Summer Holiday's Are Over

Hey There Everybody!

It’s been a long summer… Okay, truth, some parts of the summer seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye, while other parts did seem to drag on. However, truly accurate descriptions of this summer would be – active, busy, fun.

July passed in a blink and was full to the brim, scratch that – overflowing with family activities, kid activities, friends, trips, and more. August, always an eventful month for the Corner Table Family, was also busy though I’m happy to say we were able to find a couple days here and there when we simply had nothing to do and could kick back and relax. But summer holidays are (as of tomorrow morning) officially over and we’re all going to be back to a regular schedule and able to focus on things, work or otherwise.

Photo Credit: LD Ferris, 2016

There will be a few feature changes on Ups, Downs, Ins & Outs – nothing major; a few simple changes in schedule or additions. Inside My Mind should see more regular postings – I’m hoping to start with weekly and then bump it up to twice weekly in a month or so. On both of these blogs I will also be trying to look for folks interested in doing guest posts.

A Corner Table in My World will also start to see more regular postings. Honestly I’m not sure what the final goal will be there besides simply more. There a lot of things that happen in our daily lives that I could talk and write about but I’ve always shied from simply regurgitating everything I do everyday. So I guess one goal will be to figure that shit out.

So that’s what I wanted to let you know today. If you take nothing else from this post make sure you catch this: Hi everyone, we’re back!!!

Happy Mother's Day

Hey folks!

Just popping in here to give a shout out to all the moms and single dad-moms today for Mother's Day. 

I'm busy with my family but wanted to wish a great day to everyone! 

Chaos. Life... You know.

It's been one of those weekends. Not that I haven't had time to spend with the kids - the girls specifically, as Gamer Boy was away for the weekend. I did have time with them. Heli Dad and I made sure to take time with them. 

But between that and all else we had to do? 

Yeah, chaos. 

And so little time for anything else. So... I'll do the wrap up of this last weeks featured books on Tuesday. It's a pretty short list this time around but the list is a good one. Check it out tomorrow. 

Until then - I hope your weekend has been better then the tangle mines been. And if it hasn't... Well I wish you luck untangling. 

Tuesdays Tunes: "Thief" Our Lady Peace

This song is one of my classic favorites. More than 15 years ago these guys were in town and my mom (who owns and operates a clinic for massage therapy) gave Raine Maida a massage, my sister gave him a ride to his sound check in her car, and the love affair of a life time - with their music - was born. To this day my sister and I will both pull out their albums (we've got them on CD and digital now) to listen to when we need a pick me up or when we need to listen to songs that really touch on how we're feeling.

THIEF is one of the songs that I've actually got on my playlist for one of my current writing projects, as it helps me connect with a couple of the characters mindset(s) after they loose someone close to them to cancer. Granted that hasn't been a big stretch for me over the last month anyways but still the song is there.

Our Lady Peace made a lot of songs that continue to resonate with me still. Honestly there's a OLP song on almost all of my writing playlists because they've got something that works for me for just about every emotion, and every situation real or that I can imagine. 

Have a listen and I hope you enjoy!

Thief - Our Lady Peace

TUESDAYS TUNES - Cause Really, Who Isn't STRESSED OUT!

I heard this one in the car while I was taking the kids to school a few days ago and you know... It just stuck in my head so I hit up iTunes and downloaded it. Now it's the song that all 5 of us in my house throw on when things just make us want to pull our hair out.

 

So enjoy :-)

 

Twenty One Pilots - STRESSED OUT

 

Just a Quick Note...

I just wanted to take a moment and check in with everybody. I've been notably absent from my blogs during the past week or so, and even my social media presence has been relatively minimal. While I apologize for this absence, it was unfortunately unavoidable.  I've suffered for more than 20 years with back issues and in recent years those issues, while not of very frequent occurrence have become increasing painful and difficult to deal with.

