A belated stop on the Main Character Blog Hop!

September 19, 20143 Comments

I was tagged in this bit o’ fun by the awesome Justine Manzano, a fellow legal secretary/writer/geek/mom to whom Twitter was kind enough to introduce me. (I seriously love making new friends.) It was supposed to have gone up on Monday (the 15th). Yeah, that didn’t happen.

Whoops.

Anyway, better late than never, right?

J Manzano Bio Picture Justine Manzano is a multi-genre writer living in Bronx, NY with her husband, son, and a cacophony of cats. Her short fiction has appeared in the anthology Things You Can Create, Sliver of Stone Magazine, and The Greenwich Village Literary Review. She maintains a semi-monthly blog at JustineManzano.com and a twitter account where she discusses her adventures in juggling aspects of her life such as motherhood, writing, and the very serious businesses of fangirling and multiple forms of geekery. She works as a fiction reader for Sucker Literary Magazine and is currently searching for a publishing home for her YA Urban Fantasy series, Keys and Guardians.

The first book in Justine’s series is called The Order of the Key. What’s it about? So glad you asked! Here’s the blurb:

Jacklyn Madison has a thing for heroes. She reads about them, watches them on TV, and would very much like to become one. When a monster makes an attempt on her life she discovers she is one – the long lost member of The Order of the Key, a group that protects humanity from creatures that come through interdimensional rifts. It’s all fun and games until training for her duties reveals the Order’s out of touch views – Keys, like Jacklyn, are protected while Guardians, like the rest of her family, are expendable. As she rails against their value system, she finds herself in the center of a power struggle between the group’s leader, Lavinia, and her idealistic son, Kyp – the boy Jacklyn likes. Worse, Kyp’s attempts to protect her only entangle her in a mire of deceit. Viewed as a target on one side and a weapon on the other, Jacklyn must find a way to protect the people she loves and decide what kind of hero she’s willing to become. Filled with action, romance, and paranoia, The Order of the Key is an edgy Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy novel that is currently searching for a home with an agent.

I love the name Lavinia. It’s so pretty and old-fashioned. 🙂

And now it’s my turn! Here to answer a few questions about himself is…

Photo 365 #42

September 18, 20146 Comments

I had to go pick the kids up from Faith Formation (CCD for all you old-schoolers) last night and, as the sun is setting a little earlier each night now, I couldn’t help watching the western sky out my window as I drove north to church.

septembersunset

No, I didn’t take this while I was driving. (If I had, it wouldn’t have turned out so well.) I did take a couple others where the trees weren’t in the way, and they turned out just as nicely as these.

I love sunsets. And fall. I only wish the hint of green I could see in my rearview mirror would have shown up because the setting sun gave the clouds a faint rainbow appearance last night that was just magical.

Photo 365 #41

September 17, 2014September 18, 2014Leave a comment

Cricket always yells for me to save him when Daddy starts tickling him, but this time, our roles were reversed:

daddy's boy

I was the one doing the tickling and Daddy was the one doing the saving. Apparently, though, Daddy was also supposed to save him from having his picture taken.

So much for that idea. 🙂

Photo 365 #40

September 16, 2014September 16, 201410 Comments

Today was a beautiful, glorious day, the kind of day that makes you feel glad to be alive.

As I was wandering my yard this afternoon, I happened upon these beauties. I suspect these are the last tomatoes we’ll see this year (in our garden, anyway), but there are still a few apples clinging to a half-dead tree in the yard.

I love fall. 🙂

Book blogger confessions

September 16, 2014September 15, 201418 Comments

Fantasy Angel over at the Avid Reader Blog tagged me in this fun little game and, since I have nothing better to do (okay, I do, but I’m procrastinating) right now, here be my answers:

Which book did you most recently not finish?
Uhhh…I don’t understand the question.

Which book is your guilty pleasure?
I know not of this guilt of which you speak. The only guilt I experience about reading is when I’m too busy reading to do other things, like clean the house or work on my own books.

Which book do you love to hate?
Twilight. No, I’ve never read it, but I did see the movie, and it just wasn’t for me. I’ve heard that it’s not good, but having never read it, I cannot attest to the veracity of that rumor. Also, Fifty Shades of Gray. Haven’t read that one either. Have no desire to.

That said, if you love these books, then read them proudly. Lord knows people should read more…

Photo 365 #39

September 15, 20149 Comments

Took the boys shopping with us over the weekend, and for a few minutes, there was peace in the cart.

brothers

Now if only this had lasted for the duration of our trip…

How did I spend my weekend?

September 15, 20148 Comments

Why, engrossed in the latest Banned Underground novel to hit my phone, naturally. Suffering, as I was, from a complete lack of motivation and a nasty headache to boot, I settled down yesterday afternoon and read the whole of Have Frog, Will Travel in the space of an afternoon.

What’s it about? Glad you asked! From Goodreads:

Go Fridge-diving at Grizelda’s in Have Frog, Will Travel

A traditional witch’s cottage is a wondrous, if sometimes impractical, thing. But not in the eyes of the County Council Building Regulations Inspectorate. And when the Council Inspector condemns her home after a chance encounter with the Fridge, Grizelda (off-white witch and leading proponent of the people/frog spell) is forced into a quest for a competent builder to make the necessary alterations.

But such things are not always easy to find, and as for a suitable plumber, well, you could throw money down the drain. Or the frog pond, as it might be… Just who is going to turn out to be Another Brick In The Wall?

And because Amazon’s blurb differs slightly, here’s that one:

Photo 365 #38

September 14, 2014September 14, 201410 Comments

Apparently I’ve spawned a Borg…

I hope I won’t be assimilated in my sleep. That would make for a really rotten Monday come morning. 😛

Photo 365 #37

September 13, 20143 Comments

Our bunnies, Oreo and Midnight (one guess what they look like) got new homes today. Now they have their own room to hop about and curl up and eat and drink and just be.

But today’s post isn’t really about the bunnies.

We took the boys out to see the bunnies once they were all settled and Thumper got distracted by the kitties roaming the yard. He feels compelled to pick up the cats every time he sees them, and if he has to chase them in order to pick them up? So much the better, in his opinion.

He loves his kitties. 🙂

Privatized

September 13, 20142 Comments

That’s right, I’ve privatized the majority of my poetry posts. I’m working on a follow-up to Tuesday Daydreams, and in preparation, I’ve made private all the posts that will be featured in my second collection. Formatting with two little monkeys climbing on me is proving a challenge, and I’m having issues with a couple other things, but I hope to have it available soon.

I’ll keep you posted!