This and That

A few bits of this and that:

Last year, I reviewed a time travel book called Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When, Book 1 of The Snipesville Chronicles by Annette Laing.  It is a very nice time travel mystery involving three friends who find themselves in 1940 England, caught up in an evacuation of children during the Blitz.  They soon get caught in solving the mystery of what happened to a young black evacuee.  It is an interesting story, and the time travel element has a nice twist.  If it sounds like something you or someone you know would like to read, now you can buy the E-book from Barnes and Noble or Amazon for only 99¢. 

Last year, I participated in the Holiday Readathon for charity hosted by Liza Wiemer at WhoRuBlog, where anyone can sign up to participate.  The rules are simple and there is still time to sign up, if you would like to participate.   I did this last year.  I read 888 pages at 5¢ each, donated the money to the Salvation Army and 11 books, so I filled my shopping cart with canned good and staples and brought it to a local food bank. I will do the same this year.

I am excited to be participating in this year’s Book Blogger Holiday Swap for the second time.  When I signed up, I was thinking that last year I felt like such a newbie at blogging, but now that I am doing things for the second time, I feel more like an old hand and am looking forward to all the blogging events the future holds. 

This year I have also signed up for the Book Bloggers Holiday Card Exchange hosted by Anastasia at Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog.  You can find all the info on this and sign up to participate until November 30, 2011.  It, too, sounds like a lot of fun.

That time of the year is again upon us where bloggers decide whether or not to participate in Reading Challenges.  Last year, in my bloggy zeal, I signed up for a number of challenges, most of which I enjoyed.  This year, I am going to be a little more restrained.  So far, I am only committed to the World War I Challenge hosted by Anna and Serena at War Through the Generations. 

I am tempted to try Cruisin' thru the Cozies Reading Challenge hosted by Yvonne at Socrates’ Book Reviews, since I have found a few apropos novels set in WW II. 

And my friend Zohar over at Man of la Book is hosting a perpetual challenge called appropriately enough The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen a la Book Challenge, based on the novel by Alan Moore.  You might want to check this out.

This year I participated in NANOWRIMO for the first time and what I learned, well, really I already knew this, was that I am a very slow writer.  I also learned that while the one page outline worked for academic stuff like my dissertation, it doesn't work for a novel.  But it has been a great experience and my novel is so much further along than it was one month ago, when all I had written was the working title - The Year I Turned 15 (clever and original, I know)  It is a historical novel set in, big surprise, World War II and, I admit, I spent days in the library double checking facts, which I wasn't supposed to do, but I am a little OCD and couldn't help myself.  But I loved NANOWRIMO because it gave me the push I needed to get moving. 

And so...

It has been a very exciting year of blogging for me and, since this is Thanksgiving Weekend, it seems an appropriate time to tell everyone how very grateful I am for all your encouragement and support, and your comments and suggestions.   Thank you!