My back did go out early last week and left me nearly completely incapacitated for over a day and with a wide range of muscle and nerve problems in the aftermath. I am still not back to normal capacity and have to limit the amount of time that I'm able to be at my computer each day.

I will continue to do what I can from my phone and iPad, but some aspects that I have to use the computer for my be affected for the interim.

That said...

The Halloween Haunt will be running from 5-11pm (MST) this Friday, October 30th - complete with author takeovers, giveaways, contests, games and LOTS of fun! If you haven't joined us yet simply go HERE and click join! Pre-event giveaways are already underway but I still have plenty of goodies to give to all you fine folks!!! To see all of the event details check under the Special Events page here on my blog :-)

So I've got to ask... Are you coming to the Halloween Haunt?

It's a TUESDAY'S TUNE for my Gamer Boy's Birthday

It's Gamer Boy's birthday today and so I let him pick this week's Tuesday's Tunes!
 
He picked this song because it's one of his current favorites - ever since he saw the movie Big Hero 6 and heard it there he's had this as a constant on his iPod, or rather my old iPod. ;-) 

He and his sisters - Princess and Angel Face enjoying singing and dancing to this song whenever and wherever they can... and I do mean wherever - the kitchen, walking down the street, the middle of the aisle at the grocery store. Seriously anywhere.
 
So here's one for Gamer Boy - I hope you'll enjoy it even a fraction as much as I know he will!

TUESDAYS TUNES - When A Tune Is Stuck In Your Head

There are all sorts of songs that for whatever reason, because it's catchy or reminds you of something else, or something, gets stuck in your head and no matter what you do, you just can't get it out of your mind.  Sometimes those songs just pop into your head and you have no idea where it came from or why it's there - but you certainly hadn't heard it at any time recently.

Yeah, so that happened to me this morning.

I'd planned to feature a new song by a beloved band today for the Tuesday Tune, and then I woke up with an old ditty pinging in my ear and I can't get the damn thing out.  I'm making breakfast and packing lunches for my kids and I'm humming and singing.  I'm driving through light rain and gloomy streets to take them to school and, even though the radio is playing something else entirely, I'm still singing this song under my breath.

And I don't know why. It is a song I've always liked. I can remember being just a little girl and dancing with my grandpa in his kitchen to this song, while grandma sang along with the tape that was playing it.  I can remember swaying back and forth with my dad's arm over my shoulder, and singing this song with him at someone's wedding years ago.

But I have no earthly idea why this song was on my mind this morning.  I literally woke up with the sound of it chiming in my ear, even as I opened my eyes. And if I'm completely honest, it did wake me with a smile.

So maybe I just need to share it - the memories, the melody - with the world in order to let it go. I guess anything is worth trying at this point.

Whatever happens, I hope you enjoy, and maybe you'll get a smile this morning too.

Busy, Busy, Busy

There are lots of things happening behind the scenes right now as I get back to work on everything from new feature development, to reviews and interviews, to layout and design. It's great and I think the end result (especially of the page changes) is going to be fabulous but right now it makes me busy, busy, busy. 

The first big thing coming up is the "Get Back to Reading" feature that is basically a follow up to the 2+ week long featured authors (of the day) event that just wrapped up on my Facebook page.  There's is such a wide assortment of authors that were featured and all of them are so incredibly awesome - I don't think I could have chosen a better group than what I ended up with. So keep your eyes open for this months "Get Back to Reading" feature it's gonna be a good one! 

Stemming from the Facebook event as well, I ended up with a bunch of books by the featured authors to read and review. It's a pretty big stack so it's going to take me a few weeks to get through them all and review but yeah, we've got new reviews coming to the blog over the next month or so. 

