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!!

You can find me on Twitter, Goodreads, YouTube, and Facebook.

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.

You can find me on Twitter, Goodreads, YouTube, and Facebook.

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.

You can find me on Twitter, Goodreads, YouTube, and Facebook.

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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Quarterly Goals - Start 2016 with a Bang!

So, if you've been reading this blog for a while, you may remember I tried doing monthly goals. I found these a bit stressful...okay...a lot stressful. When work would suddenly get busy and I'd have to bring it home, I wouldn't have a lot of time to work on the goals. This year, as a result, I've decided to try quarterly goals. Since I have no goals to review or recap, let's just get in to the goals I have for this quarter.

1. Create a Website: This is something I've been wanting to do for a while, and have done a bunch of research. I've looked at other websites for reviewers and authors, and have a general idea of what I want to do with the website. The thing holding me back, is my waffle brain! I keep changing what I want for the layout, and want on the website. I call this waffling - one minute I'm on one of the ridges of the waffle, the next I'm in a valley, then I'm on a new ridge or go back to the same ridge, and go back to the valley...you get the idea.
2. Organize my Home Office: My fiance will love this goal, if I can accomplish this. Our home office is cluttered with all of my papers, and books, and coupons, and miscellaneous crap. This makes it really hard for either of us to do anything in the room.
3. Publish 6 Book Review Vlogs: I started a YouTube channel because I love reading, and wanted another outlet to publish reviews. It's sometimes really hard to show how excited I am about a book in only words. Yet, I've barely filmed any book reviews. (I also haven't published that many vlogs, but I'm hoping to change this too.)
4. Outline my Story: I participated in NaNoWriMo last November. I did not make the 50,000 word goal. Towards the end I had trouble figuring where the story should go, or what twists to throw in. So, it has been determined I am not a pantser, although I think I partially am. It's how I get interested in a story. I suddenly have several scenes running through my head with the same characters. Each time they run through my head they change slightly, but I've become interested to know more about these characters and what is going on. So I'm hoping to log these scenes, and plan out these characters and what happens now. I'll continue to write the scenes in my writing journal, but I'm going to add to the scenes and turn them into a full novel. Do I think this will be published one day? Maybe, after about 100 revisions, and I get more practice and figure out my process.
5. File Taxes: This is self explanatory. I typically start this early - gathering all the various tax documents in one place, but then I'm actually filing the first or second week of April. I may be a procrastinator, but I do not like filing taxes at the last second. If you are missing a document, or run into a question, it takes time to find the document (another reason to clean the office) or obtain a new copy, and to research the question to find an answer. So, this year, I will file before April. And I mean it this time, I really mean it. (I've failed at this like 3 years in a row.)
6. Finish fixing our Bedroom: Last year, we had to basically demolish a wall of our bedroom. Stripped it to the studs. Before we purchased the home, unannounced to us, there had been a water leak problem around the roof over the wall. Water somehow got into the wall and created a nice environment for some termites. The house was a foreclosure, and needed a lot of work so we didn't move in until the termites had gone dormant or whatever they do for the Fall/Winter. Come the next spring, we laid in bed at night and listened to munching in the wall. We called an exterminator who confirmed, termites. We finally had room in our budget to fix do the needed demolition and replace the needed studs. Now the wall is basically ready for paint - could still use some drywall mud in a few places - I just, umm, haven't finished it yet.
7. Organize my Coupons: I am not made of money, and yes, I coupon. I use an online website, coupons.com, to clip and print coupons. I have pages of these coupons all over our home office. I need to clip them from the paper they are printed on, and file them so I can see what coupons I have before going to the grocery store.
8. Caulk the Bathtub: We had the bathroom redone, I think back in 2014. (Totally lost track of time. Feels like it was last year, but think it was the year before.) With all the getting out and in of the bathtub, the grout has cracked in a few areas. Our exterminator has pointed this out as an issue. One of the cracks has gotten a bit large, and he has warned if we don't get this fixed, we will be right back to where we started and have a nice environment in the same wall for termites. Can't have that now can we. So, this is on the list, I just really don't want to clean the tub. I do this only when necessary because I hate it so much. Well, it's necessary, so we can caulk, I'm just dragging my feet like the expert procrastinator I am.
9. Complete the online course for work: I am working to get certified at my day job, in order to do this I have this online course, and one book course left to get certified. This certification, is basically required for me to have a hope of being promoted. The online course will expire this June, and I'd like to have it completed before then. So, here it is on the goal list.
10. Undisclosed Goal: This goal is a surprise. It needs to get done, so you hopefully won't have to wait too long before finding what this is. I'll announce it on my social medias, and probably do a summary of events leading to this point here and/or in a vlog. So, if you haven't, be sure to follow me at the social medias listed below to find out more about this goal.

These are the goals I have to start off 2016. I'll let you know of any updates to the list as time progresses on my social medias. Such as if I finish the outline, depending on what time is left for this quarter I may add a goal to write so many pages or words.

You can find me on Twitter, Goodreads, YouTube, and Facebook.