Thursday, November 24, 2016

#CatThursday - Happy Thanksgiving! #cats


Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! (share your post in the Mr. Linky below)

Wishing you all a very safe and Happy Thanksgiving amongst family and friends. Thank you for being a part of my Cat Thursday family. I am very thankful for you.


Today's the day, Ginger! 


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Thursday, November 17, 2016

#CatThursday - How to build an Outdoor Cat Shelter #cats


Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! (share your post in the Mr. Linky below)

Cole and Marmalade had this excellent video posted yesterday about building an outdoor shelter for stray/feral cats. It really is such an awesome idea and the cold season is quickly approaching.




Additional tips from their YouTube Channel:

*Other tips/options/considerations for this type of shelter...
1. You can use a hairdryer to warm the plastic up before cutting out the holes to make it easier
2. You can use styrofoam or insulation board instead of straw
3. ALWAYS use straw and not hay! - Hay soaks up moisture which makes the shelter cold and can also get moldy
4. You can add a second entrance/exit to the shelter if you're worried about predators in your area, I chose not to since this cuts down on the insulation of the shelter a lot
5. You can add plastic flaps to the entries/exits to help keep drafts out


There's loads more shelter options you can check out here: http://www.alleycat.org/resources/feral-cat-shelter-options-gallery/ --- The most important thing is to purrlease DO SOMETHING if you know of any feral or stray cats in your area that could really use a shelter this winter to keep warm… if I can make one with "help" from Marmalade, I know you can too! 


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Friday, November 11, 2016

Sherry Christie, author of Roma Amor, on Growing Up Roman #Giveaway (ends tonight)


Living in early first-century Rome, you’d have been classified from the moment of your birth. If either of your parents was a slave (as an estimated 1/3 of the city’s population were), you were a slave too. With luck, you’d grow up to be a rich man’s well-educated scribe or physician if you were a boy, or maybe a lady’s maid if you were a girl. Without luck, you might be destined to labor on a farm, on a construction gang, or in a brothel.

However, if your parents were free, so were you. Unless you earned or inherited a lot of money, you might live your life as an artisan or work in someone else’s business. You were a commoner, one of the many low-class plebs.

If you had a net worth of at least 100,000 denarii—nearly half a million dollars—you’d qualify for the equestrian class. (The name equites came from Rome’s citizen-army days, when men like these had to be wealthy enough to buy a horse.)

Equites were typically business owners, controlling companies that shipped luxuries and commodities throughout the Empire, manufactured everything from pottery lamps to soldiers’ swords, and mined tin, copper, lead, and gold. Sons would be trained to grow the family’s wealth, and both sons and daughters would eventually marry someone from another powerful equestrian family. Mergers and acquisitions, Roman style!

One last group was even higher in status: the Senatorial class. With a net worth of 250,000 denarii, about $1 million, you were eligible to be appointed to the Senate and to hold the highest posts in military and civil government. You would raise your sons to bring the family more honor and prestige, and you would build alliances by marrying your children into families of comparable (or greater) influence and distinction.

This is the class that Marcus Carinna, the lead character in my debut historical, Roma Amor: A Novel of Caligula’s Rome, was born into. After his older brother’s suicide for a reason that still embitters him, he escaped the treacherous politics of Rome to serve as an army officer on the rugged Danube frontier.

Now Caligula Caesar has come to power, and Marcus’s father, an ambitious Senator, orders him to return. Accompanying him back to Rome is a hostage captured in a battle: a sullen Germanic priestess named Aurima. Relaxing in his family home, Marcus contrasts its amenities with the primitive life of barbarians:

Light from the three-tongued floor lamp glowed on the frescoes, the polished desktop, the statue in the corner. I thought briefly of my promise that Aurima would be well quartered. To a girl accustomed to a hut of sticks and thatch, a patrician house like this would be luxury beyond imagining.

Like all well-to-do families, the Carinnas own a number of slaves, most of whom were born in the household or raised from childhood. A slave with special skills might be bought as required. For example, when Marcus’s older brother grew up, he was given slaves to meet all his needs:

. . . they were all gone: my brother’s body slave, his secretary, scribe, accountant, dresser, bed girl, clothes-mender, and guards.

Since Marcus is now the only son, it’s important that he marry well and have children who will carry on the family name and enhance its prestige. When he returns, that’s one of the first things his sister teases him about:

“Now the question that has all of Rome abuzz,” Nina announced. “What lucky female will marry Marcus Carinna?”

I made a face. The best sort of wife, to my mind, was someone else’s.

Mother took a date from the server’s dish. “Spare us the grimaces, Marcus. It has been shamefully long since your betrothal was annulled.”

“No loss,” I muttered. My sponsa’s father had decided not to marry his daughter into the family of a man charged with treason.

