Dear Shell,
This weekend I went to a book signing for a fellow Red Hot Writers member. Barry Poupard is the author of two books geared toward children. He wrote them specifically for two young girls, Julia and Laura, ages 8 and 12.
Finding Fairyland is Julia's story. In this book, Julia is a young girl who believes that fairies do exist, and that if you try hard that you can find a way to fairyland. Armed with the knowledge she gained through researching fairies and with her best friend by her side, she heads out to find the way in.
Finding Fairyland 2 is Laura's story. While she is the older sister and is a teenager in the story, she still believes in fairies as well. Normally older sisters are the ones who get to do everything first, so when Julia has her adventure in fairyland before she does, it makes Laura more determined to also experience the magic. She sets out to find her own way into fairyland.
Finding Fairyland 1 and 2 are cute stories. I was drawn into the adventure along with Julia and Laura. The stories also had messages or lessons behind them that were subtle yet stood out enough that hopefully a young child reading or listening to the stories would pick up on. Maybe the messages/lessons were not intentional, but they are there.
Messages such as:
you do not need to be just like everyone else to be liked (when Julia lost her former best friend then found a new friend),
that if you are polite and respectful to others they will usually be polite and respectful back to you (the golden rule, do unto others..),
you shouldn't treat someone different just because they look different,
its better to walk away when someone tries to hurt you instead of returning the hurt back to them.
Overall the books are a good read. I could easily imagine myself reading them out loud to a young child. I think girls as young as 4 would enjoy hearing the stories. I would recommend them to anyone with young girls between the ages of 4 and 12 (younger boys might like them but not sure about boys closer to being teenagers). They can be found on Amazon.com or from Bleau Gardens in Flushing, Michigan.
Shell
Monday, March 23, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Coupons, Savings, And ...Fun?
Dear Shell,
I've posted before in the past that I hate grocery shopping, it's so expensive. I still hate grocery shopping. But I'm getting better at it.
Last week, my friend Ceri and I were talking about grocery shopping, the high prices, and figuring out ways to bring our costs down. She linked me to a really good website/forum. (i'll see if i can get it to link). http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/index.php
Then we sat and talked about coupons and store ads for awhile. I had a rather large stack of coupon ads, so I went through and cut coupons out for items we use. Then I found an ad for Kroger's, which happens to be only a few miles away from our house.
They had a pretty good sale going on, buy any 10 items (from a list of items) and get $5 back. Plus most of those items were also already on sale. I also had coupons for most of the items on the 'buy 10' list. So I had several items from that list that I ended up paying only .25 or less for. And several items I got free. And then I got $5 back on top of it all!
Plus I found deals such as:
Quaker Oatmeal - Normal Price: $3.19 each. Sale: buy 2 for $4. Coupon: $1 off 2. Paid: $3 total for 2 boxes. Savings: 1 box free, .19 off the other.
Crest pro-health toothpaste, 4.2oz size - Normal price: $3.54 each. Sale: buy 2 for $4. Coupon: $1 off 1 (and i had 2 coupons). Paid: $2 total for 2 tubes. Savings: 1 tube of toothpaste free, $1.54 off the other.
I think I got two rolls of paper towels for .24 each.
Overall, i saved 40%. Grocery bill before sales and coupons: $183.81. Grocery bill after sales and coupons: $107.26. A savings of $76.55.
This week, Meijers has 'buy 10 items for $10, get 11th item free'. I've glanced through the ad, and there are several items on the list that I have coupons for. I need to get Krogers ad out of the mailbox still to see what their deals are. Kroger and Meijer are across the street from each other, so it won't cost more than a few cents extra in gas money to hit both grocery stores. And we have a good cooler that I can use to keep cold stuff cold while I run into the other store. Walmart is also on the way home from Kroger/Meijer, so if there's something I know is way cheaper at Walmart (that I can also combine with a coupon)... nothing stopping me from running through there as well!
We don't need a lot this week, just fill in a few items that I didnt pick up last week because they were more expensive at Kroger than Walmart so I planned to hit Walmart for those items, and then never made it there last week haha.
Well, I need to head up to the mailbox to get the store ads and toss the envelope with extra coupons in the mail to make its way to Ceri's house.
Shell
I've posted before in the past that I hate grocery shopping, it's so expensive. I still hate grocery shopping. But I'm getting better at it.
