Hello all!
I just wanted to say a teary thanks for those readers who have stuck around, encouragingly, and read this crazy box of a blog.
Also a farewell, to my dearest readers, and this year. I hope all of you have a blessed Christmas, and a great new year.
I’ll see you all on the other side- in 2012 when I will start blogging again.
Blessings,
Meggie
Written by Abigail J. Hartman.
Recommended For: budding novelists, young Christian women.
Easy/ Hard Reading Rating: Easy
Over All Rating: 3/5
Abigail Hartman is only a teenaged Christian girl, but she stepped out and wrote a historical novel. Set in England in the fourteen hundreds during a war between England and France. Fiona is a young girl living comfortably in England with her older brother. But when her older brother marches off to war, and soon he is brought home, dead. This shatters Fiona’s world, and any meaning she had to her life. She sets out on a mission to France to recover her brothers lost silver cross, that seemed to bring him so much joy and peace, and she finds out that she isn’t looking for the silver cross necklace at all, but the peace and meaning to life that her brother had.
Just the fact that a budding young novelist like me, got her book published, was the reason I bought this book, and it was nice because I have been following her blog for awhile, and I know a little of the person behind this novel.
Really, I cannot complain about this novel at all. It might have been a bit faster-paced, and the writing could have been a little better, but it was a first novel, and it was a wonderful story that really swept me up in it. You really honestly couldn’t guess what was next.
“So? And in what more have you failed me, pray tell?”
The young man did not reply immediately but fiddled all the more with his ornament. Fiona understood the gesture, though, and waved a hand disparagingly. “Oh, that,” said she. “You feel badly that you have not converted me, is that it? Come, Giovanni, am I so very bad? I can’t see that I have a great need for your degree of fanaticism in the Church.”
He looked at her firmly and quietly. “You are worse that you know,” he said simply.
Suggested Age for Enjoyable Reading: 15/16 and up for reading alone and aloud. Just a warning, there is a bad man who tries to take advantage of Fiona, and he is a character that comes up a lot. Nothing ever happens, but Mum has decided my younger sister won’t be reading it till she is fourteen.
If you enjoyed, you will also enjoy: The Brethren by H. Rider Haggard, Viking Quest series by Lois Walfrid Johnson and her older sisters first book, The Shadow Things (by Jennifer Freitag), which I will shortly be writing a book review on.
~Meggie
Half the joy of life is in little things taken on the run. Let us run if we must -even the sands do that- but let us keep our hearts young and our eyes open that nothing worth our while escape us. And everything is worth its while if we only grasp it and its significance.
- Victor Cherbuliez
~ Meggie
Rosemary Sutcliffe.
Recommended For: lovers of everything Roman, battles, adventure and loyalty.
Easy/ Hard Reading Rating: Medium
Over All Rating: 4/5
Rosemary Sutcliffe absolutely astonished me with her play with words. She is best at her visual description, it really is breathtaking. It one of those books that I have to start reading it aloud to feel the words just lift me off and take me away.
Marcus is a young Roman, the son of one of the men who was a part of the ninth legion that marched into Britain and was never found again. Marcus sets off with a native of Britain, Esca, and the two loyal friends search high and low, to retrieve the eagle (the ninth legions icon), and find out what happened to Marcus father.
Certainly, I loved the book. The only thing that I really found annoying was, of course, Marcus followed after Thor, the thunder god, and, seriously, this book would have immediately escalated to my favourite of favourites list if he had but been a Christian.
The other thing is just a pet thing, the girl he marries in the end, well, I wasn’t convinced that they really loved each other. He never outright said to her ‘I love you, will you marry me?’ it’s a whole lot of second guessing. You get the idea that they married, though.
He lifted it from its place, realizing as he did that the last Roman hand to touch the stained and battered shaft had been his father’s. An odd, potent link across the years , and he held to it as to a talisman, as he set about freeing the Eagle from its staff. – Chapter 15: The Feast of New Spears.
