Book Review: Salem's Vengeance

As panrt of the TBRTakedown Readathon, put on by Shanon from Leaning Lights, I read Salem's Vengeance by Aaron Galvin, the first of a trilogy. I did not want to put this book down.

I've always had a small interest in the Salem witch trials. This book is based loosely on what happened, and even takes it a step further. One of the victims of the Salem trials is now hunting down those who started the witch hunt that nearly killed everyone in the town.

The reader sees what happened in Salem through the eyes of one of the men who was talked into starting the hunt, via his journal provided to the main character. A young girl named Sarah, who loves to go out at night and dance with some of her friends. An innocent act, but the usual dancers are invaded by newcomers who want to show how it's done.

Sarah is wary of the newcomers. Something is off about them. She tries to get her friends to leave and return home, but they don't. This becomes the downfall of their town, and the moment Sarah's life will change forever.

Trying desperately to keep her late night wanderings secret from her parents, this fails after she is forced to tell of what happened in the woods. Now, her father turns out to be someone else. He moved to the town with her mother to get away from his past.

This story is full of suspense, and twists hiding around every corner. Not everyone remains standing in the end; to find out who survives, you'll have to read the book. I loved the writing, characters, and loved how I was hooked. This is exactly what I want from a book.

The twists kept coming. They weren't one right after the other, but came just fast enough that I wanted to know what was going to happen next.

And the suspense before the battles, I was hanging on for dear life. I literally stopped breathing a few times, or had a deep inhale of breath.

You don't have to be hooked or interested in the Salem witch trials to enjoy this book. Heck, you could absolutely hate history or know nothing about the Salem witch trials. If you want to be surprised, and have the air knocked out of you with the twists the story takes, you have got to read this book.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Writing Scenes to Outline

It's funny. I have scenes running through my head all day. A trip to the store turns into a fight for life in my head. A walk around the office turns into a treasure hunt. Then I sit down to write them out and suddenly I can't seem to think of them.

I guess I feel writing them out feels so final, or like it has to be perfect the first time. I wonder where to start; funny, when they come to me they just start wherever and don't worry about what is right. It's only when I sit in front of the computer that I have an issue; wondering what others will think, or what one of my English professors would have said about starting here, or phrasing something there.

If I close my eyes though, so it's just me and the characters walking through the scene. Suddenly the scene comes to life on the screen. I don't judge it though since I can't see that it's being written. I live in the scene and forget that my hands are flying over the keys of my keyboard.

Having found this answer to Writer's Block, makes me think back to my childhood and dancing. I used to dance in competitions. If you look down, you can usually see the front row, which in a competition means you can see the judges talking into their microphones. The trick is to look out to the rest of the audience. The lights are so bright, it's just a black room beyond the lights. I made the mistake of looking down once. I totally messed up after doing so. When I looked down, one of the judges seemed to be looking right at me.

The step I was doing at the time was, and is, one of my favorite combinations. I do the combination to this day, walking down the hall. Yet when I saw the judge, my brain froze. Same as if I'm starring at the computer screen. I think about those who may read what I'm writing and the Writer's Block kicks in. I freeze under the pressure. So, now that I found the trick of writing with my eyes closed, I'm hoping to be successful in outlining the story in my head and figure out where it goes.

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Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon Hour 0

Good morning! It is once again time for Dewey's 24-hour readathon. I hope it is nice out where you are and you may be able to enjoy some ourdoor reading today. I likely will be, at least of the audiobook variety, while I take care of some weeding. Blah! Not fun, but it needs to be done.

I am joining in from Michigan, in the United States. We've been having a funky start to Spring, but it looks like things are finally straightening up and it should be a beautiful day outside.

I don't have a book in my stack that I am most looking forward to. This is kind of a problem as it is probably why I don't really have a TBR for this readathon, and am still, as I'm writing this at 7:57 am right now, am not sure what I'm going to start with. Do I go to something new? Or something I have already started? Choices, choices. I am currently leaning to something new; and that would be Death Note Volume 1.

Snacks...I have a variety of fruity candy, and fruit of the healthy variety - apples and oranges. Thanks to my husband going seriously overboard on a sale for pop/soda, I have plenty of that too. I am most looking forward to the, drumroll...fruity candy snacks.

Something about myself...hmm...I stayed up longer than I should have last night, but had a blast with family. I hold my family close and consider family important.

As for something I'm doing different this time from last time; he he, I already did this. I put the readathon on the calendar so my husband would know I was planning on reading for a readathon. This way if he invites people over again, I won't be expected to participate, or will be allowed to read while participating. Something else different, is I signed up to be a cheerleader this time. So you'll find me really active today on Twitter.

Well, I'm late to start now, I see the clock has rolled on to 8:05 am now. So time to wrap this up and I'll see you over on Twitter. Happy reading everyone!!

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Spring Goals 2016

Here we go. I'd like to say new quarter, new goals, but since last quarter was such a failure, most of these are not new.