And while I was meeting and chatting with all these new (and I do mean NEW) authors during the event, I stumbled across a couple that I knew I had to interview. It's going to be fun working with these ladies, scratch that - it's already fun working with these ladies as I get ready for their interviews. The first interview will be coming around the first of October and I can't wait to introduce you to this author. It's a particularly interesting one for me.  After that, as of right now, there will be 2 other interviews through the fall but I'm hoping to get a couple more than that as well... *fingers crossed* 

And that's just the work for here on this blog. And that doesn't include the layout and design work, the other/regular book promotions that will be occurring, my own writing (which I blogged about this week - here), or all the other stuff going on in my normal, regular day-to-day chaotic life.

Like I said, busy, busy, busy! 

Now, I'm off to harvest some cucumbers and zucchinis from the garden, deliver some pre-made meals to my dad (because my moms out of town and he's busy with harvest) and then I've got my son's very first football game tonight too. 

Catch you later!!



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We're BACK with Tuesday's Tunes!!

It's September and the kids are back to school, which means that I'm re-developing my daily routine and working out my own schedule all over again. But some features on the blog I just can't let go of. 

 

So for the first real, real post of the fall, I'm back with an abundance of music love and appreciation for the talents of singers, songwriters and bands that enrich my day and brighten my heart.

 

Say hello, again, to TUESDAY'S TUNES!

 

 

Sometimes you're just driving along in your car with the radio playing in the background, essentially just giving you some kind of noise to break up the silence.  Then suddenly without really realizing you're bopping your head to the tune and reaching to turn the volume up so that you can hear the song better. 

 

That's how I discovered today's featured tune - 2 Heads by Coleman Hell.

 

This isn't one of those songs that I heard and it became life changing.  It's not a song that someone told me I'd love if I heard it or that it was the best new song they'd heard in awhile.

 

This one, well, this one simply caught my attention and pulled me out of my own head while I was driving one afternoon.  It was catchy and repetitive and before the song finished I knew the words. And even better, I wasn't worrying about (or even thinking about) what had been on my mind before.

 

Hope you like it.

 

And I hope it give you a brief reprieve from the thoughts swirling in your head this Tuesday.

 

Site Revamping...

Over the next few weeks, I'll be doing some revamping, mainly layout and design, to the site. I'm hoping the changes will clean the look up some and that the layout changes will make the site more practically and aesthetically functional.  Overall it'll be some long put-off site maintenance.

Please bear with me through the changes and please feel free to let me know what you think of them... Especially if there is something that really, really doesn't work well.

Thanks so much and see you again soon!

A Note From LD

Hi Everyone!

As many of you have probably (possibly, hopefully) noticed my posting schedule over the last couple weeks has slowed down quite a lot. This is a temporary thing, a measure taken to devote more time to my three young children who are off school and home full-time for the remainder of the summer. It's already nearly the end of July which means that the kids summer holidays are almost 1/2 over. I do have a number of posts that I'm committed to already, as well as there being a number of new releases that I'm excited about reading and posting about, so I will have a couple post here-and-there over the next several weeks but I will be back with frequent (even daily) posts at the beginning of September!

I hope you have a wonderful summer and I will keep you in the loop as much as I can. It's time for some real-life adventures for me and my crew - you can follow our adventures, if you like, on my family-life blog "A Corner Table in My World" here > http://cornertable-myworld.blogspot.ca/ 

Sincerely,

Your Book-Luvin Blogger

Before Anything Else

Before I move on with the business of what I actually run this blog to do, I again have to apologize for my most recent absence.  There was a recent death in my family and despite what promises I had made in the form of blog-post commitments to authors and friends, I have been unable to make posts since Mother's Day.

But that time is over, and on this day of all days (it's my oldest daughter Princess's birthday today) I'm back and ready to go!

I leave you with this quote, which I admit I have come to believe more and more as I watch friends and members of my own family pass away.

Life is eternal, and love is immortal,
and death is only a horizon;
and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
~Rossiter Worthington Raymond

 

#WhatAreYouReading this Mother's Day?

A book from Johanna Lindsey’s Malory Series may have been the first romance novel I ever read, the first one that made me pause and go “hmmm, romance?” but it was Dance Upon the Air, the first book in Roberts’ Three Sisters Trilogy that had me scrambling back to the book store in search of more, and more.  And more.