Marcus did not answer, but settled down to ride as he had never ridden before. The dark heather streaked backward under his pony’s thudding hooves, the long harsh hairs of its mane sprayed back over his wrists, and the wind sung past his ears. For one flashing instant there rose in him the exultancy of speed, the surge and the splendour that he had once thought never to know again. The I instant past, swift as a darting flight of a kingfisher. He was riding for his life with the dark hunt in full cry behind him, putting out all his skill to keep clear of hidden pitfalls, the hummocks and snags and snarls among the heather that might bring disaster… – Chapter 17: The Wild Hunt
Suggested Age for Enjoyable Reading: 12 for reading alone and aloud; Just to warn you, in Chapter 15: The Feast of New Spears there is a scene of some idol worshipping, which I personally did not read on the advice of Mrs. BB. The book made perfect sense even though I didn’t read that part. If you want to know exactly were I stopped reading and then started again in that chapter, let me know via a comment, but defiantly, read the chapter, don’t just skip it!
If you enjoyed, you will also enjoy: Pearl Maiden by H. Rider Haggard and anything by G. A. Henty. (And this book has just been brought out as a movie, The Eagle.)
~ Meggie
Here are three packages of joy that God has given me in the last week. I hope they encourage you to keep looking out for them in your life. The funny thing about God is even if your not paying attention, He is still flinging love and gifts to you. Open your eyes.
Something inspiring…
When the first lot of bibles were printed ( actually, the first lot of books ever to be printed) Mr. Gutenburg said this:
Religious truth is captive in a small number of little manuscripts, which guard the common treasures instead of expanding them. Let us break the seal which binds these holy things; let us give wings to truth that it may fly with the Word, no longer prepared at vast expense, but multitudes everlastingly by a machine which never wearies - to every soul who enters life. (Quoted in Mathematics: Is God Silent? By James Nickel- did you think you could get something like that out of a maths books?
)
Before that, 300 bibles had been printed and sold to commoners for the first time. The birth of the printed word, and it was the Word of God… doesn’t that make you want to run out and tell someone about Jesus!?
Some things that comforts me…
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. – Romans 6:14
Courage is fear that has said its prayers. – Dorothy Bernard.
And a quote that makes me open my eyes for those joyous packages:
All the things in this world are gifts and signs of God’s love to us. The whole world is a love letter from God. – Peter Kreeft
A defining moment this week…
Living out James 5:16 (Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. ) And consequently having the best worship time ever.
Thanks Lord.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Meggie
Ywriter- in my opinion, the writers best friend.
Stars: 4/5
Problems: I haven’t had any problems, glitches, or security threats from this program yet.
Function: Aids with novel writing, by breaking the novel into chapters and scenes. It is one program to store all your info about places in your book, characters with their description, back-stories, and pictures, the novel and much more.
Cost: Free!
I have been using Ywriter for NaNoWriMo this year, and I cannot tell you how impressed I am. I must admit that this is the first program I have ever had that has dealt with noveling, so I have nothing really to base it upon, but for free, what can you say?
If I haven’t gotten you over the line yet, you can choose to have typewriter sounds while you write.
Every time you hit a key it makes a typewrite *click, click, click* noise, and then when you go to the next line it makes the sliding noise and the *ching!* (It defiantly helps to keep the inspiration running!)
Did I mention it will also read out your story to you, so you can make sure it sounds alright?
An awesome, (so far) glitch free, easy to use outlining program, that you could easily spend hours on procrastinating! Its easy to condense information, and you can print your outlines out. Did I mention its free as well?
I havent downloaded this program (since it costs), but I had a play around with the free one on their website, its pretty cool. If you stop writing, you are quickly discipined with something terrible, until you keep writing again. Great way to get your word count up for NaNo.
Hope this helps all those who are writers/ or doing NaNoWriMo!
