Friday Finds: Girlchild

Happy Friday! What are you reading today? Hope you have a nice cool spot to read a good book and a fun beverage to go with it like this 4th of July treat I saw on the TODAY SHOW this morning. It is cranberry juice, topped with Gatorade and then Sprite. The exact recipe can be found here.

As for me, when I'm not reading this, I'm loving GIRLCHILD by Tupelo Hassman.

Wordless Wednesday: Beginnings of a book

It's starting to look like a REAL book! I'm proofing the manuscript this week.

This is one of my FAVORITE parts!

(Not so wordless information: SURE SIGNS OF CRAZY is a coming-of-age story in which a precocious 12-year-old writes letters to Atticus Finch for help understanding her mentally ill mother, her first real crush, and life in her small Texas town, all in the course of one momentous summer. The book is scheduled for release in July 2013)

Monday Morning Inspiration: Stephen King On Writing

Wordless Wednesday: Fortune

Monday Morning Inspiration: Create

"How will you give something beautiful to the world?" 

The Sunday Salon: Summer Reading

I could have named her Summer Reading.

She was born in July and has had a book in her hands ever since. I passed by my window the other morning and captured this photo. I took it through the window screen because I didn't want to disturb her. She might have flown away like a startled bird (or said, "Mooommmm, what are you doing?" in a voice that communicates You are so weird, mom.)

We are having a great time reading together. She's a few weeks shy of 9 now, so many of the books I love to read are just perfect for her, too. We read Louis Sachar's HOLES together recently. This is the first book we've really been able to dig in and discuss together. Ah, bliss! Then we watched the movie together. Now, she and her little sister are acting out scenes from the story. I remember that my sister and I did that once, too, only we re-enacted LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. Do you remember doing that when you were younger?

For many reasons, I'm looking forward to this summer. But one of them is a summer reading list I hope she and I complete together. Here's a list of my favorites on our summer reading list.

HOLES by Louis Sachar
WONDER by R. J. Palacio
WALK TWO MOONS by Sharon Creech
BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE by Kate DiCamillo
THREE TIMES LUCKY by Shelia Turnage

What's on your summer reading list?

Wordless Wednesday: Summertime

Summer vacation has arrived. And it wouldn't be summer without Freeze Pops.

Monday Morning Inspiration

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you've got to put up with the rain."

- Dolly Parton

And I would add that rain isn't always such a bad thing. 

Friday Finds: Heading Out To Wonderful

FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).
So, come on — share your FRIDAY FINDS!

I just got Robert Goolrick's (A Reliable Wife) new book in the mail.

Book Description: Told through the eyes of Sam, now an old man looking back on the events that changed his world forever, Heading Out to Wonderful is a suspenseful masterpiece, a haunting, heart-stopping novel of obsession and love gone terribly wrong in a place where once upon a time such things could happen.


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What new books are YOU reading?