Since that auspicious day many years ago, my library has grown beyond the space allotted to hold it. Today I have books stashed in nearly every room of my home and in all kinds of nooks and crannies.  My phone, iPad and e-reader are loaded with even more books in digital form.  Yet every Spring, nearly like clockwork, I seem to gravitate towards the sections of my library that hold my Nora Roberts’ collection.  Maybe I need to be refreshed and rejuvenated, as the Earth is during Spring.  Maybe I just feel the need to return to the stories and books that were an essential part of making me the reader and writer I am today. 

Most of all, I turn back to the Nora Roberts’ books because of the relationships that she writes – not just man to woman, or woman to man, but all of the relationships: mother to child, brother to brother, cousin to cousin, and on and on.  I am a 30-something-year old woman with a husband and three kids.  I have sisters, parents, cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles and more.  That’s life, real life, my life.  And I know every single time I pick up a Nora Roberts’ novel, no matter what it is, that that is what I’ll find inside.  Regardless of magic and mystery, myth, suspense or history, any title by Nora that I pick up will have those gossamer strings of family weaving through it.

So on this Mother’s Day I’ve reached for my bookshelf and pulled out Blue Dahlia from the In The Garden trilogy.  A wonderful book and trilogy that illuminates the beauty and love of family – not just the one you’re born into, or the one you birth, but also the family that you choose and nurture, the family that you make your own.

#WhatAreYouReading?

Beautiful Things

So often in our lives events or people transpire to disappoint us.  Life happens with all of its chaotic distractions, amazements, let-downs, tragedies, and triumphs.  Too many people get beaten down by the realities of their lives... Because the bottom line is this: life and living is hard.  

Most of us are able to recognize this fact and balance it by finding the simple joys in our day-to-day lives.  No matter how hard life is, or how bad things seem, the simple joys are there; it’s just a matter of teaching or training yourself to see them and give them the recognition that they deserve.  It doesn’t matter if the little things that make me happy and make me able to cope with the daily issues of my life seem silly or inconsequential to you, to me they make all the difference.

Of course there are those few, those lucky few.  You know who I’m talking about... Those people that you’ve run across in your lives that seem to be perpetually happy, lucky, and prosperous.  The ones who never appear to be having a bad day, or when they say they are, you can’t help thinking to yourself “I wish my good days were that bad!”  Just because they seem blissfully happy, and as if nothing bad ever happens to them, doesn’t make it true.  Sometimes the people who appear to be the most happy and the most ‘together’, are the ones that need help, in one form or another, the most.

For the majority of us it’s safe to say that bad things happen - they happen to good people, just as much and as often as they happen to “bad” people.  That’s just life.  But I’ll tell you one thing... When things are bad, hard, and difficult, seeing something or finding something great and beautiful - it can turn things around for you and make a world of change in your life.

So search for the beautiful things, the wondrous things, the amazing things.  And find your simple joys.

Here’s one that I found this week.  Enjoy.

Full Scene Spread

So I’ve had a lot going on for the past, well, several months.  Truthfully I went through something of a depressed stage (trying to figure out “what to do with my life now?”), that was preceded by months of a different type of depression - the kind where you do what you have to do day-to-day, but most of it barely registers except for those extremes: the joy, the bliss, the sorrow...

But most recently I’ve been in super busy mode, having finally (metaphorically) slapped myself to awareness and made myself realize that I could continue to be miserable, or I could do something about it.  So I decided to do just that.  Now my personal life is on something of an upswing, plans and actions are moving along reasonably well in that sphere, and I figured it was time to start working on that “balance” thing.  You know, shaking off the tunnel vision every once in awhile and focusing on something else.

So here I am.

