Adventures in Crafting with Words

This is where my ability to remember stories and plot lines come in handy.  I was about to write the blog for this middle grade level book when the previous blog post occurred.  We're all home now, things are settling in, and I can go back to writing and blogging. Learning to Fly (Dana Burkey) is the first book in the TNT Force Cheer series.  It follows 12 ("But I'll be 13 in January") year old Maxine "Max" during the summer.  While playing with her neighbor Peter and his younger brother, Kyle, it starts to rain so they decide to go to the indoor trampoline park.  While there Max (don't call her Maxine) spots some girls her age practicing flips and other cheer stunts. Only Halley and Lexi aren't the typical cheerleaders - they belong to a gymnastics cheerleading squad.  All of those competition squads that do flips and flying stunts and dance rountines? Yeah, that's TNT Force. They start showing Max some of their stunts and Max

Things have not been okay around this writer's family. On Father's Day my grandfather suffered a stroke.  A week in the hospital. 3 weeks in rehab. Then we moved him into a retirement village.  Before that he'd spent a week in the hospital followed by a week of us staying with him 24/7.  All that was after the Alabama trip. Then about 10 days ago, right as we were settling into our new routine, my mom had a mild heart attack.  Thus yet another week in the hospital. That week I made a lot of chainmaille for the etsy shop.  The etsy shop has gotten a lot of attention, mostly because I can easily send out tweets with projects. My brain had stalled on me.  I was doing things by rote.  That's why chainmaille was so easy once I'd gotten the patterns down.  Go ahead. Look. Not everything is posted, but enough is already available for sale. Www.overthinkercreates.etsy.com And now we're back to 24/7, only this time I'm doing all

Okay.  I'll admit it.  I absolutely judged this book by its cover.  At the time I was looking for a young adult steampunk read.  I was just in the mood for one.  Sadly, this book wasn't released yet when I found it.   I was drawn in by that superb cover and terrific blurb.  Add in the setting of London.  As per last week's blog, most of you recognize that I have a mild obsession over books that take place in England.  Or maybe their language and slang - much different than American slang. Right. This was my first C.J. Archer book.  I'd seen her Ministry of Curiosities series floating around, but never picked up a copy.  Big  mistake.  India Steele is desperate.  Her father has died, her ex-fiance has legally stolen her shop, and the other watchmakers won't have anything to do with her for some not-yet-explained reason. That's why I hate series, but they seem to be so popular to write... Moving on. Matthew Glass needs a watchmaker,