My 5th giveaway of 2016; your chance to win!

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! 🙂

My personal reading challenges

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! 🙂

Another pile of books for ReFoReMo

The challenge has ended, sort of. ReFoReMo may be over in one way, but I have a lot of work to do yet. On our own we were to read through each book and then analyze it – study how each was written, observe the POV and universal theme, choose our favourite line, write a little about the story’s main character, and more. It’s been educational for me to find out what is popular now, the many different types and themes of picture books, and the variety of ways to present stories. I’ve learned what type of book I’m not interested in writing and what style I’d like to try. A few I didn’t enjoy reading, a couple brought tears to my eyes, a few were educational and I learned fascinating things I didn’t know before; some stories were funny, a couple were hilarious (to me), and many were sweet stories in a variety of ways. This has been a great experience. (Thanks Carrie Charley Brown!)

I got more books from the library on Saturday and I’ve also started returning books. That’s the sad part.

Here are some of the latest ones I borrowed, I have a few others to photograph, and there are more on hold for me.

Have you read any of the above? They are:

Gravity by Jason Chin
One Day, The End by Rebecca Kai Dotlich
~~Birthday~~ Battle Bunny by Jon Scieszka
Lenny & Lucy by Philip C. Stead
How Hybrid Cars Work by Jennifer Swanson
Sparky! by Jenny Offill
A Dance Like Starlight by Kristy Dempsey
Wolfie the Bunny by Amy Dyckman
if you want to see a whale by Julia Fogliano
When Marian Sang by Pam Munoz Ryan
Locomotive by Brian Floca

I’ve read over eighty picture books through March because of Reading For Research Month, and I’m not done yet. That’s more books than I would normally read in a year! Some people have read many more than the 100 suggested, in only this month.

Now we’re learning from the special posts written for our further insight and inspiration. I’m so glad I did this, although now I’m behind in some other things I was doing – blogging and 12×12, to name only two. What I’ve gleaned through ReFoReMo should help in my writing though, so it’s all good. 🙂

On Sunday eleven of us shared Easter dinner at my dad’s, then I came home for my week off. I have a lot of reading, writing, revising to do and also publishing to finish! I am a writer and lovin’ it!

When is the last time you read a picture book to a child or for your own enjoyment?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

A fourth pile of books for ReFoReMo!

For a week I haven’t posted the newest books I’ve received from the library for Reading for Research Month! The librarian has been faithfully bringing them in for me and the notifications have been popping up in my email. (I currently have 64 out on loan.) Even though today’s mail brought another notice, I am posting a photo of the nineteen books I haven’t shown you yet. The others can wait – I’ll show them to you later since I haven’t been able to get them today anyway.

They are:

Sophie’s Squash by Pat Zietlow
This is Sadie by Sara O’Leary
Fox and Squirrel by Ruth Ohi
Cock-a-Doodle Oops! by Lori Degman
The Snatchabook by Helen Doherty
Max the Brave by Ed Vere
Home by Carson Ellis
Swan by Laurel Snyder
Boats for Papa by Jessixa Bagley
No Monkeys, No Chocolate by Melissa Stewart
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
Won Ton: a Cat Tale Told in Haiku by Lee Wardlaw
Waiting by Kevin Henkes
One Word From Sophia by Jim Averbeck
Be a Friend by Salina Yoon
I Dare You Not to Yawn by Helen Boudreau [let me know if you keep from yawning when reading this one]
The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdös by Deborah Heiligman
No Nap! Yes Nap! by Margie Palatini
The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt [hilarious!]

Aren’t they beautiful? 🙂 Some I enjoy more than others and for different reasons. I’m impressed by every one … and for different reasons.

Have you read any of the above books?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Ideas needed for my story, please

Here I am posting again so soon. I have a good reason.

When I was waking up Thursday morning I was still working out a dream I’d been having. It was a story, one I was “writing” while sleeping! I seem to have an editor who works at night! This is not a story idea I’d been thinking about before I went to bed, I hadn’t thought of it until I was sleeping. Really! Isn’t that cool?

Here’s what I need from you, if you will kindly oblige me in a comment.

If you have ever gone on a cruise or a theme vacation – or any vacation, for that matter – and something went wrong, I’d like to know about it. It could be funny, embarrassing (not personal or intimate details please), disastrous, jumbled up, maybe something went missing or you got lost, or you missed a connection, or had an accident of some kind. Please tell me about it. Maybe it is a vacation mishap a friend told you happened to them.

