Goals, Celebrations, and Galveston

The last Friday of the month brings quite a few hops, which is a good thing for me since I am still running on empty when it comes to ideas for blog posts.

First up is the Cephalopod Coffeehouse hosted by The Armchair Squid. This is a simple and fun hop where we all share the best book we've read in the course of the month. If you'd like to sign up and join in, visit Armchair here.

Source: Amazon purchase page

The best book I read this month was Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto. In a word, this book is fantastic.

I mentioned last week that I have become a huge fan of HBO's True Detective, which is also written by Pizzolatto. I picked up Galveston for this reason and wasn't disappointed. If you like haunting and atmospheric noir stories you will love this book. It's a thriller that is hard to put down and I was actually sorry when I came to the end of the book. I think Pizzolatto is an amazing talent and while I'm sure he is quite busy with HBO now I hope he will write more novels in the future.

Next up, Misha Gericke's Do You Have Goals? hop.

This is my second month participating in this hop and I'm really glad I signed up as it's helped me focus on my goal of making a full-time living as a writer by June, 2015.

February was really a great month for me in terms of working towards that goal. I wrote an article about Martha's Vineyard and The Ghosts of Aquinnah that was accepted for publication in the Spring issue of Cape Women Online. That issue will go live in April and I can't wait to see my article there.

I also set up a book signing on May 24 at Edgartown Books on Martha's Vineyard. I'm going to be on the island that week and I was thrilled to be able to arrange something for Memorial Day weekend. As I mentioned previously, I also got accepted to be a festival author at the Ohioana Book Festival on May 10 in Columbus, Ohio. Finally, I arranged to do a presentation about the Vineyard combined with a book signing at my local public library on June 24.

So I feel like I had a very productive month in terms of arranging activities to help gain more exposure. I'm excited about all of these events I have coming up.

Finally, it's time to Celebrate the Small Things again with Vikki at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author.

This week I'm celebrating getting several of my A to Z in April posts written and scheduled to post. Last year I had all of my posts done in advance and I'm determined to do the same this year as it made the Challenge much more fun and less stressful. Are you participating in the A to Z Challenge this year? If you're on the fence about joining in, I can't recommend it enough. Just click on the badge above to sign up.

I'm also celebrating the fact that our weather was warm enough last weekend to melt all the snow and I could walk with Clancy this week without stumbling around in the snow or worrying about falling on ice. The weather turned cold again during the week but that's fine with me as I actually like walking in the cold as long as there is no snow or ice accompanying it. So Clancy and I had some great walks in the park this week and it felt great to be out and about with no snow in sight.

Hope everyone had a great week and has a good weekend coming up!

A Cat Named Bob, an Interview, a Goal, and a Friday Celebration

I've been in a blog slump and unable to think of anything to write about since Christmas, so it's kind of funny that today I have enough to write about to fill several posts. 

First up, Natasha Hanova was kind enough to interview me on her blog today and I'm very happy to be featured there. Thanks to Natasha for the feature! Please visit us here. 

And speaking of interviews, Clancy is still psyched about the fact that he was featured on Two Fur-Peeps and a Writer yesterday. If you missed it, come see us there and see what he got up to with Sir Poops and Hair Ball and their mom Shelly Arkon.

Next is the monthly meeting of the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, hosted by The Armchair Squid. The Coffeehouse is a fun and simple group where we share our favorite book we've read in the past month. Visit Armchair's site here to view participants or to sign up to join us. 

Source: Amazon purchase page

My favorite book that I read this month was A Street Cat Named Bob And How He Saved My Life by James Bowen. 

Bowen was a heroin addict living in government-supported housing in London when he found an injured street cat outside his door. He used the small amount of money he made busking to help the cat and ended up finding a life-long friend and the catalyst for turning his life around in return. 

It's no secret that I love animals and this book showcases the bond that can develop between a human and an animal in a touching and heartwarming way. While it's a very sweet and "feel good" story, it's not sappy or trite. I'd recommend the book to any animal lover, and especially cat lovers, and I think anyone who reads it will fall in love with the handsome and charming orange cat named Bob. 

Thanks as always to Armchair for hosting this group!

This is the first month I am participating in Misha Gericke's Goal Bloghop at The Five Year Project. The purpose of the hop is to share a goal that may be considered crazy by some and then keep everyone up to date on your progress towards reaching it, while also encouraging other goal seekers. Visit Misha here if you'd like to sign up and get involved. 

I decided to join this hop in the hopes that setting a deadline for myself and making my goal public would help motivate me. I'm very fortunate to have a full-time job while I pursue my writing goals but ultimately I would like to be able to work full-time as a writer. In order to do that I want to focus on finding freelance assignments in addition to working on my novels. 

While I had big plans to kick off 2014 by working diligently on this goal, it hasn't worked out that way. So I really don't have any progress to report this month. But knowing I will be reporting in again at the end of February does help motivate me and I am going to make it a point to have something more substantial to share then. I gave myself a deadline of June, 2015 to realize this goal. Stay tuned to see if I get there!