Besides trying to keep up-to-date with “the favorites” on TV: Criminals Minds, Law and Order: SVU, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Bunheads, and Once Upon a Time - I actually haven’t been spending a lot of time watching TV.  (Not to mention that my VOD service has been spotty, and my husband has been monopolizing the DVR with Pawn Stars and Lizard Lick Towing.) But because of how busy I’ve been in other spheres of life, by the time I sit down to watch TV I’ve been lucky lately if I make it through a single episode of anything before I’m passed out, and most likely snoring in my lazy boy.

That said, if you haven’t been keeping up with Once Upon a Time - or are within the set of TV viewers that haven’t watched any of this simply amazing show - you need to take the time to GET CAUGHT UP!  Season 2 has thrown us a bunch of twists, turns and “what the?...” moments, that I honestly think makes Once one of the best dramas on TV right now.  Don’t miss out!

I’ve actually seen a handful of the newest cinema releases lately.... 

The Call - while perhaps not Halle Berry’s best movie ever, it attempts to dig in deep and hook you.  This drama/thriller(??) aims to grip you by your emotions, but mostly missed the mark.  I enjoyed it overall but it’s definitely not a movie that I’ll be clamoring to watch again... ever.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation - I was actually really excited to go see this movie.  Both my husband and I loved the first movie when it came out a few years ago, I think we may even have gone to see it twice in the theater, but sadly - Retaliation did not live up to our expectations!  The were very few, if any Joe-gadgets - something that made Rise of the Cobra a distinctive success for me, and in the end Retaliation became just another action movie.  Entertaining, but clearly lacking the WOW factor that we’d expected!

And lastly, The Croods - perhaps one of the best movies I’ve seen so far this year. (Granted there are a couple movies out right now that I’m dying to go to...) This was a fun movie that entertained everyone - from my 4-year old daughter, to her 55-year old grandma!  With Laugh-Out-Loud parts, and sweet and serious tear-jerkers, The Croods will be one pick that will definitely end up on my shelf.

Despite how busy I’ve been lately, one thing that I have spent a considerate amount of time doing is reading.  Mostly because my insomnia has been acting up again and reading is one of only a couple of compassionate activities to partake in at 3:30am.  For the most part I’ve been doing re-reads of favorite series: Jean Johnson’s Sons of Destiny series, Stephanie Laurens’ Bastion Club and Cynster series, The Highlander series and the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning, a couple of the novellas from the Carpathian series by Christine Feehan, some Lora Leigh books and some Lara Adrian.  Lots of my favorites and all stories that I would recommend to any and everyone!

Most recently I wrapped up a re-read of the entire Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward - which started and finished with reads of Lover at Last, the newest release in the series and the long awaited story of Blaylock and Qhuinn.  Because I love the BDB novels so much I’m going to leave deeper discussion of this book and it’s place and impact on the series for another time, and just say that I loved it, I recommend it to absolutely everyone and leave it at that.  For now.

In the last couple months I’ve stumbled upon a few new authors (or new to me anyways) and a couple new series that I think have a lot of future potential.  I’m going to wait and talk about them in another update too and I hope you’ll check back to find out who and what has caught my interest now!

And in Fan-Fiction news... I haven’t published anything recently, as anyone who checks or is a fan would know, but I am working on a couple things.  I’m (still) working on the next chapter for The Best is Yet to Come - this story can be alternately easy and difficult to write, and this next part to come has been one of the most strenuous parts to write so far.  Rest assured though that I have not given up on this story though, its just a [hard] labor of love.

I’m also working on a new story.  Well, it’s sort of new.  It’s basically a companion story in the An Ending or a New Beginning world.  I’ve been jotting down a bit here and there, and it’s coming along, but I have to make sure that it matches up to the timeline from An Ending or a New Beginning and that I’m not compromising the original story with anything from the new one.  That is after all one of my FF pet-peeves = when a FF-author creates a world, has a whole bunch of stories that fit into it, but constantly contradicts themselves with the details.  So I’m really trying to make sure that I do it right!

Last but DEFINITELY not least - music.  There are always songs that catch my attention, or ones that I just fall in love with right off.  This song is one of those.

Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men

It’s an amazing song, and something of a confusing, messed up video that one YouTube video likened to the ‘Tibetan Book of the Dead’... Love, love, love this song!

New Favourites?!?!?!

So for anyone who has read this blog in the past, or even if you've just arrived and managed to do a little bit of sleuthing around the different pages, you will know (or could know) several things about me...

1) I review what I like - whether it's people, authors, books, tv shows, movies, music or whatever. I do take requests and suggestions but I try to be the type of reviewer that doesn't say much if I don't have something positive to say.

2) I like romance, comedy, history and the paranormal - not everything I discuss falls under these headings but a lot, okay, okay, most does.

3) On a personal note, I'm a mom of three kids, I'm a trained dancer, trained gymnast and certified gymnastics coach. I went to university for my BSc in Biochemistry and though I found it interesting, knew really quickly that it probably wasn't something that I was going to pursue forever.

4) I'm a writer - of my own original fiction and of FanFiction as well.

5) Combine these facts, with myriad others I'm not going to bother mentioning, and you come up with an extremely busy person with a vast array of interests, hobbies and responsibilities. To wit: try as I might to stick to a schedule, I'm an inconsistent blogger.

But boy, when I find something to talk about its hard to get me to shut up! LOL!

Today I'm introducing one of new favourites this season on TV.

Bunheads - the new series by Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, which combines great talent, creative production and coreography, and a similar comedic style as what fans loved in the GG series. As an added bonus there are numerous familiar faces in this show. One of the things that I really love with this show are the dance class or performance scenes that are worked into nearly every episode.

May absolute favourite dance of the season comes right at the end of the season finale! 'Making Whoopee' is fun, with creative choreography and style. And really just gives me so many ideas for my own choreography, writing and... Check it out! (I'm having some technical difficulties sharing this video, but copy and paste the address - and enjoy! - and I'll get back to fix this as soon as I can!)

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VKcQ-9mRhWo

Searching for the Words

I don’t know when I became one of those people who are unable to focus on and successfully work at more than one thing at a time… maybe I’ve always been that way.  Maybe I’m just lazy.  Maybe I wanted to believe that one thing, one outside thing, could make me as happy as the things and stories that go on inside of my head. 

For a while I think that it did.

For a while it fulfilled me in a way that only writing and dance was ever able to. 

Then I don’t know what happened.  Well I guess that’s not entirely true, I do know what happened.  It’s just not something that I can really talk about or explain here. (Legally binding contracts and all that…)

And now I’ve spent the last couple of months so – angry? Disillusioned? Depressed.  That’s my fault though, and I know it.  I’ve known it all along; I just, I would rather have someone else to blame.  It’s stupid and it’s dangerous to pin all your hopes, all your happiness (even if it’s just external happiness) on something that, while you have some control over your own personal interactions, is not something that you control on a whole.

I’ve always known that.  I’ve never allowed myself to do that before.  But I did it with this, I allowed myself to be sucked in to the belief that this was the most important thing.  This needed all of my attention, all my effort, all my passion… It didn’t.  It doesn’t.  I can be great at what I’m doing, I can help others to do amazing, wonderful things, but it’s not everything and it doesn’t require everything that’s inside of me.

It’s a matter of balance – of finding it, managing it, making it work.  And I’m trying.  I’m going to keep trying. 

I’m going to keep finding time, even if it’s just 10 minutes a night, to spend with my kids.

I’m going to take the time and make the effort to start writing again.  A year ago I was writing something, even something small, every day.  Now I can’t remember the last time I sat down at my computer and just wrote what was inside my head.  So I’ll start doing that again.

I’m going to try to be better.  A better sister, a better wife, mother, daughter.  A better person.  I’m going to try because I miss… Me. 

So I’m back, in what may be a very limited sense.  I do still have other demands on my time, other responsibilities.  I’ve got to find that balance I mentioned and that could be a struggle. But –

I’m back.