1. Create a Website.
2. Organize our Home Office. This, I have at least started.
3. Publish 6 Book Review Vlogs.
4. Outline my Story.
5. File Taxes. This is already complete!
6. Finish fixing our Bedroom. 
7. Organize my Coupons. 
8. Complete the online course for work. The course expires the end of June, so if I don't finish, I will fail the course.
9. Post an average of one Vlog per week. I may not be able to post each and every week, but I can hopefully keep up with an average of one a week. No, correction, I don't hope, because I'm going to make this happen.

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Winter Goals 2016 Review

Time for public humiliation. I totally failed on these goals. Most required overcoming the monsters in my head, and I hoped making them goals would help me overcome those monsters. That apparently didn't work, at least not this time.

1. Create a Website: FAIL I mostly know what I want to do for this, but I worry about any changes I may want to make in the future, or how marketable the website will be. The whole idea after all is to spread the word about the reviews and things I write.
2. Organize my Home Office: FAIL Yeah, so, this didn't happen either. It started to happen, then I got busy, and it got messy again before I was even halfway done.
3. Publish 6 Book Review Vlogs: FAIL I recorded a review of 3 books...but I still haven't edited the video, and it would only be one vlog. When I made this goal, the intention was to be 6 separate vlogs.
4. Outline my Story: FAIL This is started at least. I kept trying to focus on the story, but certain points trigger scenes to play in my head. I think I may need to start giving in to these just to help shore up what the story is exactly because even I'm not sure at the moment. I keep changing things before I've even started.
5. File Taxes: FAIL We're not going to talk about this one. We are now at the do or die period for this. Yet again, another year of filing taxes at basically the last moment.
6. Finish fixing our Bedroom: FAIL There hasn't been a lot of time for this, plus I caught a cold. Not exactly great circumstances to be painting. Last thing I wanted was to sneeze and have primer or paint go everywhere or bump a wall or the ceiling with the wrong color. Speaking of color, we are considering changing the color of our bedroom, but haven't picked one. We've been discussing general color families; gray, blue, those kinds of color families. Then we can go look at sky blue or ocean blue type colors.
7. Organize my Coupons: FAIL I could consider this done, but I'd be cheating. I know there are some printed from online that are buried in the paper stack I haven't tackled yet while cleaning the office. These are likely too old and will need to be just tossed in the paper recycle box, but the fact remains, I have not organized them. Ergo, I have not completed organizing the coupons I have.
8. Caulk the Bathtub: DONE Wohoo! Finally, something I can check off the list. I was getting worried there. There is one corner I would like to redo, but the fact remains, no moisture will be getting behind the walls of the shower.
9. Complete the online course for work: FAIL I did complete an online course, but it was not the course intended to be completed when I made this goal. So this is a fail. It is hard to complete a course when you're busy doing other projects you've been assigned. Basically, I hit my wall, and needed a break after finally signing off from work each day. This did not leave a lot of time to get through the course.
10. Undisclosed Goal: DONE After being engaged for almost 4 years, we finally got married on March 3. Now our family has switched over to asking about a reception and what we are doing for our honeymoon. They can never be satisfied. And just to be clear, we did not get married just to make our family stop asking, that was a minor part. We decided a long time ago we were just going to go to the court, the hesitation was me, I didn't want to offend anyone by not picking them as a witness. As it turns out, we were allowed to bring as many people as we wanted, since we wanted it small we only had our immediate family there.

So, this quarter was a total fail! Another factor likely contributing to this failure, was I didn't have my goals posted anywhere for me to view and see them. There were a few times where I would try to plan out the next day and would wonder what I had put down for my goals. This needs to change this quarter and maybe we will have a successful quarter this time around.

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Book Review: Keep Moving by Dick Van Dyke

I recently finished Keep Moving by Dick Van Dyke. I've always enjoyed watching Dick Van Dyke; I first saw him in Mary Poppins as Bert, the chimney sweep, but did you know he had another role in the movie? He jokes he wouldn't need all the extra makeup to play the part now. Which character was he? Mr. Dawes Sr., the head of the bank.

My parents enjoyed torturing me growing up, and having me sit through some of their favorite movies. One of which being Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, another movie featuring Dick Van Dyke. Something else you may not know, it was during the filming of this movie Mr. Van Dyke was diagnosed with Arthritis, through his entire body. The doctor was surprised he could move at all. Today, he is still showing he can move and recently joined Derek Hough with a tribute to Disney songs and danced a little to Step in Time.

In the book he talks about the importance of just getting up and moving. You hear a song you like on the radio while your at the grocery store shopping, start dancing. Don't worry about what others may think, life is too short to not enjoy each and every minute. He talks about this and other life lessons as he takes you through some of his life's high and low points.

Mr. Van Dyke teaches us the importance of continuing to move and enjoying life. I definitely recommend this room.

I received a free copy from NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

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