Last but never least, it's time to Celebrate the Small Things with Vikki at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author. This week I'm celebrating the end of January! This has been a month I'm glad to see end. I normally don't hate winter, but the weather we've had this year is not at all what we are used to and I've had more than enough of it. 

I will be very glad to turn the calendar over to February tomorrow and keep my fingers crossed that we have already seen the worst that winter has to offer this year. 

Happy weekend, all!

Soul Cutter Cover Reveal, Favorite Quotes, and the Cephalopod Coffeehouse

Today is the big day - the Soul Cutter cover reveal challenge!

The wonderful Lexa Cain has come up with a really fun and clever way to reveal the cover for her upcoming novel Soul Cutter. Find the errors in the covers she has posted all over the blogosphere today and you can win a prize! See the list below for the participating blogs and good luck!

Lexa’s Cover Reveal Challenge

Can you find the error on this cover?

To win a prize, find the cover error in each of these 10 blogs:

Alex J. Cavanaugh

PK Hrezo 

Father Dragon Writes 

Bards and Prophets 

The Write Game

Ellie Garratt 

Klahanie

Julie Flanders

In High Spirits 

Mainewords

For the correct cover, rules, and prize list, go to Lexa Cain’s blog.

Soul Cutter releases from MuseItUp Publishing on December 6, 2013.

Congratulations to Lexa!

Today is also the day for the monthly meeting of the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, hosted by Armchair Squid. This is a fun book club where we share our favorite book we read this month. Visit Armchair here to visit participating blogs and sign up yourself. 

I wasn't able to do much reading this month except for the time I spent on jury duty, where my Kindle was a lifesaver! So I'm sharing the two books I read during that time, both of which are from some super nice ladies here in the blogosphere, my friends Cathrina Constantine and Debbie Christiana. I can't choose between them so I'm just going to share both!

Wickedly They Come by Cathrina and Solstice by Debbie are both fast-paced reads which will definitely keep readers turning the pages. I wrote reviews for both of them so if you'd like to know what I thought of each one read my Wickedly They Come review here and my Solstice review here. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more from both Cathrina and Debbie, my two jury duty saviors. :D

I'm also back to my Friday Faves after taking the last few weeks off and this week I thought I'd share five favorite quotes. I've had favorite quotes on this blog since I first started writing it, but I always seem to come across more. So I'm sharing some favorites I've discovered and found inspiring, touching, or both. 

1. It always seems impossible until its done. ~ Nelson Mandela

2. If you ask me what I came into this life to do I will tell you: I came to live out loud. ~ Emile Zola

3.  I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.  ~ Maya Angelou

4. Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. ~ Edgar Allen Poe

5. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. ~ Mark Twain

As someone who is an admitted chicken, the last one really speaks to me. ;) 

I'm skipping the Celebrate the Small Things hop today as I think this post is long enough, but I hope everyone has had lots of things to celebrate this week. 

Have a great weekend! 

Red Dragon, Book Opening Lines, and Friday Celebrations

Today is the August meeting of The Cephalopod Coffeehouse, a book club hosted by The Armchair Squid, and this is my first time participating in the group. The rules of the club are simple - post about the best book you've finished during the past month and visit other bloggers who are doing the same.

My choice for this month was an easy one. The best book I read in August was Red Dragon by Thomas Harris.

Red Dragon on Amazon

I know this book is old but I had never read it before, and I haven't seen either of the movies made from it. But I became totally addicted to the tv show Hannibal this summer and I wanted to read the book that inspired it.

Once I started this book I couldn't stop and I was turning pages well into the night until I came to the end. That was both a good and a bad thing, because when I took my dog Clancy outside in the dark after finishing the book I was scared to death when I heard footsteps in my parking lot. I froze and nearly had a heart attack, certain Hannibal Lecter was coming up behind me. Fortunately, the footsteps only belonged to one of my neighbors. :D

According to one of the reviews on Amazon, "if you haven't read [Red Dragon] you haven't had the creeps."

I definitely second that and now wish I had read this book years ago. I not only loved the book, I also got more addicted to the series after reading it. A big thumbs up from me.

Thanks to Armchair for giving me the heads-up about this monthly meeting!

In keeping with the book theme, my Friday Faves list for this week is five of my favorite book opening lines. These are in no particular order, except for this first one, which is my all-time favorite.

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." ~ 1984, George Orwell

 


"Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered that she had turned into the wrong person." ~ Back When We Were Grownups, Anne Tyler

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . ." ~ Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier




 
 

“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish aboard.” ~ Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston





 

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." ~ Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling






 
I have to say this was probably the hardest topic yet to narrow down to just five. I could easily have gone on all day.

Finally, Friday brings another round of the Celebrate the Small Things Bloghop, hosted by Vikki at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author.

I'm celebrating that I have a long weekend thanks to the Labor Day holiday. The beginning of the new school year is always a stressful time at the college where I work and I am really looking forward to the break.

And speaking of the weekend, I'm celebrating the return of college football. Go Buckeyes! :)

Finally, I'm celebrating that we are heading into September and my favorite time of the year. I love autumn!

What are you celebrating? Did you read a book you particularly loved this past month? And what are your favorite book opening lines?

Happy weekend, all! :)