Month: June 2013

  • Book Recommendations: Wolf By The Ears

    Book: Wolf by the Ears
    Author: Ann Rinaldi

    Pages: 252

    Original Publication: 1991
    Harriet Hemings is a slave of Thomas Jefferson’s and has been all her life. But she’s been well cared for, educated and not worked very hard. In a few short years she’ll be 21 and that means she will be free. Harriet doesn’t want to go, doesn’t want to leave her home. How could she? She loves it there, but Harriet soon realizes taking her freedom will be for the best. And so she begins to prepare for her leaving when she turns 21.
    This is a historical fiction book about Harriet Hemings, who historians believe is a child Thomas Jefferson had with his one slave, Sally Hemings. 
    I’ve read one other book by this author and thought it was quite a good book. I liked this just as much. The author was able to take a story of a real person from history and mixed fiction along with it and it worked well. Harriet has a very strong voice. Her emotions are right there, all out there for you to feel. She is white and African, she is confused. Is Thomas Jefferson really her father? She doesn’t want to leave her home and yet she knows she has to. She has to leave everything behind to fit into the white world.
    I feel that I was able to relate to Harriet, being of a mixed heritage myself, sometimes it can be confusing and hard to find your place. Sometimes you think there is no place for you, that you cannot be yourself. I related to Harriet’s feelings and her confusion. But, Harriet was strong, too. She had courage and no matter what she would be always Harriet Hemings.
    The book was very good. If you like historical fiction, I definitely recommend it.
  • New Diana Wynne Jones Book!

    March 2011 one of my favorite authors, Diana Wynne Jones, passed away. She was 76. The last book she was able to get published was sent into her publishers a few days before she died, I remember reading a few years back.


    It was Earwig and the Witch, a children’s book. It was released in the UK June 9th, 2011. Released in America, January 31st, 2012. I had pre-ordered it a number of weeks beforehand. Besides that, there was a another book being published called Reflections which contained articles about written that she wrote throughout her career for different magazines. It wasn’t a book written by her, but just one put together of articles she had written over the years. So Earwig and the Witch was to be her final book.


    It was sad to think it would be the last Diana Wynne Jones book. No more stories would be coming from such a wonderful author. I had accepted that fact. Earwig and the Witch would be it. And it is such a wonderful book. Sure, it is for children, but I quite enjoyed it. If Diana were still alive, I could see that becoming the first of a series.


    However, there was another book. One that was almost finished, but Diana wasn’t able to write an ending for before her passing. There was a conference last year to celebrate her life. It was hosted by Diana’s family and friends. I would have so much-loved to go, but it was in the UK. Anyway, this book, the one that was almost finished except for an ending, some of it was read at the conference. From what I read online from people who went to the conference, the book was wonderful, what they heard of it being read.


    Diana’s sister, Ursula Jones, did say she might try to write an ending for it, but wasn’t sure. Well, a few days ago it was announced that there would indeed be another Diana Wynne Jones book. Ursula Jones had written an ending for it.


    The book is called The Islands of Chaldea and it releasing next year February 27th in the UK, the very next day in America. As soon as I can pre-order it from Amazon, I will.


    You can read more at the Publishers Weekly article. And it also seems that Diana’s family is looking into the rest of her archive. I suppose if there are more stories almost finished, they might eventually find their way into publication also.


    I am just so excited. I cannot wait for the book!

  • Summer

    So, yesterday was the first day of summer. I can’t believe summer is here already. It’s June, soon it will be July. The year is going by fast and I just wish it would slow down just a bit.

    But now that it’s summer, I’ll probably be going more places.
    I know next month I will be going to Gettysburg. But over the summer I’d also like to go to Lake Tobias, Hershey Park and Knoebels. Not sure where else I’ll be going, but those three are probably places I’ll go. 
    I would also like to visit Saint Katharine Drexel’s shrine. She’s Pennsylvania’s only Saint and I would really like to visit her shrine.
    Do you have any summer plans?
  • Xanga Memories: Blogrings

    Remember Blogrings? There are called groups now, which I believe the Xanga Team changed that about a year or two ago.

    I liked it when they were called Blogrings better. You find can groups on a lot of websites, but Blogrings? Nope. That seems like it was just something on Xanga. 
    When Xanga was more active, I checked out the Blogrings a lot for new blogs to read. I found a lot of people that way. 
    Blogrings helped me find others who love books, who love to write and play video games. I’m sure there was a Blogring for probably about any interest you can think of. 
    I haven’t checked the “groups” for quite a long time now, but one of my favorites to look at was one called Bookish. Blogrings were quite cool and more active before, of course. It was fun to look through the blogs of those who in whatever Blogring I was currently looking at.
    Do you remember Blogrings? What Blogrings were you in?
  • Random Post

    I just woke up. I went to lay down for a few minutes to rest because my head has been hurting. I ended up falling asleep instead, but I’m up now.