Last week, my friend Ceri and I were talking about grocery shopping, the high prices, and figuring out ways to bring our costs down. She linked me to a really good website/forum. (i'll see if i can get it to link). http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/index.php
Then we sat and talked about coupons and store ads for awhile. I had a rather large stack of coupon ads, so I went through and cut coupons out for items we use. Then I found an ad for Kroger's, which happens to be only a few miles away from our house.
They had a pretty good sale going on, buy any 10 items (from a list of items) and get $5 back. Plus most of those items were also already on sale. I also had coupons for most of the items on the 'buy 10' list. So I had several items from that list that I ended up paying only .25 or less for. And several items I got free. And then I got $5 back on top of it all!
Plus I found deals such as:
Quaker Oatmeal - Normal Price: $3.19 each. Sale: buy 2 for $4. Coupon: $1 off 2. Paid: $3 total for 2 boxes. Savings: 1 box free, .19 off the other.
Crest pro-health toothpaste, 4.2oz size - Normal price: $3.54 each. Sale: buy 2 for $4. Coupon: $1 off 1 (and i had 2 coupons). Paid: $2 total for 2 tubes. Savings: 1 tube of toothpaste free, $1.54 off the other.
I think I got two rolls of paper towels for .24 each.
Overall, i saved 40%. Grocery bill before sales and coupons: $183.81. Grocery bill after sales and coupons: $107.26. A savings of $76.55.
This week, Meijers has 'buy 10 items for $10, get 11th item free'. I've glanced through the ad, and there are several items on the list that I have coupons for. I need to get Krogers ad out of the mailbox still to see what their deals are. Kroger and Meijer are across the street from each other, so it won't cost more than a few cents extra in gas money to hit both grocery stores. And we have a good cooler that I can use to keep cold stuff cold while I run into the other store. Walmart is also on the way home from Kroger/Meijer, so if there's something I know is way cheaper at Walmart (that I can also combine with a coupon)... nothing stopping me from running through there as well!
We don't need a lot this week, just fill in a few items that I didnt pick up last week because they were more expensive at Kroger than Walmart so I planned to hit Walmart for those items, and then never made it there last week haha.
Well, I need to head up to the mailbox to get the store ads and toss the envelope with extra coupons in the mail to make its way to Ceri's house.
Shell
Monday, March 16, 2009
Get Out Of My Head!
Dear Shell,
Here I am, knee-deep in revisions on Dragon Eye, and my mind keeps wandering away to another world. Or rather, it keeps wandering away from that fantasy world that I created and trying to sneak back into the world we know so well. My mind is telling me that I have another story to write, one based in this world, not in the fantasy one where my characters wait patiently for me to change their lives...again.
I think it is because I have finished the first draft of Dragon Eye that my mind feels that it is free to wander into another story. It tells me that it can revise, polish, and fine-tune Dragon Eye while still exploring and telling a different story.
Of course, my mind tried to drag me away several times during the writing of the first draft. It forced me to create seven different files with the beginnings of seven different novels, plus notes to go with them. But it was not very insistent with those stories. It was happy once the basic idea was written down and then set safely aside for another day.
And now, does it open one of those files? No, now it insists THIS story is the one that needs to be told. My mind has offered up options for the beginning, and has stated how one of the chapters near the end should be. But it has not told me what the ending should be. Maybe the ending does not exist yet.
Curious now? Maybe you're sitting there thinking I'm crazy. I wouldn't blame you. But remember this, a writer is one of the few that can claim to have voices in their head telling them what to do, without being thought insane and being locked away. Those voices are the characters that we can't resist, the characters that tug at our heart strings, that send chills down our spines, that cause gales of laughter or buckets of tears. Those are the voices we love to see in print, that we love to cuddle up with on the couch as we lose ourselves in the world that the writer created.
The stories are there, they beg to be written. We just need to be strong enough to pick up that pen and write.
Grabbing her pen,
Shell
Here I am, knee-deep in revisions on Dragon Eye, and my mind keeps wandering away to another world. Or rather, it keeps wandering away from that fantasy world that I created and trying to sneak back into the world we know so well. My mind is telling me that I have another story to write, one based in this world, not in the fantasy one where my characters wait patiently for me to change their lives...again.
I think it is because I have finished the first draft of Dragon Eye that my mind feels that it is free to wander into another story. It tells me that it can revise, polish, and fine-tune Dragon Eye while still exploring and telling a different story.