~Meggie
“There is so much in the world for us all if we only have the eyes to see it…”
- Anne of the Island, XXXVII
A beautiful flower dangling down right in your pathway, a package of books your order that come three weeks earlier than you expected, your dad unexpectedly comes home from work with the news that he won’t be working the next two nights through anymore, because a miracle happened and they managed to do the job done in one afternoon!
Let me say this, God is amazing.
As soon as I actually started looking out for these tiny blessings, I felt like I was hit with a tidal wave. I’ve been asking God for awhile now to make His love real to me. And He had been all that time, I had just been too stressed, caught in the moment, or discontent to see it.
Eating lunch with a friend. Trying to do a decent days work. Hearing the rain patter against the window. There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within, always hiddenly, always leaving room to recognize Him or not to recognize Him. – Frederick Buechner.
I think that is how I have learned to look. By getting some perspective and stepping back and looking at my one, solitary, today against the whole of eternity. Suddenly, things come a lot clearer. It doesn’t matter if I don’t come through NaNoWriMo victorious, it doesn’t matter if I don’t get that pile of shirts ironed, it doesn’t matter if I don’t have time to blog.
Then my eyes were opened. I could walk through the day and see these packages of joy that God plants in my life every week.
A few nights ago I felt desolate, with a very strong tidal wave of loneliness. Today, God dropped into my lap an article of a girl my age, literally shouting in my ear, it’s the scheme of Satan to make you think there are not other girls out there that don’t hold your ideals, your passion for Christ, you want to please Him. It is a lie. You are not alone. (http://jenniferandkathryn.blogspot.com/2011/11/am-i-crazy.html) My goodness, those words sure hit home.
Then, yesterday, I was reminded again to look for those packages when I read the recent post on, ‘The Journey’. Please, go check it out, it’s a true story of Katie, a young missionary over in Uganda, Africa, looked for the packages of joy in her own desolation.
It’s the post on January 1, 2011: http://www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/
Praise God! Now, I want to all challenge you something, girls. I want everyone who reads this post to blog about their take on packages of joy, and how God blessed them today, to remind us and strengthen us in being joyful and praising God. (If you do please sign the linky below, or comment with the link to your post so I can read it too!)
Who is with me?
~ Meggie
Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done;
And Your thoughts towards us cannot be recounted to You in order;
If I should declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. – Psalm 40:5
<img title=”be careful!” src=”http://inkdrips.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/be-careful.png” alt=”" width=”243″ height=”241″ />
The author of this post is not liable for any unintelligible ravings, lunatical comments, or anything of the sort during National Novel Writing Month. Skip this post if you so will.
*breath in… breath out*
WRITE!
National Novel Writing Month has begun. And I decided what story I was going to do… the first afternoon of NaNo. Phew! That was a bit of a stressful day!
You see, I started writing a book I had thought up a couple of years ago, but I was really pushing the words out, the characters were unreal, and getting the words out was so troublesome. I felt like a blocked toilet.
Then my dearest Irish Chicklette rang me up and saved my day! There phones had been down on the weekend and I hadn’t receieved her email, she said she would do NaNo with me! Yay!
So I started our joint novel, Orphans Abroad (about two families who mothers and fathers get killed off as the story progresses, and they go to Australia and live in Sydney Cove with the convicts etc. to start a new life), after dinner and I had hit my word count before an early bed.
So, thank you , dear Irish Chicklette, I take my hat off to you. You saved the day.
And… something else I am thrilled about. Because we are doing the novel together, every second day I won’t be writing, so half the time of NaNo I have decided to dedicate to Elen, daughter of Faust! Can you imagine the super grin on my face right now?
Well, I gotta write.
Meggie
Sorry I have been slack writing and posting this!
Kalila gazed up, her eyes burning like fiery coals, her cheek stung with the slap.
“You will pay,” she muttered as other guards dismounted and pulled her arms behind her and shoved her down the street.
