Ohhhhhhhh this Middle-Earth fangirl was THRILLED to be nominated for this book tag! Nandini at Unputdownable Books created it back in September as part of her Tolkien Reading Month. (Thank you, Nandini!) So it’s taken me a little while to get around to it… But better late than never, right? 🙂
Like with any book tag, let’s establish the “ground rules” – or, rather, points to keep in mind – before we get too far.
Recently, a Facebook friend tagged me on the Seven-Day Book Challenge. I finally got around to it a few weeks ago and “double-teamed” it through FB and Instagram. And then I thought, “Why not share it on the blog, too?”
The rules of the Seven-Day Book Challenge are simple: For seven days, you share a photo or image on Facebook of a different favorite book and nominate another friend to carry on the challenge. There’s no set theme to follow, and you don’t need to write a caption or explanation for why you choose each book. You simply share the photo, tag a friend, and reply to any comments. But for this blog post, I think I’ll “break” one of those rules. 😉
Here are the books I chose for the Seven-Day Book Challenge, and why I picked each one.
(NOTE: Due to this week’s DIY MFA post, the weekly blog post will go live on Thursday, November 3rd.)
I’ve been meaning to write a case study on friendship for my DIY MFA column for a while. And why not? Friendship has the power to change people’s lives in amazing ways – in real life, and in the stories we read. In fact, literature has shown us not only the ups and downs of these relationships, but also how they often defy boundaries such as age, race, and gender. And I couldn’t think of two better books to use as examples than Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, because both explore this theme masterfully.
An Ode To… is a series of “dedications” to some of my favorite musicians and bands. Perhaps you’ve heard of them before – or perhaps you haven’t. Either way, An Ode To… is a fun way of sharing one of my passions and helping you discover new music to add to your collection. So, sit back, listen, and relax – or, in some cases, headbang. 😉
Ohhhhhhhh I’ve been DYING to write this Ode since launching the series last year! And I think many readers will enjoy this one, too, since… well, you know, it’s Lord of the Rings. 😀 Not everyone listens to its score outside of the films, but I think we can all agree that the soundtrack is packed with some of the most memorable musical themes and moments in film history.
Today’s Ode will use a slightly different format than past Odes. Instead of picking one song from each album and a few additional songs, I’ll highlight my three favorite compositions from each of the LOTR films. Some picks are bound to be popular among the crowd, while others might surprise you. I’ll also provide links to each track’s respective scene in each movie, for your convenience. Continue reading
Chapters Completed: 22
Chapters In Progress: 6
Chapters Not Started: 6
“Chronicling The Craft” is an article series where I share my experience with writing my current work-in-progress (WIP), which is a fantasy novel. Every 5,000 words, I let readers know what I’ve accomplished since the previous article and share advice, discoveries, techniques, etc. Besides the word count in each article title, a “chapter ticker” at the top also tracks my progress as I use the skip-around / “writercopter” method to write the novel. Today’s installment celebrates the book reaching 90,000 words in length.
What?! How the… OK, I know I’ve said before that the 5,000-word milestones sometimes creep up on me, but I was completely unprepared for this one. Part of it may be because I’d been busy with all kinds of freelance and blog writing, and my head was so far removed from reality (not literally speaking, of course!) that it lost track of when I should start writing this Chronicle. So, I originally had no idea what topic to cover after giving the update. Thankfully an easy one came to mind. 😉
Here’s what I’ve worked on since the previous Chronicle: Continue reading
Sara Letourneau 