    Sorry for not writing a post yesterday. Something happened that just made me not feel like writing anything. 
    I’ve been busy with making items for my online store. I actually went to the craft store yesterday. I went to Hobby Lobby, which is a huge store. I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for, but did buy a few items. A few metal hoops and some silver leather. 
    Also went to Walmart and bought some beads and leather from their craft section. But I still didn’t quite find what I was looking for. I’ll be going to Michaels today and hopefully will find what I need there.
    Besides crafts, I’ve been writing. I love the laptop I got for writing. I’m so happy to finally have it. 
    And I’ve been reading the books I borrowed from the library. The last book I finished was Wolf by the Ears by Ann Rinaldi. It was a historical fiction book and I thought it was very good. Definitely gave me a lot to think about. I might try to go to the library this Saturday to borrow a few more books. I already know a few that I want.
    Well, I’m not sure what else to blog about. Hopefully I’ll have something more interesting to write about tomorrow. For now, I need to get back to my crafts.
  • Xanga Memories: Featured Blog

    I know some of the newer users on Xanga probably won’t know about the Featured Blogs, but some of you who have been around for awhile do. 

    I remember many people submitted their posts for a chance to be featured. And it was an exciting thing, at least for me, when one of my posts was chosen. 
    I remember the first time when one of my posts were featured. It was featured April 2009 and It was called Light Skin Vs. Dark Skin. It was about something I had read on a message board that I used to go on regular. It was my first Featured Blog and it was exciting for me. So many people read it and I got over 100 comments! That was a lot for me. It also had over 4,000 views. It was just all very exciting. I never had that many views or comments before.
    So many people read what I wrote and it was just. . . amazing. Even if this is only a blog, having people read what you write, commenting and such is just wonderful. 
    I don’t know how others felt about being featured. But being a writer, I was just so happy to have people reading what I wrote.
    Even now, if there were still Featured Blogs were still around, I think I would still get just as excited being featured.
    Do you remember Featured Blogs? Were you ever featured?.  
  • Cool Bookshelves

    I was looking for interesting bookshelves and found some on this article. There are honestly some really cool bookshelves on that link. I’m going to post the pictures of the ones I like the most and would want to own myself.
    Which bookshelf do you like?
  • Pink Dreamcatcher

    This is a Dreamcatcher I recently listed on my store for sale. It is a small, the hoop is only two inches and wrapped in pink leather lace, white webbing with a bead in the center, light pink beads and feathers.
    It can be found on my store Tsalagi Dreams.
  • Duck & Geese

    On Saturday, I went to a place that had some Ducks and Geese outside. So I took some pictures.

    This is one of the Ducks that were there. The only one that came up to the fence. The others were either swimming or resting. I’m not sure what kind of Duck this is, but she/he was cute! I wanted to bring this Duck home with me.
    The Geese didn’t walk right up to the fence like the Duck did, but were very happy when we threw some food in there for them. The first one to eat was the Duck, of course.
    I have a few more pictures of the Geese and Duck that I’ll share within a few days.
  • Xanga Memories: First Friend

    I figured over the course of the next month, I would some of my Xanga memories. I joined Xanga in 2005 and it was because of my friend. She was the only person I knew on here and later she left. I think she went to Myspace. After that, I was able to get a few people I knew to join, but they later left too. I don’t think they were much into blogging.

    So for the first few years I was on here, I was pretty much alone. I didn’t come on here every day, but I would sign on and blog some, update my profile, change my theme, etc. It wasn’t until late 2008/early 2009 that I began exploring the website. I found the blogrings, the metros (in case anyone doesn’t remember the metros, it was a way to find people who live near or in the same town as you.), there a page which showed new users (I miss that) and back in 2009 whenever someone wrote a new pulse, it showed up on the front page.
    How I found my very first Xanga friend was from when the pulses were on the front page. @Kitt_Raptor was my first Xanga friend. She wasn’t a popular blogger and had actually only signed up in January 2009. I sent her a friend request, she accepted and we began commenting on each others posts.
    She was very nice and an understanding person. I liked reading and commenting on her posts and then seeing her comments on mine. She stopped posting in February 2009 and I haven’t seen her on here since. I don’t know whatever happened to her, why she stopped blogging. And although we knew each other for about a month, I miss her. It’s been over 4 years since her last update, but I’m still subscribed to her in hopes that she might return. I’d love to be able to reconnect with her and find out how she is doing. But I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do that since I’m not sure how I would find her. I just know I’ll always remember her as being very nice and as my first Xanga friend.
    After her, I did find more friends. I found LilSweetJew (who is no longer on Xanga, but I still talk to), @Shinbi_Belldandy and @sentimentalvalue, both of whom still blog and I talk to. My very first friend may have disappeared, but three more came and have stayed. They are all great friends.
    The four people mentioned in my blog were some of the first friends I made on Xanga and I am grateful to have met them through this website. 
    Who was your first Xanga friend? Do they still blog on here? Are you still in contact with them?