Picture it & Write

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art, books, community, creative writing, Easter, easter eggs, fiction, inspiration, life, photography, poetry, spring, stories, writing, writing prompt

Happy Easter everyone!

Picture it & Write is a weekly creative writing prompt. We invite people to join in by commenting with a work of fiction to accompany the image; it doesn’t have to follow my story or reflect the same themes. It can be a poem or in a different language (please provide a translation).

Please continue to write however you’re inspired, but add a tag to the beginning of your post if there’s mature content in order to keep Picture it & Write an engaging event for all of our followers.

“Mummy, they are two high Mummy!”

“Those are special eggs.”

I listened without taking my eyes off my book. Not only did I not enjoy screaming children, I didn’t think Easter should be about eggs and chocolate bunnies. Easter was about cleaning up after yourself, spring cleaning, renewal and all that jazz. Maybe if stupid “spring forward” daylight savings or non-daylight savings hadn’t just happened, maybe I’d be more tolerant of over-sugared children.

–Eliabeth Hawthorne

Picture it & Write now supports The Girl Effect, a movement empowering girls to break the cycle of poverty in their communities, countries, and world. All profits from the publication are donated to this cause. Everyone is welcome to use the button, just link them back to the Picture it & Write category or Ermiliablog! Share your love for Picture it & write on your blog with the image below. Be proud, and stylish !

Book Review: Maskerade by Terry Pratchett

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book, book review, books, Discworld, fantasy, fiction, Maskerade, mystery, Phantom of the Opera, reading, review, reviews, Terry Pratchett, witches

Maskerade

Discworld #18, Witches #5

by Terry Pratchett

genre: fantasy, mystery

Summary from Goodreads

Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, the Discworld’s greatest witches, are back for an innocent night at the opera. Naturally there’s going to be trouble, but at the same time there’ll be a good evening’s entertainment with murders that you can really hum to.

Book Review: Bridesmaids by Jane Costello

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book, book review, books, Bridesmaids, chick-lit, drama, fiction, Jane Costello, review, reviews, romance

The Choice

by Nicholas Sparks

genre: romance, drama, chick-lit

Summary from Goodreads

 

Four weddings, three disgruntled ex-boyfriends in the congregation, two wayward ‘chicken-fillet’ boob enhancers, and one gorgeous man, it’s tough being a bridesmaid.

Emotionally Crippled by Books

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book, books, challenge, GoodReads, reading, review, reviews

It’s that time of year again. Time to make another goal on Goodreads after evaluating how I did last year. I’ve committed to 24 books this year after missing last year’s goal of 36 books by 3. Blind Sight has been on hold while Ermisenda takes care of some health concerns so this year will be focused more on writing than reading.

I admit somewhat shamefully that of the 33 books I managed to read last year, enough of them were children’s books that it became my top genre for the first time ever. Some people asked me why I was counting them… well I wouldn’t have been anywhere near my 36 if I hadn’t. That said, I did a better job at picking books. Nine were 5 stars, eight were 4 stars, and only three were one star, giving me the best average star count since 2012.

I also did a far better job practicing what I preach. Also for the first time since 2012, fantasy was my *cough-second-cough* most read genre instead of romance or adventure. Admittedly, two out of two books this year have been romance, so I’ll need to work on that.

The longest book of 2015 was a record breaking 530 pages: The Wolf of Wall Street.

If you would like to join me in the reading challenge, it’s really fun. Even if you don’t want the pressure to hit a goal, you can commit to one book, but still get to see the stats at the end of the year which is always fun to compare. You can friend or follow me here.

Best of luck to everyone else already participating in the challenge.

-Eliabeth Hawthorne

Book Review: The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

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best seller, book, book review, books, fiction, movie, Nicholas Sparks, review, reviews, romance, The Choice

The Choice

by Nicholas Sparks

genre: romance

Summary from Goodreads

#1 New York Times bestseller Nicholas Sparks turns his unrivaled talents to a new tale about love found and lost, and the choices we hope we’ll never have to make.

Travis Parker has everything a man could want: a good job, loyal friends, even a waterfront home in small-town North Carolina. In full pursuit of the good life – boating, swimming , and regular barbecues with his good-natured buddies — he holds the vague conviction that a serious relationship with a woman would only cramp his style. That is, until Gabby Holland moves in next door. Spanning the eventful years of young love, marriage and family, THE CHOICE ultimately confronts us with the most heartwrenching question of all: how far would you go to keep the hope of love alive?

Order of Exposure; Movie Review of If I Stay

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book, books, If I Stay, movie, movies, review

Please forgive the language, I didn’t create the graphic–I found it on Facebook.

Speaking of, I just watched If I Stay. My review of the book posted in June and I’m just now getting to the movie because the book was so wildly depressing. However, after listening to high school students murder each other in Battle Royale, I was desensitized enough to take on this movie.

Don’t Feel Guilty Just Read

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books, music, parody, reading, Uptown Funk

I found this video on The Literacy Site. The post challenged you to name all of the references, but since they pull out the books for most of the lines, it’s not particularly hard. Even so, it’s an interesting parody on Uptown Funk. Check it out.

Incentives

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Battle Royale, book, books, fiction, hunger games, If I Stay, Lord of the Rings, LOTR, quotes

“Guilt and bribery are the glue that have held parents and teenagers together for generations. Don’t fight tradition.”

–If I Stay (Movie)

If you’re a frequent reader, you know of my vendetta against passive characters. Things just happen to them, they aren’t driven to act.  It’s a little ironic that I work in marketing for an incentive card company. We research what motivates employees to be more productive and how to incent consumers to perform an action. Maybe that has bled into my writing and reading because I love paying attention to the different incentives used to motivate characters.

In Battle Royale, the threat of death motivates students to kill one another, similar to The Hunger Games. Fear can be a strong motivator and so can love. In If I Stay, Mia has several reasons to stop fighting and pass into the afterlife. Her body is in shambles after a car accident that killed both her parents. If her younger brother hadn’t survived, the book would have been over faster than if Elrond just tackled Isildur.

After hearing this quote, I tried to think of characters motivated by guilt or bribery. Somehow, I’m drawing a blank. Help me out by leaving a comment.

-Eliabeth

Book Review: Don’t Dump the Dog by Randy Grim

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book, book review, book reviews, books, dog training, non-fiction, Randy Grim, rescue dogs, review, reviews, shelter dogs

Don’t Dump the Dog

by Randy Grim

genre: non-fiction

Summary from Goodreads

Do you want to dump your dog because he tries to escape your yard? Barks too much? You-know-whats in the house? Doesn t play well with others? Chewed up your favorite pair of shoes? You wouldn t be the first person asking to return your pet. And dog rescuer Randy Grim has heard every reason under the sun. But before you load Fido into the back of your car, read this book. In it, Randy addresses the concerns of dog guardians everywhere by responding to letters that he ‘s actually received. With humor, and from his vast experiences with abandoned dogs, he reveals exactly what you can do to remain calm and fix every bad behavior problem. (Even if it means dumping your husband instead of the dog.)

Book Review: Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green

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book, book review, book reviews, books, dark fantasy, fantasy, fiction, review, reviews, Simon R. Green, Something from the Nightside

Something from the Nightside

Nightside #1

by Simon R. Green

genre: dark fantasy

Summary from Goodreads

John Taylor is not a private detective per se, but he has a knack for finding lost things. That’s why he’s been hired to descend into the Nightside, an otherworldly realm in the center of London where fantasy and reality share renting space and the sun never shines.