I already had a few ideas and some members of the writing group I’m in told me of some funny and inconvenient things they experienced. I am gathering as many anecdotes as I can so that I can sort through and maybe even combine a few. This is for a picture book so they have to be child friendly – and hopefully funny.

Thank you so much for any anecdotes you care to pass along to me.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Another pile of books for ReFoReMo!

Gosh, I love any excuse to read! Wednesday evening I made a second trip to the library for another load of picture books brought in for me. Fourteen more. I now have twenty-eight of the books I’m to be reading for ReFoReMo. Gotta love it!

Have you read any of these?

Jemmy Button by Jennifer Uman and Valerio Vidali
Vampirina Ballerina by Anne Marie Pace and LeUyen Pham
Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown
How To Wash a Woolly Mammoth by Michelle Robinson and Kate Hindley
Scaredy Squirrel by Mélanie Watt
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner and Christopher Silas Neal
Ask Me by Bernard Waber and Suzy Lee
Exclamation Mark by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld
Flora and the Penguin by Molly Idle
Yard Sale by Eve Bunting and Lauren Castillo
Mine! by Shutta Crum and Patrice Barton
That is NOT a Good Idea! by Mo Willems
Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton
Uh-Oh! by Shutta Crum and Patrice Barton

Several weeks ago I’d donated a poster to my grandson’s school’s library, a poster of an artist’s painting. Yesterday the librarian sent a book with my little guy for him to show me. She thought I’d like to see it because it is about that renowned artist – Ted Harrison! My grandson brought it by tonight and we read it together since he has reading homework every night.

This is the book, and next is my favourite of his paintings in it.

I used to want to paint. I liked to sketch and draw. Last year I even started to sketch a little again and got tips from an illustrator, but I don’t know how to fit that creative study into my life right now. Maybe one day … eventually … once I have books to illustrate or I’m on a writing pause so I can pursue that study. 🙂

What creative study have you wished to pursue and haven’t yet? Or maybe you have, so what led you to do it?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

What did you do with your extra day?

Hi, Everybody! How are you doing as we start our journey through March?

Since this is Leap Year, Monday was February 29th – our extra day this year. How did you fill it?

That was my first whole day home during my week off from Dad’s, and … know what I did with my extra day? I read my Bible, vacuumed my house and did a little tidying up, watered my two dozen or so plants, and so on … and prepared a story that had to be ready for 12×12 check-in by midnight. I’m finding it to be quite the balancing act, and my balance isn’t what it used to be or should be, but I haven’t been knocked off track yet.

Early Tuesday evening we made a quick trip to the library where I picked up fourteen of the over 100 books I have to borrow for ReFoReMo. I won’t be able to get them all as not all are in our library’s system, but I will gather many of them over the month. Our librarian put them on hold for me so that when the books become available they’ll be brought in for me to borrow. I must say, I was excited to get my hands on those fourteen beautiful books!

Top to bottom they are:

My Teacher is a Monster! (No I am Not) – by Peter Brown
The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend – by Dan Santat
Raindrops Roll – by April Pulley Sayre
Tree of Wonder: The Many Marvelous Lives of a Rainforest Tree – by Kate Messner and Christopher Silas Neal
Water is Water – by Miranda Paul and Jason Chin
Weeds Find a Way – by Cindy Jenson-Elliott and Carolyn Fisher
Flora and the Flamingo – by Molly Idle
Who Done It? – by Olivier Tallac
Cheetah Can’t Lose – by Bob Shea
Duck! Rabbit! – by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
What To Do If an Elephant Stands on Your Foot – by Michelle Robinson
The Promise – by Nicola Davies
Infinity and Me – by Kate Hosford
Here Comes the Tooth Fairy Cat – by Deborah Underwood and Claudia Rueda

Of all the many, many books I’ve read over the years to my little girls, my nephew, my grandson, and occasionally other children – the only ones I’ve read that are on ReFoReMo’s list of (over 100) books assigned us for the challenge are The Monstore by Tara Lazar and I Am Otter by Sam Garton. Gosh! It seems I’m waayy behind when it comes to reading picture books, at least the newer ones. And I love picture books!

Of that long list the only one I own is: Gee … I’m on my way! I have to get reading. Gotta love that. 🙂