My Two Blessings

2014 Reading Challenges   Dusty Books :  Nat King Cole - 10 Books Here Be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman The Twelve - Justin Cronin The Road to Rome - Ben Kane Tenth Stone - Bodie Thoene   The Sorceress - Michael Scott  Falls the Shadow - Sharon Kay Penman  Dragonfly in Amber - Diana Galdadan   Jonathan Norrell and Mr. Strange - Susanna Clark   Hollow Man - Dan Simmons  Rapture - J.R. Ward Chunky Books: Good Golly Miss Molly - 8 books  Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami (607)  (1/14) Ice Hunt - James Rollins (656)  (1/20) The Passage - Justin Cronin (766) (1/27)  Here Be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman (704) (2/12)  Amazonia - James Rollins (624) (3/4) Blood Gospel - James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell (714) (4/7) Monuments Men - Robert Edsell (640) (5/26) False Memory - Dean Koontz  (768)  (6/8) Around the World Japan - Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakam...

2015 Reading Challenges My challenge at the beginning of any new year is to whittle down the number of books on my shelves since my books have had many babies throughout the year.  I am going to institute a buying ban for the beginning of the year through April and plan to read only books I own.  Always easier said than done.   Once again I will be hosting Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks   and have many fun mini challenges and readalongs to keep everyone inspired.    I'm going to do a 3/5/15 challenge which is 3 books in 5 categories for the year 2015.  My categories are  Dusty, Chunky, Translated, Study of St. Luke, Spiritua l/ Philosophical.   I'll also do another round of  A to Z and Around the World , keeping track of countries and centuries.  

2014 Completed Reads An Antarctic Mystery - Jules Verne: 1839 Antarctic 184p eb) Black Arts (JY#7) - Faith Hunter:  (20th C, New Orleans, 336p  eb) Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami (20th C, Japan 607p) Ice Hunt - James Rollins (20th C, Arctic, 656p)  The Tale of Genji (volume 1) - Lady Murasaki (12thC, Japan, 210p eb) The Passage - Justin Cronin (20thC, US and various, 766p)  Fury of the Demon - Diana Rowland (20thC, Paranormal, 416p eb) Dead Man's Deal (#2 Asylum Tales) - Jocelyn Drake (20thC paranormal, 384p eb)  House of Cards (#2 Negotiator) - C.E. Murphy (20thC paranormal, 447p eb)  Here Be Dragons (#1 Welsh) - Sharon Kay Penman (13th, England/Wales, 704p)  Hands of Flame (#3 Negotiator) - C.E. Murphy (20thC, paranormal, 384p, eb) The Twelve - Justin Cronin (dystopian U.S., 568 p)   Coyote Dreams (#3 Walker Papers) - C.E. Murphy  (20thC paranormal, 416p, eb) Walking Dead (#4 Walker Papers - C.E. ...

 Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks 2014 Wrap Up   How many books did you read and did you meet your own personal goal? My goal was 100 books and I read 148. (link to books) Of course, 47 of those books were rereads (J.D. Robb's In Death series (39) and Faith Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series (8) so if I didn’t count those, the total would be 101. The statistical breakdown is 90 physical books and 58 Ebooks.  Last year it was 50/50 split and I was determined to read more ‘real’ books versus ‘virtual.’   I read a lot of series so the breakdown of male to female was 14 males to 34 females.  Out of those 16 were new to me authors. Challenge wise   (link to books) I cleared my shelves of 10 dusty books, 8 chunky books, and 5 faith reads. Also completed A to Z except for Y and Z which will do within the next week. I visited 11 countries including Israel, Japan, China, England, Italy, Wales Istanbul, Brazil, United States, and Afghan...

I wandered through the ancient forest on a narrow trail covered in moss and leaves.   The wind whistled through the trees, branches rustling and singing, while scattered leaves flew all about me. I could see the bridge now and hear the roar of the waterfall. The breeze pushed and pulled me, leaves crunching and crackling under my bare feet.   Crack! I jumped out of the way as a huge tree crashed behind me with a   bone jarring thud. Once the dust cleared, it blocked the pathway and now I’d have to take the long way home.   The wind whipped up again, pulling me along and I sprinted as fast as I could.   I’d heard about the bridge but never seen it.   Awe inspiring. Two huge oaks trees stretching across the water towards one another, the roots forming a natural walkway.   Warm and bumpy underneath my feet, I walked to the middle and stared down at the water.   The river roared underneath and emptied into a crystal clear lake, surro...

All for Charity! Charity drove through the front gate of her property and parked at the foot of the front steps. She laid her head on the steering wheel and took several deep breaths. Someone had been following her all day long. An amateur at best, since he’d gotten close enough for her to see him several times. Probably one of Moore’s goons. They’d never been too bright. Finally, she had lost him on the back roads of the town after taking several deliberate wrong turns. She stepped out of the car, paused when her phone trilled. The text message from her accountant stated a simple “It’s done.” “About time." Giggling, Charity strode up the steps and was just about to slip the key in her lock, when she saw the plant next to the door knocked over and dirt strewn all over the porch. She shook her head and set it upright. “I’ll deal with the mess later. Darn coyotes after the verbena again.” Charity unlocked the door and walked into the foyer, frowned when the lights didn’...

The latest exercise in Chapter 3 of The Making of a Story is all about capturing the details called Render the Tree, Capture the Forest .  By carefully choosing a few details, attempt to capture an entire place, a town, a city, a county. Since I'm working on editing Eyes in the Ashes, figured my main character driving through town would be perfect for this. During the writing, quite a few new ideas sparked about the story so have to say very helpful exercise. In the early dawn light as the clouds pearled over the redwood trees, the sheriff drove into town. He passed the bakery where Jacky usually started baking around 4:00 a.m. His stomach grumbled as sourdough and butter, cinnamon and blueberries competed with chicory and roasted espresso beans. Danny waved, loading the truck for his early morning deliveries down at the marina. All the windows along Main sparkled, shiny and clean in time for the May Day parade and the beginning of the fair. In a couple days, the streets wo...