Bedtime Story: Hop on Pop

Time for Bedtime Story again!  I picked Hop on Pop for tonight's story, mostly because I am getting tired of being kicked and can't wait until little one's daddy has to deal with a little squirmy boy!



Synopsis: "Combines phonics and word recognition, making sounds and letters recognizable. Highly recommended."—(starred) School Library Journal.

Pairs of rhyming words are introduced and used in simple sentences, such as "Day. Play. We play all day. Night. Fight. We fight all night."       

My Review: A fun rhyming book.  There really isn't a story in Hop on Pop just a lot of word association and rhyming. It can definitely be used to teach little ones the difference between simple words and the pictures help them learn what different orders can mean.

My Rating: While I think this would make a great teaching tool, I kind of missed the story.  However with very young kids, who may not have the attention span for a story and just like the sound of your voice while reading its great (though like a lot of Dr. Seuss books I get tongue tied when reading out loud).  So I give it a rating of Two Paws and a Stump Wag.

Good Night, Sweet Dreams!         



Wednesday Writing

So Wednesday is my official writing update day. I have so many story projects going on and I need a push to get some done. So I will be trying to post each Wednesday about how my writing adventures are going (and I may need a swift kick in the pants by you guys sometimes).

Current Active Project:

The Last Mountains - 13,468 (handwritten) = 15,766 (typed)

A equine shapeshifting family is being hunted to near extinction and the young new leader must go against all her lessons and approach the elite council for aide. Will they help her? How will she keep her family's traditions and values alive, let alone her herd?

Tamlyn Marie's Grace - 

Think Cinderella only with a matchmaker ;)

Other Works in Progress:

The New Old Home - 17,193 words

Everyone dreams of winning the lottery, but what would you do with that money? That is the question presented to Natalie, when she is at the lowest point in her life, she is presented with an opportunity to make any normal person's dreams come true, but all those winnings can't give her what she wants most.

Princess Bs - 32,131 words

A story about a woman, recently divorced and returned to her home town to figure out what is next. She encounters an old friend and spends a weekend with him and his daughters. Feelings that are long since buried are rising up again, but are her recent loss and his current life going to stand in the way of their happily ever after?

Night Rider - 17,229

Alice is a recent high school graduate who is a very accomplished competitive rider in Hunter/Jumper, Dressage, and Western/Rodeo. Her parents had arranged for her to attend a private college on the east coast geared specifically to equine professions. However, Alice wants to focus on her studies in English Literature. When she arrives at the college she hides her riding abilities, but can she keep her talent and love of horses hidden?

Other Ideas Plotting:

Bloodsoar's Story

A pegasus struggles through life, ejected from the herd, near capture by humans.

The Assassin's Assassin

A student learns what the school is really teaching and sets out to destroy those who support the program.

Angel Story

Angels battle out an age old feud in a parallel world

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So even with vacation being so busy, I have gotten some work done on my writing! Yay!  So far I have gotten caught up on typing The Last Mountains and wowie look at that word count!!  This is one of the projects that is nearest and dearest to my heart so I am very excited to see some progress finally being made on it!  I also have added 30 more points to the simple outline, I just need to add them to the phase outline and then I can begin writing on it again!

I have also pulled out the notebooks for Tamlyn Marie's Grace, and have started typing it onto the computer and have gotten halfway there! I have an idea where I want to take the story but not sure about all the details quite yet, I need to teach my brain to dream the ends of my stories!


So I think its been a pretty productive vacation so far! I hope to finish typing up Tamlyn Marie's Grace by the end of the week and over the weekend work on adding those next 30 points to my phase outline so I can start writing on Last Mountains!

Hope you are all having a great week!

Review of Frost Kisses by Kailin Gow

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW

Synopsis: "Feyland is thrown into turmoil once again as the Summer Queen Breena's fate leaves the land of strong, beautiful, and dangerous fairies in chaos. An emerging danger has arisen deep in Feyland, and all must take sides. Sacrifices will be made, and not everyone will survive."

My Review: This was the first time I think I have ever not finished a book, I have set one aside for a few months and picked it back up but never completely given up finishing the book! I was very excited with the first book in this series but from that point on it went down hill.  A very similar plot line in each book, with only slight variations.  Breena is kidnapped by the pixies, either Logan or Kian sacrifices themselves to save her, she claims to be helping her Summer realm as she deserts them, supposedly complicated love triangle, etc. etc.  Well, I tried and tried to finish this book but I just couldn't get through it. I got a little excited at the end of the last book in the series when the MC was stabbed, but low and behold she didn't die. Its really the same old plot, same old whiny teenage fairy queen. Logan was the only one who was the slightest bit interesting.

My Rating: I don't know if I can even qualify a rating but if I had to give one, it would be One Paw.