Showing posts with label caffeinated book reviewer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label caffeinated book reviewer. Show all posts

Monday, February 29, 2016

My March 2016 Take Control of Your TBR Pile Challenge

Take Control of Your TBR Pile

Click the button above to go visit Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer, who is hosting the challenge.  The link goes to the sign-up page, where all the rules and ways to enter the drawing (for participants) are listed.

By the time I saw the sign-up post (in early January) I had already several tours set up for March.  I've been trying to read and get those out of the way, so I can concentrate on TBR books for the month.  I'm not sure if this 'disqualifies' me, but in either case, clearing out a little of my TBR shelf/list is a great idea!

Like Angela of Angel's Guilty Pleasures, I'm going to shoot for 10 books.  It seems like enough to be challenging without snowing me under.

Here (will be) my list:

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Thursday, October 1, 2015

My Blog Ahead Challenge 2015 Sign-up

Blog Ahead 2015

The next two sections are taken lock, stock and barrel from Caffeinated Book Reviewer since I am signing up only on the start date for the challenge and am trying to get this post up asap.  And I want to thank Ms. Caffeine and and Ms Herding Cats and Burning Soup for hosting this challenge!

Blog Ahead 2015
  • Purpose: Increase the number of scheduled blog posts you have ready to publish by 31 posts during the month of October. (You can set your own goal) All post will be scheduled from November 1st or later.
  • Who Can Join: Any blogger or author can join. Brand new, been around for years.Blogger, WordPress or other platform. Any heat level, genre or theme, etc. If you blog…you’re welcome to join!
  • Types of Posts that Count: Any finished posts count! Meme, review, guest post, interview, discussion. Top Ten Posts, Favorites posts, Shopping Guide Posts, Cooking posts, pet posts, photo posts, etc. Posts do NOT have to be book related.
  • Required: The post must be complete and scheduled from November 1, 2015 onward. (So not just blurb, buy links, etc for a review post. The review needs to be complete for the post to count.)
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  • Create a blog post to keep track of your goals! Declare your intentions, so that others can cheer you on and help motivate you. Be sure to link back to to this post or our blogs.
  • Spread the Word–invite your friends/fellow bloggers!
  • Use hashtag #BlogAhead2015 to share your progress, connect with others and uplift. (optional)
  • Join the FB group! Need to squee about your progress or get a little moral support? We’re here! We’ll have tips and suggestions to help motivate you. Join: Blog Ahead Group Any problems joining? Email Me (optional)
  • Grab the Button and declare your intentions!
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 OK.  This is me again, on the back porch.  I'm doing this challenge because I would LOVE to be ahead by a month's worth of posts!  I've usually got a couple scheduled posts ready to go, but more of this definitely sounds better.  And, we are going to Texas for at least a week around Thanksgiving, so it would help not to have to be making posts from the road.

So, my goal is 31 posts dated November 1, 2015, or later.

I've got 7 draft posts going as we write, but of course, draft is not the same as scheduled.  Most of these are book review posts and some I have not yet received the books, so those will have to wait until I do a bit of reading.

Since I only found out about this challenge (where the heck have I been?) within the last hour, I don't really know specifically what kind of posts will comprise my 31, but they will be by majority book reviews...maybe a couple of interviews or guests posts.  And since I'm in my pre-birthday reflective period (my birthday is tomorrow...OMG now I feel old! *lol*), I'm sure there will be some posts about what I've decided to work on in my life over the next year.

Heading out to spread the word, join the FB group and get a laundry out of the dryer!

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Question:  Is posting ahead (scheduling posts) something you do already or something you would like to do?  Or are you a 'pantser', which is to say fly-by-the-seat-of-your pants and do you work better planning a basic structure and then writing posts as you go?

Friday, September 19, 2014

TGIBF (Thank Goodness It's Book Friday) #1


(By Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires from Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina (Torre de Babel) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons) - and a heads up as well to PicMonkey where even people as tech illiterate as I am can make a spiffy looking button!

I thought nothing could top yesterday, 3 print books coming by different means (pickup at post office, in the regular mail and by UPS.  Then I go out to the mail box just now and I have three packages shoved in there, and one of them looks like it has more than one book (or a really big one)!  Wanna join me as I unpack?

~~~oOo~~~


PACKAGE #1


(all bookcovers link to the GoodReads page)

SYNOPSIS

Baseball may be America's official favorite pastime, but for Martha Rose and her friends, quilting is far more fun. . .and a lot less dangerous.

A diamond brocade pattern is more quilter Martha Rose's style than a baseball diamond--especially when it comes to the new eyesore of a stadium ruining her lovely San Fernando Valley neighborhood. Martha doesn't know a bunt from a bundt cake, but when she stumbles upon the battered body of baseball coach Dax Martin, she doesn't need a scorecard to know it's foul play. LAPD homicide detective Arlo Beavers is convinced one of her neighbors is responsible. But Martha and her fellow quilters Lucy and Birdie soon discover a whole field of suspects who might have wanted to take the coach out of the game permanently. . .

I received a this book via Lori at Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours, and will have a review of this book on the blog on Friday, November 7, 2014.  If you have written a cozy mystery and are looking to get a blog tour, you really need to contact Lori.  Her blog sponsors and paid blog tours that she arranges allows her to tour cozy mysteries for FREE!  Lori also offers wonderful reviews and many, many book giveaways at her blog (also accessible through the link above).

