Well, it finally happened. I missed an IWSG post (May). But before I delve into that, let me thank our host, Alex J. Cavanaugh, and his awesome band of co-hosts: Beverly Stowe McClure, Tonja Drecker, Tyrean Martinson, and Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor!
June's question: What's harder for you to come up with, book titles or character names?
That would be character names, for sure. In my first novel, every main character ended up with a name starting with the letter J: Jody, Janie, John, Jasper, and Jahoshaphat. Okay, maybe not the last one, but you get the idea.
Come to think of it, that first novel also went through three title changes (Black Days to A Glass Half Full to The Destiny Thief), so maybe I have trouble with both. I've come up with some humdingers of titles for stories that have yet to be written. I'd tell you some, but I'm afraid you might steal them I'm saving them.
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In this weekly blog hop, we express our thanks for the small (or not so small) things in life with our wonderful host, Lexa Cain, and her cohosts, L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog.
1. New releases by writer friends, specifically this one by C. Lee McKenzie:
SOME VERY MESSY MEDIEVAL MAGIC
By C. Lee McKenzie
Pete’s stuck in medieval England!
Pete and his friend Weasel thought they’d closed the Time Lock. But a young page from medieval times, Peter of Bramwell, goes missing. His absence during a critical moment will forever alter history unless he’s found.
There’s only one solution - fledgling wizard Pete must take the page’s place. Accompanied by Weasel and Fanon, Pete’s alligator familiar, they travel to 1173 England.
But what if the page remains lost - will Pete know what to do when the critical moment arrives? Toss in a grumpy Fanon, the duke’s curious niece, a talking horse, and the Circle of Stones and Pete realizes he’s in over his young wizard head yet again...
Release date – May 15, 2018
Juvenile Fiction - Fantasy & Magic/Boys & Men
$13.95 Print ISBN 9781939844460
$3.99 EBook ISBN 9781939844477
C. Lee McKenzie has a background in Linguistics and Inter-Cultural Communication, but these days her greatest passion is writing for young readers. When she’s not writing she’s hiking or traveling or practicing yoga or asking a lot questions about things she still doesn’t understand.http://cleemckenziebooks.com
Links:
Barnes & Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.
Kobo - https://www.kobo.com/us/en/
iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/ca/
Barnes & Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.
Kobo - https://www.kobo.com/us/en/
iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/ca/
Kindle - https://www.amazon.com/dp/
Foyles - http://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/
If you're curious about how one completely misses IWSG day, here are the gory details:
Last month, my dear daughter came home early from school on a Tuesday (before I could compose my IWSG post), because her contact was irritating the busakas out of her eye. (Don't ask me to define busakas, although shockingly, there is a Twitter account @busakas. Dang it. Why are all the good made-up words taken? Why?) Anyway, when it didn't resolve over the next hour, I took her to the eye doctor and discovered she had an infection. Off to the pharmacist we went to fetch the drops to be applied to the eye every couple of hours. For two weeks. (Did you read that in iambic pentameter? Bravo.)
One problem solved, but another soon reared its head. You can't wear contacts with an eye infection. So did we pull out her backup eyeglasses? Nope. She didn't have any. Why? Because one stubborn teenage girl refused to even consider buying glasses once contacts came into the picture. Grrsniks. Learn from my mistake, parents of self-conscious teens.
The next day,Wednesday (IWSG day), we went back to the eye doctor for a follow-up exam and then off to EyeMart Express. They were awesome. We picked out two frames, and the girl was posting a Instagram poll on which ones looked cooler in less than 2 hours. (My pick lost 17 to 0. Sigh.)
On Thursday, daughter number two had, by complete coincidence, an eye doctor appointment, which dragged on for almost three HGTV shows, due to some extra tests they needed to run. (Man, I miss cable.)
3. Ryan Plumbing and Heating
In addition to our magical opthalmalogical marathon (say that three times fast), we had the usual overload of homework, instrument lessons, and oh yeah, the air conditioning died. This prompted not one, not two, but three different visits by our local air and heating guys plus a major repair job, which necessitated a quick and dirty clean-up of a very cluttered basement, not to mention a fascinating discussion on the pitter-patter of little feet.
Oh no...
Computer time? Forget about it. June will be different, I'm sure...
One week after writing the above post: Yep, so far it's much worse, but I'll save that for later.
