Welcome to my weekly roundup of my year long challenge to do one Good deed a day for a year. This challenge began back in April 2013 and is still going strong, I’m now entering my final few weeks. My inspiration came from reading “A Year of Doing Good” by Judith O’Reilly. Here is what I’ve been up to this week.
March 30th – Last night we changed our clocks in line with British Summertime, so I’m a bit late this morning. It’s also Mother’s Day, so I’ve been giving and receiving gifts as all Mothers should.
March 31st – A really busy day today. I’ve just done my morning at school. Now the April Issue of Fleet Life has just dropped through my door, so I’ve written a draft ready to coincide with the online version. http://www.fleetlife.org.uk click on the online directory and fins me on page 18. This months books are;
Please Call Me Derek by Mac Black
The Medea Complex by Rachel Florence Roberts
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Spirit Warriors by D.E.L Connor
It’s also my first month writing book reviews for Fleet Life’s sister magazine The Elvetham Heath Directory. http://www.ehd.org.uk, again click on the online directory and find me on page. This months featured books are different to Fleet Life although I will mix and match on occasions.
The Dating Game by Susan Buchanan
Greening of a Heart by Stepheny Houghtlin
Red Clay and Roses by S.K. Nicholls
The Griffin’s Boy by Julia Hughes
The Black Hours by Alison Williams.
With my A to Z Challenge starting tomorrow too, I’m sending out reminders to authors whose books are featuring in the first week. I want it to be a good give and take, I promote their books and they promote me.
April 1st – It’s here the first Day of the April A to Z blogging challenge with well over 1900 bloggers signed up this year it’s going to be huge. I’ve been all over the place visiting blogs and writing comments. My own challenge started with A World Apart by Camelia Miron Skiba. Catch up with posts in my Challenge round-up post, or from the A to Z page at the top of this blog. The sun has finally burnt off the morning fog so now I’m off out in to the garden for a bit of one on one with nature after all my computing.
April 2nd – Online versions of both local magazines made it up on the internet today, so posted my pieces about them and let all the authors know. Having an absolute blast with the A to Z challenge, I can’t believe how many people are coming to my blog it is fantastic. Today’s book was Boot Camp Bride by Lizzie Lamb, Lizzie helped promote the post with her Facebook group of friends which I really appreciated. My slideshow on the sidebar is getting plenty of attention and good comments which is great to hear, have been helping a couple of people out with setting up their own gallery.
April 3rd – Met a friend for coffee in town and caught up with all her news. Went out this evening with more friends and took a birthday present with me for one of them whose birthday is in the next few days. Today’s book on the A to Z Challenge was Coronado’s Treasure by Randy Mixter. I’m thrilled to see lots of re-tweeting going on from other authors who will be taking part in my challenge and from followers of my blog, thanks everyone it means a lot.
April 4th – It’s a Derek Day today on the A to Z with Derek’s Revenge by Mac Black and a plug for the whole series. Went to the local market this morning, met a friend who has offered to pick us up in a few weeks time to attend a party. My Good deeds are mainly internet bound this week, visiting lots of blogs and leaving comments, tweeting and sharing posts. Finished reading Chill Factor by Rachel Caine and left a review on Goodreads.
April 5th – Everlasting by Candace Knoebel is the book for letter E in the A to Z today. Went for a quick walk this afternoon and picked up some litter. Am reading the second book in the Wardstone Chronicles, The Spook’s Curse, by Joseph Delaney, finished it late last evening and posted my review on Goodreads.
Hurrah! This is the first in the Becoming Anorak Nid series by Alix B macey. Perfect for 8+ children + reluctant readers. Nid avoids water at all costs – in whatever form it takes; puddles, ice-bergs, baths, even spit – do you? In the face of all this, for goodness sake don’t spill the beans, but Nid has a job to do – will he be able to pull it off though? Purposefully, with a touch of mysterious silence, lurking in the corner of Mr. Busy’s bumble sale – underneath holey socks, smelly jumpers and odd knickers, is the magical answer to all of Nid’s bonkers thinking – that could change his life forever… Joined by his astonishing mute ant friend, Sile Ant – who for obvious reasons has no speaking part (quite odd in a book really?), Nid heads off on one of the most challenging adventures he will ever have to undertake –ever, in the whole world of England. 
Whoopee! Phew..the story thankfully continues in this, the 2nd in the exciting fictional children’s adventure “Becoming Anorak Nid” Series by Alix. B Macey.
Explosions, sabotage, caves, deadly warnings and a dangerous red-haired man. Imagine The Hardy Boys meet Tom Sawyer. Add a layer of teen angst and excitement plus a mysterious group trying to stop a new dam while stirring up racial tensions. That’s STEPS INTO DARKNESS, the next book in the Shakertown Adventure Series by Ben Woodard. Fourteen-year-old Tom Wallace again makes plans to escape the small town in the 1923 Kentucky countryside. The town that won’t let him forget his past, when a horrific event changes his mind. He teams with his cousin Will and young FBI agent Rick Sweeney to try to solve a perplexing mystery. Attempts on the boys’ lives and a bewildering list of suspects keep them on edge and confused. An old man gives them a clue that leads to a false accusation and embarrassment until they discover the real villain, and then wish they hadn’t. STEPS INTO DARKNESS is a fun, page-turning thriller with a hint of romance that delivers adventure and mystery while exploring the fears of a teen living with a frightful memory. 