“Scores of noble papas have been hinting to Father about their little girls,” Nina added with relish.


Will this bad-boy aristocrat follow the rules and let himself be affianced to some Senator’s dutiful daughter? Gods forbid he should be drawn to coppery-haired Aurima, whose mystical powers hide a ruthless desire for revenge on Rome. After all, she’s a sacred hostage, a virgin, and a barbarian: three reasons why he should have nothing to do with her.

And he can forget trying to prove his courage by leading legions against Rome’s enemies. Now that his brother is dead, Marcus’s father expects him to carry on the family tradition of public service. Although obedience to one’s paterfamilias is ingrained in Roman children, Marcus is violently opposed to taking his brother’s place:

He would have me in service as an acolyte, pimp, and bribe-bearer for some power-hungry praetor or Senator, who would teach me to fawn on the mighty, betray my allies, and trample my enemies.

It was Publius whom he had bred to climb the rungs of public life, eventually to join our forebears who had been overseers of taxes, roads, and waterworks, Treasury officials, givers of games, builders of public edifices, magistrates, lawmakers, governors, and generals. I, the second son, had been permitted to eavesdrop on my brother’s education until resentment and jealousy got the better of me. Oh, I understood rebellion.


It’s especially galling that his father commands him to protect and serve the man who was his brother’s closest friend. Because Marcus can’t forget how his brother died—or that the friend who didn’t try to save him was Caligula Caesar, now master of Rome.

When his struggles to befriend and steady the temperamental Caligula are disturbed by his brother’s restless spirit, Marcus finds he cannot escape the past. Caught in a web of deceit, conspiracy, and betrayal, he will uncover a secret that threatens his family, the woman he desires, even his life... and may bring chaos to the young Roman Empire.


Michelle, thanks very much for this opportunity to review “growing up Roman” with your True Book Addict followers, and to share some examples of how this might play out in a Senatorial family.

Readers, Roma Amor: A Novel of Caligula’s Rome, is now $2.99 as an ebook. Or you can enter below for a chance to win one of two paperback copies of Roma Amor that I’m giving away. I thank you for your time, and look forward to your comments!



Roma Amor: A Novel of Caligula’s Rome by Sherry Christie
Publication Date: April 15, 2016
Bexley House Books
Paperback; 496 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction



READ EXCERPT.

Marcus Carinna hears a voice whisper, “Your turn,” as he rides past his family tomb. An unseen presence also startles the Germanic priestess Aurima, whom he is bringing to Rome. But hardheaded Romans scoff at ghosts, and Marcus can’t believe it’s a warning from his brother, who killed himself three years earlier.

37 AD: To great acclaim, 25-year-old Caligula Caesar has become Rome’s new master. No one is more pleased than Senator Titus Carinna, who helped him succeed to the throne. It’s a shame the Senator’s older son–Caligula’s closest friend–committed suicide after being charged with treason. But that still leaves Marcus, his second son.

Headstrong and hot-tempered, Marcus would rather prove his courage by leading legions against Rome’s enemies than take his brother’s place. Yet when his father orders him to befriend Caligula, he has no choice.

Caught in a web of deceit, conspiracy, and betrayal, he will uncover a secret that threatens his family, the woman he desires, even his life… and may bring chaos to the young Roman Empire.

“The first installment in a page-turning saga that revisits the heroes and villains of the grandest city of the ancient world…. Comes alive with the long gone characters who were its lifeblood” -Kirkus Reviews

‘‘Combines current political concerns, the wide lens of the serious historical novel, and emotional maturity and realism with an utterly splendid grasp of what it must have been like to live in Rome under Caligula’s reign.” -Sarah Smith, Agatha Award winner and New York Times Notable author



About the Author
After earning a Phi Beta Kappa creative award in college for an early draft about a nobly born charioteer, Sherry Christie spent many years of research and revision developing ROMA AMOR into the story about fathers and sons that it wanted to be. It’s a joy to immerse myself in the lives of first-century Romans–and a distinct change from my day job as a . In addition to writing, Sherry is a professional copywriter. She lives on the coast of Maine with a native-born Viking and two cats.

For more information, please visit Sherry Christie’s website. You can also connect with her on Twitter, and Goodreads.

Giveaway
To win a paperback copy of Roma Amor: A Novel of Caligula’s Rome by Sherry Christie, please enter via the Gleam form below. 2 copies are up for grabs!

Rules
– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on November 11th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open to US residents only.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.


Roma Amor


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Thursday, November 10, 2016

Victoria Kincaid's Chaos Comes to Longbourn - Revew


My thoughts

Pride and Prejudice, with a twist.