The general smiled. “Not to the prison, my fellows- but take the witch to my own house.”
Flinging her dark hair around, Kalila gazed back, which afforded her a shove onwards and a curse in her direction which caught her off balance and she almost fell. She wanted to grip that mans throat and suffocate him.
But why weren’t they taking her to the gallows? What was going on?
Kalila looked up forcefully from her tied hands in front of her straight into his eyes undaring.
“What are you planning, you evil toad?” she spat.
She was cleanly dressed in a magnificent red gown with gold edgings, she had been cleaned and washed in this man’s beastly house. “What do you want of me?”
He let his finger stroke his chin for a moment smiling, looking her up and down.
“How was the wash?” he sat down at his desk and sifted through his papers.
“It would have been nice if it were not here.”
“Ahh… you underestimate me, ma’am.”
She raised her eyebrows.
“I know what a woman loves, fashionable gowns, beautifying washes, cosmetics… I basically hold the way to get myself anything I would wish.” He reclined on his seat, a content grin on his face.
“I hold everything you give me in disgust you dressed-up pig!”
“Look here!” he rose immediately, almost yelling. “You should be hanging on those gallows right now, I have rescued you, and lastly I am the (or was) the kings general and I will not be thus treated!”
She spat at his feet. “That’s what I think of your grandness, your lordship!”
“That’s what you think of your own grandness, wench! Who are you to call me names when you yourself are the lowliest of this town? You killed the king!”
Her mouth went dry. “I didn’t.”
A small smile played on the corners of his lips.
“Yes, Kalila, you’re a murderer.”
She frowned, her head still held high. “Prove it.”
He laughed. “Prove it!? Prove it! Its about time you learnt that what I say goes. If I pronounce you guilty- you are!”
“No one will believe you, it’s to preposterous.”
“Yes they will. Remember that kindly gentlemen last night? He was the king.”
“The king?” He had got to be kidding, but when she looked into his eyes all she was a sparkling merriness and- truth?
“You were there- you killed him! You killed the king!” Her eyes grew wide as she whispered the words.
“No, my dear, you ran.”
She caught her breath. What wasn’t he telling her? Maybe he was making it up-“
“But- don’t worry I have a proposition to save you.”
She looked up quickly, her eyes narrowed. “How?”
“Marry me- and I will clear your name.”
~ Meggie. Protected with copyscape, please dont use without permission.
“What do you think you are doing?” his eyebrows arched suspiciously as he fingered his sword.
“Ha-ha!” yelled the vagabond as he swung his sword at the other.
“What do you think you are going, you piece of swine!” he yelled as their swords met and started attacking each other.
“I am not a piece of swine, you bigger piece of swine- even though I don’t know what a piece of swine is!”
They paused, their badminton sticks lowered for a moment, and burst out laughing.
Yes, a little piece from my week. Playing the three musketeers with my two younger sisters is extraordinarily fun! I just wish I had such inspiration while using a pen as my only weapon.
This post is me moaning and groaning about NaNoWriMo, and I wont hold it against you if decide not to read the rest.
You see, I desperately want to do NaNoWriMo (its when writers come together in the month of November and all force inspiration and turn into wild maniacs locked away in our rooms while jamming out 1,660 words a day to make a 50,000 word novel by the end of the month), and my sisters are going to do it with me in the young writers program, which I am really thrilled about. So there is no question that I am going to do it, its more well… working on another novel?
I feel like I am betraying Elen, Colm, Spiro and Lothar by putting them on hold for a month. How can I do that to them? I have days when I evilly muse of going against the rules and just writing the rest of Elen, daughter of Faust instead… but I cant bring myself to.
Which brings me to my next problem. *sigh*
I have no idea whatsoever of a novel that I might write.
So I beg of you all, do you have any ideas? Comfort? (Maybe I should try some chocolate… )
11 days to go, and I am nervously laughing off that I.have.nothing.
A very despondent writer,
Meggie