Rhyllann Jones’s geeky cousin Wren is convinced an ancient diary can lead them to the mythical treasure of Bad King John, last seen 900 years ago. Trouble is, “The Brotherhood” will stop at nothing to get to it first. Even more dangerous in Rhyllann’s eyes is Detective Inspector Crombie. This father of four daughters knows Rhyllann is lying, and is certain Wren is a master manipulator. Crombie is determined to keep the boys safe at any costs. This leads “The Brotherhood” to take desperate action to learn the secrets Wren keeps, plunging Crombie and Rhyllann into a race against time across the wild Cornish moors. “But the treasure is guarded. He who wishes to enter the secret chamber must first ensure he knows of the Celtic rites and mysteries. No other hand is permitted to touch Caliburn, sacred sword of the Celtic Nations.” The Celtic Cousin Adventures continue with A Ripple in Time, a time travelling fantasy, and An Explosive Time in which Crombie makes a comeback, along with a surprising guest star. 
Fifteen-year-old Therese watches her parents die. While in a coma, she meets the twin sons of Hades—Hypnos, the god of sleep, and Thanatos, the god of death. She thinks she’s manipulating a dream, not kissing the god of death and totally rocking his world. Than makes a deal with Hades and goes as a mortal to the Upperworld to try and win Therese’s heart, but not all the gods are happy. Some give her gifts. Others try to kill her. The deal requires Therese to avenge the death of her parents. With the help of Than’s fierce and exotic sisters, the Furies, she finds herself in an arena face to face with the murderer, and only one will survive. 
The Jack prophesied: If the king loses his head, then the Queen with a Bleeding Heart would rule the Red Court until Time ceased to move forward. When a second carried on for infinity, every creature in Wonderland would tip their Hat to the misfit girl with a Boy’s name (or was it a boy with a Girl’s name?) who’d end the Reign of Terror. However, it all hinged on the One-Eyed Hare being able to convince an uninspirable Heir that the impossible was indeed possible—like stopping time—and that Love was worth a Beheading. Heads would Roll,Hearts would Break…In the end, would it matter who Reigned? 
For Kaeden Parish, life in Solace has always followed certain rules—everything makes sense, everything can be planned for, and everything is as it seems. Unfortunately, the secret harbored by his gorgeous, albeit guarded girlfriend is about to shatter all of that. After a successful attack on his life opens his eyes to a world of war, shadows, and supernatural creatures—a world he didn’t plan for—Kaeden finds himself resembling the sort of monster he has always feared. As he desperately struggles to resist a new temptation, danger draws ever nearer, threatening the ones he loves most. A prophecy tells of a final battle and great destruction, and Kaeden must decide which side he is on, a choice that could mean the end of the world. In Book 1 of the Solace Series, P.K. Gallagher pulls readers into a realm where good and evil are at war, and the outcome of it all rests on one young man’s decision to either go and live…or stay and die. This is where Parish begins. 
Sixteen-year-old Michelle is a product of the Institute’s eugenics program, where people are bred like livestock. One doctor decides which kids get to grow up, and which disappear. Only Culls walk into the slum outside Institute walls, and they never come back. Michelle has survived every purge, and she’s about to win a luxurious life as a breeder. Then the doctor banishes her brother Seth and her boyfriend Brian, and she risks everything to find them in the cutthroat slum. She’s in trouble until handsome Dillon stakes a claim to her. Michelle is mortified, because Norms are practically animals. But the doctor is using the missing boys in a twisted plan and she needs Dillon’s help to stop him. Michelle and her friends must find Seth and Brian, but a plague is spreading, the doctor is after her and Dillon isn’t thrilled to help her find her lost boyfriend. 
Leah Vindral is suffocating–trapped in her own skin. In a land where magic is feared, magic saved her from death … but it came with a terrible price. Marked forever, she is shunned and isolated by those she loves most. Brimming with bitter rage at those who abandoned her, Leah flees from her childhood home only to be swept into an impending war: Mora, a wicked witch, has been imprisoned for years, waiting like a spider in the folds of her web for the chance to regain the powers once stripped from her. It is there, while she waits, that she learns of a strange young girl … a girl who can speak to unicorns. Now Leah must save the country that shuns her, for if Mora returns to power, all will be lost. But can Leah, who is so frightened and confused herself, find the strength to save them all?
One September evening, around twilight, Francesca Shaunessy calls out for her dog to come to heel – however instead of a black Labrador, a dragon like beast emerges from the mists surrounding the twelfth century church and graveyard, followed closely by his rider. Frankie is astounded to discover she has an unexpected gift: She is a “Griffin Cryer”. Balkind is the sweetest most loveable griffin ever. Unfortunately his rider is the rudest man in this world or any other. Despite problems at school, and a complicated home life, Frankie feels compelled to help the Rider and his griffin return home to Ella-Earth. In doing so, Frankie escapes her own emotional prison, and becomes aware that there’s a chance that she can help her comatose twin brother back into this world. 
When fifteen-year-old Jacob Lau is pulled from the crumpled remains of his mother’s car, no one can explain why he was driving or why the police can’t find his mother’s body. A beautiful and mysterious neighbour offers to use her unique abilities to help him find his mom. But in exchange she requires Jacob to train as a Soulkeeper, a protector of human souls. He agrees to her demands, desperate for any clue to the mystery of his mother’s disappearance. But soon Jacob finds himself trapped in a web of half-truths, and questions her motives for helping him. 
Ever since her sixteenth birthday, strange things keep happening to Seraphina Parrish. The Lady in Black… burns Sera’s memories. Unexplainable premonitions… catapult her to other cities. The Grungy Gang… wants to kill her. And a beautiful, mysterious boy… stalks her. But when Sera moves to Chicago, and her aunt reveals their family connection to a centuries old, secret society, she is immediately thrust into an unbelievable fantasy world, leading her on a quest to unravel the mysteries that plague her. In the end, their meanings crash into an epic struggle of loyalty and betrayal, and she’ll be forced to choose between the boy who has stolen her heart and the thing she desires most. Wander Dust is the breath-taking fantasy that will catapult you through a story of time, adventure, and love. 
Rosie Amber 