Do you feel as safe on the roads these days?
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂
Do you feel as safe on the roads these days?
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂
As I launch into the writing of this post I am still basking in the glow of a morning of meeting authors and buying books. This post will include more photos than I usually add so they will be sized down for your convenience. My apologies for the poor lighting. Please be sure to click on the links I’ve provided. Even if you aren’t local to these people and organizations there could be ideas you would like to emulate where you are located.
As to the above … yes, you heard read me right. I came home with more books, and these ones don’t have to be returned. Yay! In fact, I bought twelve books and a bookmark! Oh me. I DO need a new bookcase. (Ohh, HONeeeyyy!) 😉
It all began with an email from author Laura Best to let me know about a children’s book fair being held Saturday AM, April 23. Happily, I was able to get there before 9:00 when there weren’t many people crowding around yet.
When I arrived I talked with two ladies in the lobby who were enthused about their lovely art display they had set up there. They rent out works of art to children for only $2 a month. Beautiful work. You can see what they’re all about HERE. It’s a fabulous idea, plus they have an art program – workshops once a month with local artists who work with the children.
At one table I met a lady representing the Valley Community Learning Association. She was happy to tell me a lot about it and suggested that if I were interested I could become involved in the family literacy program, helping people learn to read, including refugees who have recently come here and are learning English. They need the help. I think I would need more patience – like my mother had. It’s something to consider, though. You can check it out here.
I was delighted to be able to spend some time talking with many of the authors, and they all are such nice people – talented, inspiring, friendly, real, honest, and lovers of what they do. I came away invigorated and excited to write again.
Left: Laura Best, author of Bitter, Sweet (see interview and review) and Flying With a Broken Wing (review and interview)
Right: Jan Coates, author of A Hare in the Elephant’s Trunk (see interview and review); Rainbows in the Dark (see review); and other books I purchased today that I will show you below.
Here are photos I should have shared with you long ago of Laura at her reading of Flying With a Broken Wing. See, Laura? They are good pictures of you. 🙂
I got a chance to meet the lovely Starr Dobson whose first picture book I reviewed. Of course, I had to buy her second one, and she asked if I wanted a picture taken with her! Okay. 🙂 Thank you, Starr.
I don’t know why I didn’t take pictures of every author I talked with, or at least whose book(s) I purchased. Not thinking, I guess.
Here are two ladies with whom I had an enjoyable chat, and one invited me to a local writing group I didn’t know existed! They meet once a week. Thanks, Carolyn, I am seriously considering it.
Left: Meghan Marentette
Right: Carolyn Mallory
Now, look at all the books I purchased today:
The Fiddles & Spoons cover is different from on the copy I bought today, but it’s the one on Amazon and other places so I used it.
I’d previously met Ron Lightburn, the illustrator of How Smudge Came, when his own book was released. (review)
I was pleased to meet Lindsey Carmichael who is the Atlantic Representative for CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators & Performers). She is a sweet lady, and the many books she has written are quite amazing. She said she tried fiction but finds it harder to write than non-fiction. As you see above, I bought one of her books about a topic that fascinates me.
A fun bonus is I got to add to my bookmark and postcard collections.
This fair opened my awareness to more about writing – that being a writer is very OKAY, that I should try writing non-fiction because I haven’t done that yet and it might work for me, that there is a writers’ group close enough for me to visit – especially tempting since I’ve now met someone who participates in it, and there are such fabulous books out there! oh, I already knew that, but I found so many new ones! And I now own a few more. 🙂 Gotta love that.
I hope you’ve enjoyed our trip to the Children’s Book Fair. I certainly did. 🙂 Thanks for coming along.
What inspires your creativity and helps nudge you forward?
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂
Posted in Mostly About Reading, Preambles to Writing, Reviews & Interviews
Tagged Alice Walsh, authors of children's books, CANSCAIP, Carolyn Mallory, children's book fair, children's books, Jan L. Coates, L.E. Carmichael, Laura Best, Lila Hope-Simpson, Meghan Marentette, Melanie Mosher, Ron Lightburn illustrator, Starr Dobson
Are you ready for another giveaway?
I hope you are enjoying these gifts I’m offering. Today it’s not quite about reading or writing, but a way to inspire your creativity.
Do you like to colour? Or do you know someone who does? Then this is for you:
Isn’t this a beautiful colouring book for adults? It should inspire your use of colour, your expression of beauty, maybe even ideas for a story.
