Good Deeds Challenge Year 2 Week 23

Welcome to my second Year of Good Deeds, a challenge I set myself during April 2013. I decided to do at least one Good Deed a day for a whole year, now I an into my second year.

During my week I’ll also being updating you on My Kindness Challenge which I’m also doing. I read about a new challenge to make the world a better place to live in. “Speak Kind Words, Receive Kind Echoes” see the inspiration on  The Kindness blog . During my learning process I’m donating money to charity for my slip-ups to make me work harder to achieve results. I earn no money from any of my book reviews, so having little to spare should focus my mind.

September 21st – Today my son and my Dad share a birthday. It made my Dad’s day when my tiny baby hung on for a few minutes longer and then rushed out to share his day with his Granddad. Funnily though my Dad always reckoned he’d play second best from then on, and try as I might, it’s always a last minute rush to either buy or deliver my Dad’s birthday gift while all the time I’m really organised with my son’s gifts. We are off out to tea with the other Granny and Uncle. Will take around a book I have just finished reading. We That Are Left by Juliet Greenwood, a fantastic book written around WWI and the strength of the women who were left to survive in England while the men went off to war.

September 22nd – Have got together with a couple of my girl friends to keep us all positive and to stop us all worrying ourselves to death about our kids and the future (Think 3 women heading towards the menopause) The Hormones go berserk and we find ourselves freaking out about all sorts of strange things. So we’ve got together for a little girl power and I’m shouting the loudest about having treats and “me time” and being busy with other things. So this week I’ve challenge us all to find out how to cook a dish of “pulled Pork” and to go out and get the ingredients and try out a recipe.

Last night I read “Baby Girl, Book 1 : The Beginning by Elle Klass. At just 38 pages I soon had it read and will write up the review in a few moments. My next book will be Going Pecans by Gina Henning

September 23rd – Having a chat with BrookCottage Books about helping out with some chicklit book reviews. Checking proofs for the October editions of the local magazines I write book reviews for. My copy and pasting skills were appalling this month and I have apologised to the editor about my mistakes which need changing in the proof.

September 24th – Organised a couple of my book review team to help out with reviews for the BrookCottage team. Make that 6 of my team, thanks for volunteering everyone. Blogging friend Diane Coto has been helping point me in the right direction towards some new to me authors for the mystery book tour.

In my endeavour to try out something new in my life, I got all the ingredients together for pulled pork. Found a recipe and away I went, well those who know me better, know I tend to wing a recipe when I don’t actually want to use all the list of recommended ingredients, so keen to get on, I forgot how long it would take to defrost my joint of pork. Then found it was larger that the recipe recommended. Marinaded  it for 30 minutes, covered in foil and bunged it in the oven at 2.30pm. Recipe said a slow cook for upto 5 hours. At 7pm it was still raw in the middle, at 9pm it was nearly cooked but no where near the pulled look. At 10.30 I went to bed, switched off the oven leaving the pork in the heat.

September 25th -Pulled pork continued: Got up at 6am, the oven and pork were still just warm and my pork was just about pulled. Not sure it’s the runaway success I planned. Will serve it up for tea tonight and see what the family think.

Just had a lovely book morning chatting over a coffee with fellow writer Alison Williams. Can’t go anywhere without recommending a book these days and added a few more to Alison’s TBR pile. Good Deeds received, drinks were on Alison, thank you.

September 26th – Went to the local market and bought homemade jams as a gift for my husband’s aunt. Been really busy on the blog writing up lots of post drafts. Reading Romancing My Love by Melissa Foster

September 27th – Helped a man at the Supermarket this morning.

Have bought a copy of “Why Does My Book Not Sell?” by Rayne Hall, I’m sure it will be as good as her last one “Twitter for Writers” which I keep recommending to people. I shall be reading and reviewing it in due course.

Today I’m reading Seaside Dreams by Melissa Foster.

Good Deeds Challenge – Year 2 Week 15

Welcome to my second Year of Good Deeds, a challenge I set myself during April 2013. I decided to do at least one Good Deed a day for a whole year, now I an into my second year.

During my week I’ll also being updating you on My Kindness Challenge which I’m also doing. I read about a new challenge to make the world a better place to live in. “Speak Kind Words, Receive Kind Echoes” see the inspiration on  The Kindness blog . During my learning process I’m donating money to charity for my slip-ups to make me work harder to achieve results. I earn no money from any of my book reviews, so having little to spare should focus my mind.

