Meanwhile, in Rivendell . . .

'Ello, chaps and chappesses! As you may know, Rachel Kovaciny , author of The Man on the Buckskin Horse , Cloaked , and No Match for a Good Story , is set to release the second installment in her Once Upon a Western fairytale retellings anthology in August. And now, I'm pleased to say, she's revealing the cover! But first, howzabout a brief blurb about the story itself? A drifting Civil War veteran tackles the task of figuring out who's been spiking the apple cider at a Kansas dance hall owned by a family with twelve daughters. ^^ First of all, how are people able to condense a whole plot into such a short yet perfectly informative sentence??  Skillz, man.  Second of all, I'm excited to read this! Aaaaandddd, aren't you excited to see the cover?   Okay, okay, here you go: Doesn't that just look like apple cider and barn raisings and doughnuts and all things comfy and country and homey?! Here are all the pertine...

Oh boy, guys.  This is big!  Really, friends.  This news is life-changing. Well, okay, fine, maybe it's not really life-changing , but . . . it has certainly been "an epoch in my life," as Anne Shirley would say.  (She says that somewhere, doesn't she?  Anywho.) Do you want to know what it is?  Very well, I shall tell you. I got to meet up with blogging friends!!!! TWO blogging friends, to be exact: Miss March and  Natalie !!!  And we got to visit for a whole nine days!  IT WAS FREAKING EPIC. Howzabout a little chat with them, eh??  [Olivia in purple , Natalie in blue , and Alyssa (Miss March) in peach. ] Hi, it's Alyssa (otherwise known as Miss March). And this is Natalie. *waves*  Well, I guess someone should explain how this grand occasion came about. Anyone volunteer? I shall try my hand at it.  Alyssa invited us to her house, and we came, and here we are on our last full day together (by ...

[I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.] It's difficult for me to review this book objectively, for a few reasons. 1) It's nonfiction, and I always feel a little bad about judging narratives of things that actually happened, because it feels like I'm blaming the people involved for not having different lives. 2) I lose most of my objectivity when it comes to stories that deal with *SEMI-SPOILERS* animal euthanasia *END OF SPOILERS* because it's far too sensitive a topic for me, for various reasons. 3) Again, since it is a true story, it's difficult to balance appreciation for the themes and events with which it deals with quibbles about writing style, etc. So, long story short . . . I don't know how to rate this book.  I appreciate the author's faith, and I got through the book relatively quickly, but to be honest, it didn't do much of anything for me.  There were a few good parts ...

Okay, full disclosure: the past two months have not been stellar movie-wise.  I only really loved one of these movies, and most of the others were pretty 'meh' for me, even if they were 'good' historically or technically or whatever. But, in the span of eternity, that's certainly not a big deal, is it? ;) Big Fish (2003) Okay, can I just say that apart from a few things (like the occasional, random nudity, the witch, the language, and the elephant poop), this movie is like 300% my aesthetic and I loved it?!  I mean, Edward Bloom.  ("Ma'am, my name is Edward Bloom, and there's some folks would like to see your eye." << I think that was the exact moment I fell a little bit in love with this character.) I've liked some of the music from the musical for a while ("Daffodils" is like the cutest, sweetest thing ever, and "Fight the Dragons" is a very fun on-the-road song), so it was fun to finally see the movi...