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Have you ever missed an IWSG post? Life ever steal your writing time away when you really needed it? Any new book releases to share? Made up any words like Grrsniks? (FYI, it's available as a Twitter handle. You're welcome.)
Wow. Glad you made it through! I have one of those teens right now who's looking at their first pair and insisting they only need contacts. Not going to happen. Nope.
ReplyDeleteHoly crow! What an event! Everyone in my household wears glasses and we all have backup pairs. I do wonder what my son will do when he hits the teen years. HGTV can be addictive!
ReplyDeleteThe Destiny Thief is a great title!
ReplyDeleteYou certain had a lot to deal with. We all understand. Life can get the way, even of IWSG Day.
Yikes! Hang in there!
ReplyDeleteI know I'm no longer a teen - in addition to my contacts, I have TWO pairs of glasses. :)
Life does has a way of disturbing the best laid plans. I hope you're daughter and your AC is okay (we're replacing the second unit at our house--which has three units--since we've moved next week and I wanna cry). Congratulations on Lee's new book and prayers for her during this period of grief and sadness. I don't have a problem with names as most of what I write is non-fiction :)
ReplyDeleteSome months, eh? I've been reading over journal entries from when my three oldests were little, and whew! It's amazing we survive some of this stuff. Keep strong!
ReplyDeleteLife always steals time away from writing but I'm not complaining. My kids will remember Mom taking time out for them!
ReplyDeleteGood grief. Life has certainly raised its head and demanded notice at your household.
ReplyDeleteHope things have settled down, though with kids it never does completely, does it?
YOU have a productive, pleasant day.
Hugs
Oh no, sounds like things have been very hectic for you recently, I hope the girls' eyes are OK now and the glasses are ready for when you might need them in the future.Here's to a quieter time (maybe!)
ReplyDeleteOh no. I've had weeks and months like that. Kind of had some lately . . . but, well, I'm determined to enjoy June anyway.
ReplyDeleteHope June gets better and better for you!
Wow! It sounds like life has had some serious trials for you lately. I hope everything turns out well!
ReplyDeleteI usually get stuck on A names for characters. Heh. It sounds like you've had quite a hard time. I hope things are going better!
ReplyDeleteACK!! So sorry for your daughters and you! I sure hope things are calming down. Take Care.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Tamara, thanks an enormous amount for posting about my book. That means a lot to me. Second, eye infections are the worst, so I have great sympathy for. your daughter and you! Here's to a better month for all three of us.
ReplyDeleteOMG you are totally excused from posting! I had a contact problem that sent me to the ER, ending with the same "eye drops every 5 seconds" regimen. Thankfully, I have long passed my teen angst vanity days and had glasses on hand. But then, I do not posess the moxie to post frames on an Instagram poll. I probably would have bought your choice. :-)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! That's a lot to go through in one month. I hope the mouse situation wasn't too bad and that they've been sent to other places...
ReplyDeleteWow! Nobody could make up a story that good. I think you're absolved from missing one month. I hope your daughter's eye infection is better.
ReplyDeleteA couple of months ago I was so busy writing, I forgot IWSG. Good excuse. Alex forgave me. I hope your daughter's eye is okay.
ReplyDeleteOh no, so sorry to hear! I dealt with those little feet in 2016, and it was horrible. I feel your pain.
ReplyDeleteI hope both your daughters have recovered.
I kinda missed the May post too, although I realized it around 10 pm. I put up a small blurb, but it was pretty lame, and by then everyone was pretty much done with the bloghop. At least I kept my record going. Your day sounded much more exciting than mine.
ReplyDeleteI love that your daughter ran a poll about which glasses to get :-)
ReplyDeleteSounds like things have been pretty hectic for you, especially in the eye department. Whenever I'm visiting my sister, I watch tons of HGTV and soak up her other cable channels.
LOl, busy, at least you rolled with the flow and all ended well. I thought your daughter's poll about the glasses cool too.
ReplyDeleteThat was a lot of eye drama!
ReplyDeleteTamara, sorry, this post never showed up in my Feedly reader. I caught it running through the IWSG list.
That's my punishment for falling off on commenting and blogging. No worries. :)
DeleteHate those meeces to pieces - to coin a phrase from Pixie and Dixie (I'm probably showing my age and you haven't a clue what I'm talking about!).
ReplyDeleteStill trying to find a title for my diary novel.
ReplyDeletehttp://jannghi.blogspot.com/2018/06/titles-or-character-names-which-is.html
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