments
"The Old Witch" is a tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in his 1894 book, More English Fairy Tales. I like it for a couple of reasons, but I'll save those until I tell how the story goes. Once there was a couple who had two daughters, but their father had no work. The daughters wanted to go out and seek their fortunes, and one said she would go into service. Her mother said she could, if she could find a place. The daughter searched in town but no one wanted her. She headed farther out into the country and came to an oven full of bread. The bread begged the girl to take it out, and she obeyed. The girl continued and eventually came to a cow that begged her to milk it, which she did, and an apple tree that begged her to shake down its apples, which she did. As I was telling my daughter the other day, if you...
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Tuesday Intros: The Norfolk Mystery by Ian Sansom

by Carol10 Comments
I know it's not Tuesday, but I took the day off of work yesterday and got a bunch of things done, none of which was actually at the computer. I went to Bible study and then headed to the bank. Somebody got a hold of my debit card number and ordered like $500 worth of stuff, so I had to get that straightened out. then I did some organizing, some cleaning, some cooking. And finally sat down and watched a couple of tv shows, Grimm and Dracula. It was a good day. Wish I had another day off today. Alas, no such luck. So, here's the beginning of the book I'm just starting, The Norfolk Mystery by Ian Sansom. Reminiscences, of course, make for sad, depressing literature.Nonetheless. some stories must be told. In the year 1935 I came down from Cambridge with my poor degree in English, a Third - what my supervisor disapprovingly referred to as 'the poet's degree'. I had spent my time at...
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