This week I’ve been doing the following;

July 27th – This morning I woke to several new inspiring moments. A new blogger joined us and while visiting the blog I found an excellent post. Women who think too much, check out this post now http://womenwhothinktoomuch.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/the-magic-bank-account/. Imagine a magic bank account which gives you £or $ 86 400 everyday  (or any currency you choose), how will you spend yours? Each night the account is cleared, no savings, no rolling over or transferring to another account, and the bank can withdraw the offer at any time they like. Go check it out and be amazed.

Also heard today how my book review challenge has been uniting more readers with authors they previously didn’t know, Brilliant! Just off to the last league cricket match of the boy’s season. Picked up litter at the match and found some money in the grass.

July 28th – We had a bit of fun on the blog today, I asked the question what book have you read multiple times and why? I’m going to feature reader’s books over the next few days. I thought it was a good way to allow the blog readers a chance to have a bit of a say about books. Here is a link to the post http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-5zp

I have been helping out Diane with lots of info about using WordPress and it’s good points.

July 29th – What book have you read multiple times has proved extremely popular, I’ve been chatting to readers on Twitter about their favourite books as well as blog followers and I’m setting up a series of blogs featuring books that you’ve all been telling me about. These are bringing back memories for others too. Today Charles E Yallowitz told us about why he has read Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card multiple times.

July 30th – Picked up litter at the supermarket this morning. Have got myself a little bit too busy and yesterday I forgot to post a guest post for Madi Preda, posted it today instead followed by a big apology. Sue Vincent told us about the book she has read  Moon Magic by Dione Fortune multiple times today and I was featured over at Joanne Guidoccio’s blog in a Seconds Act feature where I talked about what I have been doing in the last two years since I began blogging. Titled “What makes me a better person” http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-5BH

July 31st – Posted two more book reviews on Goodreads and Amazon and drafted up posts for later in August. Had to quickly climb in to my suit of virtual armour to face the wrath of an unhappy author for my 3* book review which I sent him. Rather a large tantrum followed with him asking me not to post my review as I believe he was frightened it would affect his glowing 5* reviews. Thank goodness that having not heard from him for a day, I posted my reviews before his e-mail popped in to my in-box. I will not bow down to behaviour like that, I was asked to read and review his book and I followed through. The review will appear on my blog on August 12th. A big thank-you to Terry Tyler for her support today.

Authors of the Romancing September tour are sending in their replies and both Stephanie and I are drafting up their posts as they come in. Today’s book on the “What book have you read multiple times?” featured Uncle Wiggily Longears by Howard R Garis and there were some great discussions which led on from the post.

August 1st – Wow! August 1st already, just where is the year going? Today’s book on our “What book have you read multiple times?” feature is “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint Exupery. Another book that has brought back some memories for readers and lots of good comments.

August 2nd – The boys cricket season has come to the end and was celebrated with an awards morning. Cricket has been played on the club green for approximately 250 years and the club do a really good job of encouraging the youngsters who will be tomorrows adult players. The team managers give all their time freely from the start of indoor training in January to organising matches from April to July. A huge effort goes into collating teams, training boys and girls and preparing pitches, so we all joined in thanking everyone involved. There were reports from all the team managers telling us how the season had gone and there were two awards per team One for The Spirit of Cricket given to a player who promotes good attitude, supports the team and tries their best. The other is for the best all round player per team. I’m really proud that we are part of such of really good supportive club.

Sent off a book review for Beneath The Surface by Mike Martin, a gentle murder mystery set in Newfoundland. My review will appear on the blog later in August. Have been drafting up more book reviews from the book review team and for the Romancing September tour.

Good Deeds Challenge – Year 2, Week 13

Welcome to my second Year of Good Deeds, a challenge I set myself during April 2013. I decided to do at least one Good Deed a day for a whole year, now I an into my second year.

During my week I’ll also being updating you on My Kindness Challenge which I’m also doing. I read about a new challenge to make the world a better place to live in. “Speak Kind Words, Receive Kind Echoes” see the inspiration on  The Kindness blog . During my learning process I’m donating money to charity for my slip-ups to make me work harder to achieve results. I earn no money from any of my book reviews, so having little to spare should focus my mind.

This week I’ve been doing the following;

July 13th – Cricket season for the colts is heading to a dizzy end in a couple of weeks, but before then we have a lot of matches to get through. Today we were at a cup final with a nail biting end and our team sadly lost by 10 runs. Had time to pick up rubbish and replace used toilet rolls with new ones even though I was from the visiting team. I was asked by one of the readers if I had a photo of the village cricket green that sounds so typically English, where the boys play their home matches. Our own photo’s don’t do it justice but I’ve found a couple of links to images which may give you a feel. Cricket Green Cottages around the green Cottages surround the green and drivers park cars at their own risk, regularly getting hit by balls.