Wow. What if Mr. Darcy was mistakenly thought the man who compromised Lydia Bennet, and was forced to enter into an engagement with her to protect her honor? What if this led to a string of catastrophic events regarding all the P & P players and their engagements? Well, in this book, it happens.

Kincaid cleverly manipulates the original storyline of P & P and entertains with a funny, yet distressing story for those of us who love Jane Austen's stories. She takes some of the fringe characters, like Mr. Collins, Lydia, Charlotte Lucas, and delves more deeply into their moral character and mannerisms.

Lydia, ever irritating in the original, is so much more in this book with her tittering, her exclamations of "La!" and her incessant habit of getting the name of Pemberley wrong at every turn. In this version, one almost feels sorry for Wickham in the end.

I liked the fact that she made the characters of Mr. Collins and Charlotte come across as more passionate (toward each other). Mr. Collins was a little less irritating. Only a little.

Kincaid obviously knows her Jane Austen. She constructs a story here that ultimately stays true to the original, but throws in a nice twist to the plot that gives Austen fans a chance to enjoy Pride and Prejudice again, only in a more roundabout way. If you like retellings or variations of Jane Austen novels, then you will be a fan of this book.

About the book
This humorous Pride and Prejudice variation begins at the Netherfield ball. While attempting to suppress his desire to dance with Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy flees the ballroom only to stumble upon a half-dressed Lydia Bennet in the library. After a shrieking, nerve-stricken Mrs. Bennet discovers them in this compromising position, Darcy is forced to make Lydia an offer of marriage.

A few weeks later, Bingley returns from London to discover that a heartbroken Jane has accepted an offer from Collins. Bingley instead proposes to Elizabeth, who accepts with the hope of reuniting him with Jane. Now Darcy must cope with jealousy toward Bingley and a fiancĂ©e who longs to get her hands on the grand estate of “Pembleton” (or is it “Peckersly?”). Lydia, in turn, is jealous that Wickham has proposed to Charlotte Lucas—who (much to Wickham’s dismay) does not find red coats nearly as appealing as clerical collars.

Although Darcy yearns for Elizabeth, he feels honor bound by his promise to Lydia. Elizabeth has also developed feelings for the master of Pemberley, but he has never seemed so far out of her reach. How can Darcy and Elizabeth unravel this tangle of hilariously misbegotten betrothals and reach their happily ever after?

About the Author
The author of numerous best-selling Pride and Prejudice variations, historical romance writer Victoria Kincaid has a Ph.D. in English literature and runs a small business, er, household with two children, a hyperactive dog, an overly affectionate cat, and a husband who is not threatened by Mr. Darcy. They live near Washington DC, where the inhabitants occasionally stop talking about politics long enough to complain about the traffic.

On weekdays she is a freelance writer/editor who specializes in IT marketing (it’s more interesting than it sounds) and teaches business writing. A lifelong Austen fan, Victoria has read more Jane Austen variations and sequels than she can count – and confesses to an extreme partiality for the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice. Visit her website. View her blog, visit her on Facebook, GoodReads, and on Amazon.


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#CatThursday - Authors and Cats (57) #cats


Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! (share your post in the Mr. Linky below)

The second Cat Thursday of each month is Authors and Cats Thursday. Each time I will feature an author with their cat(s), or pictured with a cat(s).

I thought it would be appropriate to honor Margaret Atwood this month, in light of recent events, and parallels being drawn to her novel, The Handmaid's Tale. Happy Birthday, Margaret on November 18.




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Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Matthew Thorburn, author of Dear Almost, on How Writing Can Help One Cope with Loss #Giveaway


Thank you to True Book Addict for inviting me to share a guest post as part of my Poetic Book Tour for my new book. Dear Almost is a book-length poem addressed to an unborn child lost in a miscarriage. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about the book and share my thoughts about how writing can help one cope with loss.

When my wife and I found out we were expecting, we were ecstatic. And when we learned we had lost our child to be, it seemed like no one could understand how we felt. We mourned this loss together and in our own individual ways, which for me meant writing about it.

Gradually, I realized what we had lost was not only this tiny person just starting to take shape, but also a whole world of possibilities and imaginings about who this baby would be, and the new life the three of us would have had together. Writing Dear Almost was a way of holding onto and honoring those feelings, and of being with our “almost girl” in the only way I could: in words. The entire book is written to her, like a letter, starting with its title.

It’s probably no surprise that, being a writer, I found the most natural way to mourn our loss was by writing. I drafted much of the poem in my notebook, a few lines at a time, with the aim of just getting everything down without worrying too much about how all these little pieces would come together into a single long poem. That’s how I tend to write poems anyway, but it felt particularly appropriate and necessary here, as my thoughts and feelings were similarly all over the place.