~~~oOo~~~

PACKAGE #2


SYNOPSIS

A teenage drummer finds out what life is really like on tour with a rock band in this funny and bittersweet YA novel. For anyone who loved Almost Famous or This Is Spinal Tap.

After being dropped from one band, sixteen-year-old drummer Zach gets a chance to go on tour with a much better band. It feels like sweet redemption, but this is one rocky road trip—filled with jealousy, rivalries, and on-stage meltdowns.

Mark Parsons has written a fast-paced, feel-good novel about a boy finding his place in the world, in a band, and in the music. Zach is a character teens will stand up and cheer for as he lands the perfect gig, and the perfect girl.

I received this book in a giveaway hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer.  Anyone who reviews that many books and loves caffeine as much as I do is on my A-list!  She recently celebrated her 3rd blogaversary!  HUZZAH!  If you don't already subscribe, you really need to go give CBR a look-see.

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PACKAGE #3 - JACKPOT!!!


SYNOPSIS

Regency London knows Constance Tyrone as the conspicuously celibate founder of the St. Catherine Society, dedicated to helping poor women. One wet November evening a carriage mows down Constance outside her office. Curiously, while her corpse's one foot is bare, the other is shod in a clean satin slipper despite the muddy road. Why was a gentlewoman abroad in the night? And if she died under the wheel, whose hands bruised her neck and stole her monogrammed crucifix?

Dismissing the idea of an accident, Bow Street Runner John Chase forms an unlikely alliance with Penelope Wolfe, wife of the chief suspect. A young mother paying the price for an imprudent marriage, Penelope is eager to clear her husband Jeremy, a feckless portrait painter whose salacious drawings of the victim suggest an erotic interest. Chase's first task is to learn the identity of the mysterious benefactor who goes bail for Wolfe while Penelope traces the victim's last movements. Barrister Edward Buckler, intrigued, shakes off his habitual lethargy and joins their investigation.

As horrifying murders on the Ratcliffe Highway claim all London's attention, the trio discovers that it won't be easy to unravel the enigma of Constance Tyrone, a woman who revives the legend of martyred St. Catherine.

~~~oOo~~~


SYNOPSIS

In the spring of 1812, the Luddites are on the march, Lord Byron is taking London drawing rooms by storm, and Penelope Wolfe has become a lady's companion. When one of the footmen turns up dead with a knife to the heart, Penelope and Bow Street Runner John Chase are entangled in a web of family secrets and political conspiracy that stretches far beyond luxurious St. James's Square.

With the help of barrister Edward Buckler, Chase follows the trail of a mysterious mad woman caught peeping in the window at the corpse. Penelope struggles to fit into the fashionable world, encountering people who hide resentment and deceit under smooth smiles.

Set against a backdrop of millennial fervor with thousands awaiting the end of the world, BLOOD FOR BLOOD explores the simple truth that every drop of blood spilled will be avenged.

~~~oOo~~~


SYNOPSIS

Unhappy wife and young mother Penelope Wolfe fears scandal for her family and worse. A Tory newspaper editor has been stabbed while writing a reply to the latest round of letters penned by a firebrand calling himself Collatinus. 

Twenty years before, her father, the radical Eustace Sandford, wrote as Collatinus before he fled London just ahead of accusations of treason and murder. A mysterious beauty closely connected to Sandford and known only as N.D. had been brutally slain, her killer never punished. 

The seditious new Collatinus letters that attack the Prince Regent in the press also seek to avenge N.D. s death and unmask her murderer. What did the journalist know that provoked his death? Her artist husband Jeremy is no reliable ally, so Penelope turns anew to lawyer Edward Buckler and Bow Street Runner John Chase. As she battles public notoriety, Buckler and Chase put their careers at risk to stand behind her while pursuing various lines of inquiry aimed at N.D. s murderer, a missing memoir, Royal scandal, and the dead editor's missing wife. 

As they navigate the dark underbelly of Regency London among a cast driven by dirty politics and dark passions, as well as by decency and a desire for justice, past secrets and present criminals are exposed, upending Penelope s life and the lives of others."

~~~oOo~~~

I received Die I Will Not from the author via the Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.  If you like history and historical fiction, this is the go-to book tour company.  They have 13 tours running as if this writing, and more than 40 in the works.  And they are very helpful and professional.  If you are an author of a historical fiction, or enjoy reading such books, you really need to go check them out!

I will be posting a review of Die I Will Not on Monday, November 17th, 2014, to be followed on Wednesday, November 19th, 2014 by an interview with author S. K. Rizzolo!

So...FIVE (5) BOOKS in 1 day.  That's a new record for me!  WOOHOO! :O)

And because the organizer and participants ROCK, I'm also sharing this post at:


You probably get the drill by now.  Click on the button for warm, fuzzy, friendly creative GEMS!

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Week in Review/Week Ahead


The Sunday Post

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here:Sunday Post Meme


LAST WEEK'S NEWS

1.  When Camels Fly by NLB Horton (guest post & review)
3.  Murder is Academic by Lesley A. Diehl (author interview & review)


COMING UP THIS WEEK

1.  100 Proof Stud by A.J. Lape (review-Tuesday)
2.  Lemonade Revealed by Will Chluho (review - Wednesday)