And just because it’s an adult colouring book, that doesn’t mean it isn’t good for younger persons, too. 🙂
Here are a few of the twenty-four colouring pages found between those pretty covers.
Notice too, on the back of each page you can write your name and the date for a keepsake or a gift for someone. Each page is perforated for easy tear-out and is lovely to frame.
I am happy to offer this gift to you no matter where in the world you are located.
If you want to enter the draw to win this colouring book, please leave a comment telling me how you relax your mind.
I will use Random.org name picker to find out which of you is the winner. Watch here the morning after the draw for the announcement, and don’t forget to check your email. This could be yours!
Draw date for this giveaway is at 10 PM AST, that’s 9 PM Eastern, on Wednesday, May 11. This gives you lots of time to pass the word on to others, too. I will post the winner’s name on May 12.
Remember, you have until May 11 to get your name into the draw, but don’t put it off! Worldwide offer.
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂
Today’s post is on the lighthearted side of things.
Toilet paper. A must-have item but amusing to talk about.
Have you seen this article yet? I came across it this morning and thought it would give you something different to think about.
How do you hang your toilet paper, over or under? In my household one of us likes it one way, one of us likes it the other. Nothing is said about it anymore, but there have been times that one roll of toilet paper has been changed from under to over to under to over to … you get the picture. 🙂 Now I usually just leave it however it was last replenished, although the right way is over. Just sayin’. 🙂
It’s really nothing to get bent out of shape about, but I’m sure people get into heated arguments over this topic. Seriously … is there nothing more important to the world that you can use your combative skills on? It seems how you hang your toilet paper says something about you, hopefully that you know how to pick your battles. 🙂
How do YOU hang your toilet paper?
To connect this to writing, have you ever been in a bathroom when a story idea has come to you and all you can find to write on is toilet paper?
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂
Treat yourself today by going on a visit to your local library. If you haven’t got a card it’s probably free – (mine was) – or if not free, then it will be inexpensive for all the reading pleasure it will afford you.
When’s the last time you visited your library and took out a book?
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂
Posted in Miscellanea, Mostly About Reading
Tagged Books, library, library card, novelty t-shirt
I have an account on Goodreads. If you love books then Goodreads.com is a great place to be. Each year they set up a challenge for us to challenge ourselves to read more, to set goals to read however many books we think we can or that we want to read. I enjoy challenges like that since I’m just a little competitive. And I love books. ♥
In 2013 my goal was 25 books. I made it to 44%, having read only 11 books. Actually, if you look at my list here on my blog for what books I read that year, my total was 34. The difference is because I apparently didn’t report them all on Goodreads. Oops!
I don’t remember what my goal for 2014 was, but I reported 38 books. In actuality, I read 46.
In 2015 I met my goal of 50 books. Yay! (Plus one I didn’t report.)
This year I set a goal of 25, then decided to up it to 50 again. Once I joined the ReFoReMo challenge in March, I said – what the hey! – and reset my goal to 150 books this year. Yipes! Not to panic, yet. I am already 64 ahead of schedule at 71%, having read 107 as of this writing. I still have a few more titles on hold at the library for the lingering on of ReFoReMo in my life, and we have about eight months left in 2016. I can do it! (yes I can) Gosh, I love books! ♥
It may not seem like such a big accomplishment where most of my reading so far this year is picture books. I could never manage to read that many novels in twelve months. BUT … reading is reading. I’m learning about writing while I’m enjoying all those expertly told stories, too, as they serve as mentor texts. ♥
Someday I’ll try to count how many books I have here in my growing TBR stashes. ♥ Novels, that is. Novels beckoning to me, novels tempting me, calling me. *sigh* I want to read them, get lost in them, devour them all! ♥
I ♥ BOOKS.
Another feature on Goodreads is that other members I’ve connected with as “friends” can recommend books they’ve read. Oh me. Some have. 🙂 ♥
Oh, and while I’m on the topic — thank you to author Darlene Foster who follows my blog and recommended Pompeii by Robert Harris. I bought it through Audible.com and very much enjoyed it. Of course, I could have borrowed it from the library but I didn’t even think of doing that at the time. I really like Audible, anyway. 🙂 I can multi-task that way — listen to the book being performed for me (not just read), which is so great, and work around doing something else at the same time. But not writing. Not while “reading.” 😉
Have you set a goal this year for how many books you want to read? Or is there some other goal-setting you’ve established?
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