It’s hard to remember now exactly when I started writing this poem. I can only remember being in the midst of writing it, and wanting to stay in the world of this poem for as long as I could. From those notebook notes, I gradually pieced together a story about trying to cope with this loss and figure out how to mourn for an unborn child—someone who both was and wasn’t there. Finding the right words to describe what I was thinking and feeling helped me come to terms with our loss.

I carried a printout of the book manuscript with me each day, often marking up revisions and drafting new lines in longhand on my subway commute and during my lunch hours. The poem offered a place of shelter where I could explore my complicated feelings. It could also be an escape, as I would sometimes lose myself in the pleasing work of making images and crafting lines—until I remembered I was writing about our lost child. The words on my pages created a space in which I could imagine the girl she might have become, and what that life together might have been like for the three of us. Writing this book gave me a way to hold on a little longer, until I was able to let her go.

I hope that sharing my experience in Dear Almost may help people coping with their own losses feel less alone. It took me a long time to understand and find the words to express my feelings of grief, anger, and hopelessness. We all mourn in our own ways, so I don’t know if my book will give other people useful words for how they feel, but I hope it might help them to hear my story.

About the book
Louisiana State University Press
Publication Date: September 1, 2016
88 pages, $17.95
Formats: Paperback, eBook

Dear Almost is a book-length poem addressed to an unborn child lost in miscarriage. Beginning with the hope and promise of springtime, the poet traces the course of a year with sections set in each of the four seasons. Part book of days, part meditative prayer, part travelogue, the poem details a would-be father’s wanderings through the figurative landscapes of memory and imagination as well as the literal landscapes of the Bronx, Shanghai, suburban New Jersey, and the Japanese island of Miyajima.

As the speaker navigates his days, he attempts to show his unborn daughter “what life is like / here where you ought to be / with us, but aren’t.” His experiences recall other deaths and uncover the different ways we remember and forget. Grief forces him to consider a question he never imagined asking: how do you mourn for someone you loved but never truly knew, never met or saw? In candid, meditative verse, Dear Almost seeks to resolve this painful question, honoring the memory of a child who both was and wasn’t there.

Early Praise
“Like a modern-day Basho, Matthew Thorburn travels on a year-long journey through grief over the ‘almost girl’ he and his wife lose to miscarriage. Here, in artful, haibun-like free verse, the timely and timeless merge: geese are sucked into an Airbus engine, forcing an emergency landing; the poet contemplates the moon as he carries out a bag of garbage in the Bronx. The result is clear, mysterious, original, and ultimately hope-filled. Dear Almost might be the truest poem about miscarriage I’ve ever read.” —Katrina Vandenberg, author of The Alphabet Not Unlike the World

“Matthew Thorburn’s Dear Almost is a meditation on our lives and their impermanence, the miracle that we exist at all. The ghost of an unborn child hovers like a breath over these supple lines, but Thorburn finds room for food and prayer, for work and love, for keen observation of the twin worlds we inhabit, the one inside us and the one where our daily lives take place. I am glad to have Dear Almost in both of these worlds.” —Al Maginnes, author of Music from Small Towns

“One poem written across seasons, Matthew Thorburn’s Dear Almost is an elegy for an unborn child written out of love, kindness, and ultimately hope. There is sadness everywhere here that lives among the dailiness of our lives at home, around the world, and at work. What a capacious gift this poet has for perception, keen observation, and the written word, but even more so, a great gift for understanding all of the tangled cross-stitching of the human heart.” —Victoria Chang, author of The Boss


About the Poet
Matthew Thorburn is the author of six collections of poetry, including the book-length poem Dear Almost (Louisiana State University Press, 2016) and the chapbook A Green River in Spring (Autumn House Press, 2015), winner of the Coal Hill Review chapbook competition. His previous collections include This Time Tomorrow (Waywiser Press, 2013), Every Possible Blue (CW Books, 2012), Subject to Change, and an earlier chapbook, the long poem Disappears in the Rain (Parlor City Press, 2009). His work has been recognized with a Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress, as well as fellowships from the Bronx Council on the Arts and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. His interviews with writers appear on the Ploughshares blog as a monthly feature. He lives in New York City, where he works in corporate communications.

GIVEAWAY: One print copy to a winner in U.S./Canada. Leave a comment below expressing your thoughts on Matthew Thorburn's guest post. Please include your email address so I can contact the winner. Giveaway will run until Tuesday, November 15 at 11:59pm CST.



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Thursday, November 3, 2016

Cat Thursday - Random funnies #CatThursday #cats


Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! (share your post in the Mr. Linky below)

Happy November! Here are some funny ones I found this week. :-)

Poor Grumpy...or should I say poor cat mom...





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- See more at: http://www.techtrickhome.com/2013/02/show-comment-box-above-comments-on.html#sthash.TjHz2Px9.dpuf