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A video interview with Craig Smith

 July 26, 2011 - Author: nadine

I think certainly the greatest thing about living an online life is being constantly offered the opportunity to meet interesting people. Craig Smith is undoubtedly one of those people I have been thrilled to meet in the last while. I asked him if I could please interview him for The Katalina Playroom and he responded by sending me this video. If I wasn’t already madly in love I might have given serious consideration to catching a plane and parking myself on his doorstep. Seriously? How cute is this guy?! I can’t wait to review the two books he has written!

For more info on Craig visit his blog, The Red Stone and fan him on Facebook.

You can also follow @Craigwfsmith on Twitter.

If you’re interested in finding his books (because supporting South African writers is the right thing to do!) you can find them here:
The Book Depository (Free Delivery)
Zoolin Vale and the Chalice of Ringtar http://bit.ly/zoodep
(They’re about about R80.)
or
Exclusives Red Stone http://bit.ly/a1zDOl
Exclusives Zoolin Vale http://bit.ly/newzooeb
And as always HAPPY READING!!

No Comments - Categories: Inspiring People

Tracy the Inspiration

 July 21, 2011 - Author: nadine

A while ago I met this fabulous woman who charms and impresses me constantly. Tracy Engelbrecht is a cute, quirky, insane and absolutely fabulous that I count myself very lucky to know. As a writer she gets my automatic respect, but she is just so much more than that.

Tracy wrote a book called The Girl Who Couldn’t Say No sharing her experience with teenage pregnancy and motherhood. Since then she has become somewhat of a mom to the teenage moms in her neighborhood as well an incredible source of support online. Inspired by her own story, Tracy started The Young Mom Support Group which you can read about here and has without a doubt been somewhat of a savior to quite a number of girls who have found themselves in a difficult situation. Without judgement or repression, Tracy has been helping young girls not only cope with their pregnancies but also grow into good moms.

I sent Tracy a couple of questions the other day and she was kind enough to answer me. This is what she had to say… (more…)

2 Comments - Categories: Inspiring People

750 Words FTW!

 July 18, 2011 - Author: nadine

Ah yes…. So the other day I mumbled something incoherent about artist’s dates and morning pages and a little website called 750 Words. The gist was really that these are things we SHOULD do…but probably don’t.

I decided this morning that I was going to start on the morning pages and the artist’s dates again. I need to. I am slowly losing my sanity. And not in a fabulous bound-to-be-brilliant writer kind of way.

So…since all good things start on Mondays I was planning to do my pages on the 750 Words website this morning….when lo and behold THERE WAS NO INTERNET! Now…it was gone over the weekend and I was ok with that. I probably could have fit in some work here and there, but I thought, no, we’ll play and skip the working. Which was fine. But on a Monday? TAKE MY INTERNET ON A MONDAY?!! For this Murphy should burn in hell.

Anyway – long story short – after discovering that the source of my internetlessness was not in fact the fault of Telkom as I initially suspected but was completely the doing of my dear sweet daddio who unplugged my cable from the router – I am internetted up again and smiling broadly.

I thought that even though it is passed lunch time I should probably do my 750 words anyway. So I did. And OH THE AWESOME! Really. You just don’t understand! This whole writing out three pages of Morning Pages thing KILLS ME!. It takes me an hour and a half sometimes to get through them. I write SO SLOWLY!. It took me 13 minutes to type out 750 words. Now 13 minutes of my day I can do. Happily.

So I shall be doing it. And annoyingly reporting back every so often.

Have a fabulous Monday friends!

No Comments - Categories: Just a Thought

And off they wrote…or did they?

 July 14, 2011 - Author: nadine

Last week The Tequila Thursday Writing Club met up again for the first time in a while. We chatted, we drank wine, we made posters and we made a few resolutions to write.

Have we? I certainly haven’t….*insert big dramatic sigh here*

For the next while, among other things, we will be working on The Sound of Paper by Julia Cameron (a review of which I will surely do soon) and, as with The Artist’s Way there are three non-negotiables in the unblocking process. (more…)

3 Comments - Categories: The Tequila Thursday Writing Club

Just Take My Heart ~ Mary Higgins Clark

 - Author: nadine

Book: Just Take My Heart

Author: Mary Higgins Clark

Publisher: Simon & Shuster (2009)

Pages: 322

How long it took to read: 2 days

Where I Got It: Borrowed it from the Mom

Rating: 3

When famous Broadway Actress Natalie Raines is found dying from a gunshot wound in her home, the obvious suspect is the husband she was in the process of divorcing. When a career criminal comes forward and claims that her husband offered him money to kill her, the case seems to be a slam dunk. Of course, in true Mary Higgins Clark style everything quickly goes pear-shaped, nothing is ever what it seems.

I do love Mary Higgins Clark. Where are the Children was the first “grown up” book I read as a kid, and I am pretty sure that I have read at least 80% of the books she has written. Unfortunately for me, I seemed to have developed some sort of subconscious understanding of her “method” and it usually takes me only a third to a half of the book before I figure out whodunnit – without her giving anything away! This of course doesn’t actually stop me from reading (it makes me read all the faster to be able to confirm if I was right or not…) but it does kind of spoil the enjoyment just a little. I’d rather be surprised with the ending than smug about my state of rightness…

That said, MHC is always a good easy read and I won’t say no to the next one I find on my doorstep. She writes simply but effectively and I can always trust that I will make it through her books without ever feeling a giant need to just put it down and find something else.

No Comments - Categories: Crime

Reviewing Reviews

 July 13, 2011 - Author: nadine

After spending a week looking through some of the most amazing blogs that I have had the pleasure of laying my eyes on, I have decided that my blog truly sucks and I wish I could draw or design something awesome. Alas – I haven’t the skill. I can however, do a better job of my book reviewing. And a better job of my book reading – which has sadly slowed down to a trickle thanks to all this being a grown-up business. Hopefully I shall somehow work out how to find more time. I have just spent four glorious days doing nothing but read. My chi has been restored. Ok…I don’t really know what chi is…but I know it has something to do with books. Therefore some profound conclusion has surely been reached. Now if I could just remember what it was…

No Comments - Categories: Katalina

Flashing Greenacres

 July 6, 2011 - Author: nadine

After having another grump of a day (too much work – too little anything else) this certainly made me smile so I thought I would share it :) I like that it’s all happening in my glorious town and that it starts all South Africany.

No Comments - Categories: Just a Thought

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