Of course, my mind tried to drag me away several times during the writing of the first draft. It forced me to create seven different files with the beginnings of seven different novels, plus notes to go with them. But it was not very insistent with those stories. It was happy once the basic idea was written down and then set safely aside for another day.
And now, does it open one of those files? No, now it insists THIS story is the one that needs to be told. My mind has offered up options for the beginning, and has stated how one of the chapters near the end should be. But it has not told me what the ending should be. Maybe the ending does not exist yet.
Curious now? Maybe you're sitting there thinking I'm crazy. I wouldn't blame you. But remember this, a writer is one of the few that can claim to have voices in their head telling them what to do, without being thought insane and being locked away. Those voices are the characters that we can't resist, the characters that tug at our heart strings, that send chills down our spines, that cause gales of laughter or buckets of tears. Those are the voices we love to see in print, that we love to cuddle up with on the couch as we lose ourselves in the world that the writer created.
The stories are there, they beg to be written. We just need to be strong enough to pick up that pen and write.
Grabbing her pen,
Shell
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Who Is She?
Dear Shell,
Last night I was doing some research for writing tips and ideas. I came across an excerpt from one book (which I'll probably be picking up this weekend) where the author gave several sentences as ideas where you were to pick one then write for 20 minutes. The author said you could change the subject character from male to female, or vice versa, change colors, or change other minor details as long as the main point of the sentence was still there. I wrote down a few of the ideas and decided to try one last night.
Who is She?
She was sitting there at my kitchen table when I came in, eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She had long black hair that was braided and fell in a straight line just past her waist. Her dress was a pale blue with a white ribbon along the empire waist and white lace at the edge of her high collar, at the end of each wrist-length sleeve, and most likely along the hem of the dress as well but that part of her was hidden by the table.
She also had the saddest eyes I've ever seen; light green with a hint of tears glistening in them.
I sat across from her, across from this unknown female sitting in my kitchen. She didn't speak to me, she just continued looking at me with those sad, sad eyes while eating her sandwich. I didn't speak to her either, although by now most people would have demanded to know who she was, how she had gotten in, what she was doing there. They may even have called the police to come and take her away. Maybe some would ask why she had made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when there was a perfectly good ribeye steak in the refrigerator waiting to be grilled. Others might even be curious enough to ask her why she was so sad.
I didn't ask any questions though. I simply waited for her to finish eating her sandwich.
She smiled at me after she finished her meal, then stood up and walked out of the kitchen. I could see now that yes, there was white lace at the bottom of her pale blue dress as well. I didn't hear the front door open yet I knew that she had left.
I tried to think of how I would explain my unexpected visitor to others. I guess I would start with, "Well, the ghost was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."
Shell
Last night I was doing some research for writing tips and ideas. I came across an excerpt from one book (which I'll probably be picking up this weekend) where the author gave several sentences as ideas where you were to pick one then write for 20 minutes. The author said you could change the subject character from male to female, or vice versa, change colors, or change other minor details as long as the main point of the sentence was still there. I wrote down a few of the ideas and decided to try one last night.
Who is She?
She was sitting there at my kitchen table when I came in, eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She had long black hair that was braided and fell in a straight line just past her waist. Her dress was a pale blue with a white ribbon along the empire waist and white lace at the edge of her high collar, at the end of each wrist-length sleeve, and most likely along the hem of the dress as well but that part of her was hidden by the table.
She also had the saddest eyes I've ever seen; light green with a hint of tears glistening in them.
I sat across from her, across from this unknown female sitting in my kitchen. She didn't speak to me, she just continued looking at me with those sad, sad eyes while eating her sandwich. I didn't speak to her either, although by now most people would have demanded to know who she was, how she had gotten in, what she was doing there. They may even have called the police to come and take her away. Maybe some would ask why she had made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when there was a perfectly good ribeye steak in the refrigerator waiting to be grilled. Others might even be curious enough to ask her why she was so sad.
I didn't ask any questions though. I simply waited for her to finish eating her sandwich.
She smiled at me after she finished her meal, then stood up and walked out of the kitchen. I could see now that yes, there was white lace at the bottom of her pale blue dress as well. I didn't hear the front door open yet I knew that she had left.
I tried to think of how I would explain my unexpected visitor to others. I guess I would start with, "Well, the ghost was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."
Shell
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