July 14th – My penultimate morning helping out at school for this school year. Just one more week and all the children I have been helping this year will be moving on to the next class.

July 15th – I’ve been feeling stressed and rushed and anticipating a problem. STOP I shout that is when it will all go wrong. I need to take a moment to breath and in that moment I’ve been led once again to a beautiful website which you must all visit even if you know about it. Zenhabits by Leo Babauta Now appreciate the moment and what you have and let’s all take a better step on in life.

I’m working with Rayne Hall to bring you a post about using Twitter as an author. I shall be reading a reviewing Rayne’s book Twitter for Writers for you all shortly. No groaning this can only be good for all you authors.

July 16th – A big day drafting up lots of book review posts for you all. Checked the proofs for the August issues of my book reviews pages in Fleet Life and Elvetham Heath Directory. Took on 2 more books for review, I really need to crack on with my reading. Was literally dragged away from the computer to go to a cricket match.

July 17th – Have just finished Rayne Hall’s book Twitter for Writers and cannot recommend it enough. It’s helped me spot a fake book reviewer who was most likely going to try to sell any book on e-bay or Amazon or worse that may have gone their way. I did have some nagging doubts, my kindness nearly got me into trouble, however I will be doing a bigger Good Deed by not sending this person any books.

July 18th – Left a big tip for my hairdresser who did wonders to my mop of hair. Agreed to read and review another book for an author. Working on the draft for The Romancing September Across the Word Tour. Hopefully we will be launching the tour in the next few days and looking for Romance authors who want to promote their book in September.

July 19th – My Mum came over this afternoon and I helped her with some paperwork and computer advice. She brought a “bug house” for our garden, a home for solitary bees and garden insects, which my Dad had made, plus a pot of this season’s honey. Drafted up a couple of fantastic book reviews from the book review challenge and Rosie’s Book Review Team.

Good Deeds Challenge Year 2, Week 12

Welcome to my second Year of Good Deeds, a challenge I set myself during April 2013. I decided to do at least one Good Deed a day for a whole year.

During my week I’ll also being updating you on My Kindness Challenge which I’m also doing. I read about a new challenge to make the world a better place to live in. “Speak Kind Words, Receive Kind Echoes” see the inspiration on  The Kindness blog . During my learning process I’m donating money to charity for my slip-ups to make me work harder to achieve results. I earn no money from any of my book reviews, so having little to spare should focus my mind.

This week I’ve been doing the following;

July 6th – Busy drafting up book review posts as they come in from the recent Book Review Challenge and my Book Review Team. Added another book to the Book Review Team booklist. Don’t forget anyone can request to join up at any-time. There are no minimum  or maximum rules as to the number of books you read. All we ask is that you read a book within a month of receiving it and you write a review which you will post on at least 2 sites. These can include your blog, Goodreads, Amazon etc. Plus you send me a copy of the review and I’ll post it here on the blog with full recognition going to the reviewer. I have a badge you can use on your posts too.

July 7th – My morning volunteering at the local school. Then more work on book review drafts. Having serious talks with Stephanie Hurt about this years Romancing September Tour. We will soon be announcing the details, the format will be the same as last year, 2 posts per day either side of the Atlantic, double posts, double exposure. Writers of romance should really put their work forward for this.

July 8th – Ran out of time at work today, but had plenty more work to complete, so brought the work home and finished it later. This will help keep us on top of things, well maybe! Drafted up my review of Manic Mondays by Michaela Weaver ready to post on the blog later in the month.

July 9th – Picked up litter, provided the cricket teas for this evenings game and picked up lots more litter at the cricket ground.

July 10th – Dug out the electric sander for my brother-in-law who needed to borrow the item for the house he is building. Sorted out books for the book review team. I’m reading “How to Promote and Market your book” by Madi Preda it is full of really useful tips, ideas, templates and case studies. Plus it gets you to think about promoting yourself, not just your book and looking at the whole process as running a small business.

July 11th – Today’s book post was for a book called “The Silence of Juliet Mann” by Joanne Phillips, all profits for the book are going to the British Stammering Association, please do check it out http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-5h3

Caught up quickly with a good friend providing a well earned cuppa, raced off for more cricket and picked up more litter on the village green. Liaising with all the authors and book reviewers is pretty hectic, still I’m enjoying it all I’m just not getting much of my own reading done.

July 12th – Sent an author some advice about pitching her book to reviewers as it needed some work. Wrote a newsletter for the book review team to let them still feel loved. Am reading The Shell by Tony Riches a book about a kidnapping in Kenya.